81. The Language of Animals

81. THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS

Formerly men and animals talked to one another and later they lost the ability to do so, but the great medicine men had the gift. One time an old woman was much frightened at the sight of a yearling Bull coming toward her bellowing and she tried to escape. The Bull reassured her, however, in language she could understand, saying "Don't be afraid of me. I am just enjoying myself singing." He added that she must not tell of her experience or she would die.

After that the old woman knew the language of the animals and listened to them as they talked together. She was blind in one eye, and once when she was shelling corn she heard the Chickens say to one another, "Get around on her blind side and steal some of the corn." She was so much tickled at this that she laughed out loud. Just then her husband, who was a very jealous man, came in and believed she must be thinking of some other man, so he said, "Why do you get so happy all by yourself?" Then she related her adventure with the Bull and told him what the Chickens had just been saying, but the moment she finished her story she fell over dead.