The Two Boys
Hocąk Syllabic Text with an English Interlinear Translation
(247) There was an oval lodge where a married couple lived. He was the sort of man who killed many things. (248) And from among the various spirits they came to live as humans. At no time did they suffer from weakness. The various spirits were to show the humans how they were to be. And in time the woman became pregnant. (249) The man was delighted. He was mighty happy that a child was going to be born to him. And finally, when she was about to give birth to the child, she had pains. And therefore the man himself took care of her. Finally, she gave birth. (250) So the man took the child and attended to it. Before long, he also made a cradle, and taking it, he placed it in position, and thus he did. He himself placed it there. Then the woman said, "I am not like anything. There is still one inside me," she said. (251) And as she tried to give birth, the woman died. The man did not know what to do with it. He came and sat there, and the child moved about in her abdomen. And he pitied him, but what could he do? He couldn't do anything there. (252) Unexpectedly, again he heard crying. It cried from within the womb. "Hohó, hagagasgéžąxjį, what am I going to do about this?" he thought. And his woman was dead. "Inasmuch as the woman is dead, it would be alright if I took the child out alive," he thought. (253) And he did this. He took his knife and cut her abdomen open. He took out the child. Just as he took it out, the child stopped breathing. "Hohó, why did I do this, if he wasn't even going to live?" he thought. Then he did this. (254) He wrapped it up in a little deerskin blanket, and then at the very head of the waters, at its edge, stood a stump, and it was hollow at its base, and he put the little on in there. He buried Nįkjąknįkaga (Child) and his own wife.
And he took care of this little one, the child who was not dead. (255) He tried to make him live. He tried to raise him. He put up a bladder containing deer brains, and he would suck on it. Finally, after awhile, he got so he would like it a little. Finally, he now longed for fresh meat. He had lived on nothing but dried venison, always, therefore he would pack him on his back and try to hunt, but it would not do. (256) Nevertheless, still sometimes when he felt like going about, he would do it that way. He would pack his child, and go hunting. Finally, now he could walk fast, and he was able to learn how to talk some. Then he did this. He forbade him to play around with the fire, and when he left, he would do as he said. (257) He would not fool around with the fire. Thus he would do. Then he did this. Once he was good at shooting arrows, he made arrows for him. Then he made a bow for him. Then he did this. With a fat deer tail he did this. Then he cooked it, and hung that up on the side poles, (258) so that he could reach it. Then he said to him, "If you get hungry, here you can still eat," he said to him. Sure enough, that's what he would do.
Then finally, he eventually went out to hunt. After he strongly forbade him to play with the fire, (259) but yet after he went out hunting, unexpectedly, one said as he was singing,
Flesh, you alone, you have only a father,
and you alone only eat flesh;
Huré, hurá,
Ha-a, ha-a,
he said. Also Flesh said to him singing, saying as well,
You only have a timbermouse for a grandmother,
and you only eat ground beans;
Huré, huré,
Ha-a, ha-a,
he said. (260) Then the one standing outside shouted over, "Flesh, is your father there?" he asked. Then he shouted back, "He went hunting some time ago," he said to him. "Come here. Koté, let's play," he said to him. He came over. They played all day long there. The arrows that he had, they made go through the top of the lodge, (261) and they ran out and would pick them up. Then in the evening they would do it again, making the arrows go through the top of the lodge. The visitor did this. He thoroughly gathered up the arrows and started to run. He chased him, but he got away from him. (261+) He got to the top of the bank and said, "Forget it!" he said, and jumped into the water. He dove in and disappeared into the water, and did not come up again.
He was crying, but thus it was. By the time that he had gotten back to the lodge, his father had returned. And when he looked, unexpectedly, he had been crying, and he knew that he had been doing it. (262) And he said to him, "Why does my son cry?" he said. "Someone must have come. If you had been alone, you would not be like this," he said. He said this because the house messed up. "Father, no one has come, but I've lost my arrows, that's why I was crying," he said. (263) "Ha, why do you say that? They are of no consequence. I will make some more," he said to him. Then he made him more arrows.
Again in the morning, after he left to hunt, again right away, he had already come there singing. He said,
Flesh, you alone, you have only a father,
and you alone eat only flesh;
Huré, huré,
Ha-a, ha-a!
he came saying. (264) Also he said this back to him,
You only have a little timbermouse for a grandmother,
and you only eat ground beans;
Huré, huré,
A-a, ha-a,
he said. Then again the one outside said, "Flesh, is your father there?" he shouted over. (265) "No one is here. He left to hunt some time ago," he said. "Come on over and we'll play now," he said. He came over. Unexpectedly, he showed up without any arrows. "Koté, why did you come without the arrows?" he said to him. "Koté, I lost them," he said. Once more they played there all day long. (266) Again in the evening, as they made the arrows go through the top of the lodge, he ran outside very quickly, and he gathered up the arrows, and again he ran away. He cried and chased him, but he jumped up on top of the banks, and disappeared back into the water. "Forget it," he said as he did so. He was crying again, and came home.
(267) When he got back there, his father had just returned. Unexpectedly, the lodge was thrown into great disorder. The bedding was turned upside down. "You did not do this alone, my son, I believe that it is unlikely that you did it. You never did this when you were alone, (268) and I think that you are not likely to have been crying for nothing. Also this — you have cried again," he said to him. "Father, the reason why I was crying is that I have lost all my own arrows," he said. "Why is it that you are crying? I will make you some," he said. He made some more arrows for him.
(269) Then in the morning, there was yet again one who had already come there singing. Also, he said back to him the same things that he had sung before. When he got there, again they played all day. And in the evening, when they were through doing their arrows, he ran off. He had gathered up the arrows and ran off, and there he lay in wait while he chased after him. (270) But, however, he jumped on top of the bank, and said, "Forget it!" and after having dove in, disappearing into the water, again thus he came home. He was crying, and right away again he came back to his father. And again he did much. All the bedding in the lodge was turned upside down. (271) He was crying again, and he did this. And then again he said to him, "My son, I truly believe that someone is coming to you," he said. And the deer tail had been bitten into, and when he examined it, one of the front teeth was broad, and one of them was narrow. (272) And he said, "Hįhá, I told you that someone has been doing this with you. Take a look at this. Someone has broad teeth. Take a bite beside them," he said to him. He took a bite there and his teeth were narrow. "Hąhą́, yes, thus it is. I told you so," he said. (273) But even then he would not tell. He made more arrows.
And in the morning he went hunting again. Right away, he had already come there singing.
Flesh, you have a father,
and you alone eat only flesh;
Huré, huré,
Ha-a, ha-a!
he came saying. (274) Also he said it back to him,
You only have a timbermouse for a grandmother,
and you only eat ground beans;
Huré, hurá,
Ha-a, ha-a!
"Koté Flesh, is your father there?" he said. "There's no one here, he went out hunting some time ago." "Koté, come on over. Now we can play," he said to him. When he arrived, again they played there all day. (275) In the evening, they made the arrows go through the top of the lodge. And again he ran out, and gathered up the arrows, and started to run. He cried and chased after him. He got to the top of the bank and said, "Forget it," he said, and dove in, disappearing into the water. Then he cried and went home. (276) No sooner had he gotten home, than his father returned. And again he took notice of things, and unexpectedly, there appeared next to the ashes, a footprint, and it was of a small foot. "Hįhá my son, it must be that you yourself did not make this," he said to him. (277) Then he knew he had been coming. When he came there, he would always forget it. At the end, when he would go in, he had said, "Forget it," and that is the reason why he had come to forget it. Then he said, "Father, I had always forgotten it. Ever since you first went hunting, then he started out, the one who came. (278) A boy came, one like me. He came singing, saying,
Flesh, you alone, you have only a father,
and you alone only eat flesh;
Huré, huré,
A, a,
he said. He had come and said this, he told him. Then he said, "Hohó my son, it is your younger brother. (279) Tomorrow he must be captured. And in the morning, when I go hunting, I will go and stand over the hill. I will make myself into a burned black stump, and when you catch him, shout, and I will run home," he said. (280) Then the boy said, "Father, I'm afraid of him. His front teeth are broad and sharp. He told me that he will use these and cut me up," he said. "He does not speak the truth. He only says this because you are afraid of him. He will not harm you," he said.
