Sacred Texts Native American Southeast Index Previous Next
A hunter took many dogs along with him. He camped and went about hunting, but presently he fell sick, Then the dogs went out hunting and killed and brought back turkeys, which the sick man ate. While he lay in bed the dogs which had been running all around started for another place. They went about talking with one another and a wolf met and talked with them. The wolf said, "His wife has another husband. If he wants her treated in accordance with the law, we will do it." One of the puppies, which always went about with his master, told him what the wolf said. He acted as interpreter. While he was with him he said to his master, "Do you want to do as the wolf said." "All right," he answered. So the puppy went back again and told the wolf, and the man heard the wolf and dogs go off howling. He heard the howling until the sound was lost in the distance and then he went and lay down.
In the morning he heard them howling again. He heard them howling on the way back. When daylight came the little dog said, "They say we had better move from here. Do you think you can do it?" "Yes," he answered, so they lifted his blanket by the corners and carried it along. Presently they stopped and camped. While they were there the dogs hunted about, and meanwhile the man got well. Then he said, "Let us go home." The puppy told
the big dogs what he said and they answered, "All right. But when we get there and they set food before you, you must say to us, 'Eat!' and we will eat it." They told the little dog to tell him that. He told his master what they had directed him to say. "All right," said his master, and they went on. They kept going and when they arrived someone said to him, "Some strange animals seized and ate up the woman and a new husband she had taken." After he had been told this they went and got him some food. They set before him blue cakes, sofki, and lots of food of various kinds and he sat down at the table ready to eat. He thought of what the dogs told him and did not know what to do. He set apart one cake for each of his dogs and put them down for them. One sat down crying and lay down and died. All died in the same manner. Last of all the puppy took a blue cake, went a little way off, set it down and cried. As he sat there he fell down and died. It has been told.