Flying with the Eagle, Racing the Great Bear

by Joseph Bruchac

  Other game animals began to come out of the cave. The boys watched them. Soon, so many were running out that Inage Utasuhi’ and First Boy became afraid. They tried to move the stone back, but the animals were too fast and too many. Rabbits and raccoons and squirrels and possums and all of the four-legged animals came out while the boys just watched. Then birds flew out in great numbers. There were turkeys and grouse and pigeons and all the other birds that people hunted. They came out in flocks so large, they darkened the sky and their wings were like the rumble of thunder. Now the boys grew frightened, but they could not roll the stone into the mouth of the cave.

  Back in his lodge, Kanati heard the rumbling sound. He looked up and saw the sky was dark with birds.

  “Oho,” he said, “what are my bad boys doing?” He left the lodge quickly and hurried to the cave. Fast as Kanati ran, he was not fast enough. By the time he came to the place where he had kept the game animals and the birds, all of them had escaped. The two boys were still standing there, watching.

  Kanati said nothing. But he knew that his boys needed to be punished for their deed. He went into the cave and brought out four clay pots. Putting them down, he knocked the lid off each one. Biting insects came flying out and landed on the two boys. Though Inage Utasuhi’ and First Boy swatted and jumped, they could not rid themselves of the fleas and flies, the gnats and mosquitoes. At last Kanati thought they had been punished enough. He brushed the insects off the boys. But the insects did not go back into the pots. They went out and spread all over the world. And to this day, there are still fleas and flies and gnats and mosquitoes.

  “You have not done well,” Kanati said to the boys. “It will no longer be easy for us to hunt. Had you done as I said and waited until you were ready, the game animals would not have been freed. A hunter must always be serious and show respect for the animals. You were not serious as you hunted and so all the game animals escaped. You have learned how to make bows and arrows, and they will be needed from now on. No longer can we be sure that we will bring home game animals to eat. Now we will have to work hard to hunt the animals, and even then we cannot be sure of success.”

  And so, because of what Kanati’s sons did back then, it is still that way to this day.

  The Wild Boy

  Caddo

  There was a hunter who lived with his wife and their son, a boy twelve winters old, in a lodge near a stream deep in the woods. Because this hunter was wise in the ways of healing and plants, he was called Medicine Person. Each day, when he came home with the game he had killed, his wife would take it down to the stream to wash the blood away.

  One day, when the hunter returned carrying a large deer, his wife was gone. Their son was sitting in the back of the lodge. He looked frightened and tired.

  “Where is your mother?” Medicine Person said.

  “I do not know,” Lodge Boy answered. “She went to the spring to get water, and I heard a scream and a terrible noise. I ran there and called for her many times, but she did not return.”

  Medicine Person and Lodge Boy searched a long time for her. All they could find were some of her torn clothes and the tracks of a large animal leading away to the west. With great sorrow, the hunter accepted that his wife was dead. Together he and his son built a fire and kept it burning for six days as they sat beside it in mourning. On the seventh day, Medicine Person went hunting again.

  “My son,” Medicine Person said as he left, “do not go far from our lodge when I am away.”

  “Can I go down to the stream and play?” the boy asked.

  “Yes,” Medicine Person said, “but go no farther than that.”

  Each day for many days after that, when Medicine Person came home, he found his son waiting for him.

  One evening, however, Medicine Person returned from hunting by a different trail than the one he usually took. When he reached the lodge, his son was not there. But as he listened carefully, he heard the sound of voices coming from the direction of the stream. Medicine Person did not take the trail but crept down to the stream through the brush. When he looked out, he saw his son and another boy talking and playing. The other boy was about his son’s size and resembled him, except that the other boy had long, tangled hair and a long nose. As soon as Medicine Person stepped out of his hiding place, the other boy leaped into the stream and was gone.

  “Who are you playing with?” Medicine Person asked his son. “Who are his parents and where does he live?”