(281) And in the morning, he went hunting. And he went over the hill and stood. He made himself into a blackened stump, and then right away he came, singing. And he said, "Keté Flesh, today we're not going to play. (282) Your father went over the hill, made himself into a blackened stump, and there he stands. And he also said that you would capture me." "Koté, anyhow, the reason that I said that was that I was fooling," he said, but he did not come. Again in the morning, he made himself stand as a tree, and there he stood, but again he knew of it. (283) Again the next morning, he laid at the woodpile. He had made himself into fire wood, but again he saw him. Again for a third time he made himself into a fire log. He laid within the lodge, but again he knew of him. The fourth time he was the fire railings, but again he knew of it. (284) The fifth time he said, "My son, I'm going to go straight on. You must catch him. Don't be afraid of him," he said. In the morning, he went hunting. And right away, he came there singing.
Flesh, you alone have a father,
(285) and you eat only flesh;
Huré, huré,
Ha-a, ha-a!
he came saying. Also he said this back to him,
You only have a little timbermouse for a grandmother,
and you only eat ground beans;
Huré, huré,
Ha-a, ha-a,
he said. "Koté Flesh, if I go there, (286) you were going to capture me, and your father was going to run home, he said. Therefore, I am not coming over," he said. "Koté, the reason I said that is that I was just kidding around with him. I won't catch you." In any case, after he had said this, he came over. "Koté, if you catch me, I'll use my beaver incisors and will rake them over you good," he said. (287) "Koté, I won't do anything to you," he said. He came over. Right away, they began to play again. Then he turned around, and very adroitly he grabbed hold of his waist. He shouted, "Father, run home! (288) I have caught my younger brother," he said. Then he tried very hard to bite him, but he could never reach him. Then he came running, and he did this: he tied him up.
Then he made them a sweat bath and made them both take it. Then he did this. When they were done sponging off, he gave them the same set of clothes. Then he did this. (289) He gave each one of them an elk bladder to wear on his head. He made them red, and then he stayed with them for four days. He watched them. He made them both arrows, and he kept the arrows with him in the lodge. And once he had been accustomed to the place, only then did he go off hunting.
(290) Then in the evening, he gathered up the arrows again, and he started to run, and once more he cried and chased after him. Then he got to the edge of the bank, and as he went to disappear into the water, when he did so, he floated back up. The bladder thing that he had placed on his head had caused it. He could not dive under while he had it on. (291) So he came out again. "Koté Flesh, I've just been kidding around with you. It's time to stop crying," he said. "Now let's go home. About now your father is due to return," he said. Just when they got back to the lodge, he did return. Unexpectedly, there was their father. (292) He had been wondering how they had been getting along. "Hohó my sons, it is good," he said. Unexpectedly, his younger son lay there soaking wet. Everything was clammy wet. He asked him, "How is it that you are wet?" he said to him. "Flesh chased me, and I fell into the water. I dove in the water," he said. (293) He laughed at him. Thus it was. So from that time on, he did not try to go away from there.
So there he got accustomed to them, and this one would tell them not to play outside. Finally, they were sent outside by him. (294) And there was a hill there, and they went about going in that direction. When he got back, he said to them, "My sons, you have been going out very far. Don't do that, as there are a lot of bad animals. Don't go far away," he said. "Hą," they said. (295) Then again in the morning, he went hunting. Again they started out to play, going to the second hill. Again in the evening, when he was coming home, he rushed it. Once he had gotten home, he again forbade them, as he had come across their footprints there. "You must not do that," he said. "A," they said. (296) Again in the morning he went hunting. Right away again, they had already gone off to play. They kept on until they reached the third hill. Again in the evening, as he was coming home, there he came upon their tracks. Once he returned, he forbade them. Again they agreed. (297) And when he went out to hunt for the fourth time, this time they went over to the fourth hill. When he came back, he again forbade them. Then they kept on going, until they had gone farther and farther some distance away. In the end, the man thought that he had gone hunting far enough away, yet unexpectedly, he had come across where they had gone in the morning. (298) They kept on going until, finally, in the mornings, he went very fast, and he had thought that he was quite far away, but he would always come to where they had gone. By morning they had gone farther and farther, going over the whole earth. (299) The heart of the man, their father, had become quite troubled because they were mischievous, and very much so. Finally, he knew that they were going about the whole earth. And finally he said to them, "My sons, there is not a spot on the whole world that you have not gone over. The earth has not always been something good. (300) Bad spirits, having been missed, remain here and there. Therefore, I forbid you to wander around. And in a southward direction is a big lake. At this round lake it is not good for animals to try the water. (301) It is bad. You must never go to this place," he said.
Then he started off to hunt. Then the little ghost (wanąǧi-nįk-nąka) said, "Hąhó Flesh, didn't your father himself tell us of how there was this large lake and that we were to go to it? Why not do it now?" he said. (302) "Koté, didn't he forbid us?" he said. "Koté, didn't he tell us that it would be very good to go?" he said. He had said that he had forbidden it, but finally he persuaded him. "Hąhó, well, we shall go," he said. They left. Then finally they arrived. And it was, unexpectedly, a very big lake. (303) It was the round lake that he had mentioned. Then they said, "Koté, let's take a bath!" They bathed there. And there were a great many leeches. Whenever they went into the water, their bodies would become covered with leeches. "Koté Flesh, this is fun!" he said. Then they would come out and sing for one another, (304) and as they danced, the leeches would fall back to the ground with a slapping sound. They thought it was fun. Thus they began to do, and they [the leeches] became bigger and bigger. Finally, they had become as big as they were. He would be covered over by just one of them. There Flesh was choked. (305) Then here a great big one turned into a sphere. The little ghost said this: "Koté, what are you doing? What you're doing is so much fun," he said. There he brought him back to life. He stood him up on the shore. The lake became filled with them. One of them came back, and this leech got a hold of him and would begin to cover him up. (306) There he did much. Even when he did thus, they would then begin to penetrate right through his body. Finally, they killed it. They began to slit it up and to cut it into strips. "Koté, it's a soft-shelled turtle. These they say are always delicious. Let's pack a piece home. (307) Such things are delicious. It is mighty fat," they said. Then they each packed a piece, and they went home.
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| Soft-Shelled Turtle | Leech | |
| John Skate | Karl Ragnar Gjertsen |
When they got home there, there was a large kettle, and they took it and used it to boil. They cooked as much as it would contain, then they ate it. (308) "Korá, hagáwažą, they have always said that when soft-shelled turtles are fat, they are delicious, and so they are" they said. They ate it all up. What was left of it there, they put on again. Again they cooked it. And the kettle was thick with grease. It had been very fat. (309) Again they ate a piece, and saved the rest for their father. And when he returned, they said, "Father, we killed a soft-shelled turtle. It was fat. It was delicious. Therefore, we saved you a piece," they said. Unexpectedly, they had meant leeches. What he had forbidden them to do, that's what they meant. (310) "Korá, it's a bad thing — you must have polluted my kettle. Go pour it out and wash the kettle," he said. So they took it and went out. They carried it out together and ate from it as they went. "Korá, it is delicious, but I wonder why your father said that? (311) Perhaps he does not like soft-shelled turtles," he said. They went out into the water and poured it out, and there they thoroughly washed the kettle, and brought it back. 
Then they told their father what they had done, and laughing a lot as they did it. "It was fun," they said. They went on in. Thus they did.
(312) While he was still there, at another time, this one said, "No matter what I say to you, you don't listen, but I say it because I believe that you should not do it. Towards the east is a high hill. This is bad. No weak animals can go by there. (313) And if you go near there, don't ever stop," he said. "Hą," they said. Then he went out hunting, and right away, "Hąhó Flesh, your father told us to go somewhere. Let's go there now," he said. "Koté, niži, he forbade it," he said. "Koté, again it's alright, so let's go now. (314) He meant for us to go there," he said. Finally, he persuaded him. They left. They arrived there. When they arrived at the hill that he had mentioned, there were a multitude of snakes. However, nevertheless, they then climbed it. They became bigger and bigger. And there they were chased around. (315) "Koté, this is going to be fun," they said. Then finally, they would make themselves coil around their bodies. They did very much. They killed a great many of them. Finally, they had gotten very large. Finally, Flesh had become so coiled over that he was choked to death. (316) Again he said, "Koté Flesh, this is what you did the first time. You are doing it again. Why are you doing this? This, just when it was such a pleasure," he said, and took him by the arm and stood him up. Then again they packed one big one apiece, and they went home. 
