Conquering Horse

by Frederick Manfred

  “I hear you, great one.”

  “In the meantime, to help you catch the stallion, your intercessor will give you a horse chestnut, chat strange piece of grayish black gristle growing on the inside of a horse’s leg. It is to be your substitute fetish. Your intercessor will tell you to wear it inside the fat braid that hangs behind your left ear so that it may speak quickly to you in time of trouble and advise you. Later, the horse chestnut is to be replaced by the scarlet plume. Do you hear me?”

  “I hear you, white one.”

  “As long as you keep the two twists of the scarlet plume safe, you shall always prevail. With them in your possession you will grow to be an old man without ever becoming feeble or racked with the pains of old age. You will desire maidens until the day you die.”

  “Then it will be as it is with my father Redbird.”

  At that the glowing white mare looked down at him oddly, and fell silent.

  “What is it? What have I done?”

  “My son, the gods do not wish to hear much said on some things. Wait until I have finished telling you all of the message.”

  “I throw myself on my face on the ground.”

  The white mare stepped over him with her white front hooves and then leaned down her belly as if to give him suck like a colt. “My son, did you not promise Wakantanka a scarlet blanket?”

  “I promised, O great sacred white one.”

  “It is good. The first part of the vision has now been told you. The second part will be told you after you have given me the scarlet blanket.”

  “My flesh is very weak. Shall I wait to give the scarlet blanket until the Moon of Fat Horses when the others give themselves in torment in the village sun dance?”

  “You must give the scarlet blanket immediately, and alone, when you return to the village. You will not be able to use the power of the vision until after you have performed the sun dance for the people to see. Also, I want the people to see this thing very soon so that they may receive courage therefrom and have the glory of it before summer comes.”

  “I will return immediately to my father Redbird. He will help me.”

  Again the white mare looked down at him strangely. “Moon Dreamer will help you. He will be your intercessor.”

  “When shall I be given my name? To be free one must have a name.”

  “It will be given you after you have returned from conquering the white stallion. Remember this, my son: life is a simple thing when once it is accepted wholly.”

  The white mare looked down on him in a sweet way, her red lips smiling tenderly. Then, throwing up her white head, her long glossy tail whisking bluish fire, she slowly walked away from him toward the west. Flakes of white like crystal chalk floated in the air after her passage. When she came to the edge of the rimrock she did not stop, but walked on, stepping stolidly and firmly on air. Gradually she faded away until she became a white star on the western horizon.

  He was being shaken, gently. He opened his eyes. He saw Circling Hawk bending over him.

  “Have you had the vision?” Circling Hawk asked.

  “It has come.”

  “Have you received your name?”

  “It will be given to me after I have returned from conquering a certain wild stallion.”

  “It is good. Now we will return to our mothers.”

  Circling Hawk took him up and carried him down from the mountain top. He gave him warm soup and some corn and cool sweet water. He placed him on a thick bed of sweetgrass and covered him with a white robe. He let him sleep in warmth for a long time. When No Name’s strength returned some, they began the long journey home.

  7

  Toward evening, about an hour’s ride from camp, Circling Hawk spotted lookouts on the bluffs above the Yankton village. He immediately rode up on a small knoll so that the lookouts could see him clearly against the horizon. He made his horse Dusty go through a series of quick-stepping maneuvers to signify that he and No Name were friends and that No Name had survived the fast on the mountain. At that the lookouts signaled for them to approach. The camp awaited them.

  Circling Hawk rode beside No Name. “Shall we paint our horses and prepare our faces?”

  “I did not receive the full vision. The second part is yet to come. The gods will not like it if we rejoice too soon.”

  “My brother, it shall be as you say.”

  The two horses sensed they were near home. They neighed, and threw up their manes and tails, and ran eagerly against tight reins. The trail ropes dragging behind raised low racing snakes of dust.

