American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends)

by Richard Erdoes

  Again she led her women to the line of waiting men. Again Old Man stood first, stood at the head of them. But she passed him by, as though she did not see him, and he, with a little cry, ran after her, took her by the arm, and said: “You are the woman for me! I am the chief of the men. You must take me!”

  She turned upon him, and her eyes were like fire. She tore his hand from her arm and cried: “Never touch me again, good-for-nothing, proud-and-useless man. I would die before I would mate with you!”

  And to her women she said: “Do not, any of you, take him for your man.” And with that she turned and chose a man. The others, then, one by one, took their choice of the men. When all had chosen, there was one woman who had no man; all had been taken except Old Man. She would not have him, and became the second wife of one of the men.

  The choosing over, all started for the women’s camp. Old Man, now very sad-hearted, was following them, but the chief woman turned and motioned him off. “Go away. There is no food for you, no place for you in our camp,” she told him; and he went away, crying by himself.

  And that is what Old Man got for being so proud.

  NAPI RACES COYOTE FOR A MEAL

  {Blackfoot}

  Old Man Napi was up to his usual tricks again. He came to a place where Deer and Elk played the game follow the leader. Napi watched them for a while. He asked those animals: “Can I play?”

  The oldest, biggest Elk said: “Yes, you may.”

  Napi took the lead. He was singing: “Follow me, follow me!” He ran all over the place. The Elk and Deer ran after him. He led them to the edge of a high cliff called Buffalo Jump. Old Man Napi jumped over the edge. He fell all the way down. He fell hard. He was knocked unconscious. When he came to, he called to the Elk: “Jump over the edge also!”

  “No,” they said, “we won’t. We might get hurt.”

  “You won’t get hurt,” Napi yelled up to them. “The earth down here is very soft. I just took a little nap.” Then the Elk hurled themselves over the cliff and fell to their deaths.

  Napi called upon the Deer, shouting: “Jump, it’s your turn now.” “No, we won‘t,” said the Deer. “The Elk jumped and now they are dead.”

  “They are not dead,” called Napi. “They are resting. They are lazy. They are asleep. They are fine.” Then all the Deer jumped over the edge and fell to their deaths.

  There were some female Elk about to give birth. They told Napi: “In our condition it is not good for us to jump.” Then he let them off.

  There were also some female deer who were pregnant. They also told Napi: “With our bellies so big, jumping would be bad for us.” Napi told them not to jump. Had he not done so, there would be no Elk or Deer in the world.

  Old Man Napi said: “Now I will have a feast.” He cut up the bodies of the Deer and Elk who had fallen to their deaths. He hung up the meat to dry. Coyote smelled it from a long way off. He came, limping badly. “Old Man Napi,” he said, “my leg is broken. I cannot hunt. Let me have some of this meat.” Coyote was only pretending. There was nothing wrong with his leg.

  Napi was stingy. He did not want to give Coyote any of his meat. He thought: “Coyote’s leg is broken. He cannot run.” Aloud he said: “Brother, let’s have fun. Let’s race for the meat!”

  “Old Man Napi,” said Coyote, “I am hurt. I cannot race.”

  “If you don’t want to race,” said Napi, “then you won’t get anything to eat.”

  “It isn’t fair,” complained Coyote, “but what can I do? All right, we’ll race. I will run for a hundred paces.”

  “No,” said Napi, “we will run a thousand paces. We will run to that faraway tree over there and then race back here to where we are standing.”

  At first, Coyote hobbled along pitifully, crying: “Not so fast! Not so fast!” But on the backleg, after reaching the tree, he stopped pretending. He overtook Old Man Napi and left him far behind. Coyote came back first to the starting point, long before Napi. Coyote called all the other animals—Wolves, Cougars, Foxes, Bears, and Bobcats—to come and eat. He asked even little Weasels and tiny Shrews to come and help themselves.

  At last Coyote heard Old Man Napi coming along, huffing and puffing, crying: “Have pity, leave me some of the meat, leave me some of the meat!” But there was nothing left when Napi arrived.

