Sacred Texts Native American Southeast Index Previous Next
A man lived with an only son and another boy, a poor orphan who had come to him. While he was living with them he went hunting, traveled about, but brought back only the hide and liver, which they roasted and ate. When he went out again and killed a deer, as before, he brought back only the hide and liver.
"If some one calls to you, don't go over there," he said. When he was gone an old woman came and said, "Hunt lice for me." They brought her across, hunted about, and picked up and threw away lice as big as popcorn. Then their father came. When he arrived they told him and he said, "I told you not to do that."
When he went off again some one shouted from the other side of the creek and they went across in a canoe, took him in and brought him back. When they reached the shore the man said, "Carry me up on your backs." They did not like this but they took him up on their backs and set out with him. When they got home, he said, "I am the one who sticks to people," and he stuck to them. After they had rolled upon the ground in a vain effort to detach him they poured hot water on him and he came off.
When their father got home they told him and he said, "That is what I told you not to do." He reviled them.
Every time their father went hunting he brought back only the liver for them to eat and they said, "I wonder why it is that he always does so." So the next time he went off they started after him. Following his track, they saw him come to a deer fence, go inside, and kill and skin one of the deer. He took the meat and carried it with him. Then he stood by a big pond and called out. A female bullfrog came out. He threw the meat to her and she took it into the water. Then the boys ran back and got home.
The next time he started off the boys took arrows and followed. When they got to the pond they called out. The bullfrog laughed and came out and they shot and killed it. Then they returned home. When their father went to feed the frog he found it dead and he went home. He cursed the boys roundly.
After that he went away to some other people, sat down and said to them, "Those children have killed a person. It is best that they be put to death," but the boys arrived in time to hear him. They went back, hunted for and collected all sorts of stinging insects, put them in a gourd, and laid it aside. Then they dug a hole in the ground.
After they had remained there for a time they saw many men coming. They met them, pretended to fight, and then ran back and got into the house. Breaking the gourd filled with stinging insects by dropping it on the ground, both of them got into the hole they had dug and covered themselves over. While they were there those people arrived and the stinging things all flew up and stung them until they had killed every one.
Then the boys came out and looked all about. Bodies were lying everywhere. The son said, "Where is my father?" They hunted about and finally saw where he lay. Then they sawed across his buttocks with a bowstring, when a crow came out, cawed, and went flying out of sight.