There a village was. There was their chief. His children were in two bands. One had two children, one had ten, one had two, but all the others disliked the brother who lived alone, and he knew it.

Once the lone man disappeared, so they picked up and moved the village to another place. However, the little ones became hungry, so Kaghiga ("Crow") said to the children, "What was left [on the meat racks at the old village] must have some sinews left on it -- I will go and see. Let us go, we will be on the way together." These arrived there. On the meat racks plenty of bear entrails were stretched here and there. "Hoho, old man," he said, "what a good thing this is! There's nothing better than these bear entrails." Thus Lone Man ate entrails. They arrived. Lone Man's sister was there as well. "Waho! It is not without expectations that we come to see you, as the village is so famished that we were barely able to get here. What you are doing is a very good thing." She replied, "Grandfathers, my brother has come back to life. We are doing a good thing." She boiled food for them, and it became warm in their stomachs. The crow (kaghi) vomited, he vomited up chunks of bear entrails. "Grandfather, you said you were hungry, but you are vomiting up bear entrails. How is it that you are doing such a thing?" "Hoho," he replied, "in the past I had forbidden it, but as we have arrived, never mind. This I said to him, but when I arrived here he stole it. He always does this." "Hoho, grandfather," she replied, "it is still good, come and eat." She gave them food, and then Lone Man returned. "Hoho, grandfather, you have come back! You have come back. It is good, it is good!" "Grandson, in this country that we live in, there are many animals." The other replied, "We are going home, for we have children." He said, "Take this for them," and gave them dried meat and bear fat.

They finally arrived back. Kunu heard them since they were making the noise of crying. "Hoho, grandfather, when will they eat something of consequence?" In this way were they talking when he (Kunu) came walking towards them. They gave them one nociri (which grows on tree bark) apiece. "Grandson, not eating nociri is why they say it." "Yes," he replied. Then they came [to the other band?]. "Grandfather, they have come. Eat, grandfather." Then they went home taking bear fat with them. They arrived home and fed the children again. Kunu came and in this way they were speaking, "Grandfather, let us eat something of consequence," thus they were saying. He (Kunu) went in and took away the food that they were eating and the crow got angry. "Thus you always do when I try to feed the children," he said. "Lone Man has come back to life. The village where we came from has plenty, so we are going back there," thus Kunu spoke. "I also, grandfather; we're all going back. Crier, go there calling, go and tell them Lone Man has come back to life, therefore, he has plenty." "Therefore, he has plenty," they say. "Where we have come from, animals are in abundance, so let us go back there," said Kunu, "so hurry up and get ready." Then they went back there, they say.

They arrived here. Lone Man said, "You did well to come home," he said. He did not give a thought to what they had done to him. Now the village had become a good place to live in, just as it used to be and the village lived well again. They blessed Lone Man, and so this village was good; so they made Lone Man its chief; so good a chief did they have, they say, that the village never passed through such travails a second time. They say that because Lone Man had fasted, the village lived well.

The End. [1]

Commentary. The basic plot is that one of the brothers lived alone because he was holy. The others did not like him for being stand-offish. He disappeared to fast on behalf of the village, and since was given up for dead, they moved away from the village. He, Lone Man, then returned to live with a sister in the abandoned village. He had been blessed by the spirits, so they prospered. When the eldest brother, Kunu or Kaghiga, went back to the village looking for scraps, he found the sister living there in prosperity. Then Lone Man turned up, and gave them bear fat to take home with them. It is clear from the story that these people are actually crows and ravens (kaghi). After Kunu feeds the people back home and stops them from eating worthless food, he returns with the whole village. They make Lone Man chief, and the village prospers ever after.

They are spoken of as living in two bands, because there are two kinds of kaghi, common kaghi, which we call "crows," and shrieking kaghi, which we call "ravens." [2]

Links: Kaghi, Bird Spirits.

Stories: mentioning kaghi (crows & ravens): Bear Clan Origin Myth (vv. 2, 3), The Hotcâk Arrival Myth, The Spider's Eyes, The Old Man and the Giants, Turtle's Warparty, The Shaggy Man, Trickster's Tail, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, Ocean Duck; about Bird Spirits: Crane and His Brothers, The King Bird, Bird Origin Myth, Bird Clan Origin Myth, Wears White Feathers on His Head, Old Man and White Feathers, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, The Thunderbird, Owl Goes Hunting, The Boy Who Became a Robin, Partridge's Older Brother, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, The Foolish Hunter, Ocean Duck, Earthmaker Sends Rucewe to the Twins, The Quail Hunter, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Hotcâk Arrival Myth, Trickster Gets Pregnant, Trickster and the Geese, Holy One and His Brother (kaghi, woodpeckers, hawks), Porcupine and His Brothers (Ocean Sucker), Turtle's Warparty (Thunderbirds, eagles, kaghi, pelicans, sparrows), The Old Man and the Giants (kaghi, bluebirds), The Bungling Host (snipe, woodpecker), The Red Feather, Trickster, the Wolf, the Turtle, and the Meadow Lark, Warughápara, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Black and White Moons, The Markings on the Moon, The Creation Council, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, Earthmaker Blesses Wagícega (Wecgícega), Hare Acquires His Arrows, Keramanic'aka's Blessing (black hawk, owl), Worúxega (eagle), The Arrows of the Medicine Rite Men (eagle), The Gift of Shooting (eagle), Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth, Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, The Hotcâk Migration Myth, Blue Jay, The Baldness of the Buzzard, The Abduction and Rescue of Trickster (buzzards), The Shaggy Man (kaghi), The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth (kaghi), Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers (Loon), Great Walker's Medicine (loon), Roaster (woodsplitter), The Spirit of Gambling, The Big Stone (a partridge), Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks, The Fleetfooted Man, The Journey to Spiritland (v. 4) -- see also Thunderbirds; mentioning bear entrails: The Shaggy Man, Grandfather's Two Families, The Brown Squirrel.

Themes:

someone is rejected by at least one member of his family: Sun and the Big Eater, The Big Eater, The King Bird, Grandfather's Two Families, Moiety Origin Myth; although a group of brothers moves their village, abandoning one of their number for dead, a loyal sister remains behind until the missing brothers returns: The Shaggy Man; starvation: The Brown Squirrel, White Wolf, The Red Man, The Old Man and His Four Dogs, A Man and His Three Dogs, Sun and the Big Eater, Bird Clan Origin Myth, The Shaggy Man, The Bungling Host, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head; kaghi (crows, ravens) are starving, so one of them goes looking for sinews left on the meat racks of the old village: The Shaggy Man; kaghi (crows, ravens) find their favorite food, bear entrails: The Shaggy Man.

Notes:

[1] Paul Radin, "Kaghíga," Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society Library) #18, pp. 1-9.

[2] Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 309.