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In their winter camp the Lakota were hungry and the little children cried for meat. In a visitation a shaman was told that if a man would go west he would be taught how the people could get food. At the council a young man offered to go, so the people gave him a pouch with a little food in it. He went westward and saw an old woman. She asked him for food and he gave her his pouch. She ate ravenously and he thought she would eat all his food, but he sang a song of joy and looked westward while she ate. She watched him and when she had finished eating she returned the pouch to him and told him that she was Wakanka, the Old Woman, and because he had cheerfully given her all his food he should never be hungry. He looked at the pouch and it was full of good food. Ever after it remained full, no matter how often or how much he took from it. The old woman said that the weather was cold and the snow deep, and no one would travel except from necessity.
She then gave him a robe made of woven rabbitskins, very light and very warm, and moccasins lined with otter fur, the soles of which were thick and springy like a bow. She told him to go to a hill in the west and there someone would ten him where to go. He went as she told him. The robe was so light that it kept him from sinking in the snow and the soles of his moccasins so springy that they shot him forward like an arrow. Soon he came to a hill and saw an old man sitting on it. The old man said he was very cold for he had no robe. The young man gave him the rabbitskin robe. The old man said, "I am Wazi, the Wizard. Because you have given me your robe you shall never be cold." He told him to go to a cave and someone there would guide him, but if he should see a young man not to listen to him.
The young man went westward; the weather was warm and there was no snow. He saw another young man going westward and soon overtook him. This young man asked him where he was going and why he traveled so fast. The young man did not answer and continued to travel. The stranger traveled with him and as fast as he did, asking many questions, but the young man would not speak. Then the stranger said he could tell how the young man could travel still faster. When the young man asked how that could be done, he said that his two moccasin soles made him travel fast, but that if he had four moccasin soles he would travel twice as fast. The young man asked how he could have four moccasin soles, and the stranger said
it was easy to make four moccasin soles from the two, for if the two soles were cut into halves, there would be four moccasins. The young man cut across his moccasin soles and made four pieces of them; but when he put his moccasins on, the soles would not spring, and he could travel no faster than he could before he had the magical moccasins. Then the stranger laughed loudly and long. When the young man asked him who he was, he said he was Iktomi, and that when the people told about the young man who went to get meat for the children they would laugh because he cut the soles of his moccasins.
Now the young man felt ashamed and he took his pouch of food into his hands, for that was all that was left of what the old woman had given him. When he took it in his hands it rattled like a rattle and he shook it toward Iktomi, causing Iktomi to flee in terror.
Then the young man laughed at Iktomi and went on his way toward the cave. When he came to the cave he saw a new tipi beside it and stood looking at it. A beautiful young woman came out of it, took his hand, led him through the door and sat him on the man's seat in the tipi. She then sat at the woman's place finishing a pair of moccasins. The young man was so surprised that he only stared at her. When she had finished the moccasins she said that now she had husbanded her tipi and had made moccasins for her man. So she gave them to the young man and bade him put them on. He did so and then he asked her who she was. She replied that she was his woman and would serve him as long as he would abide with her. He then told her that the children of his people cried for meat, that he was going to the west to learn how to get meat for them, and so could not stop and abide with her. She said that she had led him by the hand through the door of her tipi, seated him at the man's place in her tipi, and thus bound him to herself, and that by putting on the moccasins she had made for him he had consented to be her man, according to the customs of his people. The young man said that he could not let the little children of his people die of hunger, and that he must go and learn how to get meat for them. She replied that if he would abide with her in her tipi that night she would go with him and guide him to where he could learn how to get plenty of meat.
The young man stayed with her that night and in the morning they traveled together in the cave, she guiding. Thus, they came down to where the buffalo people live and found them dancing. The young woman gave her man a whistle and told him to dance with the buffalo people. He did so, learning how to dance as they did. Then his woman told him to sit with the musicians. He did so, learning the songs they sang.
