American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends)

by Richard Erdoes

  “Nothing much, uncle,” one boy answered. “Only that Rabbit came by here, telling everybody that he mounted you.”

  “Oh, he shamed me,” thought Iktinike. “He’s bad-mouthing me already!”

  Iktinike went on. He came to a place where boys were gambling with plum pits. “Young brothers,” Iktinike inquired, “what’s new?”

  “Nothing much. Rabbit came through here and told everybody how he got on top of you.”

  “Oh, no! That no-good, lying, long-eared hlete is only spreading false rumors!”

  Iktinike went on. He came to a place where boys were shooting with toy bows and arrows. “Hey, you kids, what’s new?” Iktinike wanted to know.

  “Only that Rabbit came through here, telling everybody that he used you in the winkte way.”

  “Oh, that split-nosed, stinking liar!” cried Iktinike. “Don’t believe him!”

  Iktinike hurried on. Suddenly he had to relieve himself. He squatted down, but instead of chesli, little baby rabbits popped out of his onze. “Oh, no! This is really too much!” cried Iktinike. “What next?”

  Finally he arrived at his home. His wife greeted him lovingly. She was in an amorous mood. “Let’s tawiton,” she said.

  “Not tonight,” Iktinike declined. “I’ve got a headache.”

  PART SEVEN

  THE VEEHO CYCLE

  HE HAS BEEN SAYING BAD THINGS ABOUT YOU

  {Northern Cheyenne}

  Veeho encountered a man who had strange powers. He could command stones to turn over and the stones did this without being touched, even if the man ordered them to do this from a distance. Veeho watched this man using his powers.

  “Uncle,” said Veeho, “what you are doing is wonderful. You surely are the greatest medicine man I ever met. I wish I could command stones to turn over. Then people would admire me; then women would come to share my blanket. Then I would be no longer poor, because people would give me many gifts to see me doing this. Uncle, have pity on me, give me a little of your stone power.”

  “I pity you,” said the man. “I will give you that power, but before I do, you must promise to do this in a certain way.”

  “I promise, I promise,” said Veeho.

  “You must command the stones to turn over only four times. If you do it more often, you will be in big trouble.”

  “I promise, I promise,” cried Veeho, “only four times. Only four times!” Then the man gave him a little of his power. Veeho hurried back to his village. He ‘called loudly to all who could hear him: “People, behold me! People, behold my powers!”

  Then the people who happened to be there watched Veeho commanding stones to turn over. Then the people said to each other: “We have misjudged Veeho. We thought he was just a fool, but now we see that he is a great man.” Then everybody began to respect Veeho.

  Some days later Veeho cried again: “People, behold me! People, gather round and behold my powers!” This time the whole village came to watch Veeho commanding stones to turn over.

  Then everybody was astounded. People stood in awe of Veeho. “Surely,” they said, “Veeho is a great medicine man.” They came to Veeho to be doctored, to be cured of their illnesses. They made Veeho gifts of horses even though he did not cure their sickness. They believed in him because he could make stones obey him.

  Some time after this, Veeho again went into the middle of the camp circle, crying: “People, come and behold me! Behold my great powers!” And again, before the eyes of all the people, Veeho made stones turn over at his command, without Veeho ever touching them. Then people began to call Veeho “Chief.” Veeho had been a poor hunter. Now he had to hunt no longer. Every day people brought him meat, more than he could eat—back fat, buffalo-hump meat, buffalo tongues, meat from different animals. People were saying: “Veeho is not only powerful, he is rich. He is sure to marry a great chief’s daughter.”

  Some time passed. Then Veeho again called upon everybody to assemble, crying: “People, behold my powers! Behold Veeho, the great, the powerful!” And he again had stones turn over at his command. Then a great chief gave his daughter to Veeho in marriage. Then there was a big feast. Then the beautiful chief’s daughter entered Veeho’s tipi. Then he slept with her. Veeho said to himself: “I am truly a great man.”

  Time passed. Veeho once more called the people together to watch stones obeying him. Again he cried out: “People, behold me!” Veeho had forgotten that he was supposed to do his wonderful feat with stones only four times. He had forgotten the warning that he would be in trouble if he commanded stones to turn over a fifth time. There was a big Rock standing a little way beyond the camp. Veeho led the people to it. “Behold me doing something people will talk about forever!” He commanded: “You, big Rock, turn over!”

