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23 - Old Man Stories: Bobcat and Birch Tree · Blackfeet Native American Stories

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three of Blackfeet Indian Stories. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Lucy LaFaro, New South Wales, Australia. Blackfeet Indian
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  Speaker 1: Stories by George B. Grinnell, Chapter twenty three, Old Man's Stories,
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  Speaker 1: Bobcat and the Birch Tree. Once old Man was traveling
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  Speaker 1: over the prairie when he saw far off a fire burning,
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  Speaker 1: and as he drew near it, he saw many prairie
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  Speaker 1: dogs sitting in a circle around the fire. There were
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  Speaker 1: so many of them that there was no place for
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  Speaker 1: anyone to sit down. Old Man stood there behind the circle,
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  Speaker 1: and presently he began to cry. And then he said
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  Speaker 1: to the prairie dogs, let me too, sit by that fire.
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  Speaker 1: The prairie dogs said, all right, old Man, don't cry,
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  Speaker 1: Come and sit by the fire. They moved aside so
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  Speaker 1: as to make a place for him, and old Man
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  Speaker 1: sat down and looked on at what they were doing.
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  Speaker 1: He saw that they were playing again, and this was
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  Speaker 1: the way they did it. They put one prairie dog
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  Speaker 1: in the fire and covered him up with the hot ashes,
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  Speaker 1: and then after he had been there a little while,
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  Speaker 1: he would say sk sk, and they pushed the ashes
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  Speaker 1: off him and pulled him out. Old man said, little brothers,
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  Speaker 1: teach me how to do that. The prairie dogs told
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  Speaker 1: him what to do, and put him in the fire
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  Speaker 1: and covered him up with the ashes. And after a
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  Speaker 1: little time he said, skisk like a prairie dog, and
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  Speaker 1: they pulled him out again. Then he did it to
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  Speaker 1: the prairie dogs. At first he put them in one
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  Speaker 1: at a time, but there were many of them, and
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  Speaker 1: soon he got tired and said, I will put you
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  Speaker 1: all in at once. They said very well, old man,
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  Speaker 1: and all got in the ashes. But just mist as
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  Speaker 1: old man was about to cover them up, one of them,
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  Speaker 1: a female, said, do not cover me up, for I
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  Speaker 1: fear the heat will hurt me. Old man said, very well,
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  Speaker 1: if you do not wish to be covered up, you
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  Speaker 1: may sit over by the fire and watch the rest.
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  Speaker 1: Then he covered over all the others. At length. The
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  Speaker 1: prairie dog said sk sk, But old man did not
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  Speaker 1: sweep off the ashes and pull them out of the fire.
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  Speaker 1: He let them stay there and die. The she one
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  Speaker 1: that was looking on ran to a hole, and as
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  Speaker 1: she went down in it said skisk. Old man chased her,
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  Speaker 1: but he got to the hole too late to catch her.
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  Speaker 1: Oh well, you can go, he said. There will be
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  Speaker 1: more prairie dogs by and by. When the prairie dogs
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  Speaker 1: were roasted, old man cut some red willow twigs to
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  Speaker 1: place them on, and then sat down and began to eat.
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  Speaker 1: He ate until he was full, and then felt sleepy.
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  Speaker 1: He said to his nose, I am going to sleep now,
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  Speaker 1: watch out, and in case any bad thing comes about,
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  Speaker 1: wake me up. Then old man slept. Pretty Soon his
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  Speaker 1: snow snored, and old man woke up and said, what
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  Speaker 1: is it. The nose said, a raven is flying by
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  Speaker 1: over there. Old man said that is nothing and went
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  Speaker 1: to sleep again. Soon his nose snored again, and old
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  Speaker 1: man said what is it now? The nose said there
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  Speaker 1: is a coyote over there coming this way. Old man
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  Speaker 1: said a coyote is nothing, and again went to sleep. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: his SnO snored again, but old man did not wake up. Again.
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  Speaker 1: It snored and called out, wake up, a bob cat
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  Speaker 1: is coming. Old man paid no attention. He slept on
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  Speaker 1: the bob cat crept up to the fire and ate
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  Speaker 1: all the roasted prairie dogs, and then went off and
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  Speaker 1: lay down on the flat rock and went to sleep.
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  Speaker 1: All this time the nose kept trying to awaken old Man,
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  Speaker 1: And at last he awoke, and the nose said, a
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  Speaker 1: bobcat is over there on that flat rock. He has
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  Speaker 1: eaten all your food. Then old man was so angry
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  Speaker 1: that he called out loud. The tracks of the bobcat
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  Speaker 1: were all greasy from the food it had been eating,
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  Speaker 1: and old Man followed these tracks. He went softly over
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  Speaker 1: to where the bobcat was sleeping and seized it before
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  Speaker 1: it could wake up to bite or scratch him. The
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  Speaker 1: bobcat cried out, wait, let me speak a word or two,
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  Speaker 1: but old Man would not listen. I will teach you
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  Speaker 1: to steal my food, he said. He pulled off the
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  Speaker 1: lynx's tail, pounded his head against the rock so as
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  Speaker 1: to make his face flat, pulled him out long so
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  Speaker 1: as to make him small bellied, and then threw him
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  Speaker 1: into the brush. He went sneaking away. Old Man said, there,
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  Speaker 1: that is the way you bobcats shall always be. It
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  Speaker 1: is for this reason that the lynxes to day look
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  Speaker 1: like that. Old Man went to the fire and looked
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  Speaker 1: at the red willow sticks where the roasted prairie dogs
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  Speaker 1: had been. And when he saw them, he thought how
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  Speaker 1: his food was all gone. It made him angry at
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  Speaker 1: his nose. He said, you fool, why did you not
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  Speaker 1: wake me. He took the willow sticks and thrust them
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  Speaker 1: in the coals, and when they had caught fire, he
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  Speaker 1: burnt his nose. This hurt, and he ran up on
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  Speaker 1: a hill and held his nose to the wind and
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  Speaker 1: called to the wind to blow hard and cool him.
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  Speaker 1: A hard wind came so hard that it blew him
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  Speaker 1: off the hill and away down to Birch Creek. As
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  Speaker 1: he was flying along, he called at the weeds and
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  Speaker 1: brushed to stop himself, but nothing was strong enough to
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  Speaker 1: hold him. Last, he grasped a birch tree. He held
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  Speaker 1: fast and it did not give way. Although the wind
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  Speaker 1: whipped him about this way and that and tumbled him
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  Speaker 1: up and down, the tree held him. He kept calling
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  Speaker 1: to the wind to blow more softly, and at last
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  Speaker 1: it listened to him and went down. Then he said,
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  Speaker 1: this is a beautiful tree. It has saved me from
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  Speaker 1: being blown away and knocked all to pieces. I will
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  Speaker 1: make it pretty and it shall always be like that.
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  Speaker 1: So he gashed the bark across with his stone knife,
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  Speaker 1: as you see the marks to day. End of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty three,