Once they were cooked, they did a lot of eating. (317) "Koté, this is the kind that they used to call hokagi [garfish]. They have always said that when they are fat, they are delicious." "Like they say, they really are delicious. Let's heat some up for father," said Flesh. And again they put it there. Once they had cooked the food, (318) again they ate a piece, and when they were done, the rest they saved for their father. And when he got back, again right away they said to him, "Father, the garfish that you used to speak of, that's the kind we've killed. They are mighty fat. They're really delicious. We saved a piece for you, and this is it," they told him. (319) Unexpectedly, married snakes came up, and he said to them, "Korá, hagagasgeižą, you've gone and done it! Go pour them out. These, they say, are called 'snakes'. They are not called 'garfish'. Go pour them out. They are holy. Also pour these out, and give them tobacco." (320) Again, as they both took hold of the kettle and carried it together, they still nibbled at this and that as they were going along. And when they got to the water, they also failed to pour out the tobacco there. There they filled the kettle of water and brought it back.
Then again, after awhile, they did not do it every day. Yet, after some time had passed, he would mention it again, (321) and he would say it in order to make them keep them away from there, but instead, they would go there anyway. And again this one said, "My sons, never — don't ever — go towards the north. There are many bad things. This is why I have forbidden you to do certain things. (322) This one I'm also mentioning, here there is a round valley, there is not a single things that can get through it," he said. "Hą," they said. Then when he went hunting, again right away, "Hąhó Flesh, your father wants us to go someplace. Let's head out now," he said. "Koté, he forbade us," he said, but he persuaded him. They left. (323) Finally, they reached the round valley. Unexpectedly, in the middle of it was a thing. It was immense. It seemed to be a little hill. They went there. As soon as they entered the valley, it made flames reach clear through them. The one in the midst had done this. "Hąhó," they said. (324) Even then, however, they went towards this. Then he would often make the fire come to them. It would draw them in. It was trying to draw them in. Finally, they reached him. Unexpectedly, it was a giant toad. When they got there, they killed it. It had a breath of fire. (325) Its tongue was also very long. He would use it to try to draw them in. They they killed him, and packed him home. When they got home, they boiled it. "Koté, father used to say that when raccoons are fat, they are always delicious. He killed a fat raccoon," they said. They boiled it. (326) Once they had it cooked, they did a lot of coon eating. They ate at least a kettle of it up. There again they also ate a piece. "Raccoons are really delicious," they were saying. "Raccoon is really fat, so let's save a piece for our father. I suppose now, in any case, he will not eat it," they said. (327) Again they raised the kettle higher. The grease in the pot was thick. Then he returned. "Father, you always said, when raccoons are very fat they are always delicious. We killed a very fat one. It was very delicious," they said to him, and they placed the boiled food before him. (328) "Korá, you have done a bad thing. The kettle has been polluted. Go pour it out and wash the kettle," he said. Again they carried the kettle together, and they took it out, and as they went on, they ate as they went. They still poured it out, and also then again, they kept some and did a lot of eating. (329) When they were done, they poured out what was left. They poured it into the water. Then they washed the kettle out, and filled it with water, and brought it back.
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| Dmitry Azovtsev |
And the man said, "My sons, things should not be this way. I have been rather selfish with you. (330) This is because certain things should be avoided, but instead things should not be this way. Some of these bad things were powerful. If at some time you should get hold of these sorts of things, they will harm you," he said. Then for a fourth time, after some time had passed, he again spoke of it. After a long lapse of time, he went and as there it had been a long time, he said it again. (331) He would say this because there was not a place on earth that they did not leave unvisited, but that they did not instead run there. Again he said, "My sons, towards the setting sun is a round hill. You must never go there. I forbid you to do this, is why I am saying this. Do not do it. You must not. In this, listen to me," he kept saying. He went hunting. "Hąhó Flesh, we must hurry. Your father it seems said a lot. He told us, saying, 'Go over there'," he said. "Koté, he forbade us. Koté, we should listen to our father as a favor to him," he said. "Koté, I do mean that we should listen to your father. (333) It is you who are trying to disobey him. You should stop it. Let's go now. He said that he meant for us to go to a certain place," he said. There he finally persuaded him, so they left. They arrived where he meant. When they got to it, just before they reached there, a black animal leapt at them. "Ho, it's going to be fun," they said. (334) Right off it would advance to take them. They were doing a lot. By the force of its mouth, there again Flesh was killed. He was torn to pieces. Once more he said to him, "Koté, what are you doing there? You are always doing this. It is going to be lots of fun. You are constantly doing this," he said, and then he threw one of his limbs and there he ran on. (335) There they killed it. It was a pitch black grizzly. It was huge. Its tail was bobbed. Again they packed it, and came home. When they got home, again they boiled it. It was a bear. "From the fur, our father can make himself a robe," they said. They skinned it, and boiled its flesh. (336) There was a lot of fat. "Korá, when bears are fat, they are mighty good," they would say. "It would be good if we cooked it right away. I am very anxious for it," said the ghost. Well, finally, once it was cooked, they did a lot of eating. Again, they put a piece of what was left back in. And once again they also ate a piece of that. (337) And again they left a piece of what remained for their father. Then when he arrived, "Father, bears are very delicious, you used to say. We killed a bear. We boiled a piece for you. We said, 'He can also make himself robes out of the skin.' And we saved it for you," they said, and passed it on. (338) "This is the fur," they said. "Korá, hagagasgeižąxjį, this is what is called a 'grizzly'. It is holy. Go pour it out. And also do the same, with tobacco, for the fur. Place the pipe before it, and give it tobacco." Again they carried the pot together, and taking it out, they nibbled here and there as they walked along. (339) And they poured it into the water. But they didn't also pour the tobacco into the water. They returned from there. From then on they never ate anything else. They would kill bad things, and those were the only things that they ate.
(340) The man was afraid of his sons. "Perhaps they were turning into something, and in the process they might harm me," he thought. He would run away, he thought. And in the morning, when he got ready, he put a wooden fire starter that he had into his quiver. Then he went hunting. (341) He went towards the south. All day long he kept running. He was fleeing, but they knew that he was running away. "Koté, niži, Flesh, I think your father must have done something. He is afraid of us. He is running away. Koté, let's do something to him," he said. It was the little ghost who said it. (342) They started by marking the trees. They went some distance out, and they went and marked the ground, marking it there so that it connected to one of the fire logs. Thus they did, and when it was night, they slept. When they woke up, unexpectedly, there was their father sound asleep with his head resting on one of the fire logs. They laughed at him. (343) Flesh said, "Koté, our father, koté, he is doing something funny, look!" he said. Unexpectedly, they woke him up. He said, "Hagagasgéžą, my sons, last night I came back ... I was fixing the fire ... I was sleepy ... I am very sick ... I woke up. Thus, I slept," he said. (344) All day long he had run hard, and at night, he had rested his head on a log there, and had fallen asleep, but he had told them this. Yet again he did it. He did it one day very early. Again they knew about it. They did it to him again. They marked it so that it reached the door post. (345) All day long he ran hard. Now then, when night overtook him, at where a tree stood, he sat where they had marked it there, and fell asleep. In the morning, they woke him up again. Unexpectedly, at the door post by the lodge pole, he sat sleeping. (346) "Hagagasgé, my sons, last night I came back ... I was tired ... I was also sleepy. I thought I laid down in bed. Hagagasgé, here I must have done this too," he said, and laughed at himself. Then yet again he did it. Sometime later, they made them there. They marked it so that it reached the woodpile. (347) They woke him up again where he was sitting. The fourth time he reclined with his head in the ashes. Again they woke him up. He said, "My sons, I was lying in bed, but I must have had a nightmare," he said.