  MAGIC LEGGINGS

  {Blackfoot}

  Old Man Napi was traveling. He arrived at Sun’s tipi. Sun invited him in, saying: “Stay awhile. See what it’s like around here. Make yourself at home.” So Napi moved in with Sun. One day Sun told him: “We are short of meat. Let’s go hunting. Let’s go after deer and antelope.”

  “Good,” said Napi, “I like deer meat. I also like antelope.”

  Sun put on his special leggings. They were beautiful, made of soft, tanned buckskin, wonderfully decorated with feathers and designs made from quillwork. “Why put on your best leggings, brother?” asked Napi. “Hunting in rough country will ruin them. Such fine leggings should only be worn at a ceremonial dance.”

  “Don’t speak of things you know nothing about,” said Sun. “These leggings are big medicine. They are my hunting charms. Wearing them, I stamp my foot, and that starts a grass fire. Then the deer will jump out of the brush and we can easily shoot them with our arrows.”

  These leggings are indeed big medicine,“ said Napi. ”If you would offer them to me as a gift, I would not refuse them.“

  “Oh, no,” said Sun. “I need my hunting leggings. I shall never part with them.”

  “I must have these wonderful leggings,” thought Napi, “even if I have to steal them.” They went out hunting. Sun stamped his feet and the leggings started a brush fire. They burned all the bushes and tall grasses near them. Many white-tailed deer burst from out of the bushes. Sun and Napi each shot one. They went a little farther. Again Sun stamped his feet, and many pronghorn antelope jumped out of the bushes. Sun and Napi again each killed one with their arrows.

  Sun and Napi butchered the game they had shot. They brought the meat to Sun’s tipi. They had a big feast. The warmth of their fire and their full bellies made them drowsy. Sun took off his medicine leggings and placed them by his side. Then he fell asleep. Napi only pretended to doze off. In the middle of the night he tiptoed over to where Sun was sleeping, grabbed the wonderful leggings, and ran away with them.

  He hurried to get as much distance as possible between himself and Sun’s tipi. “How happy I am,” he said to himself, “to have these big-medicine leggings. I will run as fast as I can. By the time Sun wakes up, I’ll have a head start so that he can never catch up with me. He won’t know where to find me. How I will enjoy these magic leggings!” Napi ran on and on until he was exhausted and could go on no farther. Then he lay down, put the leggings under his head for a pillow, and fell asleep.

  When Napi woke up, he heard someone talking to him. He rubbed his eyes and saw that it was Sun. He also discovered that he was still inside Sun’s tipi. He was unable to figure out how this could have happened. He did not know that all the world was contained in Sun’s lodge and that, no matter how far he ran, he would never be able to leave it.

  Sun asked him: “Old Man, why are my leggings under your head?”

  “Oh, your tipi’s floor is so hard,” stammered Napi, “I used them as a pillow. I was sure you wouldn’t mind.”

  As night fell again, Sun once more placed the leggings by his side and went to bed. This time Napi did not even wait until midnight to steal the leggings. As soon as he was sure that Sun was asleep, he seized the leggings and ran off with them. Napi still had not grasped the fact that the whole universe was inside Sun’s tipi and that, even if he ran to the end of the world he would still find himself inside Sun’s lodge. He at last fell down, utterly spent, and went to sleep with the leggings under his head.

  Napi was again awakened by Sun asking: “Old Man, what are my leggings doing under your head?”

  He opened his eyes and found himself at the place he had star
ted from. He did not know what to say. Sun told him: “Old Man, if you like them so much, I make you a present of these leggings.”

  “Well, thanks,” Napi mumbled, joyful but embarrassed. “Well, I’ll be going home now.” He crept away without looking back.

  Sun thought: “Napi can’t help stealing. It’s in his nature.”

