| The Theft from the Sin |
|
Blackfoot
Lodge Tales, by George Bird Grinnell, [1892] |
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Once Old
Man was travelling around, when he came to the Sun's lodge, and the Sun
asked him to stay a while. Old Man was very glad to do so. |
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One day
the meat was all gone, and the Sun said, "Kyi! Old Man, what say you if
we go and kill some deer?" |
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"You
speak well," replied Old Man. "I like deer meat." |
|
The Sun
took down a bag and pulled out a beautiful pair of leggings. They were
embroidered with porcupine quills and bright feathers. "These," said the
Sun, "are my hunting leggings. They are great medicine. All I have to do
is to put them on and walk around a patch of brush, when the leggings
set it on fire and drive the deer out so that I can shoot them." |
|
"Hai-yah!" exclaimed Old Man. "How wonderful!" He made up his mind he
would have those leggings, if he had to steal them. |
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They went
out to hunt, and the first patch of brush they came to, the Sun set on
fire with his hunting leggings. A lot of white-tail deer ran out, and
they each shot one. |
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That
night, when they went to bed, the Sun pulled off his leggings and placed
them to one side. Old Man saw where he put them, and in the middle of
the night, when everyone was asleep, he stole them and went off. He
travelled a long time, until he had gone far and was very tired, and
then, making a pillow of the leggings, lay down and slept. In the
morning, he heard someone talking. The Sun was saying, "Old Man, why are
my leggings under your head?" |
|
He looked
around, and saw he was in the Sun's lodge, and thought he must have
wandered around and got lost, and returned there. Again the Sun spoke
and said, "What are you doing with my leggings?" "Oh," replied Old Man,
"I couldn't find anything for a pillow, so I just put these under my
head." |
|
Night
came again, and again Old Man stole the leggings and ran off. This time
he did not walk at all; he just kept running until pretty near morning,
and then lay down and slept. You see what a fool he was. He did not know
that the whole world is the Sun's lodge. He did not know that, no matter
how far he ran, he could not get out of the Sun's sight. When morning
came, he found himself still in the Sun's lodge. But this time the Sun
said: "Old Man, since you like my leggings so much, I will give them to
you. Keep them." Then Old Man was very glad and went away. |
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One day
his food was all gone, so he put on the medicine leggings and set fire
to a piece of brush. He was just going to kill some deer that were
running out, when he saw that the fire was getting close to him. He ran
away as fast as he could, but the fire gained on him and began to burn
his legs. His leggings were all on fire. He came to a river and jumped
in, and pulled off the leggings as soon as he could. They were burned to
pieces. |
|
Perhaps
the Sun did this to him because he tried to steal the leggings. |
|
(Courtesy
Tiger Lilli Sakima) |
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