Blackfeet Indian Stories | Page 9

a little way, she
called all the dogs to her and threw down the bones to the dogs, crying
out, "Look out, Kut-o-yis´, the dogs are eating you," and when she said
that, Kut-o-yis´ arose from the pile of bones.
Again he went into the lodge, and when the man-eater saw him he cried
out, "How, how, how! the fat young man has survived!" and he seemed
surprised. Again he took his knife and cut the throat of Kut-o-yis´ and
threw him into the kettle. Again when the meat was cooked he ate it,
and when the little girl asked for the bones again he gave them to her.
She took them out and threw them to the dogs, crying, "Kut-o-yis´, the
dogs are eating you," and again Kut-o-yis´ arose from the bones.
When the man-eater had cooked him four times Kut-o-yis´ again went
into the lodge, and seizing the man-eater, he threw him into the boiling
kettle, and his wives and all his children, and boiled them to death.
The man-eater was the seventh and last of the bad things to be
destroyed by Kut-o-yis´.

THE DOG AND THE ROOT DIGGER
This happened long ago.
In those days the people were hungry. No buffalo could be found, no
antelope were seen on the prairie. Grass grew in the trails where the elk

and the deer used to travel. There was not even a rabbit in the brush.
Then the people prayed, "Oh, Napi, help us now or we must die. The
buffalo and the deer are gone. It is useless to kindle the morning fires;
our arrows are useless to us; our knives remain in their sheaths."
Then Napi set out to find where the game was, and with him went a
young man, the son of a chief. For many days they travelled over the
prairies. They could see no game; roots and berries were their only food.
One day they climbed to the crest of a high ridge, and as they looked
off over the country they saw far away by a stream a lonely lodge.
"Who can it be?" asked the young man. "Who camps there alone, far
from friends?"
"That," said Napi, "is he who has hidden all the animals from the
people. He has a wife and a little son." Then they went down near to
the lodge and Napi told the young man what to do. Napi changed
himself into a little dog, and he said, "This is I." The young man
changed himself into a root digger and he said, "This is I." Pretty soon
the little boy, who was playing about near the lodge, found the dog and
carried it to his father, saying, "See what a pretty little dog I have
found."
The father said, "That is not a dog; throw it away!" The little boy cried,
but his father made him take the dog out of the lodge. Then the boy
found the root digger, and again picking up the dog, he carried both
into the lodge, saying, "Look, mother; see what a pretty root digger I
have found."
"Throw them away," said his father; "throw them both away. That is
not a root digger; that is not a dog."
"I want that root digger," said the woman. "Let our son have the little
dog."
"Let it be so, then," replied the husband; "but remember that if trouble
comes, it is you who have brought it on yourself and on our son."
Soon after this the woman and her son went off to pick berries, and
when they were out of sight the man went out and killed a buffalo cow
and brought the meat into the lodge and covered it up. He took the
bones and the skin and threw them in the water. When his wife came
back he gave her some of the meat to roast, and while they were eating,
the little boy fed the dog three times, and when he offered it more the
father took the meat away.

In the night, when all were sleeping, Napi and the young man arose in
their right shapes and ate some of the meat.
"You were right," said the young man. "This is surely the person who
has hidden the buffalo."
"Wait," said Napi; and when they had finished eating they changed
themselves again into the root digger and the dog.
Next morning the wife and the little boy went out to dig roots, and the
woman took the root digger with her, while the dog followed the little
boy.
As they travelled along looking for roots, they passed near a cave, and
at its mouth stood a buffalo cow. The dog ran into the cave, and the
root digger, slipping from the woman's hand, followed, gliding