Blackfoot Lodge Tales eBook

George Bird Grinnell
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 372 pages of information about Blackfoot Lodge Tales.

Blackfoot Lodge Tales eBook

George Bird Grinnell
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 372 pages of information about Blackfoot Lodge Tales.

The son-in-law went on down to the jam, and as he drew near, he saw the old man bending over, skinning a buffalo.  “Old man,” said he, “stand up and look all around you.  Look well, for it will be your last look.”  Now when he had seen the son-in-law coming, K[)u]t-o’-yis had lain down and hidden himself behind the buffalo’s carcass.  He told the old man to say to his son-in-law, “You had better take your last look, for I am going to kill you, right now.”  The old man said this.  “Ah!” said the son-in-law, “you make me angrier still, by talking back to me.”  He put an arrow to his bow and shot at the old man, but did not hit him.  K[)u]t-o’-yis told the old man to pick up the arrow and shoot it back at him, and he did so.  Now they shot at each other four times, and then the old man said to K[)u]t-o’-yis:  “I am afraid now.  Get up and help me.”  So K[)u]t-o’-yis got up on his feet and said:  “Here, what are you doing?  I think you have been badly treating this old man for a long time.”

Then the son-in-law smiled pleasantly, for he was afraid of K[)u]t-o’-yis.  “Oh, no,” he said, “no one thinks more of this old man than I do.  I have always taken great pity on him.”

Then K[)u]t-o’-yis said:  “You lie.  I am going to kill you now.”  He shot him four times, and the man died.  Then K[)u]t-o’-yis told the old man to go and bring down the daughter who had acted badly toward him.  He did so, and K[)u]t-o’-yis killed her.  Then he went up to the lodges and said to the younger woman, “Perhaps you loved your husband.”  “Yes,” she said, “I love him.”  So he killed her, too.  Then he said to the old people:  “Go over there now, and live in that lodge.  There is plenty there to eat, and when it is gone I will kill more.  As for myself, I will make a journey around about.  Where are there any people?  In what direction?” “Well,” said the old man, “up above here on Badger Creek and Two Medicine, where the pis’kun is, there are some people.”

K[)u]t-o’-yis went up to where the pis’kun was, and saw there many lodges of people.  In the centre of the camp was a large lodge, with a figure of a bear painted on it.  He did not go into this lodge, but went into a very small one near by, where two old women lived; and when he went in, he asked them for something to eat.  They set before him some lean dried meat and some belly fat.  “How is this?” he asked.  “Here is a pis’kun with plenty of fat meat and back fat.  Why do you not give me some of that?” “Hush,” said the old women.  “In that big lodge near by, lives a big bear and his wives and children.  He takes all those nice things and leaves us nothing.  He is the chief of this place.”

Early in the morning, K[)u]t-o’-yis told the old women to get their dog travois, and harness it, and go over to the pis’kun, and that he was going to kill for them some fat meat.  He reached there just about the time the buffalo were being driven in, and shot a cow, which looked very scabby, but was really very fat.  Then he helped the old women to butcher, and when they had taken the meat to camp, he said to them, “Now take all the choice fat pieces, and hang them up so that those who live in the bear lodge will notice them.”

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Blackfoot Lodge Tales from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.