Sleeping
Snake
(Natuusughu-Sitinne)
At one time
there was a brave called Sleeping Snake. When he grew tired of continually
sharpening his father-in-law’s elk-horn scraper, he told his wife to have her
mother make many moccasins so that they could travel south to get some ditilli
or iron (ditilli is a term applied to the original word for Flint). However, the people warned him against going,
for the chief who possessed it liked pretty women and would steal his wife.
Soon the
couple left with their dogs who dragged a travois. At their second camp they
met some people who gave them some ditilli. However, they were advised to turn
back. The brave knew that he must meet the powerful Chief, even if he were to
be beaten.
On the
morning of the fourth camp, the brave told his beautiful wife to mess up her
hair and cover her face in dirt so that she would appear to be ugly. Soon
Tsa-Muhl-Tahkaiya, the chief of the camp, saw the tipi and sent one of his
wives to see who occupied it. The wife reported back that the man and woman
were both very ugly. The chief sent a younger wife to invite them to eat.
Sleeping Snake told his wife to clean herself up and then he gave her a
wolverine’s tongue to use as a charm.
When they
got to the chief’s tipi, Tsa-Muhl-Tahkaiya saw that the brave’s wife was
beautiful and told her to come and sit by him. However, she sat by the door and
placed the wolverine’s tongue on the ground beside her.
On each side
of the door two rattle snakes prepared to strike but stood back on Sleeping
Snake’s command The chief gave his visitors a drink of poison, but before Sleeping Snake put the drinking vessel to his
mouth, he blew on it and the poison vanished. The chief than gave his visitor a
pipe with a rattle snake in it while telling him that he must leave his wife in
the tipi. Sleeping Snake lit the pipe and the snake shot out. He then took his
wife and left the tipi.
When
Tsa-Muhl-Tahkaiya went to follow them outside, the wolverine tongue leaped from
the ground and pierced his heart. By sunset he was dead and the people made a
great fire on his body, which broke into pieces of flint. The people gave
Sleeping Snake great quantities of ditilli, then he packed his tipi and
journeyed home with his beautiful wife.
From the book Tsuu T’ina by William McLennan
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