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02 - The Wolf Man · Blackfeet Native American Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section two 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 go to LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Reading by Mary Roady Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell.
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  Speaker 1: The Wolfman. A long time ago, there was a man
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  Speaker 1: who had two wives. They were not good women. They
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  Speaker 1: did not look after their home nor tried to keep
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  Speaker 1: things comfortable there. If the man brought in plenty of
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  Speaker 1: buffalo cowskins, they did not tan them well, and often
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  Speaker 1: when he came home at night, hungry and tired after
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  Speaker 1: his hunting, he had no food for These women would
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  Speaker 1: be away from the lodge, visiting their relations and having
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  Speaker 1: a good time. The man thought that if he moved
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  Speaker 1: away from the big camp and lived alone, where there
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  Speaker 1: were no people, perhaps he might teach these women to
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  Speaker 1: become good. So he moved his lodge far off on
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  Speaker 1: the prairie and camped at the foot of a high butte.
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  Speaker 1: Every evening about sundown, the man used to climb up
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  Speaker 1: to the top of this butte and sit there and
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  Speaker 1: look all over the country to see where the buffalo
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  Speaker 1: were feeding and whether any enemies were moving about. On
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  Speaker 1: top of the hill. There was a buffalo skull on
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  Speaker 1: which he used to sit. One day, one of the
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  Speaker 1: women said to the other, it is very lonely here.
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  Speaker 1: We have no one to talk with or to visit.
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  Speaker 1: Let us kill our husband, said the other, then we
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  Speaker 1: can go back to our relations and have a good time.
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  Speaker 1: Early next morning, the man set out to hunt, and
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  Speaker 1: as soon as he was out of sight, his wives
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  Speaker 1: went up on top of the butte where he used
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  Speaker 1: to sit. There they dug a deep hole and covered
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  Speaker 1: it over with lights, sticks, and grass and earth so
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  Speaker 1: that it looked like the other soil near by, and
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  Speaker 1: placed the buffalo skull on the sticks which covered the hole.
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  Speaker 1: In the afternoon, as they watched for their returning husband,
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  Speaker 1: they saw him come over the hill, loaded down with
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  Speaker 1: meat he had killed. When he threw down his load
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  Speaker 1: outside the lodge, they hurried to cook something for him.
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  Speaker 1: After he had eaten, he went up on the butte
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  Speaker 1: and sat down on the skull. The slender sticks broke
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  Speaker 1: and he fell into the hole. His wives were watching him,
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  Speaker 1: and when they saw him disappear, they took down the
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  Speaker 1: lodge and packed their dogs and set out to go
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  Speaker 1: to the main camp. As they drew near it so
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  Speaker 1: that people could hear them, they began to cry and mourn.
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  Speaker 1: Soon some people came to meet them and said, what
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  Speaker 1: is this, Why are you mourning? Where is your husband? Ah,
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  Speaker 1: they replied, he is dead. Five days ago he went
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  Speaker 1: out to hunt, and he did not come back. What
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  Speaker 1: shall we do? We have lost him who cared for us.
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  Speaker 1: And they cried and mourned again. Now, when the man
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  Speaker 1: fell into the pit, he was hurt, for the hole
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  Speaker 1: was deep. After a time he tried to climb out,
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  Speaker 1: but he was so badly bruised that he could not
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  Speaker 1: do so. He sat there and waited, thinking that here
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  Speaker 1: he must surely die of hunger. But traveling over the
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  Speaker 1: prairie was a wolf that climbed up on the butte
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  Speaker 1: and came to the hole, and, looking in, saw the
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  Speaker 1: man and pitied him. Ow ow oooo. He howled, and
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  Speaker 1: when the other wolves heard him, they all came running
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  Speaker 1: to see what was the matter. Following the big wolves
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  Speaker 1: came also many coyotes, badgers, and kit foxes. They did
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  Speaker 1: not know what had happened, but they thought perhaps there
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  Speaker 1: was food here. To the others, the wolf said, here
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  Speaker 1: in this hole is what I have found. Here is
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  Speaker 1: a man who has fallen in. Let us dig him out,
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  Speaker 1: and we will have him for our brother. All the
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  Speaker 1: wolves thought that this talk was good, and they began
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  Speaker 1: to dig, and before very long they had dug a
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  Speaker 1: hole down almost to the bottom of the pit. Then
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  Speaker 1: the wolf who had found the man said, hold on,
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  Speaker 1: wait a little, I want to say a few words.