Then he said to him, that is, Flesh said, "Father why are you doing this? (348) We know all about it. That is why we have been doing this to you. We are the ones who were doing this to you. You go off to far away places, yet you are back here in the mornings. Why are you afraid of us? We would not do anything to harm you. We did not do this to any of the good things. We did it to all the bad things. (349) If you are tired of us, and if you want to go and if you are able to leave us, towards the east there is a village. Go there. When you get there, there is a little oval lodge at the edge of the village, and you may enter there. And there you will be when they drop off wood. (350) The princesses will be the ones who are doing it. They will be packing wood for the old woman. And when they peep in there, they will see you. They will run back to their lodge. And one will come there. They will ask you what you are doing around. (351) Then just say, 'My sons told me to go here because we are all alone; and because they said that I should marry the princess. Therefore, I came here to do that.' If you ask them, they will thank you. She is our mother. She went there to live. (352) There she went to become alive again. You yourself were not like anything. She knows of it. She will recognize you," they said to him. "What time do you want to get there?" they asked him. "Well, my sons, it must be a long ways. (353) I've never heard of it. If they are there, I will arrive when it is still evening," he said. "If you are saying that you like to walk, it is just a short distance away," they said to him. And again they said to him, "Father, in four days we will come there. We will bring animals with us," they said.
(354) Then he started out. He was at it all day long. In the evening, he came to a village. There he suddenly arrived there at an oval lodge, and there he entered. Unexpectedly, there was an old woman there. He entered there, and just then at the woodpile, someone unloaded wood. (355) He peeped in and then disappeared again. After awhile, one of them came. "You must have come for something," they said. "I have come to make inquiries," he said. "The chief has sent me to ask you," he said. "Hąhą’ą, my sons sent me here because we are all alone. Because they said that I should marry the princess," he said. And then the messenger went home. (356) He went back and told the chief. He told him what they had said. "Hohó, it is good. Go tell him to come," he said. And he went there to call him. When he got there, he recognized her. There sat his wife. The woman was very much delighted because she had recognized her husband. (357) And in the night, she asked him, "How are the children?" she said. "They are big. And they themselves were the ones who told me to come. Four times I ran away, but I would wake up to find myself having always gone back there. It was not like anything. They have become great. To them, spirits do not exist." (358) Then he told her all that they had done. How in the beginning, when she had died, he had cut her abdomen open, he told her about, and he also told her about the one who had died. And he told her about what they had done once he had returned to get him accustomed to them, and everything else. Thus, the woman had become very anxious about it. (359) Then she said to him, "When will we go back there again?" He said, "They did not say anything about it. When they come here, they will tell us about it. In four days they will come here," he said.
And in time, when the four days had passed, they went there. There they went and stood at the end of the village. Finally, they said, "Two boys have arrived," they said. (360) When they were invited to come in, they went to take care of their mother. They were very happy. The woman was also delighted. Then she told her tale. "Once before, I was alive. In giving birth to these, there I died. And with their coming, I became alive again," she said. (361) They loved them very much there. Also their uncles passed them around and held them.
And finally they said, "Let's go hunting," they said. Then early in the morning they started out, and they returned driving a four-cornered herd of buffaloes. (362) And they said, "The leader is very white. That one they must not shoot. They must not shoot these buffalo yearlings either," they said. And the crier of the village went about spreading the message. "The sons of the princess have returned with a four-cornered heard of buffaloes. It is all right for all of you to shoot them. They say that those who are able to shoot arrows, may take back any buffaloes, (363) but the leader, a white buffalo, that one you must not shoot, they say. They also say that you must not shoot a single one of the buffalo calves," he said. "All right," they said. They did a lot of buffalo shooting there. The white buffalo and the buffalo calves were the sole survivors. (364) "Yet again, after we have gone away, sometime we will return. When your small stock of meat is exhausted, about that time, we will return," they said. They came away, and they thought it would be for just a short time, but they disappeared. Thus they had run away from there. (365) "Koté, some small evil things will play around in our lodge. Let's get back home," they said, and this they did. They returned there. During the daytime, in any case, they would be traveling somewhere.
Then finally, they said that they would go to their parents again. (366) "About now, let's go to our mother's," they said, and they left. They slept there at night. Again in the morning, they said, "Hawa!" They returned driving a four-cornered heard. Again the crier went out. "All those who are able to shoot arrows —inasmuch as the princesses’ sons have returned driving a four-cornered herd, (367) therefore they say that as many can be killed as can be carried, it is said," the crier said. They responded with cheering. There again they shot a lot of elks. They came into possession of plenty of elk. As before, they stayed awhile, then again they ran off. From that time on, they roamed the earth, and they began to kill all the bad things that existed. (368) They did it to all those things that killed human beings. Then again one day he said, "Koté Flesh, it's about time we went to our parents. By this time, they must have once more eaten up their food," he said. "Thus it will be," they said, so they went there. (369) They came there again, and their parents were not much like anything. Then they held them in their laps. So also did their uncles, and after them they were held in turn all around the lodge. And in the morning, again they went out to hunt. Again they went about gathering up black deer, and they were four cornered of this sort, (370) and these they returned driving. Again the criers told them, and they went about crying it, and all those who were able to shoot arrow were allowed to participate, and in the end they shot all of them. They did a lot of dressing there. (371) Thus they did there, and again they came away. Four times they did thus. The fourth time, it is said, they drove a great herd of deer. Then they said to their parents, "Hąhą́, father and mother, every once in awhile you will be able to see us. As we have been doing, will will not be doing things this way in the future. (372) We will be going about the earth," he said.
Then they went about the earth, and they still are doing it. The two traveling boys of whom they tell were the very last holy things that He made. They were of recent times. (373) Therefore, when they do their deeds, when they do them in places here and there, they can still be seen to this day. Their father is the fire. Their mother went to the village to live because she was going to treat that village on account of the fact that they were starving. She went because that village was on the verge of extinction. (374) She went there that they might live. When their father lived there, he took care of them. And also later on when he lived there, they lived well. The ones that were spoken of are the Twins. They were clever. These were a final creation, because it is said that the people were there at Te Xete (Lake Winnebago) when they were there, (375) and these were around, they say. So it was that someone had dreamt, and saw them there. Because he had dreamt about them, therefore they knew where they went about, their deeds having been seen. (376) This earth was the very last one, but it was even after its beginning that they were created. It was only recently that they did these things. They went after all the bad things that would cause fear in people. (377) And when this earth was new, they had Man Eaters (Giants) around. Grasshoppers were also gigantic and they too ate people. And furthermore, in the beginning, toads were also very large and killed people. They killed them. (378) The leeches in the beginning were also large, and they ate people as well as killing them. They also killed them. And moreover, the snakes were also enormous, and they ate people. They also did it to them. They were small, and they could not accomplish anything. (379) Since they did not make it their purpose to end them completely, they caused them to remain. All the things that originally bit human beings, once ate them. These are as they caused them to be, and now they are small, and there is nothing they can do, it is said.
It is ended, so far.1
Commentary. "they suffer from weakness" — this refers to the weakness suffered from starvation.
"Nįkjąknįkaga" — this word ends in -ga, a definite article which ordinarily indicates a personal name. In this case, it would mean "Child."
"the arrows that he had, they made go through the top of the lodge" — the Hocąk word for arrow is mą. This is also a homonym meaning "year, time." As we see below, the soul runs off with the time (arrows) belonging to flesh; but first they send these arrow-years through the roof of their lodge. The hole in the roof of the lodge is the smoke hole, so the Twins are shooting from where the fire begins in a path that arches over the lodge to someplace outside. Each shot, therefore, recalls the path of the sun, the "fire" that determines the measure of the year (mą = arrow) through the arching path it inscribes each day. The word for day, hąp, also means "light." Thus, when a person's days (time = arrow) are used up, he has lost his "light." Thus, "light" also is a synonym for "life."
"he thoroughly gathered up the arrows and started to run" — this episode seems to represent the fact that the ghost-soul determines the "arrows" (mą = years) of the flesh, then takes off with the time allocated to corporeal life. The flesh then weeps for its lost time (life).
