Indian Why Stories
Indian Why Stories
Sparks From War Eagle's Lodge-Fire
Why the chipmunk's back is striped -- How the ducks got their fine feathers -- Why the kingfisher always wears a war-bonnet -- Why the curlew's bill is long and crooked -- Old-man remakes the world -- Why Blackfeet never kill mice -- How the otter skin became great "medicine" -- Old-man steals the sun's leggings -- Old-man and his conscience -- Old-man's treachery -- Why the night-hawk's wings are beautiful -- Why the mountain-lion is long and lean -- The fire-leggings -- The moon and the great snake -- Why the deer has no gall -- Why Indians whip the buffalo-berries from the bushes -- Old-man and the fox -- Why the birch-tree wears the slashes in its bark -- Mistakes of Old-man -- How the man found his mate -- Dreams -- Retrospection.
Book Excerpt
odge. In the bright moonlight the dead leaves of the quaking-aspen fluttered down whenever the wind shook the trees; and over the village great flocks of ducks and geese and swan passed in a never-ending procession, calling to each other in strange tones as they sped away toward the waters that never freeze.
In the lodge War Eagle waited for his grand- children, and when they had entered, happily, he laid aside his pipe and said:
"The Duck-people are travelling to-night just as they have done since the world was young. They are going away from winter because they cannot make a living when ice covers the rivers.
"You have seen the Duck-people often. You have noticed that they wear fine clothes but you do not know how they got them; so I will tell you to-night.
"It was in the fall when leaves are yellow that it happened, and long, long ago. The Duck-people had gathered to go away, just as they are doing now. The buck-deer was com- ing down from the high ridges to visit friends in the
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