  When No Name saw again the tepees of his people in the valley below, the camp still set in a neat circle like a curved row of catfish teeth, his heart leaped. He wept when he finally made out his father’s dark thunder-painted lodge. He cried when he saw the single cottonwood still towering over the lodge where Leaf had once lived.

  No Name led the way through the horns of the village, holding his pipe before him. The sun was just down. All the people came out to greet him. Happy black eyes flashed him welcome smiles.

  A comely round-faced maiden named Pretty Walker called out, “Have you any new songs?”

  No Name shook his head, slowly.

  Pretty Walker smiled. “We wish to sing.”

  No Name smiled too, a little. “Perhaps I will have a song for you tomorrow.”

  Then Soft Berry came waddling through the crowd. She grabbed hold of the bridle of her son’s horse. “Well, my son, and how did it go with you?”

  “We have been around on a long journey, my mother, and have now come home.”

  “Good. The pot is full of meat. Step down. There is rest and a cake of corn for you in your accustomed place.”

  Still holding his red pipe before him, No Name rode straight for his father’s lodge. He saw Redbird standing in the doorway, looking at him with grave impassive eyes. No Name slid to the ground, and handing his horse over to Loves Roots, went immediately inside. He sat in his own place before the fire, across from his father. His mother Star That Does Not Move took off his moccasins and rubbed the soles of his feet. She set warm food and drink before him. He ate ravenously.

  Star kept to the shadows. Occasionally she flashed him a wondering searching look. Loves Roots also kept in the background on the woman’s side. Her mobile lips remained properly sober.

  Redbird got out the pipe as soon as No Name had finished eating. With grave dignity he filled it and lighted it with a coal from the fire. He puffed until he had it going well, then handed it across to No Name.

  The taste of his father’s wetness on the pipestem affected No Name deeply. He almost burst into tears.

  Finally, after they finished smoking, Redbird asked, “My son, tell me, at what place have you stood and seen the good?”

  “My father, I have been through an awful hour.”

  “It makes my heart glad to see you again.”

  “I have seen dark shades and white manes and strange ghosts.” “Did you fast and receive the vision, my son?”

  “My father, a beautiful white mare came to me in dream. The white mare told me to catch a certain white stallion. I must go to the River That Sinks. There it will be told me where the stallion lives. The stallion will be very wild and very fierce.”

  Redbird started. “Ai, a wild white stallion will give us many spotted colts. It is the power of his wildness that will do this.”

  “The white mare said that I must go alone.”

  “Ai!” his father cried. The two women in the shadows gasped and clapped hand to mouth.

  “My father, not all of the message was told me. The second part will be told me after I have given a scarlet blanket in a sun-watching dance. I must dance it alone. Also my name is to be given me after I have returned from catching the wild stallion.”

  Redbird sat very straight. “When is this sun dance to be?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  Redbird sat in silence a while. Then he sighed and said quietly, “Well, my son, you m
ust go through with it. Both the torment and the journey. I will help you prepare yourself for the sun dance.”

  No Name looked down at his fingers. “My father, the white mare did not speak of you. Moon Dreamer is to be my intercessor.”

  Redbird gave No Name an odd searching look. Then his black eyes closed to glimmering slits. He sat musing to himself, looking at the low flickering fire. Shadows stirred behind him. Finally he said, “Let it be as the gods wish.”

  The next morning No Name went back to fasting. He washed himself harshly in the streaming red rock pools above Falling Water. He purified himself in a vapor bath. He painted his face with white clay, the outline of a mare on his right cheek and the outline of a stallion on his left cheek.

  Meanwhile Moon Dreamer instructed Thunder Close By, the crier, to announce to the camp that the son of Redbird wished to give a scarlet blanket to Wakantanka, that he would do so as a single votary, that Moon Dreamer himself had been sent a special dream on how to conduct the ceremony. The people were instructed to be kind to one another, to prepare gifts, to sing songs, to be happy and live right.