When the dance was over the woman told the young man that the buffalo people had been dancing before the sun because they wished the sun to do something for them, and that when they pleased the sun in this manner, the sun would do that which they wished to be done. Then she took her man's hand and led him to the tipi of the chief of the buffalo people and told her father that she had led this man through the door and seated him at the man's place in her tipi and that he had put on the moccasins she had made for him; that the little children of his people cried for meat, and he had come to learn how he could get meat for them. The chief told him that as he had accepted his daughter as his woman, he thus became the same as a buffalo man. Hence, the chief would tell how the buffalo people pleased the sun, so that the sun would give them what they wanted.
He said that when the people danced as they did when the young man came, it pleased the sun, and he would give what the people needed. He then told the young
man to return to his people and tell them that if they would vow to dance before the sun when the snow was gone, and ask the sun for meat he would give them plenty of meat. The young man returned to his people and his woman went with him. He told his people all that he had seen and all that had been told him, and the people vowed to dance before the sun when the snow was gone. Then the shaman asked the sun to give them meat. Then the buffalo woman stood before the council and told them to have all the men prepare for killing game, and she would guide them to where they could kill enough to give plenty of meat.
When the women saw her stand before the council and heard her speak, they raised a great outcry, and said that she was the two-faced woman, and wanted to entice their men away from them, and called attention to her brown hair and blue eyes as proof that she was a wicked being. Then the men doubted her. The young man stood beside his woman and said he was wearing the moccasins she made for him, and he wrapped his robe about her and himself. He said there was meat for the little children, and if the men were afraid to go and bring it he would go with his woman to her people. Then the shaman stood before the people and they were silent. He filled and lighted a pipe and smoked it. Then he filled and lighted the pipe and passed it, and the council smoked in communion. While they smoked he made incense, first with sage, and then with sweetgrass.
Then he stood and the people were silent. He said that those who would not do as the young man had told them should suffer. Then the council ordered that all the men prepare as if for the chase and go, guided by the woman: She guided them to the other side of a hill and there they found a great herd of buffalo. The men killed until they were satisfied. The women had followed from the camp, wailing the songs that are sung for one who is departing on a perilous journey, but when they came to the top of the hill and saw the men killing, they hurried back to the camp, shouting and singing joyfully. They brought their implements and made meat of the dead buffalo.
There was meat enough for many moons. The women prepared a great feast and when all were feasting the woman stood, and the women painted the parting of her hair red, and the shaman painted a red stripe across her forehead, thus making her the daughter of the people. The young man stood beside her, wrapping his robe about her and himself, and the young women sang songs in praise of them.
The raccoon moon came and the snow was gone and the people went their ways. Only the young man, his woman, and the shaman remained at the place of the winter camp. The young man sat with his robe over his head, for he had reminded the people of their vows to dance before the sun. They had replied that they had plenty of meat and soon they could hunt the buffalo and get more. Thus, the young man. was ashamed for his people.
The people hunted, but found no game, and their meat was all gone. Then they remembered their vows, and came to ask the shaman what they should do. It was then the moon of ripe chokecherries. The shaman told the people that they had not been sincere when-they vowed to the sun and that now they must manifest their sincerity by causing their blood to flow from wounds, and fulfill their vows by dancing before the sun; but, because the women had doubted that the sun would give meat they should not dance before the face of the sun. Then the buffalo woman showed the people how to make the camp circle and the dance lodge, and the young man taught the men the songs and the dance. The buffalo came and there was plenty of meat, and the woman showed the women how to prepare the buffalo tongues for the
feasts. The shaman told them how their blood must flow and how they must suffer because they had been insincere. When the moon was round all were ready, the women gave feasts and the men danced before the face of the sun and the sun was pleased. Since that time when a Lakota very much wishes for something he vows to dance the Sun dance if the sun will give him what he wishes. If he does so he should dance the Sun dance when the chokecherries are ripe.