  The Rock did not turn over. It began rolling toward Veeho, threatening to flatten him. Veeho got scared. He started to run. The Rock rolled after him. Veeho ran faster and faster, but the Rock kept after him. Veeho could not gain on the Rock. He could not outrun it. The Rock dogged Veeho’s heels. It was already treading on them. Veeho ran until he could run no more. Then the big Rock rolled halfway over him, resting on Veeho’s chest. Veeho could hardly breathe. The Rock was about to crush him to death. Out of the corner of his eye, Veeho noticed Buffalo standing nearby. “Brother.” He moaned and groaned. “Brother, help me. Get this Rock off my chest!”

  “I cannot do it,” said Buffalo. “That Rock is too big and powerful.” Veeho craned and twisted his neck, seeing Bear walking on the left. “Brother,” he cried. “Brother, help me. Get this Rock off my chest!”

  “I cannot do it,” said Bear. “This Rock is too big and powerful.” Veeho twisted his head toward the right, and saw Moose standing there. “Brother,” he croaked. “Brother, get this Rock off my chest!”

  “I cannot do it,” said Moose. “This Rock is too big and powerful.”

  Veeho was looking up. He saw Eagle soaring above him. Veeho mustered what little strength he had left and cried aloud: “Brother Eagle, this Rock has been saying bad things about you. He said that you are ugly, that your beak is crooked, that you have a voice that makes people cover their ears. This Rock said that you stink of rotten fish and spoiled meat. I told this Rock that he was wrong, that you are beautiful, that your beak has just the right shape, that your voice is lovely, and that you smell good. I told this Rock that he was a liar.”

  Hearing this, Eagle flew into a terrible rage. He dove straight down upon the Rock and, with his beak, broke the Rock into tiny splinters, thereby freeing Veeho from its crushing weight.

  But Veeho was in a bad shape. He was bruised all over. Some of his ribs had been broken. His appearance was pitiful. Painfully he dragged himself back to his lodge. His wife looked at him. She said: “I should not have married you. I shall be looking for another husband. You are not a great man. You are nothing but a fool.”

  THE POSSIBLE BAG

  {Northern Cheyenne}

  Four is the magic number among almost all tribes.

  In many tales things are done four times and bad things

  happen if they are done more often.

  Veeho was walking about. He had heard about a rich man who never lacked food, though he did not seem to hunt much. Veeho said to himself: “That man is worth visiting.” Veeho went there. The rich man’s lodge was surrounded by racks on which much meat was drying. Many buffalo robes were hanging from the branches of nearby trees. “Yes, indeed, this is a good man to know,” thought Veeho. He entered the man’s lodge. The owner was at home. He seemed to live alone.

  “Elder brother,” said Veeho, “I am glad to meet you. I heard many good things about you. May I stay a while?”

  “Yes, you may,” the man agreed. “Make yourself comfortable. Help yourself to some of my buffalo-hump meat. There is more than enough for the both of us.”

  Veeho gorged himself. He looked around. Hanging from a lodgepole in the back he saw a large possible bag. He wondered what could be in it. The more he
looked, the more curious he became. He could not get the possible bag out of his mind.

  The man told him: “You can stay the night if you wish.”

  “Yes, thank you, elder brother,” said Veeho, “it is too late for me to go on.”

  It grew dark. The rich man laid down on a buffalo robe. Veeho waited until his host was sound asleep, then he took down the possible bag, slung it over his shoulder, and crept silently out of the lodge. As soon as he was outside, Veeho began to run. He was afraid that the man would wake up and discover that his possible bag was missing. Veeho ran as fast as he could. He did not want the man to catch him. He came to a big lake. In order to go on, he had to run around the lake. This seemed to take forever. Veeho thought: “This lakeshore has no end.” Veeho ran and ran until he could run no more. Then he laid down and fell asleep.

  He woke up because somebody was shaking him by the shoulder. It was the rich man. He asked Veeho: “Younger brother, what are you doing with my possible bag?”

  “Oh, elder brother, I needed it for a pillow under my head.”

  “But it’s lying by your side.”

  “Well, it must have slipped while I was asleep,” Veeho tried to convince him.

