Myths and Legends of the Sioux | Page 6

a band of
enemies rushed out, lashing their ponies and sounding their war whoop.
All was excitement. The men bent their bows and seized their lances.
After a long battle the enemy fled. But when the camping party came
together again--where were the donkey and the two babes? No one
knew. For a long time they searched, but in vain. At last they turned to
go back to the village, the father mournful, the mother wailing. When
they came to the grandmother's tepee, there stood the good donkey with
the two babes in the saddle bags.

THE RABBIT AND THE ELK
The little rabbit lived with his old grandmother, who needed a new
dress. "I will go out and trap a deer or an elk for you," he said. "Then
you shall have a new dress."
When he went out hunting he laid down his bow in the path while he
looked at his snares. An elk coming by saw the bow.
"I will play a joke on the rabbit," said the elk to himself. "I will make
him think I have been caught in his bow string." He then put one foot
on the string and lay down as if dead.
By and by the rabbit returned. When he saw the elk he was filled with
joy and ran home crying: "Grandmother, I have trapped a fine elk. You
shall have a new dress from his skin. Throw the old one in the fire!"
This the old grandmother did.
The elk now sprang to his feet laughing. "Ho, friend rabbit," he called,
"You thought to trap me; now I have mocked you." And he ran away
into the thicket.
The rabbit who had come back to skin the elk now ran home again.
"Grandmother, don't throw your dress in the fire," he cried. But it was
too late. The old dress was burned.

THE RABBIT AND THE GROUSE GIRLS
The rabbit once went out on the prairie in winter time. On the side of a
hill away from the wind he found a great company of girls all with grey
and speckled blankets over their backs. They were the grouse girls and
they were coasting down hill on a board. When the rabbit saw them, he
called out:
"Oh, maidens, that is not a good way to coast down hill. Let me get you
a fine skin with bangles on it that tinkle as you slide." And away he ran

to the tepee and brought a skin bag. It had red stripes on it and bangles
that tinkled. "Come and get inside," he said to the grouse girls. "Oh, no,
we are afraid," they answered. "Don't be afraid, I can't hurt you. Come,
one of you," said the rabbit. Then as each hung back he added
coaxingly: "If each is afraid alone, come all together. I can't hurt you
all." And so he coaxed the whole flock into the bag. This done,
the rabbit closed the mouth of the bag, slung it over his back and came
home. "Grandmother," said he, as he came to the tepee, "here is a bag
full of game. Watch it while I go for willow sticks to make spits."
But as soon as the rabbit had gone out of the tent, the grouse girls
began to cry out:
"Grandmother, let us out."
"Who are you?" asked the old woman.
"Your dear grandchildren," they answered.
"But how came you in the bag?" asked the old woman.
"Oh, our cousin was jesting with us. He coaxed us in the bag for a joke.
Please let us out."
"Certainly, dear grandchildren, I will let you out," said the old woman
as she untied the bag: and lo, the grouse flock with
achuck-a-chuck-achuck flew up, knocking over the old grandmother
and flew out of the square smoke opening of the winter lodge. The old
woman caught only one grouse as it flew up and held it, grasping a leg
with each hand.
When the rabbit came home with the spits she called out to him:
"Grandson, come quick. They got out but I have caught two."
When he saw what had happened he was quite angry, yet could not
keep from laughing.
"Grandmother, you have but one grouse," he cried, and it is a very

skinny one at that."

THE FAITHFUL LOVERS
There once lived a chief's daughter who had many relations. All the
young men in the village wanted to have her for wife, and were all
eager to fill her skin bucket when she went to the brook for water.
There was a young man in the village who was industrious and a good
hunter; but he was poor and of a mean family. He loved the maiden and
when she went for water, he threw