  “Father,” Lodge Boy said, “my friend does not have a name, and he lives in the forest. He says that his mother is my mother, but she came here to the stream and threw him away.”

  As soon as he heard those words, Medicine Person understood. This wild boy had sprung from the blood of the deer that his wife always washed in the stream.

  “My son,” Medicine Person said, “we must bring your brother into our lodge. It is not right that he should have to live alone in the forest.”

  “That will not be easy, Father. I have tried to bring him to our lodge before, but he says he must remain in the forest and not be tamed. He always runs away when he hears you coming home because he says that you will make him live like a human being.”

  “Tomorrow,” Medicine Person said, “I will only pretend to go hunting. I will turn myself into a cricket and hide here by the side of the lodge. Bring your brother close and I will jump out and grab him.”

  The next day Medicine Person turned himself into a cricket and hid while Lodge Boy went down to the stream. Soon the boy came back up the trail with his brother beside him. But as soon as Wild Boy saw the cricket by the side of the lodge, he stopped.

  “Who is that man hiding behind the lodge?” Wild Boy asked. Then he turned and ran away.

  The next day Medicine Person tried again. “I will make myself into a stick and hide in the roof of the lodge. Bring your brother close and I will catch him.”

  Just as before, Wild Boy came within sight of the lodge and stopped. “Who is that man hiding in the roof?” he asked, looking at the stick. Then he ran away.

  Each day Medicine Person tried another hiding place. Each day Wild Boy saw him and ran away. Finally, on the night before the seventh day, Medicine Person left Lodge Boy by their lodge and went to a little clearing in the forest. At the edge of the clearing, he made a small shelter covered with grass and leaves so that it could not easily be seen. Then he returned to their lodge and spoke to his son.

  “Tomorrow we must catch your brother, for I will have used up all of my powers. You must do as I say. Take Wild Boy to the clearing west of our lodge. I will leave a fire burning there. Sit him by the fire and tell him that you wish to comb out his hair. As you do so, knot his hair four times and hold on to it and call me.”

  This time Medicine Person did not let Lodge Boy know where he was going to hide. Soon, from his hiding place, he heard the sound of the boys approaching.

  “Brother,” Lodge Boy said, “let me comb the tangles out of your hair.”

  Wild Boy looked around but could see no one. He sat down by the fire and turned his back to his brother. As soon as Lodge Boy had made four knots in the hair of Wild Boy, he held on and called out, “Father, we are ready.”

  Then Medicine Person jumped out of the fire where he had been hiding and grabbed hold of Wild Boy. He took him to the little shelter covered with grass and leaves and placed him and his brother inside it for six days. On the seventh day, he brought the boys out. Lodge Boy washed his brother clean, and Medicine Person took his knife and cut off the long end of Wild Boy’s nose. The two boys looked like twins.

  Medicine Person said to Wild Boy, “You have been playing with my son and calling him your brother. Now you are brothers indeed. Stay in our lodge and play with him while I am gone.”

  Medicine Person went off to hunt. But before he left, he told his boys not to go toward the we
st, for there were giant squirrels there that killed and ate children.

  However, even though he now looked like his brother, it was still Wild Boy’s nature to do things his own way. As soon as Medicine Person was out of sight, Wild Boy picked up his bow and arrows.

  “Brother,” he said, “let us walk toward the west.”

  The two brothers walked and walked until they came to a place in the forest where the trees were very tall. In one of the trees was a big hollow and, in that hollow, the giant squirrels lived.

  “We will stay far away from the tree, and the giant squirrels will not be able to reach us,” Wild Boy said. But even as he spoke, one of the giant squirrels poked out its head and saw the boys. It opened its mouth and a long tongue, longer than the tongue of a frog, flicked out and caught Lodge Boy. Before Wild Boy could do anything, the giant squirrel had swallowed his brother and disappeared back into the tree. Without saying anything, Wild Boy turned and walked home. When he went into the lodge, his father was there, home from hunting.

  “Where is your brother?” Medicine Person asked.

