Hog's Adventures

narrated by Charlie Houghton

translated by Oliver LaMère


Hocąk-English Interlinear Text


(121) There a farmer who owned a hog was living. He would give him food three times a day. By now he had become very fat. Once there again at the house a certain cow tried to take one cob of that corn. The hog said, "Don't do it." "Hoho my friend, I wish to tell you something is why I came." (122) "My friend, what are you going to tell me? My friend, they do this for me because they love me." "That's what you think. They are doing this for you to kill you. They are trying to fatten you up. They will eat you. In the morning around noon, here they will kill you." And [he said], "My friend, help me, I will run away."

And so the cow broke the fence down. (123) With great effort the hog got out. And now he walked off. "Éx éx! Kará! there a creek he got to. He drank a lot of water. He swam until he got to the other side. "Koté! I am fleeing — don't tell on me." There he got to, and a turkey was there. (124) "My younger brother, may I live here?" "Ho!" And so there they built a house. A log cabin is the kind of house that they made for themselves. Now in the morning he looked for food for himself. Kará! the turkey always looked around on the alert. "My younger brother, I am not afraid of anything. Earthmaker made my way of killing alone great," he said. (125) He coughed. Turkey said, "U-į, u-į. My older brother, run! Wolf is coming!" And so Hog ran. Wolf said, "Hog, Earthmaker made great what I kill with also. We will do it." When Hog did not stand in the barn, he bit off a piece of him. "It is done." "Ho!" He ran inside. He closed the door, (126) and they quarrelled with one another. Now Wolf slept. Hog now opened the door. He bit him in the throat. "Ho! we will do it." They did very much. Wolf got loose. And then Hog said, "My younger brother, I'm done for." (127) And so Turkey kicked his ribs inside out. They killed Wolf.

Turkey said, "My older brother, I'll allow you the hide for a rug, the body I'll boil for you." Hog said, "Ho!" Now he boiled the body. The hide he made into a rug to lie on, and [he said], "Yes, my younger brother, make an oval drum, (128) and go send a feast messenger, just anyone who happen to see, that one you will ask." Now a man was coming to go there. One was coming, and so he sat down. When he arrived — werakírakuni! — he began to greet him. Hog invited him to the Medicine Dance. Then he also asked him to be the messenger. Now at night he sang. He sang four times that night, (129) and they had a Medicine Dance.

When they got there, he together with his younger brother, women were gambling there. Both Turkey and he himself won. He won all the beaded necklaces and all the ear-bobs. When he returned, Hog wore all the ear-bobs. Turkey also put all the necklaces around his neck and — werakírakuni! — (130) the women got jealous of Hog. So they pulled on hog's ears until they split. There was much blood. "Yes my younger brother, that's all, let's go home. This house, this one that I go towards, they do not want me to live, that is why they are doing it to me. (131) Earthmaker created for me just one body," he said, they say. And so that was it, they went home, they say. There, it is ended.1


Hocąk-English Interlinear Text


Commentary. "éx éx" — this represents the sound that hogs make.

"u-į, u-į" — this represents the sound that turkeys make.

"greet" — the Hocąk is wakúruhįc, the stem of which (ruhįc) denotes a ritual greeting. In a footnote at the bottom of page 129, Radin says of this, "When going to a doctor the Indians always showed their respect by placing tob[acco] in his hand and in his hair and gently rubbing it [in]." For other stories that deal with ruhįc, see below.

"the Medicine Dance" — the central feature of a rite restricted to the initiated and designed to secure the longevity and rebirth expressed in the concept of Life-and-Light (Hąp).


Links: Turkeys, Wolf & Dog Spirits, Earthmaker.


Stories: about turkeys: Earthmaker Sends Rušewe to the Twins, Bluehorn's Nephews, Hog's Adventures, Black and White Moons, The Birth of the Twins, The Annihilation of the Hocągara I, Old Man and Wears White Feather, The Story of the Medicine Rite; relating to dogs or wolves: The Gray Wolf Origin Myth, A Man and His Three Dogs, White Wolf, Wolves and Humans, The Wolf Clan Origin Myth, The Old Man and His Four Dogs, Worúxega, The Dogs of the Chief's Son, The Dog that became a Panther, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Wild Rose, The Man Whose Wife was Captured, The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, The Canine Warrior, The Dog Who Saved His Master, The Raccoon Coat, Wojijé, The Big Eater, Why Dogs Sniff One Another, The Healing Blessing, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Trickster Loses His Meal, Sun and the Big Eater, Redhorn's Sons, Trickster, the Wolf, the Turtle, and the Meadow Lark, Holy One and His Brother, The Messengers of Hare, Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts, Grandmother's Gifts, The Hocąk Migration Myth, Bladder and His Brothers, The Stench-Earth Medicine Origin Myth, The Old Man and the Giants, Rich Man, Boy, and Horse, Kunu's Warpath, Morning Star and His Friend, Black Otter's Warpath, Chief Wave and the Big Drunk; Peace of Mind Regained (?); pertaining to the Medicine Rite: The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Journey to Spiritland, Battle of the Night Blessed Men and the Medicine Rite Men, Holy Song, Holy Song II, Maize Origin Myth, The Necessity for Death, Great Walker's Warpath; mentioning drums: The Descent of the Drum, The Friendship Drum Origin Myth, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Buffalo's Walk, The Spirit of Maple Bluff, Tobacco Origin Myth (v. 5), Young Man Gambles Often, Trickster and the Dancers, Redhorn's Father, Ghost Dance Origin Myth II, The Elk's Skull, Ghosts, The Four Slumbers Origin Myth, Great Walker's Medicine, Redhorn Contests the Giants, Buffalo Dance Origin Myth, Soft Shelled Turtle Gets Married, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Journey to Spiritland (v. 1b), Wolf Clan Origin Myth, Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks, Trickster and the Geese, Turtle's Warparty, Snowshoe Strings, Ocean Duck, Įcorúšika and His Brothers, A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga, Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts, Mijistéga’s Powwow Magic and How He Won the Trader's Store, The Stench-Earth Medicine Origin Myth; mentioning the ruhįc (ceremonial greeting): The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth (v.4), Tobacco Origin Myth (v. 5), The Sweetened Drink Song.


Themes: a house is made of logs: The Fatal House, Iron Staff and His Companions; jealousy: The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Diving Contest, Wazųka, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, The Fleetfooted Man, Bluehorn's Nephews, Redhorn's Sons, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Lost Blanket.


Notes

1 Charlie Houghton, Untitled, translated by Oliver LaMère, in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks, Freeman #3892 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) Winnebago III, #11a: 121-131 (52-62).