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  Speaker 1: All the animals stopped digging and began to listen, and
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  Speaker 1: the wolf said, we will all have this man for
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  Speaker 1: our brother. But I found him, and so I think
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  Speaker 1: he ought to live with us big wolves. All the
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  Speaker 1: others thought that this was good, and the wolf that
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  Speaker 1: had found the man went into the hole that had
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  Speaker 1: been dug, and, tearing down the rest of the earth,
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  Speaker 1: dragged out the poor man, who was now almost dead,
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  Speaker 1: for he had neither eaten nor drunk anything since he
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  Speaker 1: fell in the hole. They gave the man a kidney
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  Speaker 1: to eat, and when he was able to walk, the
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  Speaker 1: big wolves took him to their home. Here there was
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  Speaker 1: a very old, blind wolf who had great power and
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  Speaker 1: could do wonderful things. He cured the man and made
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  Speaker 1: his head and his hands look like those of a wolf.
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  Speaker 1: The rest of his body was not changed. In those days,
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  Speaker 1: the people used to make holes in the walls of
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  Speaker 1: the fence about the enclosure into which they let the buffalo.
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  Speaker 1: They set snares over these holes, and when wolves and
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  Speaker 1: other animals crept through them so as to get into
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  Speaker 1: the pen and feed on the meat, they were caught
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  Speaker 1: by the neck and killed, and the people used their
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  Speaker 1: skins for clothing. One night, all the wolves went down
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  Speaker 1: to the pen to get meat, and when they had
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  Speaker 1: come close to it, the man wolf said to his brothers,
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  Speaker 1: stop here for a little while, and I will go
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  Speaker 1: down and fix the places so that you will not
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  Speaker 1: be caught. He went down to the pen and sprung
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  Speaker 1: all the snares, and then went back and called the
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  Speaker 1: wolves and the others, the coyotes, badgers and kit foxes,
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  Speaker 1: and they all went into the pen and feasted and
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  Speaker 1: took meat to carry home to their families. In the morning,
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  Speaker 1: the people found the meat gone, and all their snares sprung,
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  Speaker 1: and they were surprised and wondered how this could have happened.
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  Speaker 1: For many nights the nooses were pulled tight and the
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  Speaker 1: meat taken, But once when the wolves went there to eat,
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  Speaker 1: they found only the meat of a lean and sickly bull.
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  Speaker 1: Then the man wolf was angry, and he cried out
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  Speaker 1: like a wolf, bad food you give us, soup, bad
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  Speaker 1: food you give us ooo. When the people heard this,
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  Speaker 1: they said to one another, Ah, it is a man
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  Speaker 1: wolf who has done all this. We must catch him.
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  Speaker 1: So they took down to the piskin pemmican footnote one,
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  Speaker 1: a pen or enclosure usually among the blackfeet at the
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  Speaker 1: foot of a cliff over which the buffalo were induced
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  Speaker 1: to jump, pronounced piscan and a footnote. So they took
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  Speaker 1: down to the piskin pemmican and nice back fat and
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  Speaker 1: placed it there, and many of them hid close by.
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  Speaker 1: After dark, the wolves came, as was their custom, and
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  Speaker 1: when the man wolf saw the good food, he ran
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  Speaker 1: to it and began to eat. Then the people rushed
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  Speaker 1: upon him from every side and caught him with ropes
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  Speaker 1: and tied him and took him to a lodge. And
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  Speaker 1: when they had brought him inside to the light of
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  Speaker 1: the fire, at once they knew who it was. They said,
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  Speaker 1: why this is the man who was lost? No, said
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  Speaker 1: the man I was not lost. My wives tried to
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  Speaker 1: kill me. They dug a deep hole, and I fell
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  Speaker 1: into it, and I was hurt so badly I could
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  Speaker 1: not get out, but the wolves took pity on me
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  Speaker 1: and helped me, or I would have died there. When
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  Speaker 1: the people heard this, they were angry, and they told
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  Speaker 1: the man to do something to punish these women. You say, well,
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  Speaker 1: he replied, I give those women to the punishing society.
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  Speaker 1: They know what to do. After that night, the two
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  Speaker 1: women were never seen again. End of the Wolf Man