Myths and Legends of the Sioux | Page 8

ran off a little way and threw himself upon the ground
in grief. By and by he returned. The lover was now a fish to his neck.
"Cannot I cut off the part and restore you by a sweat bath?" the friend
asked.
"No, it is too late. But tell the chief's daughter that I loved her to the
last and that I die for her sake. Take this belt and give it to her. She
gave it to me as a pledge of her love for me," and he being then turned
to a great fish, swam to the middle of the river and there remained, only
his great fin remaining above the water.
The friend went home and told his story. There was great mourning
over the death of the five young men, and for the lost lover. In the river
the great fish remained, its fin just above the surface, and was called by
the Indians "Fish that Bars," because it bar'd navigation. Canoes had to
be portaged at great labor around the obstruction.
The chief's daughter mourned for her lover as for a husband, nor would
she be comforted. "He was lost for love of me, and I shall remain as his
widow," she wailed.
In her mother's tepee she sat, with her head covered with her robe,
silent, working, working. "What is my daughter doing," her mother
asked. But the maiden did not reply.
The days lengthened into moons until a year had passed. And then the
maiden arose. In her hands were beautiful articles of clothing, enough
for three men. There were three pairs of moccasins, three pairs of
leggings, three belts, three shirts, three head dresses with beautiful
feathers, and sweet smelling tobacco.
"Make a new canoe of bark," she said, which was made for her.
Into the canoe she stepped and floated slowly down the river toward the

great fish.
"Come back my daughter," her mother cried in agony. "Come back.
The great fish will eat you."
She answered nothing. Her canoe came to the place where the great fin
arose and stopped, its prow grating on the monster's back. The maiden
stepped out boldly. One by one she laid her presents on the fish's back,
scattering the feathers and tobacco over his broad spine.
"Oh, fish," she cried, "Oh, fish, you who were my lover, I shall not
forget you. Because you were lost for love of me, I shall never marry.
All my life I shall remain a widow. Take these presents. And now leave
the river, and let the waters run free, so my people may once more
descend in their canoes."
She stepped into her canoe and waited. Slowly the great fish sank, his
broad fin disappeared, and the waters of the St. Croix (Stillwater) were
free.

THE ARTICHOKE AND THE MUSKRAT
On the shore of a lake stood an artichoke with its green leaves waving
in the sun. Very proud of itself it was, and well satisfied with the world.
In the lake below lived a muskrat in his tepee, and in the evening as the
sun set he would come out upon the shore and wander over the bank.
One evening he came near the place where the artichoke stood.
"Ho, friend," he said, "you seem rather proud of yourself. Who are
you?" "I am the artichoke," answered the other, "and I have many
handsome cousins. But who are you?"
"I am the muskrat, and I, too, belong to a large family. I live in the
water. I don't stand all day in one place like a stone."
"If I stand in one place all day," retorted the artichoke, "at least I don't
swim around in stagnant water, and build my lodge in the mud."

"You are jealous of my fine fur," sneered the muskrat. "I may build my
lodge in the mud, but I always have a clean coat. But you are half
buried in the ground, and when men dig you up, you are never clean."
"And your fine coat always smells of musk," jeered the artichoke.
"That is true," said the muskrat. "But men think well of me,
nevertheless. They trap me for the fine sinew in my tail; and handsome
young women bite off my tail with their white teeth and make it into
thread."
"That's nothing," laughed the artichoke. "Handsome young warriors,
painted and splendid with feathers, dig me up, brush me off with their
shapely hands and eat me without even taking the trouble to wash me
off."

THE RABBIT AND THE BEAR WITH THE FLINT BODY
The Rabbit and his grandmother were in dire straits, because the rabbit
was out of arrows. The fall hunt would soon be on and his quiver was
all but empty. Arrow sticks he