  “He is waiting for me in the forest. We are making arrows. I came home to get fire so that we could heat the shafts to straighten them,” Wild Boy answered. He picked up a burning brand from the fire and left.

  When he reached the place in the forest where the tall trees grew and the giant squirrels lived, Wild Boy made a big fire using the burning brand. He gathered red stones and placed them in the fire until they were white with heat.

  Then he picked up the stones with peeled green branches and threw them into the hollow tree. Smoke began to pour out of the tree. Finally the giant squirrel came crawling from the hole and fell dead on the ground. Wild Boy turned it over and cut open its stomach. Out crawled Lodge Boy, unharmed.

  “Do not tell our father what happened,” Wild Boy said. “If he finds out, he will not let us play anymore.”

  “Brother, you are right,” Lodge Boy said. Then the brothers went back home. When they arrived at the lodge, Medicine Person was waiting for them but said nothing. So the two brothers were able to continue to play together.

  The next day, Medicine Person spoke to his sons. “While I am gone, stay close to the lodge. Do not go to the west, for that is where the ones who eat human beings live. They are the ones who killed your mother.”

  The two boys waited until their father had left and then began to play the game of shooting at the hoop. They had made a hoop of elm bark, and each boy would take a turn rolling it while the other boy shot at it, trying to stop it with his arrows.

  Wild Boy, however, soon tired of the game. He made two magical arrows, one black and one blue, and gave them to his brother.

  “Use these arrows for our game,” he said. Then Wild Boy rolled the hoop. Each time the hoop was rolled, Lodge Boy shot one of the magic arrows and struck the hoop, stopping it.

  “Roll it faster, brother,” Lodge Boy said. “This is too easy.”

  Wild Boy blew on the hoop to fill it, too, with magic power. He rolled the hoop as hard as he could. It went past Lodge Boy so fast that he did not shoot, and it rolled toward the western horizon, where it seemed to go up into the sky as it went out of sight.

  “We have lost our hoop,” Lodge Boy said sadly.

  “Do not worry, brother,” Wild Boy said. “We will be able to go where it has gone and find it.” He picked up a buffalo-calf robe that Medicine Person had tanned, draped it over his shoulders, and began to walk.

  The two boys walked together toward the horizon. They walked for a long time, following the track made by the hoop as it rolled across the ground. When it was midday, Wild Boy stopped, for the track of the hoop had ended.

  “Here is the place where our hoop has gone up into the sky,” he said. “Now I must go up and follow it.” He reached into his pouch and brought out two nuts from the pecan tree. Placing one in the earth, he spoke a few words. Immediately a pecan tree burst up from the soil. It grew taller and taller, high into the sky.

  “You must be ready to help me,” Wild Boy said. “I am going to climb up to the top. Do not watch me as I climb, but continue always to look down at the earth. I will be gone a long time. You will know when I have reached the top, for my bones will begin to fall back to the ground. You must wait till all of them have fallen and gather them together. Cover them with this buffalo-calf robe. Shoot the blue arrow into the robe and call on me to stand up.”

  Wild Boy began to climb the tree. Up and up he went as Lodge Boy sat at the base of the tree, looking always at the ground. A long time passed, but Lodge Boy did not look up. Then a small bone fell on the ground beside him. More and more bones fell around him, until he was certain that all of Wild Boy’s bones were there. He gathered the bones together, covered them with the robe, and drew back his arrow.

  “Brother,” he shouted, “stand up now!” He fired the blue arrow into the buffalo-calf robe, and when it struck, Wild Boy was standing there next to the robe. He was much the same as before, yet there was something different about him.

  “Our Great Father has given me much power,” Wild Boy said. “Now you must climb up, too, and you will be given power.” He sat down by the big pecan tree and stared at the ground as Lodge Boy climbed. After a long time, Lodge Boy’s bones fell from the tree. When they had all fallen, Wild Boy gathered them and covered them with the buffalo-calf robe. He drew back the blue arrow and shouted, “Get up, brother, or this arrow will strike you.” As soon as his arrow struck the robe, Lodge Boy was standing there.

