Blackfeet Indian Stories eBook

George Bird Grinnell
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 157 pages of information about Blackfeet Indian Stories.

Blackfeet Indian Stories eBook

George Bird Grinnell
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 157 pages of information about Blackfeet Indian Stories.

As they sat there, Weasel Heart chanced to look down into the water and saw something.  He said to his comrade, “Friend, do you not see something down there where the water goes around?”

Fisher said, “No; I see nothing except buffalo,” for he was looking across the river to the other side, and not down into the water.

“No,” said Weasel Heart; “I do not mean over there on the prairie.  Look down into that deep hole in the river, and you will see a lodge there.”

Fisher looked as he had been told, and saw the lodge.

Weasel Heart said, “There is a lodge painted with black buffalo.”  As he spoke thus, Fisher said, “I see another lodge, standing in front of it.”  Weasel Heart saw that lodge too—­the yellow-painted-buffalo lodge.

The two men wondered at this and could not understand how it could be, but they were both men of strong hearts, and presently Weasel Heart said, “Friend, I shall go down to enter that lodge.  Do you sit here and tell me when I get to the place.”  Then Weasel Heart went up the river and found a drift-log to support him and pushed it out into the water, and floated down toward the cut bank.  When he had reached the place where the lodge stood Fisher told him, and he let go the log and dived down into the water and entered the lodge.

In it he found two persons who owned the lodge, a man and his wife.  The man said to him, “You are welcome,” and Weasel Heart sat down.  Then spoke the owner of the lodge saying, “My son, this is my lodge, and I give it to you.  Look well at it inside and outside; and make your lodge like this.  If you do that, it may be a help to you.”

Fisher sat a long time waiting for his friend, but at last he looked down the stream and saw a man on the shore walking toward him.  He came along the bank until he had reached his friend.  It was Weasel Heart.

Fisher said to him, “I have been waiting a long time, and I was afraid that something bad had happened to you.”

Weasel Heart asked him, “Did you see me?”

“I saw you,” said Fisher, “when you went into that lodge.  Did you, when you came out of the lodge, see there in the water another lodge painted with yellow buffalo?  Is it still there?”

Weasel Heart said, “I saw it; it is there.  Go you into the water as I did.”

Then Fisher went up the stream as his friend had gone and entered the water at the same place and swam down as Weasel Heart had done, and when Weasel Heart showed him the place he dived down and disappeared as Weasel Heart had disappeared.  He entered the yellow-painted-buffalo lodge, and his friend saw him go into it.

In the lodge were two persons, a man and his wife.  The man said to him, “You are welcome; sit there.”  He spoke further, saying, “My son, you have seen this lodge of mine; I give it to you.  Look carefully at it, inside and outside, and fix up your lodge in that way.  It may be a help to you hereafter.”  Then Fisher went out.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Blackfeet Indian Stories from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.