Hare set out for his other grandfather's place to get arrowheads. Again he enlarged himself and came singing. When his grandfather Flint saw him, he said, "You are a great spirit so I will offer you a very valuable flint from my wrist." However, Hare jumped closer to him and yelled, "Heeyee!" Flint became uneasy, and tried again to placate Hare: "I shall give you this very valuable piece of flint from my ankle." In fact the pieces from his wrists and ankles was the least valuable flint he had. Hare leapt at him yelling, "Heeyee! heeyee!" and Flint ran for his life. Every time Hare hit him with his club flint would break off, and soon flint was scattered all over the earth. Finally, Hare killed him. He went back and picked up arrowheads. The best were blue and those from his stomach were white; the rest were red or black. When Hare got home, he told his grandmother that he had scattered Flint's body over the face of the earth. She was outraged: "You ugly, big-eyed, varmint, you've killed my brother!" "Well," replied Hare, "If you don't like that I'll get my club and scatter you over the face of the earth too." "Actually, grandson," she said, "I was only joking. In fact, it's a good thing since he was withholding arrowheads from your uncles." With their new arrowheads, Hare's arrows were terrifying, and whenever he squeezed one the lodge would shine with lightning. [1]

Commentary. Flint is a Rock Spirit with flint points up and down his arms and legs and apparently everywhere else. When Hare strikes him he disintegrates into flint arrowheads which are scattered everywhere. The flint of the color tco (blue or green) is said to be the best. This is interesting since the Chief of the Black Rock Spirits is Green Man. The Hotcâgara generally used snapping turtle claws for arrowheads, but they say that whenever they did use stone points, it was only with arrowheads that they found rather than manufactured themselves. This notion is also found among the Lakota. "The Lakotas commonly say that the stone arrow points were found on the prairies, and that they were made by the spiders (iktomi)." [2]

Comparative Material: There is a brief but striking Navaho parallel. The giant Yeitso is covered from neck to toe in flint knives. The Twins kill and scalp (or behead) him. Then they take the flint and scatter it in the four directions for the use of the human race. The giant's four flint knives were black, blue, yellow, and white. [3]

There is also a Cherokee counterpart to this story. They too have a character named "Flint" (Tawískala). Rabbit decided to go out and visit Flint, who lived in the mountains. When Rabbit arrived and greeted Flint, he expected that Flint would invite him inside, but Flint never offerred the slightest hospitality, so Rabbit invited Flint to come to his place at the broom grass land and share a meal with him. So the two set out for Rabbit's home. When they arrived, Rabbit made a fire out in the grass, and proceeded to make a mallet and a stake. Flint wondered what he was about, but Rabbit said that he just wanted to keep busy. They had a good meal, and when Flint was asleep, Rabbit snuck up on him and struck him a hard blow with the stake and mallet. The result was a loud explosion, and Rabbit ran for his hole. Flint had been scattered all over creation, as it is now. However, when Rabbit stuck his head up to see if it was all clear, a piece of debris fell from the sky and cut his upper lip. Thus rabbits are even to the present day. [4]

The distant Nez Perce also have a remote parallel. Fox and Coyote were living together. One day Flint killed all five of Coyote's sons, leaving him alone in the world. Meanwhile, Fox had secured an arrowhead from Flint. Whenever Fox's son-in-law would kill a deer, Fox would rush over and retrieve the arrowhead, which his son-in-law kept in a secret place. Coyote noticed this, and one day grabbed the meat from Fox. Despite Fox's protests, Coyote cooked it and began eating, only at one point he bit into the flint arrowhead. Then Coyote realized that Flint had passed by, and demanded of Fox to know where he was. When Fox told him, Coyote began to stalk Flint. Finally, he caught up to him. Coyote kept hitting him with large rocks until a crack began to appear in his flint body. After pummeling him constantly, Flint finally broke in two and expired. As Coyote went along with his kill in his pack, he noticed that it was getting rotten in places, so he cut off these pieces and scattered them by the trail. These are the pieces of flint still found today along the trail in Oregon. [5]

The neighboring Menominee also have a parallel story. Manabush is one of four brothers, the last of which is Chakenapok. "The fourth son, Chakenapok, the man of flint or firestone, was a cruel villain. In coming into the world he caused the death of his mother. When he reached manhood, Manabush resolved to avenge the death of his mother. He pursued Chakenapok all over the earth. After several encounters he destroyed him. All of the fragments which he broke from his body became rocks. His entrails became vines and took root in all of the forests. The flint stones scatterd over the earth and indicate where the struggles between the brothers took place." [6]

Links: Hare, Flint, Earth, The Sons of Earthmaker, Rock Spirits.

Links within the Hare Cycle: §2. Hare and the Grasshoppers, §4. Hare Kills Sharp Elbow.