  When Napi got home, he said: “The big-medicine leggings are mine. Now I shall be a greater hunter than Sun. Now I shall never be hungry again.” Napi put on the leggings. He walked to someplace covered with bushes. He stamped his feet. He cried: “Deer, come out!” The brush caught fire, but no deer appeared. Instead the flames swept toward Napi with terrifying speed. He fled, but the fire kept pace with him. It overtook Napi. The flames licked at his heels, singed his pack, and burned his hair. The leggings caught fire. Napi ran on, shrieking with pain and fear. He ran fast, but the flames ran faster. At last Napi came to a river and jumped in. Napi swam to the far bank. The flames could not follow him there. He was badly burned. His clothes had been reduced to cinders, the leggings to a heap of ashes scattered to the winds. His body was sore and his skin was covered with blisters. This was Sun’s way of punishing Napi for his treachery.

  PART TWELVE

  GLOOSKAP THE GREAT

  HOW THE LORD OF MEN AND BEASTS STROVE WITH THE MIGHTY WASIS AND WAS SHAMEFULLY DEFEATED

  {Penobscot}

  Now, it happened that when Glooskap had conquered all his enemies, even the Kewahqu, who were giants and sorcerers, and the M‘teoulin, who were magicians, and the Pamola, who is the evil spirit of the night air, and all kinds of ghosts, witches, devils, cannibals, and goblins, that he thought upon what he had done and wondered if his work was at an end.

  And he said this to a certain woman, but she replied, “Not so fast, Master, for there yet remains One whom no one has ever conquered or gotten the better of in any way, and who will remain unconquered until the end of time.”

  “And who is he?” inquired the Master

  “It is the might Wasis,” she replied, “and there he sits; and I warn you that if you get involved with him you will get into trouble.”

  Now, Wasis was the baby. And he sat on the floor sucking a piece of maple sugar, contented, troubling no one.

  As the Lord of Man and Beast had never married or had a child, he knew nothing of how to handle children. Therefore he was quite certain that he knew all about it. So he turned to the Baby with a bewitching smile and told him come to him.

  Then Baby smiled again, but did not budge, and the Master spoke sweetly and made his voice like that of the summer bird, but it was of no avail, for Wasis sat still and sucked his maple sugar.

  Then the Master got angry, and ordered Wasis to come crawling to him immediately. And Baby burst out into crying and yelling, but did not move for all that.

  Finally the Master had recourse to magic. He used his most awful spells, and sang the songs that raise the dead and scare the devils. And Wasis sat and looked on admiringly, and seemed to find it very interesting, but all the same he never moved an inch.

  So Glooskap gave it up in despair, and Wasis, sitting on the floor in the sunshine, went, “Goo! goo!” and crooned.

  And to this day when you see a baby well contented, going, “Goo! Goo!” and crooning, and no one can tell why, you know that it is because he remembers when he overcame the Master who had conquered the world. For of all the beings that have ever been since the beginning, Baby alone is the only invincible one.

  GLOOSKAP TURNS MEN INTO RATTLESNAKES

  {Passamaquoddy}

  There was a certain tribe. Its people were rowdy and lecherous. Whatever they wanted to do, they did. They were disrespectful. They thought about nothing but copulating and gorging themselves with food.

  Glooskap told those people: “A great flood is coming.”

  They said: “We do not care.”

  He told them: “The water will be so high it will go way above your heads.”

  They said: “We are good swimmers.”

  “The flood will sweep you away,” Glooskap told them.

  They said: “We like to take baths.”

  Glooskap told them: “This will be a really tremendous flood.”

  They said: “We don’t mind.”

  Glooskap told them: “Be good and pray!”

  They said: “Don’t bother us. Go away!”

  These people decided to have a big feast of eating, singing, and dancing. They made rattles out of turtle shells filled with pebbles. They danced in rhythm with their rattles. It began to rain, but these people kept dancing. It thundered, but still they danced. Lightning struck the ground around them. They only laughed and kept dancing.

  Glooskap became angry. He did not drown them in the flood. He turned them into rattlesnakes. So now, when the snakes hear somebody coming, they rise up and lift their heads, while their bodies sway as if in a dance. And they shake their rattles as they did when they were still human beings.

  “I like this kind of music,” said Glooskap.