  “You better leave this bag alone,” said the man, tying it to a lodgepole. “It contains medicine and should not be used for a pillow or for anything else.”

  Veeho looked around and saw that he had never left the lodge. The owner was so rich and powerful a magician that all the country roundabout, from horizon to horizon, was contained in his lodge.

  They spent the day chatting. They ate buffalo tongues and livers. Veeho asked his host: “Elder brother, what are you afraid of?”

  “The only thing in the world I’m afraid of is Goose,” said the rich man.

  “Really? How strange,” said Veeho. “I also am afraid of Goose. It’s a very dangerous animal.” After a while Veeho added: “Brother, I have stayed too long. I must go now.”

  Veeho left. Once outside the lodge, he changed himself into Goose. He had the power to transform himself. In the shape of Goose, Veeho went back into the rich man’s lodge, crying: “Honk, honk!”

  The rich man had one look at him and almost fainted. Terrified by what he thought was Goose, he fled in a great panic, grabbing the possible bag, but leaving everything else behind.

  Veeho went back to his own lodge, where his wife and children were waiting. Veeho told them: “I went to a rich man’s lodge. It is large, full of good things to eat and furnished with fine buffalo robes. I have frightened this man away. He won’t come back. Come and let us live in his lodge and enjoy what he has left behind.” Veeho and his family then went to the rich man’s lodge and settled down there.

  Soon after, Veeho said to his wife: “The man who owned all this has a large possible bag. I think that in this bag is what made him rich. I very much want to have this bag. I will track him down and take this bag away from him. There is enough food for you here to last until I come back.” Veeho followed the man’s footprints. He followed them for four days and nights. He caught up with the rich man. When Veeho saw him from afar, he quickly transformed himself once more into Goose. He overtook his prey, crying loudly: “Honk, honk!”

  The man was very scared. Trembling and with chattering teeth, he begged Veeho: “Please, uncle, have pity. Don’t kill me!”

  Veeho asked: “What will you give me if I let you live?”

  “Whatever you wish,” answered the man.

  “Give me the possible bag you are carrying with you,” Veeho demanded.

  “All right, all right, take it, but open it only four times. If you open it more often, bad things will happen.” Veeho took the possible bag and let the man go.

  Veeho hurried home to his wife and children. He showed them the possible bag, crying: “This is what I wanted!” He could not wait to untie the bag. As soon as he did, a fat buffalo cow jumped out. “This is what made that man so rich,” cried Veeho. “Now we shall lack nothing. Now we shall have a feast every day. This is the way to live!” He quickly tied the bag shut. He fastened it to a lodgepole. It was hanging there. Veeho killed the cow. They butchered it. They had a big feast stuffing themselves with fat hump meat, delicious tongues, livers, and sweet kidneys. The meat lasted for many days.

  When it was finally gone, Veeho said: “My wife and children, it is time to open that wonderful bag again.” He did and another young, fat buffalo cow jumped out. Again they feasted. Whenever they ran out of food, Veeho untied the possible bag. He was about to open it for the fifth time when his wife warned him: “That man told you not to open this bag more than four times. He told you that bad things would happen if you did.”

  Veeho laughed. “That fellow was angry with me for taking the bag away from him. He does not want us to be rich forever. That’s why he said this. This bag is bottomless. It will bring forth a young, fat cow every time I open it.”

  Veeho untied the possible bag for the fifth time. At once numberless buffalo tumbled out—bulls, cows, and calves, an unstoppable flood of animals. They trampled over everything. They almost crushed Veeho, his wife, and his children to death. They trampled down the lodge. They trampled Veeho’s horse to death. They stampeded all over the village, running over women and children left and right, tearing down lodges, stampeding horses, crushing dogs under their hooves. There seemed no end of buffalo. Their drumming hooves resounded like thunder as they rushed off in all the four directions—north, east, south, and west. Their herds covered the whole prairie as far as the eye could see. Finally they all disappeared beyond the horizon.

  The people were all shook up. Their village lay in ruins. Their lodges were destroyed, their belongings trampled to bits, their horses gone. “Who could have caused this great evil?” the people asked each other.

  “It wasn’t me,” said Veeho.

