There were ten brothers who lived alone in a long lodge. All of them were good hunters, but each specialized in a particular animal. The eldest, Kunu, would always return home first packing a buffalo. The second youngest returned next with a moose. The third would follow bringing a bear, and the fourth brother with a black tailed deer in tow would be the forth one home. So each of the brothers would pack home a different animal and arrive in the order of his birth. The tenth brother would always arrive last, and he never had anything but a quail in hand. When they set out for the hunt, they would go some ways down a common trail, then they would split up and scatter in every direction. They would invariably return down this same trail.

One day Kunu came down the hunting trail and saw a woman standing by his lodge. He greeted her, saying, "Hâho sister! I see that you have come." He boiled the tongue from the buffalo he was packing and offered her some. "Don't eat all of it," he cautioned, "since I always save some for my brothers." Consequently, she only took a couple of bites and set the rest aside. When the second brother arrived with his moose, Kunu told him that his sister had arrived. So he too cut the tongue from his moose and boiled her up some to eat. Each of the brothers did the same except for the last, who refused to greet her or give her anything from his quail. This went on for some time until the second youngest brother finally asked him why he was acting like that. "Kunu has told us almost everything he knows," said the youngest, "but when has he ever mentioned that we have a sister? I don't think she is our sister at all." Thus he spoke to each brother, but they still held firmly that she must be their sister. Nevertheless, in time the doubt felt by the youngest spread even to Kunu.

One day as they were on their hunting path, they sat down together for a smoke. They began to wonder what the woman was up to if she was not their sister, so they agreed that they should send a spy back to check on her. They chose the youngest brother who then turned himself into a small bird and alighted on a tree near their lodge. The sister was outside talking to herself: "It will be easy to ambush them along their hunting trail, that way I can kill them one at a time. But I wonder about he youngest brother -- he might prove difficult." When he overheard these musings, he flew rapidly back to his brothers and told them of her murder plot. They decided to split up and rendezvous later where she was not likely to find them. When they did not show up as expected along their hunting trail, the woman raised her skirt to her knees and ran up the trail looking for them. She carried an elkhorn warclub. When she reached the end of the trail, she saw that they all headed out in different directions, so she picked one trail and tracked that. When the brothers arrived at their rendezvous point, she was not far behind. They decided at Kunu's suggestion to disguise themselves as buffalo. They joined a herd of buffalo and traveled with them to throw her off, but she just chased after the whole herd. After changing back into humans, they followed the second brother's suggestion that they transform themselves into moose and escape that way. Even this did not shake their pursuer. They changed nine times, each time into one of the animals that one of the brothers specialized in hunting. None of these attempts to escape worked, however.

Finally, they asked the youngest brother, "What can you do?" He answered by singing the quail's song:

Bobwhite, bobwhite!

No sooner had the sound escaped his mouth than all the brothers were suddenly transformed into quails. Even so, she continued to chase after them relentlessly until they were forced to take to the air. The heaviest brother, Kunu, was almost caught as he had to run longer to get off the ground. They all flew to a tree that jutted out from a promontory. She was even able to reach them there, and struck the tree so hard with her club that the brothers were almost knocked off their perch. The brothers frantically appealed to the youngest to do something, so he sang again,

Bobwhite, bobwhite;
Bobwhite, bobwhite!

Then, unexpectedly, a dark cloud suddenly formed in the west and rapidly spread over the sky. Soon the winds blew violently around them and rain began to fall in torrents. Then as quick as the blink of an eye, a bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky and ripped fatally through the woman's body. Thus the Thunders had come to their rescue, and the brothers were able to climb down from the tree. Kunu spoke to them all, and said, "We came to earth in human form to enjoy the food that they eat, but now let us put aside meat and eat only vegetation." So each changed into the animal that he had formerly hunted. The youngest therefore became a quail. It is said that quails run far before flying because Kunu took so long to get airborne when he was a quail. And because of the youngest brother's call to the Thunderbirds for help, whenever a quail sings "bobwhite" we know that it will soon rain. [1]