"forget it!" — the memory of life resides with the ghost, not the flesh. The ancient Greeks thought that the souls traveled over the Waters of Forgetfulness where they were washed clean of their memories. Inversely, the Hocągara believed that a supernatural being, Spirit Woman, cupped out of the ghosts all its desires for the life of the flesh. This may explain why Ghost is the one who departs. However, in the cycle of rebirth, the ghost-soul comes back to the flesh again, but it is very difficult for persons in the flesh to remember their past lives. Their father creates for them a new set of "arrows" (years of life) through conception, which brings the two together again.
"my beaver incisors" — this presents an interesting puzzle for which I do not yet have an answer: Why does the ghost have wide teeth, described as "beaver front teeth"? Beavers use their teeth to chew on wood and to fell trees, thereby making stumps. Ghost has connections to stumps, hence his allonym.
"then he came running, and he did this: he tied him up" — the two boys are said to be the sons of the Sun, although at the end of this story their father is said to be Fire, perhaps a more general concept embracing the sun. In many of the world's religions the sun is believed to play a role in reproduction. When a soul is joined to the flesh in conception, the sun is somehow a mediating force in the union. He is the father of both soul (Ghost) and flesh. This parentage may be reflected in the father's role in helping Flesh catch his brother Little Ghost. This is the act of conception, the act of flesh capturing its soul.
"sponging off" — this translates so ltt = rupą́c, cf. Helmbrecht-Lehmann, rup’ą́c, "to squeeze something spongy." This would be a modernism, as in the old days shells were used to scrape the sweat off.
"elk bladder" — elsewhere it is a turkey bladder, and in another story it is an animal's placenta. The elk and the turkey may have lunar affinities in common. The reason for the bladders being painted red, however, is obscure. The word translated "elk" is unique: hųwéǧa, the ordinary word for this animal being hųwą. Cf. Hų́wesa, the word used to designate the Moose Subclan.
"hokagi" — this is the garfish. Radin leaves it untranslated. Apart from the eel, which is known in Hocąk as the "snakefish," the gar has the most serpentine of bodies among fish known to the Hocągara.
"married snakes" — the Hocąk is untranslated, but is transliterated in a footnote by Radin, who says, "wak‘aⁿ kík‘onûñk — snakes that break themselves [apart] and join together again." The Hocąk for snake is waką́; the word kíkonok (or kíkąnąk) means "married." This kind of snake is obviously mythological, although they have not been met with elsewhere.
"holy" — the Hocąk is wakącą́k, from waką and cąk, the latter meaning, "paradigmatic, great(er)." Wakącą́k is "greatly waką." The word waką still exists in Lakota, where it also means, "holy, sacred," at least superficially. Waką more properly refers to divinity as a power that subsists in all things, and which, under the right conditions, can be tapped into for personal advantage. In Central Siouan languages other than the Dakotan branch, waką also denotes snakes, since serpents are a manifestation of this underlying divinity. This is primarily because serpents shed their skins, and therefore are born again. To say in Hocąk that something is "paradigmatically waką" is homonymously to saying that it is "paradigmatically serpent-like."
"powerful" — here the Hocąk word is again wakącą́k. This shows that some bad things are "holy," thereby establishing that the stem waką is ethically neutral.
"limbs" — here the limb symbolizes ambulation which is conceived as the essence of animation. Reanimation occurs in other stories when someone is thrown to the side of a road, so the translation says what the text does not, that he was thrown "to the side." The immediate effect was that he reappeared alive, and "ran on" — this latter expressed by nąnąk, a intensifying reduplication of nąk, "to run."
"a pitch black grizzly (mąco sepjįžą)" — the suffix -(x)jį usually functions as an intensifier. When added to sep, "black," it yields, "intensely black." The word mąco denotes precisely the grizzly bear, which is not black. Therefore, its being black indicates that it is a wonder, and therefore wakącą́k or "holy."
"there was their father sound asleep with his head resting on one of the fire logs" — when the sun travels during the day it goes a long way, but when it goes to sleep at night, it will awake the next morning almost exactly where it started from. The sun, as a species of fire, is always resting on wood. In the final scene, he comes to rest over the ashes of the fireplace, an identification of the sun with the fire of his lodge.
"..." — these phrases lack the usual narrative flow particles and the usual epistemic sentence terminators, all of which is designed to create the slightly incoherent speech of someone who has been awakened from a deep sleep.
"you yourself were not like anything" — a Hocąk idiom meaning that his situation was nearly out of control. It was translated as, "you are giving out too soon," with the parenthetical addition of, "getting dissatisfied too soon." In other contexts the expression can mean "beyond compare."
"an old woman" — the father, who is the sun, has moved to his lodge in the east, the place where the sun rises. However, the east is where the moon goes when it has reached its maximum age. Therefore, the sun's wife, who is the moon, is an aged woman.
"a short time, but they disappeared" — this could be explained on the assumption that the Twins are the matutine and vespertine Mercury. When Earth and Mercury are on opposite sides of the sun, which is to say, when Mercury and Sun are in conjunction, the two Mercuries seem to disappear. Their absence in the sky has led to the theory that during this period they are roaming over the whole earth. In time, however, they return to the lodge of the father (the sun) and mother (the moon). They also roam the earth during the day, a time in which they also seem to disappear.
"as many" — this style is unusual, in that it contains three shortened words, suggesting that the crier adopted a laconic style of announcement: "... hirawás hakirirege, ge janą ...". hirawás is short for hirawáhas ("to drive"); ge is short for ésge ("therefore, so"); janą is short for janąga, "as much as, all."
"black deer" — Hocąk ca-sép denotes the moose.
"their father is the fire" (Égi hiąc hirera pecjane e hereže.2)— this would almost have to be elliptic for something like "the celestial fire." Otherwise, it is inconsistent with what this same raconteur has said in both "The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head," and "The Lost Blanket," where the father is the sun.
"the very last one" — this could not refer to the earth as a whole, but rather the "middle earth" over which Hare reigns. There are two heavens above it, and one below it, each ruled over by one of the sons of Earthmaker.
Comparative Material. For further comparative material to this myth, see also The Birth of the Twins, The Twins Disobey Their Father.
The Omaha have a long version of this story. It does not contain the birth episode, but "[In another version] the twin boys remain with their father, but one soon apparently dies, and the father wraps him in a buffalo robe and hides his body in a hollow tree. But the child is not really dead and survives because the mice bring him wild beans to eat. Meanwhile, the father feeds the child who remains with him on soup." The story resumes with these events assumed. Little Wild One stood on a hill above a lone teepee and whistled, but no one responded. Then he sang:
I have no father, so I live on wild beans;
I live on wild beans;
You have a father, so you live on soup;
You live on soup.
