Latest / Blackfeet Native American Stories / 20 - Old Man Stories: Bear and Bullberries

Transcript

20 - Old Man Stories: Bear and Bullberries · Blackfeet Native American Stories

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty of Blackfeet Indian Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: by Lucy LaFaro, New South Wales, Australia. Blackfeet Indian Stories
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: by George B. Grinnell, Chapter twenty, Old Man's Stories, Bear
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and bullberries. Scattered over the prairie in northern Montana, close
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to the mountains are many great rocks boulders, which, thousands
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of years ago when the Great Ice Sheet covered northern
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: North America, were carried from mountains out over the prairie
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: by the ice and left there when it melted. Around
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: most of them great boulders, the buffalo used to walk
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: from time to time, rubbing against the rough surface of
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the rock, to scratch themselves as a cow rubs itself
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: against a post, or as a horse rolls on the ground,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: for the pleasant feeling that the rubbing of the skin
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: gives it. As the buffalo walked around these boulders, their
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: hoofs loosened the soil, and this loosened soil, the dust
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: was blown away by the constant winds of summer, so
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: around most of these boulders, much of the soil is gone,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: leaving a deep trench at the bottom of which are
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: stones and gravel too large to be moved by the wind.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: This story explains how these rocks came to be like that.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Once old man was crossing a river, and the stream
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: was deep, so that he was carried away by the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: current and lost his bow and arrows and other weapons.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: When he got to the shore, he began to look
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: about for something to use in making a bow and arrows,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: for he was hungry and wanted to kill some food.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: He took the first wood he could find and made
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: a bow and arrows and handle for his knife. When
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: he had finished these things, he started on his way. Presently,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: as he looked over a hill, he saw down below
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: him a bear digging roots. Old man thought he would
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: have some fun with the bear, and he called out aloud,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: he has no tail. Then he dodged back out of sight.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: The bear looked all about but saw no one, and
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: again began to dig roots. Then old man again peeped
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: over the hill and saw the bear at work, and
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: again called out, he has no tail. This time the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: bear looked up more quickly, but old Man dodged down
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and the bear did not see him, and pretty soon
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: went on with his digging. Four times old Man did this,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: calling the bear names, but the fourth time the bear
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: was on the watch and saw old man and started
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: after him. Old Man ran away as hard as he could,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: but the bear followed fast Presently. Old man tried to
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: shoot the bear with his arrows, but they were made
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: of bad wood and would not fly well, and if
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: they hid the bear, they just broke off. All his
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: weapons failed him, and now the bear was close to him.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Just in front was a great rock, and when old
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Man came to that, he dodged behind it and ran
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: around to the other side, and the bear followed him.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: They kept running around the rock for a long time
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: and wore a deep trail about it, and because old
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Man could turn more quickly, he kept just ahead of
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the bear. Old Man kept calling to the animals to
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: help him, but no one came. He was almost out
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: of breath, and the bear was close to him. When
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: old Man saw lying on the ground a bull's horn.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: He picked it up and held it on his head
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: and turned around and bellowed loudly, and the bear was
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: frightened and turned around and ran away as hard as
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: he could. Then old man leaned up against the rock
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: and breathed hard for a long time, but at last
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: he got his wind back. He said to the rock,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: this is the way you. Rocks shall always be after this,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: with a big hole all around you. By this time
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: he was pretty tired and thirsty, and he thought he
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: would go down to the river and drink. When he
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: got to the edge of the water, he got down
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: on his knee to drink, and there before him in
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the water he saw bullberries, great bunches of them. He
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: said to himself, I will dive in and get those bullberries.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: And he took off his moccasins and clothing and dived in.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: But he could not find the bullberries, and presently he
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: came up. He looked into the water again and again
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: saw the bullberries. He said to himself, those bullberries must
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: be very deep down. He went along the shore looking
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: for a heavy stone that would take him down into
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the deep water where the bullberries were, And when he
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: found one, he tied the stone to his neck and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: again dived in. This time he sank to the bottom,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: for the stone carried him down He felt about with
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: his hands, trying to reach the bullberries, but could feel none,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and began to drown. He tried to get free from
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the stone, but that was hard to do. Yet at
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: last he broke the string and came to the top
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: of the water. He was almost dead, and it took
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: him a long time to get to the shore. And
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: when he got there, he caught up onto the bank
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: and lay down to rest and get his breath. As
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: he lay there on his back, he saw above him
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the thick growing bullberries, whose reflections he had seen in
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the water. He said to himself, and I was almost
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: drowned for these. Then he took a stick and with
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: it began to beat the bullberry bushes. He said to
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the bushes, after this the people shall beat you in
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: this way when they want to gather berries. The Blackfeet women,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: when gathering bullberries, spread robes under the bushes and beat
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the branches with sticks, knocking off the berries which fall
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: on the robes. End of Chapter twenty