Stories: featuring Hare as a character: The Hare Cycle, Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Necessity for Death, The Mission of the Five Sons of Earthmaker, Hare Acquires His Arrows, Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp, Hare Recruits Game Animals for Humans, Hare Kills Wildcat, The Messengers of Hare, Hare Secures the Creation Lodge, Hare Kills Sharp Elbow, Hare Visits His Grandfather Bear, Grandmother Packs the Bear Meat, Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads, Hare Kills a Man with a Cane, Hare Burns His Buttocks, Hare Gets Swallowed, Hare Establishes Bear Hunting, Grandmother's Gifts, Hare and the Grasshoppers, The Spirit of Gambling, The Red Man, Maize Origin Myth, Hare Steals the Fish, The Animal who would Eat Men, The Gift of Shooting, Hare and the Dangerous Frog, Thunder Cloud is Blessed, The Coughing Up of the Black Hawks, The Animal Spirit Aids of the Medicine Rite, The Petition to Earthmaker; about Flint: Wears White Feathers on His Head, The Red Man, Chief of the Herok'a, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Adventures of Redhorn's Sons; featuring Grandmother Earth as a character: Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Maize Origin Myth, Grandmother Packs the Bear Meat, Grandmother's Gifts, Owl Goes Hunting, Hare and the Grasshoppers, Hare Acquires His Arrows, The Plant Blessing of Earth, Hare Visits His Grandfather Bear, Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads, Hare Burns His Buttocks, Hare Gets Swallowed, Hare Kills Wildcat, Hare and the Dangerous Frog, Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp, Hare Recruits Game Animals for Humans, The Necessity for Death, Hare Secures the Creation Lodge, Hare Steals the Fish, Hare Kills Sharp Elbow, The Gift of Shooting, The Creation of the World, The Creation of Man (vv 4, 6), Hare Establishes Bear Hunting, Redhorn's Father (?); mentioning Rock Spirits: The Big Stone, The Green Man, The Creation of the World, The Commandments of Earthmaker, The Seer, The Roaster, Wodjidjé, The Raccoon Coat, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Hare Secures the Creation Lodge, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle.

Themes: men whose bodies are (partly) covered with pieces of flint: Bluehorn's Nephews, Hare Gets Swallowed, The Children of the Sun, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Red Man, The Chief of the Herok'a; an evil spirit is smashed to pieces by a club: The Red Man, Warughápara, Hare Kills a Man with a Cane, The Big Stone; striking of an enemy whose body scatters over the face of the earth as a shower of stones: He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, The Big Stone; a class sorts into the four colors: blue, white, red, and black: Pigeon Clan Origins, Bear Spirits, Bear Clan Origin Myth (v. 7), Eagle Clan Origin Myth; red as a symbolic color: The Journey to Spiritland (hill, willows, reeds, smoke, stones, haze), The Gottschall Head (mouth), The Chief of the Herok'a (clouds, side of Forked Man), The Red Man (face, sky, body, hill), Spear Shaft and Lacrosse (neck, nose, painted stone), Redhorn's Father (leggings, stone sphere, hair), The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father (hair, body paint, arrows), Wears White Feathers on His Head (man), The Birth of the Twins (turkey bladder headdresses), The Two Boys (elk bladder headdresses), Trickster and the Mothers (sky), Rich Man, Boy, and Horse (sky), The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits (Buffalo Spirit), Bluehorn Rescues His Sister (buffalo head), Wazûka (buffalo head headdress), The Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth (horn), The Brown Squirrel (protruding horn), Bear Clan Origin Myth (funerary paint), Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth (funerary paint), Deer Clan Origin Myth (funerary paint), Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth (stick at grave), Pigeon Clan Origins (Thunderbird lightning), Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks (eyes), Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp (scalp, woman's hair), The Race for the Chief's Daughter (hair), The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy (hair), Redhorn's Sons (hair), Redhorn Contests the Giants (hair), The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle (hair), A Wife for Knowledge (hair), He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle (hair), The Hotcâgara Contest the Giants (hair of Giantess), A Man and His Three Dogs (wolf hair), The Red Feather (plumage), The Man who was Blessed by the Sun (body of Sun), Red Bear, Eagle Clan Origin Myth (eagle), The Shell Anklets Origin Myth (Waterspirit armpits), The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty (Waterspirits), The Roaster (body paint), The Man who Defied Disease Giver (red spot on forehead), The Wild Rose (rose), The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth (warclub), Îtcorúcika and His Brothers (ax & packing strap), The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head (edges of flint knives), The Mulberry Picker (leggings), The Seduction of Redhorn's Son (cloth), Yûgiwi (blanket).

Notes:

[1] Paul Radin, Winnebago Hero Cycles: A Study in Aboriginal Literature (Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1948) 93-98.

[2] Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian: Being a Series of Volumes Picturing and Describing the Indians of the United States, and Alaska, ed. by Frederick Webb Hodge. 20 vv. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1907-1930) 3.26; The Sixth Grandfather, Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984) 311 nt 6.

[3] Aileen O'Bryan, Navaho Indian Myths (New York: Dover Publications, 1993 [1956]) 84. These stories were collected by the author in 1928 from Old Man Buffalo Grass.

[4] "Flint Visits the Rabbit," in James Mooney, History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (Asheville, North Carolina: Bright Mountain Books, 1992 [1891/1900]) Story 25, pp. 274-275.

[5] Deward E. Walker, jr., in collaboration with Daniel N. Matthews, Nez Perce Coyote Tales: the Myth Cycle (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998) 19-21.

[6] Dorothy Moulding Brown, Manabush: Menomini Tales, Wisconsin Folklore Booklets (Madison: 1948) 3.