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17 - Old Man Stories: The Rabbits' Medicine · Blackfeet Native American Stories

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen of Blackfeet Indian Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Blackfeet
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  Speaker 1: Indian Stories by George B. Grinnell, Chapter seventeen, The Rabbit's Medicine. Once,
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  Speaker 1: when old Man was traveling about, he heard some singing
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  Speaker 1: that sounded very queer. He had never before heard anything
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  Speaker 1: like it, and looked all about to see where it
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  Speaker 1: came from. After a time he saw that the cottontail
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  Speaker 1: rabbits were singing and making medicine. They had built a
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  Speaker 1: fire and raked out some hot ashes, and they would
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  Speaker 1: lie down in these ashes and sing while one of
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  Speaker 1: the others covered them up. They could stay there only
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  Speaker 1: for a short time, though, for the ashes were hot.
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  Speaker 1: Little brothers said old man, here is something wonderful that
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  Speaker 1: you can lie in those hot ashes and coals without burning.
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  Speaker 1: I ask you to teach me how to do this.
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  Speaker 1: We will show you how to do it, old man said,
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  Speaker 1: the rabbits, you must sing our song and stay in
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  Speaker 1: the ashes only a short time. They taught old man
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  Speaker 1: their song, and he began to sing and lay down
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  Speaker 1: and they covered him with coals and ashes, and the
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  Speaker 1: hot ashes did not burn him. That is good, he said,
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  Speaker 1: you have strong medicine now, so that I may know
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  Speaker 1: it all. Do you lie down and let me cover
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  Speaker 1: you up. All the rabbits lay down in the ashes,
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  Speaker 1: and old Man covered them up, and then he pulled
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  Speaker 1: the whole fire over them. Only one rabbit got out,
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  Speaker 1: and old Man was just about to put her back
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  Speaker 1: when she said, pity me, My children need me. It
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  Speaker 1: is good, replied old man. You may go so that
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  Speaker 1: there will be more rabbits. But these I will roast
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  Speaker 1: and have a feast. He put more wood on the fire,
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  Speaker 1: and when the rabbits were cooked, he got some red
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  Speaker 1: willow brush and put the rabbits on it to cool.
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  Speaker 1: The grease from their bodies soaked into the branches, so
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  Speaker 1: that even to day, if red willow is held over
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  Speaker 1: a fire, one may see the grease on the bark.
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  Speaker 1: Ever since that time, too, the rabbits have for burnt
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  Speaker 1: place on the back where the one that got away
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  Speaker 1: was singed. Old Man sat down by the fire waiting
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  Speaker 1: for the rabbits to get cool. When a coyote came
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  Speaker 1: along limping. He went on three legs. Pity me, old man,
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  Speaker 1: he said, you have plenty of cooked rabbits. Give me
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  Speaker 1: one of them. Go away, said old man, very cross.
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  Speaker 1: If you are too lazy to catch food, I will
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  Speaker 1: not give you any. But my leg is broken, said
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  Speaker 1: the coyote. I cannot run, I cannot catch anything, and
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  Speaker 1: I am starving. Give me half a rabbit. I don't
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  Speaker 1: care what happens to you, said old man. I worked
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  Speaker 1: hard to catch and cook these rabbits, and I shall
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  Speaker 1: not give any of them away. I'll tell you what
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  Speaker 1: I will do, though, I will run a race with
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  Speaker 1: you out to that far butte on the prairie, and
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  Speaker 1: if you beat me, you can have a rabbit. Good,
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  Speaker 1: said the coyote, and they started. Old Man ran very fast,
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  Speaker 1: and the coyote limped along behind him, but pretty close,
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  Speaker 1: until they got near the butte. Then the coyote turned
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  Speaker 1: around and ran back very fast, for he was not
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  Speaker 1: lame at all. It took old Man a long time
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  Speaker 1: to get back, and just before he reached the fire,
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  Speaker 1: the coyote finished eating the last rabbit and ran away.
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  Speaker 1: End of chapter seventeen. The Rabbit's Medicine read by Kara
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  Speaker 1: Shallenberg on March sixteenth, two thousand eight, in San Diego, California,