Part 3 (1/2)
”Ho, friend,” he said, ”you seem rather proud of yourself. Who are you?”
”I am the artichoke,” answered the other, ”and I have many handsome cousins. But who are you?”
”I am the muskrat, and I, too, belong to a large family. I live in the water. I don't stand all day in one place like a stone.”
”If I stand in one place all day,” retorted the artichoke, ”at least I don't swim around in stagnant water, and build my lodge in the mud.”
”You are jealous of my fine fur,” sneered the muskrat. ”I may build my lodge in the mud, but I always have a clean coat. But you are half buried in the ground, and when men dig you up, you are never clean.”
”And your fine coat always smells of musk,” jeered the artichoke.
”That is true,” said the muskrat. ”But men think well of me, nevertheless. They trap me for the fine sinew in my tail; and handsome young women bite off my tail with their white teeth and make it into thread.”
”That's nothing,” laughed the artichoke. ”Handsome young warriors, painted and splendid with feathers, dig me up, brush me off with their shapely hands and eat me without even taking the trouble to wash me off.”
THE RABBIT AND THE BEAR WITH THE FLINT BODY
The Rabbit and his grandmother were in dire straits, because the rabbit was out of arrows. The fall hunt would soon be on and his quiver was all but empty. Arrow sticks he could cut in plenty, but he had nothing with which to make arrowheads.
”You must make some flint arrowheads,” said his grandmother. ”Then you will be able to kill game.”
”Where shall I get the flint?” asked the rabbit.
”From the old bear chief,” said his old grandmother. For at that time all the flint in the world was in the bear's body.
So the rabbit set out for the village of the Bears. It was winter time and the lodges of the bears were set under the shelter of a hill where the cold wind would not blow on them and where they had shelter among the trees and bushes.
He came at one end of the village to a hut where lived an old woman. He pushed open the door and entered. Everybody who came for flint always stopped there because it was the first lodge on the edge of the village.
Strangers were therefore not unusual in the old woman's hut, and she welcomed the rabbit. She gave him a seat and at night he lay with his feet to the fire.
The next morning the rabbit went to the lodge of the bear chief. They sat together awhile and smoked. At last the bear chief spoke.
”What do you want, my grandson?”
”I have come for some flint to make arrows,” answered the rabbit.
The bear chief grunted, and laid aside his pipe. Leaning back he pulled off his robe and, sure enough, one half of his body was flesh and the other half hard flint.
”Bring a stone hammer and give it to our guest,” he bade his wife. Then as the rabbit took the hammer he said: ”Do not strike too hard.”
”Grandfather, I shall be careful,” said the rabbit. With a stroke he struck off a little flake of flint from the bear's body.
”Ni-sko-ke-cha? So big?” he asked.
”Harder, grandson; strike off bigger pieces,” said the bear.
The rabbit struck a little harder.