  So this is the way buffalo came into this world. The people soon forgot the devastation caused by the onrushing buffalo. They recovered. They were overjoyed to have buffalo to hunt. Now there was much food. Now there was an end of famines. The people were asking each other: “Who has done this great thing for us?”

  Veeho was about to say something, but his wife stopped him short, telling Veeho: “Husband, keep your mouth shut!”

  HAIR LOSS

  {Northern Cheyenne}

  Veeho was walking about. He came across two young, comely tsis-tsis-tas, maidens. He said to himself: “They are good-looking. I will talk to them. I will amuse them. Then maybe one of them will let me sleep with her. Maybe both will.”

  Veeho walked up to the girls. “Good evening, little cousins. I am lousy. Would you please be so kind as to pick these nits out of my hair? They make my scalp itch so bad.” He laid down between them. The girls started to pick the lice out of Veeho’s hair, one sitting at his right side, and the other on his left. This made him drowsy and he fell asleep.

  Then one girl said to the other: “Do you know who this louse-ridden fellow is? I think it is that no-account Trickster, Veeho.”

  “I think it is, too,” said the other girl, “he is always playing nasty tricks on people, particularly on women. Let’s play a trick on him, for a change.” The two girls covered Veeho’s whole head with prickly, spiny burrs. Veeho slept through it all.

  When Veeho woke up, he at once noticed that his head was covered with burrs. They had nested in his hair and tangled it all up. For hours Veeho tried to get the burrs out of his hair, but it was impossible. They had formed an impenetrable mass, making his head feel like the back of a porcupine. “Oh, this is bad!” said Veeho. For hours he tried to remove the burrs. His fingers were scratched and bleeding from the sharp, needlelike spikes. His scalp, too, was bleeding. “Oh, it hurts,” wailed Veeho. He gave up.

  Walking toward his home with his big, painful headdress of burrs, he encountered Mouse. “Oh, little brother, help me,” said Veeho. “You see the sorry state I’m in. Please gnaw off this whole mess—hair, burrs, and all.”

  “
Gladly,” said Mouse. “Aren’t we relatives and friends? What are relatives for?”

  Mouse got busy gnawing, gnawing, gnawing. It was hard work, but finally Mouse got it done. He had gnawed off everything, leaving Veeho’s skull bare, as if some enemy had scalped him. “Thank you, little brother,” said Veeho, continuing on his way.

  When Veeho arrived back at his lodge, his wife at first did not recognize him. She thought he was some kind of monster and cried out in fear. “Foolish woman,” said Veeho, “don’t you see it’s me?”

  “Oh, my poor husband!” lamented the wife. “What has happened to you? How did you lose your beautiful bushy hair?”

  “Don’t ask so many dumb questions, nosy woman,” said Veeho. “What’s for supper?”

  BROTHER, SHARPEN MY LEG!

  {Cheyenne}

  There was a man whose leg was pointed, so that by running and jumping against trees he could stick in them. By saying naiwa-toutawa, he brought himself back to the ground. On a hot day he would stick himself against a tree for greater shade and coolness. However, he could not do this trick more than four times.

  Once while he was doing this, Veeho, White Man, came to him, crying, and said: “Brother, sharpen my leg!”

  The man replied: “That is not very hard. I can sharpen your leg.”

  White Man stood on a large log, and the other man, with an ax, sharpened his leg, telling him to hold still bravely. The pain caused the tears to come from his eyes. When the man had sharpened his leg, he told him to do the trick only four times a day, and to keep count in order not to exceed this number.

  White Man went down toward the river, singing. Near the bank was a large tree; toward this he ran, then jumped and stuck in it. Then he called himself back to the ground. Again he jumped, this time against another tree; but now he counted one, thinking in this way to get the better of the other man. The third time, he counted two. The fourth time, birds and animals stood by, and he was proud to show his ability, and jumped high, and pushed his leg in up to the knee. Then coyotes, wolves, and other animals came to see him; some of them came to ask how he knew the trick, and begged him to teach it to them, so they could stick to trees at night. He was still prouder now, and for the fifth time he ran and jumped as high as he could, and half his thigh entered the tree. Then he counted four. Then he called to get to the ground again. But he stuck. He called out all day; he tried to send the animals to the man who had taught him. He was fast in the tree for many days, until he starved to death.