Commentary. It's a pity that we don't have the Hotcâk text for this story, as there are very good grounds for supposing that the bird is not the quail, but the greater prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), a kind of grouse. Range maps show that they once lived within the Hotcâk lands, where tall grass prairies were found. In Hotcâk these birds are called k'o. This very same word also means "thunder," creating the most intimate connection between these birds and thunder. It is no coincidence that they are associated in name with thunder: "During breeding season, the birds gather at a dancing ground called a lek, where males inflate yellow sacs near their throats, raise feathers on their heads like pointed ears, and send booming calls across the prairie." [2]

Links: Partridge (Quail) I, Thunderbirds, Lightning. See Glossay, sv. Quail.

Stories: featuring partridges (quails) as characters: The Big Stone, Black and White Moons, The Spirit of Gambling, Partridge's Older Brother; mentioning Thunderbirds: The Thunderbird, Warughápara, How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, Traveler and the Thunderbird War, The Boulders of Devil's Lake, Thunderbird and White Horse, Bluehorn's Nephews, How the Hills and Valleys were Formed (vv. 1, 2), The Man who was a Reincarnated Thunderbird, The Thunder Charm, The Lost Blanket, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, Story of the Thunder Names, The Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, Eagle Clan Origin Myth, Pigeon Clan Origins, Bird Clan Origin Myth, Adventures of Redhorn's Sons, Brave Man, Ocean Duck, Turtle's Warparty, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty, Redhorn's Sons, The Dipper, The Stone that Became a Frog, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Redhorn Contests the Giants, The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father, The Warbundle of the Eight Generations, Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Origin of the Hotcâk Chief, The Spirit of Gambling, Wolf Clan Origin Myth, Aratcgéga's Blessings, Kunu's Warpath, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, The Nightspirits Bless Tciwoit'éhiga, The Green Waterspirit of the Wisconsin Dells, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Big Stone, The Origins of the Milky Way; 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, 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), Kaghíga and Lone Man (kaghi), 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.

Themes: a large group of brothers (usually ten) live alone together: Sun and the Big Eater, The Big Eater, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers, Bladder and His Brothers, Wodjidjé, The Race for the Chief's Daughter; each member of a group of brothers specializes in the hunting of just one kind of game animal: Grandfather's Two Families, The Brown Squirrel; a group of brothers return from the hunt in the order of their birth: Sun and the Big Eater, Grandfather's Two Families, The Old Man and His Four Dogs; an evil spirit unexpectedly appears to humans and is believed by them to be one of their own relatives: The Big Stone; a woman abuses someone with whom she is living: Partridge's Older Brother, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, Snowshoe Strings, The Red Man, The Chief of the Herok'a, Bluehorn's Nephews, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, Bluehorn Rescues His Sister, Old Man and White Feathers, The Were-Grizzly; a group of brothers goes down a common hunting trail and split up when they reach the end: Warughápara; an evil woman goes on the rampage with an elkhorn club: The Green Man; people turn into birds: Warughápara (owl, Thunderbird), Worúxega (eagle), The Thunderbird (black hawk, hummingbird), The Dipper (black hawk, hummingbird), Keramanic'aka's Blessing (black hawk, owl), The Hotcâk Arrival Myth (ravens), The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara I (turkey), The Markings on the Moon (auk, curlew), The Fox-Hotcâk War (goose), The Fleetfooted Man (water fowl?), The Boy Who Became a Robin (robin); a small bird's call causes the Thunderbirds to come forth thundering: Turtle's Warparty.

Notes:

[1] Oliver LaMère and Harold B. Shinn, Winnebago Stories (New York, Chicago: Rand, McNally and Co., 1928) 65-74. Informant: Oliver LaMère (Bear Clan).

[2] From a Sierra Club website: http://www.sierraclub.org/lewisandclark/species/prairiechicken.asp