Blackfeet Indian Stories | Page 5

it, wondering what should be done with it.
They thought that if their son-in-law knew it was a boy he would kill it;
so they determined to tell their daughters that the baby was a girl, for
then their son-in-law would think that he was going to have another
wife. So he would be glad. They called the child Kut-o-yis´--Clot of
Blood.
The son-in-law and his wives came home, bringing the meat, and after
a little time they heard the child in the next lodge crying. The
son-in-law said to his youngest wife, "Go over to your mother's and see
whether that baby is a boy or a girl. If it is a boy, tell your parents to
kill it."
Soon the young woman came back and said to her husband, "It is a girl
baby. You are to have another wife."
The son-in-law did not know whether to believe this, and sent his
oldest wife to ask the same question. When she came back and told him
the same thing he believed that it was really a girl. Then he was glad,
for he said to himself, "Now, when this child has grown up, I shall have
another wife." He said to his youngest wife, "Take some back fat and
pemmican over to your mother; she must be well fed now that she has
to nurse this child."
On the fourth day after he had been born the child spoke and said to his
mother, "Hold me in turn to each one of these lodge poles, and when I
come to the last one I shall fall out of my lashings and be grown up."
The old woman did as he had said, and as she held him to one pole
after another he could be seen to grow; and finally when he was held to
the last pole he was a man.
After Kut-o-yis´ had looked about the lodge he put his eye to a hole in
the lodge-covering and looked out. Then he turned around and said to
the old people, "How is it that in this lodge there is nothing to eat? Over
by the other lodge I see plenty of food hanging up."

"Hush," said the old woman, raising her hand, "you will be heard. Our
son-in-law lives over there. He does not give us anything at all to eat."
"Well," said the young man, "where is your piskun--where do you kill
buffalo?"
"It is down by the river," the old woman answered. "We pound on it
and the buffalo run out."
For some time they talked together and the old man told Kut-o-yis´
how his son-in-law had abused him. He said to the young man, "He has
taken from me my bow and my arrows and has taken even my dogs;
and now for many days we have had nothing to eat, except sometimes a
small piece of meat that our daughter throws to us."
"Father," said Kut-o-yis´, "have you no arrows?"
"No, my son," replied the old man, "but I still have four stone arrow
points."
"Go out then," said Kut-o-yis´, "and get some wood. We will make a
bow and some arrows, and in the morning we will go down to where
the buffalo are and kill something to eat."
Early in the morning Kut-o-yis´ pushed the old man and said, "Come,
get up now, and we will go down and kill, when the buffalo come out."
It was still very early in the morning.
When they reached the river the old man said, "This is the place to
stand and shoot. I will go down and drive them out."
He went down and stamped on the log-jam, and presently a fat cow ran
out and Kut-o-yis´ killed it.
Now, after these two had gone to the river the son-in-law arose and
went over to the old man's lodge, and knocked on the poles and called
to the old man to get up and help him kill. The old woman called out to
the son-in-law, saying, "Your father-in-law has already gone down to
the piskun." This made the son-in-law angry, and he began to talk badly
to the old woman and to threaten to harm her.
Presently he went on down to the log-jam, and as he got near the place
he saw the old man at work there, bending over, skinning a buffalo; for
Kut-o-yis´, when he had seen the son-in-law coming, had lain down on
the ground and hidden himself behind the carcass.
When the son-in-law had come pretty close to where the buffalo lay he
said to his father-in-law, "Old man, stand up and look all about you.
Look carefully and well, for it will be the last time that you will ever

see anything"; and while the son-in-law said this