Then Forget came out of his teepee. The two boys were almost the same size, but looked identical otherwise. "Is your father at home?" asked Little Wild One. "No, he's out hunting," replied Forget. So the two boys spent the day playing. Later Forget asked his friend about the world beyond the teepee, since he was never allowed to go beyond. Little Wild One spent the day telling him about the wonders of the bird world. Then suddenly, he jumped up, tapped his friend on the head, and said, "Forget!" Then he ran away. Just then Forget's father appeared. He noticed that the teepee was in disarray, so he asked his son about it, but the boy could not remember a thing. The next day, after the father went out to hunt, again Little Wild One appeared, singing his song. He would not come down, however, until he was absolutely certain that his friend's father had gone. They sat down and ate while Little Wild One told Forget all about the four footed creatures of the earth. Suddenly he jumped up and took off running, but this time he forgot to tap his friend on the head and erase his memories. Just then the father returned from hunting.3
The following is a Crow parallel to the whole story of the Twins, although its beginning is more similar to that of The Birth of the Twins. A man lived alone in a teepee with his pregnant wife. One day while he was hunting, Red Woman came to the teepee and murdered his wife. She cut the woman open and found twins inside. One she threw behind a curtain, the other she threw into a stream. Red Woman burnt off the upper lip of the wife so that she looked as though she were smiling. When the husband discovered her he knew that Red Woman had committed the murder. One night the man was eating when he heard a voice asking for food. When the man said, "All right," a small child appeared from behind the curtain. He said that he was called "Thrown Behind the Curtain." One day the boy asked his father if he could make him two bows and a set of arrows. He explained that he wanted two bows so that he could alternate them. The father did as his son had asked, but had doubts about the reasons that had been given. So the next day he spied on his son and found that he was shooting arrows along with another boy. When he returned, the father asked his son if he had not been playing with another boy. The son freely admitted that he had. The father suggested that his son catch this boy so that he could live with them. "If I were to catch him I would need a suit of rawhide," he said, "since the other boy has sharp teeth like an otter." The next day, the father hid inside the teepee. When the other boy showed up, Thrown Behind the Curtain said, "My father is out hunting. Let's play with our bows." But the other boy was suspicious and it took some effort for Thrown Behind the Curtain to persuade him. During their play, Thrown Behind the Curtain grabbed the other boy, who turned to bite him, only to sink his teeth harmlessly into the rawhide suit of his brother. The father rushed up, but the spring flooded over to help the captured boy, so they dragged him up to high ground while the father put incense under his nose. This made him human and he was thereafter able to live with them. One day the two boys went to their mother's grave to wake her up. They said things that would alarm her until she finally sat up fully conscious. Their father forbade the Twins to go to a certain place where lived an old woman with a pot. All she had to do is tilt the pot towards something and it would be drawn in and boiled for her meal. The boys approached her while she slept. They woke her up and asked why she had the pot; then they tilted it towards her and she herself was drowned and boiled. The next day their father said, "This time I really want you to obey me. There's a hill nearby. I don't want you to go over it." Just the same, the boys went over the hill where they found a monster very much like an alligator. This monster sucked in air until he drew them inside himself. There they found many other people. They asked the monster what the thing beating in his side was, and he said, "It is the thing in which I lay my plans." So they took a knife and cut it up. This killed the monster. They cut a hole in its side and escaped, but not before they cut a piece of heart to take home to their father. The next day they went to another prohibited place where trees suddenly struck the ground whenever someone walked under them. The Twins rushed them, then suddenly stopped. The trees slammed down to the ground, but missed the boys, who then proceeded to stomp on the trees until they broke all the branches. Their father told them not to go near a teepee on a certain hill, since it was inhabited by snakes who entered people's rectums when they fell asleep. The boys went there anyway. The snakes tried to lull them to sleep, but the boys turned the tables and succeeded in causing all the serpents but one to fall asleep. This serpent, however, attempted to enter their rectums, but they had brought along flat stones with which to cover this vulnerability. They killed all the other snakes, but the one who tried to violate them they took and rubbed its head against the side of a hill. That is why snakes today have flat heads. The next day their father warned them about a man who lived by a steep embankment over a body of water. There, in the water, his father lived. This man would push people over the edge so that his father could eat them. The Twins visited this place wearing grass headdresses. When the man rushed them, they flattened suddenly on the ground, and he flew over them grasping only their headdresses. When he landed in the water, his own father ate him. After that, their father warned them about a man who wore moccasins that could set anything they touched afire. So the boys also visited this man. While he was sleeping, they stole his moccasins, then ran around him, setting the brush on fire and burning him up. Their father still feared that something would happen to them because they had had so many encounters with bad spirits. One day while walking along, they were seized by a Thunderbird who took them atop a mountain surrounded by a lake. The Thunderbirds said to them, "I would like you to kill something for me. There in the lake is an otter of great length. He kills all my offspring before they can grow up." They boys began preparations which included heating up large rocks. The otter came up to them despite the fact that they showered arrows on him. When it opened up its mouth to swallow them, they slammed the red hot stones down its throat, and the otter curled up and died. The Thunderbird picked them up and returned them back home where they lived for a long time.4
In the following Saginaw story, we find significant overlap with the Hocąk, although the beginning of the tale is quite different. A man and his wife lived alone with their young son. One day when the man was out hunting, a Giant (Weendigo) appeared before the lodge. The woman did everything she could to placate him. She offered him food, but his preference was for a raw deer carcass. When the husband returned with another deer, the Giant ate that raw too. In this way the Giant lived with them for some time, rarely ever speaking to them, but doing them no physical harm. One day the Giant announced that he was going to resume traveling about the world, but before he left, he was going to give the man a gift. This consisted of two arrows whose virtue it was that they never failed to kill a moose at which they were aimed. The Giant left, and the man found that he could make a good living hunting moose. One day while he was out hunting, his wife observed what appeared to be a large black cloud coming towards her. This turned out not to be a cloud at all, but another Giant. She hoped to placate this one as she had the last, but he seized her and ripped out her entrails, eating them raw. By the time the hunter returned, he found his son weeping and the gruesome remains of his wife. He collected up her remains and placed them in the hollow of a tree. One day, while his father was out hunting, his son shot arrows out through the top of the lodge, but when he went out to get them, he couldn't find any of them. So he shot another one and immediately rushed out of the lodge to see what would happen to it. There, to his surprise, was a handsome young boy with his arrow in hand. The younger boy ran away and jumped into the hollow of a tree. The older boy persuaded him to come out and play, so the two of them took turns shooting arrows. When the boy's father was near, the younger boy made him promise not to tell him of anything. When the boy met his father at the lodge, he asked him to make him another bow, pretending that he wanted a back up just in case. The next day, the other boy came over to play. The two of them roughhoused through the lodge until the place was covered with ashes. When the father returned, he was surprised to see the ashes scattered about, but his son persuaded him that he alone had played in a wild fashion. The next day the two boys made an even worse mess of the lodge, and the father on his way out had heard two boys playing. The next time, when the father returned, he observed smaller footprints in the ashes. Finally, the boy confessed that he had been playing with a younger boy who lived in the hollow of the tree where his mother's remains had been placed. Then the father knew that this boy had arisen from his dead wife. The father and son hatched a plot to capture this boy. The next day the father hid himself. The boys met and the elder suggested that they set fire to a particular tree and kill the flying squirrels that lived in it. The other boy was reticent, saying that he believed that the elder boy's father was nearby. But in time the older boy persuaded him. So they set fire to the tree, and while they were killing the squirrels, the father rushed up and grabbed the younger boy. The boy yelled, "Don't! You'll tear my clothes!" His clothes seemed to have been made of a fine, transparent skin. After a long time, the father and his son were able to domesticate the younger boy, who thereafter lived with them. As time went on, the boys always remained just as they were. Their father had always warned them not to go to a certain lake, where, he said, there were particularly dangerous birds. Just the same, they went there anyway. When they arrived, they saw steep cliffs at the edge of the lake, cliffs that reached to the top of the sky. The younger boy suggested that they climb to the top, so they did. Once there they found a large nest with two giant nestlings in it. When they stuck a stick near their eyes, they would blink and in a flash, the stick was completely shattered. They grabbed the two young birds and dragged them off to their lodge. They showed them off to their father and declared that they would raise them as pets. The father decided that he had better warn them about another lake, this one inhabited by Mishegenabigoes (a kind of Waterspirit). Nevertheless, the boys headed out for this lake. When they got there, a voice ordered them to get away. They asked, "Who is it that speaks to us?" and the voice answered back, "I am Mishegenabig. Who dares to disobey me?" The younger brother had the older sing some words of powerful medicine, while at the same time, he waded into the water. Soon pieces of the monster's liver floated up. The little brother grabbed the monster by his horns and they dragged him home to be a pet. Their father now rejoiced to himself that his sons were so powerful. One day he announced that he would end his days on earth and go west to join his ancestors. The boys said that they would give the two birds to him as company. Before he left, the boys fed the Mishegenabig to the birds. Then the father left with thunder and lightning, inasmuch as the two birds were Thunders. He went to dwell in the north, and became that Thunder which is heard going from north to south.5
Links: The Twins, Gottschall, Ghosts, Tree Spirits, Leeches, Mice, Frogs, Snakes, Bear Spirits, Giants, Lake Winnebago.
