Part 9 (1/2)

So they stood in wonder regarding the clown who was coming toward them. He was coming toward the sun rising and as the daylight grew brighter they were astonished to see the man suddenly changed to a sunflower.

And ever since that time, it is said, the sunflower is inclined to face toward the sun.

DAKOTA FOLKLORE OF THE SPIDERWORT

The spiderwort (=Tradescantia bracteata=) and (=Tradescantia occidentalis=) is a beautiful native prairie flower which is known under numerous popular names. It is called spiderwort, spider lily, ink flower, king's crown, and various other names. It has been proposed to add to the list another name, ”flower-of-romance.” This name is proposed from the circ.u.mstance of a bit of pleasing sentiment connected with this flower in the folklore of the Dakota nation of Indians.

It is a charmingly beautiful and delicate flower, deep blue in color, with a tender-bodied plant of graceful lines. There is no more appealingly beautiful flower on the western prairies than this one when it is sparkling with dewdrops in the first beams of the rising sun. There is about it a suggestion of purity, freshness and daintiness.

When a young man of the Dakota nation is in love, and walking alone on the prairie finds this flower blooming, he stops and sings to it a song in which he personifies it with the qualities of his sweetheart's personality as they are called to his mind by the appearance of the flower before him, its characteristics figuratively suggesting the characteristics of her whose image he carries romantically in his mind and heart. In his mind the beauties of the flower and the charms of the girl are mutually trans.m.u.ted and flow together into one image.

The words of his song, translated from the Dakota language into the English, are something like this:

”Tiny, gladsome flower, So winsome and modest, Thou art dainty and sweet, For love of thee I'd die.”

Stories of the Four-Footed People

THE FAITHFUL DOG

The dog was the companion and servant of the people over all parts of North America, and previous to the introduction of the horse into the western hemisphere by the Spaniards, the dog was the only domestic animal which the Indians had. After horses were introduced by the Spaniards, they soon came into use by the Indians, and in a comparatively short time they were widely spread over the continent.

But in former days the dog was the only beast of burden which the Indians had. They served as watchers at night, as companions and helpers in the chase, and as bearers of burdens in transportation service.

Once on a time a hunting party of men of the Dakota nation were in the buffalo grazing country in the time of the winter hunt. Scouts were sent out each day to look for a herd and to bring back report to the officers. One day one of the scouts discovered a herd near a certain lake. He came into camp in the evening, as soon as he could after he found the herd. At once he went according to the law and rendered his report to the proper officers. After reporting he went to his lodge and had his evening meal and then lay down to rest from the weariness of the day's scouting.

The officers held council and made the plans for the next day's activities of the hunting field. Then they sent the herald around the camp to announce the orders for the next day.

At the earliest light next morning every one in camp was up and making preparations for the day's work. It was yet early in the day when the hunters reached the lake where the scout had discovered the buffalo herd the previous day. Here they found the buffaloes still feeding. At the command of the officers the hunters and their dogs were deployed to surround the herd for the slaughter, for the meat supply of the people had become low, and at this opportunity they must replenish their provision.

The herd was feeding upon a strip of land which was surrounded on three sides by a lake. The plan was to advance upon the herd from the base of this strip of land and force them out into the lake where the huge animals would be at a disadvantage upon the slippery ice.

The men and dogs charged upon the herd and soon the great ma.s.s of s.h.a.ggy beasts were forced out upon the treacherous ice where they were struggling in great confusion. Many were killed before the herd finally reached the sh.o.r.e of the lake and scrambled up the steep bank and fled away over the plain.

The sun was already past the middle of the sky and the hunters were busy with the work of skinning the carca.s.ses and dressing the beef, making ready to carry back to camp their prize of meat, hides, and other useful products, when suddenly they saw and felt a great change in the sky and in the air. The threatening signs were evident of the swift approach of a blizzard, the dreadful and terrific winter storm of fierce, roaring wind and driving snow and frightful cold which frequently sweeps over the northern plains.

The hunters made haste to reach camp which had been made in the shelter of the woods not far away. Here a certain number had been detailed by the officers to make camp and to gather firewood, while the others had been taking care of the meat. Now as the fearful storm threatened, they gathered in the camp bringing in what they could carry of the meat supply. Soon the hunters were refres.h.i.+ng themselves with freshly broiled steaks which were much relished by the hungry men, who had eaten nothing since the early morning just before they had broken camp. The dogs too were given their share.

The storm was now upon them in its fury; and all about was a smothering, dizzying swirl of whiteness as impenetrable as the blackness of night. The gale of wind roared unceasingly; the myriad millions of tiny snow particles ground upon each other in the swirl of the storm, each infinitesimal impact adding to the aggregate of reverberation of sound, while the skin tents hummed like enormous drums.

From time to time those who were already in camp shouted to guide the later comers who gave answering shouts and came one after another staggering into camp exhausted by the buffeting of the storm. At last only one was missing. The herd scout, who had found and reported the herd the day before; he and his faithful dog had not yet come in. The fury of the storm throughout the night and the next day prevented the possibility of going to look for the missing man.

Toward morning following the second night of the storm its fury abated. As is usual, at the end of a blizzard, it was followed by an extraordinary calm. The drifted plain lay as still and white as marble. The stars glistened coldly like ice crystals in the sky. The air was so clear that the least sound made by any moving creature was magnified in the stillness.

The hunting camp awoke. Suddenly the game call of the great gray wolf was heard. And soon the hunters saw a great number of these gaunt gray creatures out upon the ice of the lake and on the plain, digging out the white mounds which were the snowdrifts about the carca.s.ses of the buffaloes which the hunters had been obliged to leave when the storm came upon them.

And now among the wolf cries another sound was heard,--the defiant barking of a dog! It was the scout's dog. The men hurried toward the slaughter field to kill or drive away the wolves. Some wolves were dragging away a buffalo carca.s.s, and from among the snarling howling pack about this carca.s.s the hunters could distinctly hear the hoa.r.s.e barking of their missing friend's dog, and occasionally they could hear a strangely m.u.f.fled shout of a man sounding as though it came from under the ice.

The hunters finally reached the place to which the carca.s.s had been dragged by the wolves. As the men came near the wolves ran away and the men saw the dog standing by the carca.s.s for a moment before he fell dead as they reached the place. The men with their knives cut open the abdominal cavity of the carca.s.s and found the missing scout inside wrapped in his robe in a bed of gra.s.s and buffalo hair.