The Pawnee by George Amos Dorsey

Author:George Amos Dorsey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carnegie Institution of Washington

The next day Burnt-Belly went off through the timber and caught a woodpecker and took it home. The next morning he told his wife to follow him, for he was going to his grandmother's to eat. He placed the woodpecker upon the top of his head. As they went on, the woodpecker flopped its wings and whistled. Crow-Feathers saw that the boy had a woodpecker and so he went out into the timber and somehow he caught a woodpecker and took it home. In the night Crow-Feathers saw the sparkling upon the young man's robe. He grunted and with the branch of a tree he struck the bed of hot coals. Then he threw the coals upon his robe. Early in the morning he found that he had burnt his robe, but nevertheless he took the woodpecker and tied it upon the hair on top of his head and said to his wife: "Let us go out; the people ought to see my power." Crow-Feathers went out and the woodpecker began to peck his head. It pecked it until it began to bleed and the blood ran down his face. His wife ran up to him and said: "You are being hurt. Take the bird off and let it fly away." The girl took the bird off and it flew away.

One day Burnt-Belly told the chief to tell the crier to tell all the young men to tie their ponies close by, for some of them were to go out and look for buffalo. There was joy throughout the camp and the men staked out their ponies. Early in the morning there were several men selected to go out and look for buffalo. They were told to go to certain hills. They went to the hills, but they saw no buffalo, and so they came back. The young man then told the chief to tell the crier to go through the village and make known to the men that they were to go to a certain place, for the men had brought news that buffalo were sleeping in the valley. The men got upon their ponies and gathered at the chief's tipi. The chief led them out. Crow-Feathers was glad, for he went, while Burnt-Belly stayed home.

The men went out to the hills and when they were upon the hill the men who had gone out said: "It is here that we were and we saw no buffalo." While they were talking, Burnt-Belly came up. "Look," said he, "yonder in the valley you will see buffalo. Surround them and kill them." The men looked in the valley and there they saw the buffalo.

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