Stories: mentioning the Twins: The Twins Cycle, The Man with Two Heads, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Children of the Sun, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Two Brothers, The Lost Blanket; about two brothers: The Two Children, The Twin Sisters, The Captive Boys, The Twins Cycle, The Two Brothers, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Children of the Sun, The Lost Blanket, The Man with Two Heads, Bluehorn's Nephews, Snowshoe Strings, Sunset Point, The Old Man and the Giants, The Brown Squirrel, Esau was an Indian; mentioning mice: The War among the Animals, Trickster Takes Little Fox for a Ride, Fable of the Mouse, Waruǧábᵉra, Hare Kills Wildcat, Ocean Duck, The Lost Blanket; mentioning snakes: The First Snakes, The Woman who Married a Snake, Blessing of the Yellow Snake Chief, Snake Clan Origins, The Omahas who turned into Snakes, A Snake Song Origin Myth, The Serpents of Trempealeau, The Story of the Medicine Rite, Rattlesnake Ledge, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Twins Disobey Their Father, Wears White Feather on His Head, Creation of the World (vv. 2, 3, 4), The Magical Powers of Lincoln's Grandfather, Lakes of the Wazija Origin Myth, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, Waruǧábᵉra, The Green Man, Holy One and His Brother, The Man who was Blessed by the Sun, The Warbundle of the Eight Generations, Turtle and the Merchant, The Lost Blanket, A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga, The Shell Anklets Origin Myth; mentioning frogs: The Stone that Became a Frog, Hare and the Dangerous Frog, The Woman Who Became an Ant, Snowshoe Strings, Turtle's Warparty, Porcupine and His Brothers, Young Rogue's Magic; mentioning (spirit) bears (other than were-bears): White Bear, Blue Bear, Black Bear, Red Bear, Bear Clan Origin Myth, The Shaggy Man, Bear Offers Himself as Food, Hare Visits His Grandfather Bear, Grandmother Packs the Bear Meat, The Spotted Grizzly Man, Hare Establishes Bear Hunting, The Woman Who Fought the Bear, Brass and Red Bear Boy, Redhorn's Sons, The Meteor Spirit and the Origin of Wampum, The Wolf Clan Origin Myth, Hocąk Clans Origin Myth, The Messengers of Hare, Bird Clan Origin Myth, The Hocąk Migration Myth, Red Man, Hare Recruits Game Animals for Humans, Lifting Up the Bear Heads, Hare Secures the Creation Lodge, Creation of the World (v. 5), Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, The Brown Squirrel, Snowshoe Strings, Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, East Enters the Medicine Lodge, Lake Winnebago Origin Myth, The Spider's Eyes, Little Priest's Game, Little Priest, How He went out as a Soldier, Morning Star and His Friend (v. 2), How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Trickster's Tail, Old Man and Wears White Feather, The Warbundle Maker, cf. Fourth Universe; mentioning grizzly bears: Blue Bear, Brass and Red Bear Boy, The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, The Were-Grizzly, The Spotted Grizzly Man, The Meteor Spirit and the Origin of Wampum, The Roaster, Wazųka, Little Priest's Game, The Story of How Little Priest went out as a Soldier, Mijistéga’s Powwow Magic and How He Won the Trader's Store, Migistega's Magic, The Woman who Loved her Half-Brother, Partridge's Older Brother, The Chief of the Heroka, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, The Dipper (white grizzly), Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts, The Creation of Man (v. 9), The Creation of Evil, cp. The Woman Who Fought the Bear; mentioning grasshoppers: The Green Man, Hare and the Grasshoppers, The Dipper, How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Thunderbird; mentioning bladders: Bladder, Bladder and His Brothers, Adventures of Redhorn's Sons (elk), The Birth of the Twins (turkey); mentioning teeth: The Animal who would Eat Men, Hare Recruits Game Animals for Humans, Hare and the Dangerous Frog, The Girl who Refused a Blessing from the Wood Spirits, The Birth of the Twins, The Twins Disobey Their Father, Wears White Feather on His Head, The Dipper, Wolves and Humans, The Commandments of Earthmaker, The Children of the Sun, The Green Man, Holy One and His Brother, Partridge's Older Brother, The Brown Squirrel, Hare Secures the Creation Lodge of the Medicine Rite, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, East Shakes the Messenger, Lifting Up the Bear Heads, White Wolf, Buffalo Clan Origin Myth; in which leeches occur: The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Seduction of Redhorn's Son, The Stench-Earth Medicine Origin Myth, The Two Brothers (blood-suckers); involving tree stumps: The Twins Cycle, The Two Brothers, The Creation of the World (v. 15), The Pointing Man, The Were-fish, The Spirit of Maple Bluff, Lake Wąkšikhomįgra (Mendota): the Origin of Its Name; mentioning sweat lodges or sweat baths: The Twins Get into Hot Water, The Lost Blanket, The Green Man, Bladder and His Brothers (v. 1), Hare Establishes Bear Hunting, Hare Recruits Game Animals for Humans, The Thunderbird, Snowshoe Strings, Waruǧábᵉra, The Red Man, The Chief of the Heroka, The Birth of the Twins (v. 2), Lifting Up the Bear Heads, The King Bird, Little Human Head, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, White Wolf, The Shaggy Man, Soft Shelled Turtle Gets Married, The Dipper, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth (v. 2); set at Lake Winnebago (Te Xete): Lake Winnebago Origin Myth, The First Fox and Sauk War, White Thunder's Warpath, Traveler and the Thunderbird War (v. 2), The Great Fish, The Wild Rose, Great Walker's Warpath, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, The Fox-Hocąk War, Holy Song, First Contact (v. 2), Lakes of the Wazija Origin Myth, The Two Children (?); mentioning springs: Trail Spring, Vita Spring, Merrill Springs, Big Spring and White Clay Spring, The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, Bear Clan Origin Myth, vv. 6, 8, Bird Clan Origin Myth, The Woman Who Fought the Bear, Bluehorn's Nephews, Blue Mounds, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, The Lost Child, Old Man and Wears White Feather, The Wild Rose, The Omahas who turned into Snakes, The Two Brothers, Snowshoe Strings, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Nannyberry Picker, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, Rich Man, Boy, and Horse, Waruǧábᵉra, Wazųka, The Man Who Fell from the Sky, Turtle and the Witches.
Versions of this story are found in The Two Brothers, and in the first three stories of the Twins Cycle (The Birth of the Twins, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Twins Visit Their Father's Village).
