Sacred Texts Native American Southeast Index Previous Next
A man having many dogs fell sick and lay in a helpless condition. One small puppy was able to talk with his master. Whatever the big dogs thought they told to the puppy and he in turn told his master all that had been said. While they were there the big dogs said to the puppy, "There is no food hereabouts. Tell him we can carry him along with us on a hunt if he agrees." The puppy told his master. He said, "They want me to tell you that we could take you hunting with us." When be told him that, the man answered, "You could not take me in anyway." But the dogs said to the puppy again, "Tell him we know a way by which we can take him if he agrees to go." When be told his master the latter said, "You may take me if you can think of a way." The puppy told the big dogs. "If that is so we will take him with us," said the dogs.
They laid his gun on the bedding, and all seized the corners of the blanket under him, lifted it up and went on with it. When they got far off they stopped and made a camp, and laid the man down, and the dogs collected wood for him. Then they built a fire and while the man lay still the dogs went out hunting for him. Each evening, when they came back, they brought some squirrels or turkeys they had killed and he ate them. The man lying there got a little better. While he was still in bed, the dogs said to the puppy, "Tell him we will move on again if he agrees." The puppy told his master. He said, "They say it is best to move." When the puppy told him, he said, "All right." So they seized the blanket again, carried him along, and made another camp. Laying the man down there the dogs went hunting and returned in the evening with some squirrels or some turkeys they had killed or some tortoises they had found. The man ate them in bed and got better. When he got up and could go about for short distances, the dogs went out hunting one morning and he heard them barking not very far from camp. The puppy had remained with the man in camp. Then one dog came back on the run and said, "We have treed a bear but we can't do anything with him. I have come to see if our master can not come to that place, which is only a short distance away." He told this to the little dog, and the puppy told it to his master. "If I go slowly I may be able to get there," said the man. The puppy said, "He says, 'I will go.'" When he told the other dog he ran back again and informed the rest. "He is going to come," he said.
So the dogs waited and kept watch on the bear. When the man and the puppy got there they brought the man's gun. The man shot down the bear which they had treed, skinned it, and cut it up. Then the dogs seized the pieces thus cut up and carried them all back to camp. They had plenty of meat. "Now I am well," said the man. "Let us go home." He said to the puppy, "Tell the big dogs." The puppy said to the dogs, "He wants me to say to you 'We must go home,'" and the big dogs said, "All right; but tell him when we get there and his former mother-in-law wants to give him something to eat, before he eats, he must let us eat." So he told his master. "This is what I have been told to say," he said to his master. "All right," he said, and they started on. When they reached his home, his former mother-in-law set out something for him to eat. The man sat down to eat but remembered what the dogs had told him. The thought troubled him very much. He sat without eating. Then he saw the dogs looking at him. The puppy sat looking, and the man sitting there gave a piece of bread to each. The puppy took the bread, moved away, and sat down. As he sat crying he fell over and died. All of the dogs sat down with their bread in the same way, cried, and died. It is said that all of them died.
This is how it is told.