The magic arrow |
Native american lore |
There was once a young man who wanted to go on a journey. His mother |
provided him with sacks of dried meat and pairs of moccasins, but his |
father said to him: |
"Here, my son, are four magic arrows. When you are in need, shoot one of |
them!" |
The young man went forth alone, and hunted in the forest for many days. |
Usually he was successful, but a day came when he was hungry and could |
not find meat. Then he sent forth one of the magic arrows, and at the |
end of the day there lay a fat Bear with the arrow in his side. The |
hunter cut out the tongue for his meal, and of the body of the Bear he |
made a thank-offering to the Great Mystery. |
Again he was in need, and again in the morning he shot a magic arrow, |
and at nightfall beside his camp-fire he found an Elk lying with the |
arrow in his heart. Once more he ate the tongue and offered up the body |
as a sacrifice. The third time he killed a Moose with his arrow, and the |
fourth time a Buffalo. |
After the fourth arrow had been spent, the young man came one day out of |
the forest, and before him there lay a great circular village of skin |
lodges. At one side, and some little way from the rest of the people, he |
noticed a small and poor tent where an old couple lived all alone. At |
the edge of the wood he took off his clothes and hid them in a hollow |
tree. Then, touching the top of his head with his staff, he turned |
himself into a little ragged boy and went toward the poor tent. |
The old woman saw him coming, and said to her old man: "Old man, let us |
keep this little boy for our own! He seems to be a fine, bright-eyed |
little fellow, and we are all alone." |
"What are you thinking of, old woman?" grumbled the old man. "We can |
hardly keep ourselves, and yet you talk of taking in a ragged little |
scamp from nobody knows where!" |
In the meantime the boy had come quite near, and the old wife beckoned |
to him to enter the lodge. |
"Sit down, my grandson, sit down!" she said, kindly; and, in spite of |
the old man's black looks, she handed him a small dish of parched corn, |
which was all the food they had. |
The boy ate and stayed on. By and by he said to the old woman: |
"Grandmother, I should like to have grandfather make me some arrows!" |
"You hear, my old man?" said she. "It will be very well for you to make |
some little arrows for the boy." |
"And why should I make arrows for a strange little ragged boy?" grumbled |
the old man. |
However, he made two or three, and the boy went hunting. In a short time |
he returned with several small birds. The old woman took them and pulled |
off the feathers, thanking him and praising him as she did so. She |
quickly made the little birds into soup, of which the old man ate |
gladly, and with the soft feathers she stuffed a small pillow. |
"You have done well, my grandson!" he said; for they were really very |
poor. |
Not long after, the boy said to his adopted grandmother: "Grandmother, |
when you see me at the edge of the wood yonder, you must call out: 'A |
Bear! there goes a Bear!' " |
This she did, and the boy again sent forth one of the magic arrows, |
which he had taken from the body of his game and kept by him. No sooner |
had he shot, than he saw the same Bear that he had offered up, lying |
before him with the arrow in his side! |
Now there was great rejoicing in the lodge of the poor old couple. While |
they were out skinning the Bear and cutting the meat in thin strips to |
dry, the boy sat alone in the lodge. In the pot on the fire was the |
Bear's tongue, which he wanted for himself. |
All at once a young girl stood in the doorway. She drew her robe |
modestly before her face as she said in a low voice: |
"I come to borrow the mortar of your grandmother!" |
The boy gave her the mortar, and also a piece of the tongue which he had |
cooked, and she went away. |
When all of the Bear meat was gone, the boy sent forth a second arrow |
and killed an Elk, and with the third and fourth he shot the Moose and |
the Buffalo as before, each time recovering his arrow. |
Soon after, he heard that the people of the large village were in |
trouble. A great Red Eagle, it was said, flew over the village every day |
at dawn, and the people believed that it was a bird of evil omen, for |
they no longer had any success in hunting. None of their braves had been |
able to shoot the Eagle, and the chief had offered his only daughter in |
marriage to the man who should kill it. |
When the boy heard this, he went out early the next morning and lay in |
wait for the Red Eagle. At the touch of his magic arrow, it fell at his |
feet, and the boy pulled out his arrow and went home without speaking to |
any one. |
But the thankful people followed him to the poor little lodge, and when |
they had found him, they brought the chief's beautiful daughter to be |
his wife. Lo, she was the girl who had come to borow his grandmother's |
mortar! |
Then he went back to the hollow tree where his clothes were hidden, and |
came back a handsome young man, richly dressed for his wedding. |
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