  “Tell me,” Wild Boy said, “what happened to you?”

  “I climbed so high,” Lodge Boy said, “that I reached the top of the tree. I could see nothing, and it seemed as if I were dreaming. Then the Great Sky Father touched me, and I watched as my bones fell toward the earth. I heard you call to me and I stood up.”

  “That is how it was with me,” Wild Boy said. “You, too, have been given great power. Let me see what kind of power you have.”

  Lodge Boy opened his mouth and a great sound, the rolling of thunder, filled the air.

  “You are Thunder Boy now,” said Wild Boy. “Let me test my power.” He opened his mouth and lightning came from it.

  “You are Lightning Boy,” his brother said. “But we must return to our lodge, for our father will be worried.”

  “No,” Lightning Boy said, “first we must find the track of our hoop and locate it. When I was up in the sky, I could see the place where it was brought back down to the earth by the one who called it into the sky. The one who took the hoop is dangerous, but our power will protect us now.” He put the buffalo-calf robe over his shoulders. “Let us go.”

  The two brothers set out again. Before they had gone far, they found the track of the hoop in the earth. They walked a long way until they came to a very wide lake. The brothers could see no way around it.

  “We must cross over,” Lightning Boy said. “My power tells me that our hoop is on the other side.”

  He reached into his pouch and pulled out the second pecan nut. As he planted it, he spoke a few words and again a tall pecan tree burst up from the earth. But as this tree grew, it began to curve until its top touched the ground on the other side of the lake. The boys crossed over this bridge and again found the track of their hoop. However, after they followed it a short way, the trail ended. There, coming toward them, was a figure that Thunder Boy thought was an old man. The old man smiled at Thunder Boy and held up the elm-bark hoop he was carrying.

  “That is not really an old man,” Lightning Boy said. “My power tells me he is the evil one who stole our hoop and means to kill us. Use your power, brother.”

  Thunder Boy opened his mouth and the sound of thunder split the air. The old man stopped coming toward them and turned to run. Lightning Boy opened his mouth and lightning shot out, striking the old man. As the lightning hit an
d killed him, they saw he was not an old man at all, but a being shaped like a human with long, sharp teeth and long, clawed hands. He was a Man-Eater. Beside his body was the elm-bark hoop.

  “We must follow his tracks,” Lightning Boy said. “His village is close to here.” Then Lightning Boy used his power again. He bent over, and when he straightened up he looked like an old man, just as the Man-Eater had. Thunder Boy walked behind his brother as they followed the old man’s trail back toward the lake. Before long they saw a village and what appeared to be many people standing in the center of the town. However, when Thunder boy used his power, he could see that these beings, too, had long, sharp teeth and long, clawed fingers. They were Man-Eaters.

  When they saw the old man coming into the village leading the boy, the Man-Eaters became excited.

  “Our chief has brought food,” they shouted.

  Then Lightning Boy stood up straight and no longer looked like an old man. “Use your power,” he said to his brother.

  Thunder Boy opened his mouth and the sound of thunder rolled over the land, knocking all of those in the village to the ground. Lightning Boy opened his mouth and lightning flashed out, killing all the Man-Eaters.

  “Let us look through the bones of the people they ate,” said Lightning Boy. They began to rummage through the piles of bones scattered about the village. There were bones of humans of all shapes and sizes. Thunder Boy lifted up a bone from one pile off to the side of the others. As soon as he did so, he heard a familiar voice saying, “My son, I am glad you have found me.”

  “These are the bones of our mother!” Thunder Boy said excitedly.

  Thunder Boy and Lightning Boy gathered together all of their mother’s bones and covered them with the buffalo-calf robe.

  “Mother,” the boys shouted, “get up or these arrows will strike you!” Before the arrows pierced the skin, their mother stood there, alive and well.