  Putting on his buffalo-head mask and decorating himself with a single white feather, Moon Dreamer chose a level grassy place south of the encampment and beside the flowing red cascades. A double ring of cottonwood poles was put up about the grassy place in the shape of a round horseshoe, the open end to the east. Beams were then fasted to the tops of the poles, joining one ring with another, and willow branches were tossed up on the beams until a good green shade was made for the spectators. Moon Dreamer also set up a small leather tepee on the west side of the medicine lodge in which No Name was to wait with his pipe until the ceremony began.

  For the sacred place, Moon Dreamer chose a spot in the center of the open grassy place. He removed everything that breathed or grew from a circle four steps wide. He next dug out a square to the depth of one finger. He cleansed the square with wild sage, painted a white cross in it, and sprinkled sweetgrass on a few live coals to one side of it. He set a ceremonial buffalo skull beside it.

  He offered the sun dance pipe to the six powers, saying, “I smoke with Wakantanka so that he may give us a blue day.” He puffed solemnly to himself with all eyes on him, finally placed the pipe against the buffalo skull. He also cleared a small square east of the sacred place, dug a round hole a yard deep in the center of it, filled the hole with freshly melted buffalo fat.

  Selecting four of the young men, he sent them to the river’s edge to look for a sapling cottonwood. The young rustling tree was to be as straight as a lodge pole and had to be without blemish. The young men did as instructed and scouted for the tree as though looking for an enemy. When they found a certain slender cottonwood, they counted coup on it and then rushed to tell Moon Dreamer. They were welcomed back by the people with the joy and uproar usually given a victorious war party. They were fed meat dainties, and embraced with love, and cherished with deep marks of gratitude.

  Then four virgins were chosen, with Pretty Walker named as leader. The four virgins approached the tree, singing songs. Most of the people followed them. Pretty Walker was given an ax and she made a feint with it as if to strike the tree, then gave the ax to the other virgins, who in turn also made as if to strike it. Finally Pretty Walker took the ax firmly in hand and began chopping it down, cutting it so that it would fall to the south. Great was the shout of victory when the sapling began to sway, then to fall. Twenty young men, marshals especially chosen by Moon Dreamer, each wearing the customary black stripe from the outer corner of the eye to the lower edge of the jaw, leaped to catch it before it hit the ground.

  The four virgins sang:

  “A young man we know.

  He wishes to please Wakantanka.

  Therefore he gives his flesh.

  A young tree we seek.

  It must be overcome.

  Therefore we have done this.”

  Moon Dreamer took the ax and cut off all the branches close to the trunk except the one near the top. Pregnant women scurried around him, eagerly gathering up the trimmings as good luck charms. With leather thongs Moon Dreamer tied a wooden bar to the remaining branch, so that the stripped tree resembled a cross. Moon Dreamer permitted no one to step over the sapling while he worked.

  The twenty marshals, two abreast, then took up the pole on their shoulders, the crossbar first, and with Moon Dreamer and the people following, headed for the sacred place in the open center of the circular medicine lodge. No one was permitted to precede the sacred pole. Young braves on horseback raced back and forth behind the procession. Grapevines tied to their horses’ tails trailed along the ground.

  When the sacred pole was almost in the center of the medicine lodge, Moon Dreamer stopped the procession. He held up his hand and cried in a loud clear voice, all the while shaking his buffalo mask vigorously, “Now is the time to bring an offering or make a wish!”

  Immediately the people ran to their lodges and brought out prepared gifts, of tobacco, clothes, food, bags, and presented them to one another. The noise and the joy of giving became so great men could not hear the sound of their own voices. Men and women treated each other on terms of equality, with friendly hilarity.

  Suddenly through it all roared the great voice of Thunder Close By. Gradually the hubbub ceased. Old women stood trembling, the children stood solemnly still, the horses looked up alert.

  “Look! Attend! Redbird our father wishes it to be known at this time that after the sun-watching dance he will give away certain of his many horses. He will give them away in equal shares. Redbird says a time for giving and rejoicing has come because of what his son is doing. Therefore he wishes to give this to his children, the Shining People. I have said. Hechetu aloh! It is so indeed.”

