on us!” The emperor’s brow became smooth, his eyes became serene.  He then ordered the old father to be brought before him at once, and made him sit beside him close to his throne, and hearkened to his counsel till death, and his sons he rewarded handsomely.  He ordered the corn to be collected ear by ear, and to be rubbed out in men’s hands; and sent it about for seed-corn in all empires, and from it was produced holy corn for all the world.

XVI

THE DUN HORSE[7]

I

Many years ago there lived in the Pawnee tribe an old woman and her grandson a boy about sixteen years old.  These people had no relations and were very poor.  They were so poor that they were despised by the rest of the tribe.  They had nothing of their own; and always, after the village started to move the camp from one place to another, these two would stay behind the rest, to look over the old camp and pick up anything that the other Indians had thrown away as worn out or useless.  In this way they would sometimes get pieces of robes, wornout moccasins with holes in them, and bits of meat.

Now, it happened one day, after the tribe had moved away from the camp, that this old woman and her boy were following along the trail behind the rest, when they came to a miserable old wornout dun horse, which they supposed had been abandoned by some Indians.  He was thin and exhausted, was blind of one eye, had a bad sore back, and one of his forelegs was very much swollen.  In fact, he was so worthless that none of the Pawnees had been willing to take the trouble to try to drive him along with them.  But when the old woman and her boy came along, the boy said, “Come now, we will take this old horse, for we can make him carry our pack.”  So the old woman put her pack on the horse, and drove him along, but he limped and could only go very slowly.

II

The tribe moved up on the North Platte, until they came to Court House Rock.  The two poor Indians followed them, and camped with the others.  One day while they were here, the young men who had been sent out to look for buffalo, came hurrying into camp and told the chiefs that a large herd of buffalo were near, and that among them was a spotted calf.

The Head Chief of the Pawnees had a very beautiful daughter, and when he heard about the spotted calf, he ordered his old crier to go about through the village and call out that the man who killed the spotted calf should have his daughter for his wife.  For a spotted robe is ti-war’-uks-ti—­big medicine.