THERE had been a long dry season, and the Deer had grown very thin. Meeting Possum one day, he could not help noticing how well-fed and contented the other appeared.

“How is it that you are so fat in a time of drouth and famine?” inquired the Deer, whose skin hung loosely upon a rack of bones.

“It is simple enough,” replied the Possum. “I live upon persimmons.”

“But how do you reach them?” persisted the Deer. “It seems to me they hang very high.”

“Oh, that is easy,” declared Possum, who is fond of a joke. “I go to the top of yonder hill, run down very fast and hit the tree with my head just as hard as I can. That shakes off the fruit. Then I have only to sit on the ground and eat and eat till I can eat no more.”

“It sounds easy, to be sure,” agreed the Deer, who was hungry enough to try anything. He went to the very top of the hill, rushed down violently, and struck the tree with such force that he was killed instantly. At this the wicked Possum laughed so hard that it stretched his mouth, which has remained wide to this day.

THE GOOD LITTLE SPIRIT

Perhaps you have wondered why some men are wise and do good, while others in their ignorance do nothing but harm. If so, I will tell you a secret.

In a cave not far from the homes of men there dwells a good little spirit. He is very old, his hair is long and white, and he is about as tall as a child three years old.

Now every child, when it reaches the age of three or four, sometimes wanders away out of sight of home, and the spirit is constantly on the watch for this to happen. He comes out of hiding, takes the little one by the hand and leads it away to his cave. There he makes it choose one of three gifts: a knife, a bunch of poisonous flowers, and a handful of healing herbs.

If the child takes the knife, he will do only harm all his days. If he is misled by the beauty of the poisonous blossoms, he will never be wise; but if he takes the good medicine, he will be a wise man and a healer, who will bless and help his people.

THE GOOD LITTLE SPIRIT
He makes it choose one of three gifts.
Page 55.

FOLLOWERS OF THE SUN

There were once four brothers, who as soon as they noticed that the sun rose in one quarter and set in another, made up their minds to follow on to the place of his setting. They were very young when they set out toward the west, and as the years passed they grew to be tall youths, then strong men in their prime, yet they could never overtake the Sun.

Old age had begun to creep upon the travelers when at last they reached the shores of the Everywhere Salt Water (the ocean). Behind its shining rim the golden ball descended, and they were given power to follow, and where sky and water met to reach their journey’s end.

“Why are you here who have not yet died?” asked the Sun.

“We have done nothing but follow you all our lives,” replied the brothers.

“Only the dead come here,” the Sun insisted. “You will have to go back.”

He sent them each home on the wings of a buzzard, and thus returned to their amazed people four feeble old men, who had been where no mortal ever went before. When they had told all their strange story, they lay down and died, and so returned to the glories of heaven, which they alone of all men had seen before their time.

THE HUNTER WHO BECAME A DEER

A hunter who had traveled all day without finding any game shot a doe near sunset, and as he was very tired, he lay down near the body and went to sleep.

In the morning, when he awoke, he perceived the doe looking at him lovingly out of large, soft eyes. As he returned her gaze, she astonished him yet more by speaking.

“Will you come home with me?” she pleaded.

The young man hesitated, but there was something strangely appealing about this beautiful woman, as she now seemed to him to become. Almost without knowing what he did, he arose and followed her.

By and by, they came to a great cave under the mountain, where it seemed that all the Deer lived with their chief, an immense buck with powerful antlers. The hunter was hospitably received; but all along the sides of the cave he noticed piles of deer hides, with hoofs and horns. This puzzled him not a little; nevertheless he ate with them, lay down among them, and presently slept.

Now while the young man slept, the Deer tried skin after skin till they found one which fitted him, and they also fitted a pair of antlers to his head and hoofs to his hands and feet. In the morning, he opened his eyes and perceived that he also was a Deer, and he remained with the herd.

In the meantime, his mother and his relatives continued to search for him throughout the forest. After some weeks, they discovered the lost one’s bow and arrows, hanging on the branch of the tree under which he had slept after shooting the doe. They all gathered on the spot and began to sing songs of magic.

Soon a herd of deer appeared in the distance, coming nearer and nearer as they were drawn by the singing. At last one spoke, and immediately they knew his voice for that of the missing hunter. His mother cried bitterly, and insisted that they should take off the deer’s hide from her son and restore him to his own shape again.

“We dare not,” protested his brothers and his cousins. “It might endanger his life!” “Even so,” she replied, weeping, “I had rather see my son dead than wearing the form of a beast!”

When they began to tear off the deer’s hide, behold! it had grown fast to his own skin, and he began to bleed.

“Go on! go on!” exclaimed the mother in agony, and they persisted until the man died. Then at last they carried home his body and gave it honorable burial.

PRETTY WOMAN

Once in time of famine there were two children deserted by their parents, because they could not find food enough for all. The boy and girl were perishing of hunger when they were discovered wandering in the wood by Old Crow Woman. The kind old body took them to her poor teepee and went out to search for something to eat. While she was gone, the girl, who was very clever, picked four grains of corn out of the dust and tossed them into the air. In this way each grain became a fine full ear, which they roasted and ate. She then threw up the small skin tent, and it came down large and beautiful. She took her little brother in her arms and threw him up, and he was a tall youth. Finally she said to him: “Brother, throw me up, too!” and he did as she asked.

The half-starved little girl came down again a remarkably pretty woman, and when Old Crow returned with a few grains of corn in her beak, she was astonished to find so beautiful a girl sitting and making moccasins before the largest and handsomest lodge she had ever seen.

When the Mole poked his long nose through the earth to look at Pretty Woman, she ordered him back, saying, “I am not the light.”

Three times the Hummingbird circled round her head with buzzing wings, but she drove him away. “I am not a flower,” said she. He went home and told all the people that he had seen the most beautiful woman in the world, and the woods were soon full of suitors.

Since Old Crow Woman was the girl’s chaperon, they all appealed to her. One said: “I will lay down the richest of bear skins for her to walk on, all the way to my village.”

“That will never do,” replied the old woman. “She might slip on the skins and hurt herself.”

The second lover offered to lay down a line of mortars all the way. “You must not do that,” said Old Crow. “The mortars might roll and trip her up.” The third man declared: “My people shall lie down on the ground, and she may tread upon them as she comes to me a bride!”

To this the old woman made no objection, and Pretty Woman walked all the way to her future home upon the bodies of the people.

THE CRANE AND THE HUMMINGBIRD

Once there was a beautiful girl who had many suitors, and among the most persistent were the Crane and the Hummingbird. She rather fancied the latter, since the Crane was a long-legged, awkward fellow, not at all to her taste. In order to rid herself of his pretensions once and for all, she told them that they might fly round the world, and the first one to return should be her husband. As the Hummingbird is very swift, she had no doubt of the result. At the end of the first day, he had indeed a long start. Well pleased, he tucked his head under his wing and went to sleep. About midnight, the Crane overtook him and flew on. The Hummingbird passed him at breakfast time and again secured a long lead. But in the night time, while he slept, the unwearied Crane flew on, each night overtaking him earlier, till he had gained a whole day and won the race.

After all, he did not win a wife, for the maiden was so much chagrined by the failure of her plan that she has stayed single to this day.