Themes: multiple births: The Birth of the Twins, The Twin Sisters, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Man with Two Heads, The Children of the Sun, The Lost Blanket, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Two Brothers; the youngest offspring is superior: The Mission of the Five Sons of Earthmaker, Young Man Gambles Often, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Twins Cycle, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Children of the Sun, The Creation of the World (v. 12), The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Įcorúšika and His Brothers, The Raccoon Coat, Wojijé, How the Thunders Met the Nights, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, Sun and the Big Eater, The Story of the Medicine Rite, Buffalo Clan Origin Myth, Bear Clan Origin Myth (vv. 4, 7), Snake Clan Origins, South Enters the Medicine Lodge, Snake Clan Origins, Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth; children are given deer tails to eat: The Redman, The Chief of the Heroka, Waruǧábᵉra, The Birth of the Twins; someone returns from the dead: Ghost Dance Origin Myth II, The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, Sunset Point, Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts, White Fisher, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, The Shaggy Man, The Two Brothers, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, White Wolf, A Miraculously Cured Man Finds the Prophet, The Red Man, The Chief of the Heroka, The Man Whose Wife was Captured, Waruǧábᵉra, The Lost Blanket, The Old Man and the Giants; hypnotic commands issued at a distance: The Birth of the Twins, The Adventures of Redhorn's Sons, Brave Man; someone dives into a body of water and disappears into its depths: The Red Feather, The Birth of the Twins, The Two Brothers, The Woman who Married a Snake, The Shaggy Man; a spirit-being comes from a stump or hollow log: The Spirit of Maple Bluff, Lake Wąkšikhomįgra (Mendota): the Origin of Its Name, The Were-fish, The Birth of the Twins, The Dipper; being unable to hide, despite a great effort: The Children of the Sun, The Birth of the Twins, Holy One and His Brother, The Man Whose Wife was Captured (v. 2); red as a symbolic color: The Journey to Spiritland (hill, willows, reeds, smoke, stones, haze), The Gottschall Head (mouth), The Chief of the Heroka (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 Feather on His Head (man), The Birth of the Twins (turkey 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), Wazųka (buffalo head headdress), The Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth (horn), The Brown Squirrel (protruding horn), Bear Clan Origin Myth (funerary paint), Hawk 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 Contests the Giants (hair), Redhorn's Sons (hair), The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle (hair), A Wife for Knowledge (hair), Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle (hair), The Hocągara 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), The Man Whose Wife was Captured (v. 2) (body of the Warrior Clan Chief), 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), Įcorúšika and His Brothers (ax & packing strap), Hare Kills Flint (flint), The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head (edges of flint knives), The Nannyberry Picker (leggings), The Seduction of Redhorn's Son (cloth), Yųgiwi (blanket); the Twins disobey the commands of someone with fatherly authority over them: The Twins Get into Hot Water, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Lost Blanket, The Two Brothers; a knowledgeable person tells someone not to go to a certain place because of the danger, but that person goes there anyway: The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Fox-Hocąk War, The Twins Get into Hot Water, The Two Brothers, The Lost Blanket, Bladder and His Brothers, The Thunderbird, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle; powerful spirits refer to strong animals by names denoting smaller and weaker animals: How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, Waruǧábᵉra, The Thunderbird, The Lost Blanket, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, Earthmaker Sends Rušewe to the Twins, Redhorn's Sons (cf. the inverse theme, Buffalo Spirits calling grass "bears" in, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle); traveling over the whole earth: Deer Clan Origin Myth, The Pointing Man, Trickster and the Dancers, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Necessity for Death, Death Enters the World, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Twins Get into Hot Water, The Twins Cycle, The Two Boys, The Lost Blanket, Bluehorn's Nephews; powerful spirits eat snakes (even though they are sacred): The Twins Disobey Their Father, How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Dipper; flame throwing monsters: The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth; bringing someone back to life by picking them up and putting them on their feet: The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Shaggy Man; a (grand)father abandons his family: The Father of the Twins Attempts to Flee, Sun and the Big Eater, The Big Eater, Grandfather's Two Families, The Birth of the Twins, The Two Brothers, Trickster Visits His Family; to escape a dangerous person, someone runs into the wilderness: The Father of the Twins Attempts to Flee, Bluehorn's Nephews, Brass and Red Bear Boy, Bluehorn Rescues His Sister; someone runs away at full speed, but despite running for some time, he finds himself only a short distance from where he started: Redhorn's Father, The Father of the Twins Attempts to Flee; (three or) four young women, one of whom is a princess, encounter a suitor while they are bringing wood to an old woman's lodge: Redhorn's Father, Morning Star and His Friend, Trickster Soils the Princess, The Nannyberry Picker, The Father of the Twins Attempts to Flee; marriage to a yųgiwi (princess): The Nannyberry Picker, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Big Stone, Partridge's Older Brother, Redhorn's Sons, The Seduction of Redhorn's Son, The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, River Child and the Waterspirit of Devil's Lake, The Roaster, Soft Shelled Turtle Gets Married, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, White Wolf, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, The Shaggy Man, The Thunderbird, The Red Feather, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, The Birth of the Twins (v. 3), Trickster Visits His Family, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, Redhorn's Father, Old Man and Wears White Feather, Morning Star and His Friend, Thunderbird and White Horse, Rich Man, Boy, and Horse, Shakes the Earth, The Nightspirits Bless Ciwoit’éhiga; something is of a (symbolic) pure white color: White Bear, Deer Spirits, The Journey to Spiritland (v. 4), White Flower, Big Eagle Cave Mystery, The Fleetfooted Man, Thunderbird and White Horse, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, Worúxega, The Lost Blanket (white spirits), Skunk Origin Myth, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, White Wolf, A Man and His Three Dogs, The Messengers of Hare, The Brown Squirrel, The Man Who Fell from the Sky, Bladder and His Brothers, White Thunder's Warpath, The Shell Anklets Origin Myth, The Dipper, Great Walker's Medicine (v. 2), Creation of the World (v. 12), Hare Secures the Creation Lodge, The Descent of the Drum, Tobacco Origin Myth (v. 5), The Diving Contest, Otter Comes to the Medicine Rite, The Arrows of the Medicine Rite Men, The Animal Spirit Aids of the Medicine Rite, Grandmother's Gifts, Four Steps of the Cougar, The Completion Song Origin, North Shakes His Gourd, Lifting Up the Bear Heads, Thunder Cloud is Blessed, Peace of Mind Regained; hunters kill an entire herd of animals: Redhorn's Father, The Roaster, The Twins Visit Their Father's Village, Old Man and Wears White Feather, The Nannyberry Picker, Snowshoe Strings, Morning Star and His Friend; animals that are not now carnivorous, in primordial times sought to eat human flesh: Hare and the Dangerous Frog, The Animal who would Eat Men, The War among the Animals; a small animal was once dangerous, but was rendered innocuous in primordial times: The Green Man (cricket), Hare and the Dangerous Frog, The War among the Animals (mouse).
Songs. Bladder, Song about the Older Brother (v. 2), Bladder, Song about the Older Brother (v. 3), Buffalo Dance Songs, Clan Songs, Bear Clan, Clan Songs, Bear Clan, Song for Returning, Clan Songs, Bear Clan, Song for Starting Out, Clan Song, Bear Clan, Song of the Youngest, Clan Songs, Buffalo Clan, Clan Songs, Buffalo Clan, The Four Songs of Hojanoka, Clan Songs—Deer Clan, Clan Songs—Wolf Clan, Clan Songs—Wonáǧire Wąkšik Clan, The Crawfish's Song, Duck Song, Farewell Songs, The Four Services Songs, Grandfather Sparrow's Rain Songs, Grizzly Bear Songs, Hare's Song to Grasshopper, Hare's Song to the Wągepanįgera, Hare's Song to Wildcat, Hawk's Song, Heroka Songs, Holy Song, Holy Song II, Little Fox's Death Song, Little Fox's Death Song (for the Warpath), Little Fox's Tail Song, Love Song I (female), Love Song II (female), Love Song III (female), The Mouse Song, Nightspirit Songs, The Quail's Song, Redman's Song, Slow Song of the Heroka, Soldier Dance Songs, Song for Calling the Buffalo, Song from the Water, Song from the Water (King Bird), The Song of Bluehorn's Sister, Hocąk Text — The Song of Sun Caught in a Net, The Song of the Boy Transformed into a Robin, Song of the Frog to Hare, Song of the Thunder Nestlings, The Song of Trickster's Baby, Song to Earthmaker, The Song to the Elephant, The Sun's Song to Hare, Three Warrior Songs, Turtle's Call for a Warparty (v. 1), Turtle's Call for a Warparty (v. 2), Turtle's Four Death Dance Songs, Twins, Ghost's Song (v. 1), Twins, Ghost's Song (v. 2), Twins, Ghost's Song (The Two Brothers), Twins, the Songs of Ghost and Flesh, Twins, Song of the Father-in-Law, Victory Song, Wailing Song, Warrior Song about Mącosepka, What a Turtle Sang in His Sleep, Wolf-Teasing Song of the Deer Spirits. Songs in the McKern collection: Waking Songs (27, 55, 56, 57, 58) War Song: The Black Grizzly (312), War Song: Dream Song (312), War Song: White Cloud (313), James’ Horse (313), Little Priest Songs (309), Little Priest's Song (316), Chipmunk Game Song (73), Patriotic Songs from World War I (105, 106, 175), Grave Site Song: "Coming Down the Path" (45), Songs of the Stick Ceremony (53).
Notes
1 "The Epic of the Twins, Part Three," in Paul Radin, The Evolution of an American Indian Prose Epic. A Study in Comparative Literature, Part I (Basil: Ethnographical Museum, Basil Switzerland, 1954) 58-74. The original text is in Paul Radin, "The Two Boys" (Hocįcįnįk Nųpiwi), Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Winnebago V, # 2: 247-379, English translation, 71-108.
2 Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks, Winnebago V, 2 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) Winnebago V, # 2: 123 (syllabic text).
3 Francis La Flesche, Ke-ma-ha: The Omaha Stories of Francis La Flesche (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995) 75-90.
4 "Lodge-Boy and Throw-Away," in The Storytelling Stone: Traditional Native American Myths and Tales, ed. Susan Feldmann (New York: Dell Publishing, 1965) 179-183. Originally in Tales of the North American Indians, ed. Stith Thompson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929).
5 "The Weendigoes," in Henry R. Schoolcraft, Schoolcraft's Indian Legends, ed. Mentor L. Williams (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1991 [1956]) 169-174.
