



Produced by Judith Boss





OLD INDIAN LEGENDS

Retold By Zitkala-Sa




ITKALA-SA.





CONTENTS


     IKTOMI AND THE DUCKS
     IKTOMI'S BLANKET
     IKTOMI AND THE MUSKRAT
     IKTOMI AND THE COYOTE
     IKTOMI AND THE FAWN
     THE BADGER AND THE BEAR
     THE TREE-BOUND
     SHOOTING OF THE RED EAGLE
     IKTOMI AND THE TURTLE
     DANCE IN A BUFFALO SKULL
     THE TOAD AND THE BOY
     IYA, THE CAMP-EATER
     MANSTIN, THE RABBIT
     THE WARLIKE SEVEN





OLD INDIAN LEGENDS




IKTOMI AND THE DUCKS


IKTOMI is a spider fairy. He wears brown deerskin leggins with long soft
fringes on either side, and tiny beaded moccasins on his feet. His long
black hair is parted in the middle and wrapped with red, red bands.
Each round braid hangs over a small brown ear and falls forward over his
shoulders.

He even paints his funny face with red and yellow, and draws big black
rings around his eyes. He wears a deerskin jacket, with bright colored
beads sewed tightly on it. Iktomi dresses like a real Dakota brave. In
truth, his paint and deerskins are the best part of him--if ever dress
is part of man or fairy.

Iktomi is a wily fellow. His hands are always kept in mischief. He
prefers to spread a snare rather than to earn the smallest thing with
honest hunting. Why! he laughs outright with wide open mouth when some
simple folk are caught in a trap, sure and fast.

He never dreams another lives so bright as he. Often his own conceit
leads him hard against the common sense of simpler people.

Poor Iktomi cannot help being a little imp. And so long as he is a
naughty fairy, he cannot find a single friend. No one helps him when
he is in trouble. No one really loves him. Those who come to admire his
handsome beaded jacket and long fringed leggins soon go away sick and
tired of his vain, vain words and heartless laughter.

Thus Iktomi lives alone in a cone-shaped wigwam upon the plain. One day
he sat hungry within his teepee. Suddenly he rushed out, dragging after
him his blanket. Quickly spreading it on the ground, he tore up dry tall
grass with both his hands and tossed it fast into the blanket.

Tying all the four corners together in a knot, he threw the light bundle
of grass over his shoulder.

Snatching up a slender willow stick with his free left hand, he started
off with a hop and a leap. From side to side bounced the bundle on his
back, as he ran light-footed over the uneven ground. Soon he came to the
edge of the great level land. On the hilltop he paused for breath. With
wicked smacks of his dry parched lips, as if tasting some tender meat,
he looked straight into space toward the marshy river bottom. With a
thin palm shading his eyes from the western sun, he peered far away into
the lowlands, munching his own cheeks all the while. "Ah-ha!" grunted
he, satisfied with what he saw.

A group of wild ducks were dancing and feasting in the marshes. With
wings outspread, tip to tip, they moved up and down in a large circle.
Within the ring, around a small drum, sat the chosen singers, nodding
their heads and blinking their eyes.

They sang in unison a merry dance-song, and beat a lively tattoo on the
drum.

Following a winding footpath near by, came a bent figure of a Dakota
brave. He bore on his back a very large bundle. With a willow cane he
propped himself up as he staggered along beneath his burden.

"Ho! who is there?" called out a curious old duck, still bobbing up and
down in the circular dance.

Hereupon the drummers stretched their necks till they strangled their
song for a look at the stranger passing by.

"Ho, Iktomi! Old fellow, pray tell us what you carry in your blanket. Do
not hurry off! Stop! halt!" urged one of the singers.

"Stop! stay! Show us what is in your blanket!" cried out other voices.

"My friends, I must not spoil your dance. Oh, you would not care to see
if you only knew what is in my blanket. Sing on! dance on! I must not
show you what I carry on my