10. The Origin of Tobacco

10. THE ORIGIN OF TOBACCO (15)

There was an old man who went to the square ground of his town to take the black drink every morning and carried something to eat with him. One morning as he was eating this by the creek where he had stopped for the purpose, he felt like defecating, and therefore he went over to a log which lay at some distance. When he got there, however, he saw a pretty little plant growing. A man and a woman had lain at that place, and this plant was the result. The old man brushed the rubbish away from it and returned home. Each time he came by after that he went to it, and he took the dry lower leaves and smoked them. The people at the square ground learned of it through him and said, "That is a mighty good thing. We had better take that and smoke it." The first name of the plant was "coeuns" (haisa). After they learned of it and came to value it they made it a warrior (tåsikaya), and gave it the name hitci ("finding") as a war name. I do not know the history of the hitci påkpågi, which is the greatest medicine there is.