  KULOSKAP AND THE ICE-GIANTS

  {Passamaquoddy}

  At Saco, Maine, there lives a man with his two sons and a daughter. All are great wizards; all are Kiwa‘kws, Ice-Giants, who eat people—men, women, and children. Everything they do is wickedness, horrible deeds, and in the world people are tired of them and their evil acts.

  Once, when they were young, Kuloskap was a friend to them; he made their father his father, their brothers his brethren, their sisters his sisters. But they grew older and he has learned of their evil deeds. Kuloskap says: “Now I shall go. I shall seek the truth; if this is true, I shall go do it. They must die. No one will I spare who eats people. It makes no difference who it may be.”

  This family lives at Saco on the sandy field in the bed of river of Saco at Elnowebit, or Ogyagwchh, between Kearsarge and the big rock where the water fairies live.

  This old man, the father of the wizards and the father adopted by Kuloskap, is one-eyed and half gray. Kuloskap now makes himself like him. One cannot distinguish which is which. He enters the wigwam and sits down by the old man.

  These brothers who kill hear someone talking. Slyly they look in; they see a newcomer so like their father that one can know that it is not the same. They say: “A great wizard this, but he must be tried or he goes.”

  Their sister takes a whale’s tail and cooks it for the stranger. She puts it on birch bark newly peeled. One of the brothers enters; he takes it. This one says: “You are eating too well.” He removes it to his house.

  Kuloskap says: “What was given to me, that is mine. So then I shall take it back.” But he only sits still; he wishes it to return. Back it comes on the newly peeled birch bark to where it was before.

  They say: “This indeed is a great wizard, but he must be tried or he goes.”

  After they eat, they fetch in a great bone, a whale’s jaw. The oldest Indian tries to break it with both hands, but it bends only a little. He gives it to Kuloskap. He really breaks it, using only his thumb; like a pipestem it snaps.

  Again the brothers say: “He is a great wizard, but he must be tried.” Then they fetch a great pipe filled with strong tobacco. No one who is not a wizard can smoke it. This they pass around; everyone smokes. The brothers swallow the smoke. Kuloskap fills it full and burns out all the tobacco with a single puff.

  They say: “”He is a very great wizard, but once more he must be tried.“ They all try to smoke with him still. The wigwam is closed; they must smother him with smoke. He puffs away, as if he were sitting on top of a mountain. They cannot bear it any longer. They say: ”This is not worthwhile; let us play ball.“

  Where they play is near Saco where it bends in the river. They begin to play ball. Kuloskap finds that the ball is a hideous skull alive, which snaps at his heels. If he were another man and it bit him, it would cut off his foot.

  Kuloskap then laughs and says: “You then are playing such a game; it is well, but let us all play with our own
balls.” So he goes to where a tree stands. He breaks off a bough. He turns it into a skull more hideous than the other. The wizards run away from it, as when a lynx chases rabbits; they are really completely beaten.

  Then Kuloskap stamps on the ground. The water, foaming, rushes down, coming from the mountains; all the earth rings with the roar. Then Kuloskap sings a song such as can change the form of everyone. These brothers and their father become fish. They rush off together where the water foams; they are as long as men. Then they go to the sea where it is deep. There they dwell forever.

  QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS

  {Passamaquoddy}

  Glooskap asked Master Rabbit: “Why is it that you can walk on top of the snow?”

  “Because my feet are like snowshoes.”

  “How come you have no tail?”

  “Because I am always sitting on my ass nibbling plants. So it withered away.”

  “Why are your eyes so red?”

  “I looked once too often into the sun.”

  “Why do you have a groove in your nose?”

  “Because I am always sniffing, sniffing to the right and sniffing to the left. I sniffed so hard it split my nose.”

  “Why are your ears so long?”

  “Because I like to eavesdrop. I am nosy. I strain so hard to listen to what other people are saying that my ears get longer from day to day.”

  “Why is your shit round?”

  “Because I like to eat berries. They are round when they go in, and they are round when they come out.”

  “Why is your piss red?”

  “Because I drink a lot of brandy. I learned drinking from a white man.”