  Instantly the women raised the tremolo of joy and rushed up to Redbird and touched him and sang praises in his ear. The men shouted together and went up to him and embraced him one by one.

  After suffering their love for a time, Redbird raised his copper-tipped lance. A soft morning breeze ruffled the fringes on his sleeve. The snowy filament of the feathers in his headdress fluffed gently. “My children, listen to me. A great day has come. My son is doing the sun-watching dance so that he may receive the second part of his vision and help make our people a great nation. Therefore my heart is full of joy. My friends, here beside our River of the Double Bend, where our guardian spirit the Buffalo Woman lives under Falling Water, here we shall raise our children and be as little chickens under the mother prairie hen’s wing. Behold, I see a good nation walking in a sacred manner in a good land. I have said.” And holding his lance before him, he took a seat under the circular brush shelter.

  Still praising Redbird for his goodness in forthgiving and sharing, the people also retired under the shelter to await the great thing.

  Moon Dreamer then stripped the sun dance pole of its rough ocher bark, painted it with red stripes from the crossbar down to its base, festooned it with fresh cherry leaves. He fastened a thick foot-long stick with a red-painted knob, representing the human phallus, at the very top of the pole. He hung the effigies of a man, a buffalo, and a moon just below the crossbar. Last he fastened on a long rawhide thong which was separated into two parts at the near end.

  Nodding his buffalo head, Moon Dreamer prayed in a low gutteral voice. As he did so, the young marshals began to raise the sun dance pole, catching its thick end into the fat-filled hole. The people watched in respectful silence. There was only the sound of Falling Water, low, murmurous, unending.

  The moment the pole stood upright and was firmly tamped into place, the people began to shout ribald remarks at each other. They cried, “They of the other world have two faces. The Obscene God now prevails over us. We cannot help ourselves.” Men and women commingled, jesting of sexual things, touching and handling each other in a lewd manner, even pretending vigorous carnal relations. “Kill the Obscene God,” they cried. “He has power over us. Help us before all the virgins are take
n.”

  Moon Dreamer pretended to be very angry. He took up a bow and shot an arrow at the red-tipped phallic symbol tied to the top of the sun dance pole. His aim was true and the wooden phallus came tumbling down. Then he took a dried buffalo penis from one of his medicine bags and quickly leaned it against the bottom of the sacred pole. At that the people immediately ceased their ribald behavior and broke into shouts of rejoicing. Some ululated. Some patted their lips with their fingers while uttering a prolonged cry in falsetto key.

  They sang a song for the sun dance pole:

  “Friend, behold, sacred I stand.

  At the center of the earth.

  I look around at all of you.

  I see you are my Shining People.

  Behold, sacred I stand.”

  A woman named Thrush brought her little boy babe forward to have its ears pierced. Beside her stood her husband White Rain. The little one lay gurgling in her arms. It had straight, wispy black hair, reddish skin like the hair of a fresh-born buffalo calf, little fat hands wider than they were long. Its black eyes gazed blankly up at the blue sky. The babe had been very ill during the winter and both parents had made a vow that if Wakantanka would spare its life they would consecrate it to him at the next sun dance ceremony.

  Moon Dreamer addressed the parents. “I see you with this child. It is good to see parents who want their child to grow up in the Yankton way. This piercing of his ears shall always be a sign that he is a true Yankton. Let him possess the four Yankton virtues: be brave, give generously, speak with a single tongue, beget many children. I have said.”

  Moon Dreamer then knelt at the head of the babe, placed the lobe of one ear on a block of wood, and quickly pierced it with a bone awl. He pierced the other ear in a like manner. The father White Rain then inserted copper rings in the holes. Slowly the babe’s black eyes filled with amazement. Then he let go with a roar of rage. The people laughed in joy as the mother picked it up to comfort it.