New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-02-17
THE INDIANS CURIOUS LORE.
MIR GRISNELL'S COLLECTION OF TALES

Abiding TO Professor Bandeiers "Ontline Of
Documentary History of the Znni Tribe. the otner
day. The Tribune remarked that the negro advcn-
turcr EStevan cut 10 pieces by the Indians IN
order 10 prevent lis returning TO life. ~ in the
pre- sent volume, Mr.. Grnncll tells. among stories
Of adventure, the narrative of the exploits AMI
death OF the youthful hero Ekuskinl. After hr
had long been a 10 the enemies Of the Black
feet he was finally slaughtered by the CrocS. and
the legend concludes with the remark " EGuskn
body was cut into small pieces and scattered all
over the country that IL might not come TO
life again. The belief Of the Indians was unus-
ually minute and ciicumstantial on this point.
warrior supposed 10 be gifted with supernatural
mower could easily he restored to life and strength,
II singl, bone Of him were found and treated ac-
cording to explicit directions which he was sure
upon going into battle, 10 give TO some friend or
relative For example, in tho adventures OF M
toyis who was sort of BlackfoCt Thesens or ST
George. the hero eaten by cannlbal. but II"
had anticipated his fate. and had told ii little girl
what to do She begged the bones of the STUPID
maneatcr Then she took them ont and called
the dogs 10 her, and threw the bones down to the
dogs, crying out: Look ont Ku'oyis, the dogs arc
eating you - and when she said that Kuoyls ar 'sc
from the pile of bones" In the legend OF the orl-
gin Of the Ball Clan, il is told how man was
Killed by buffdlOeS, ana now MS uduSh'rI was N'-
mapped by the leader of the herd Tut she had
the assistance of magpic-a bird famous IN folk
lore from England TO China. The bird found
Joint of the mans backbone, and the girl, with all
the skill of a Wanamoncn, sang her father back
10 life The buffalo were surprised: the magplc
was ulad and flew round and round, making a
great noise" In this form tho superstition may
we'll be associated with the strange Ialnudlc no
ton about the os sacrum, which cannot be de-
stroyed and is to be the germ for the restorati'n
of the body on the Day Of Judgment Again, IN
the adventures Of Bull-lum'-ROund. among the
Underwater People, the hero is only permitted to
kill a buffalo on condition that he save the bones
which his aged host at once restores alive clothed
with 1csh and hide and hair 10 the herd on
man Under-the-Wavc did in this case what the her
init was repre- doing in the Bengal tale
"The Field of Bones, story which in some of H.
features is strangely like the sublime vision of
Ezekiel A complete skeleton was necessary for
his purpose Just as in the iIndCo romance of Budl-
hichaturya, the faithful wife must gather up all
the thousand fragments of her husbands exploded
skull before she can, by the KalislVeE power OF
hey right hand, make him live again. ms HIN
dgo story is the counterpart in some respects OF
The well-known German tale given in TRANSACTIONS
of Grimms collection, under the title of Faith
full JOHN The Teutonic hero, however, did not
go TO pieces, but turned Into statue.
The only parallel with general folklore which
Mr. Grinnell permits himself TO mention Is that
between his account of the Origin of tn" Worm
Pipe" which is a legend explaining the formation
of the Worm Clam and the classical episode Of
Orpheus and Eurydice The similarity of the two
tales so widely separated is wonderfully exact
The Backfoot husband, however. betrays no syn
Of being musician 1t will he remembered that
Orpheus could recover his wife only on condition
of not looking behind him until he was outside
the boundaries of Iades lie failed but the Black
foot succeeded, though put to a severer test. lie
must keep his eyes tightly closed during his whole
stay in the Sand Iiills-the Blackloot ghost land
and he had 10 remain there four days But even
after he got his wife back he was not sure OF ner
Here the story falls in with large class of tales
common to many races As he was about to dc
part from Ghostland, he received this Injunction
"Do not whip your wife, nor strike her with
knife. nor hit her with fire. for. if you do, she
will vanish before your eyes, and return 10 the
Sand Hills" FoIeetfu of the command, he mere
~ made motion one day TO strike her with
lighted stick from the fire. and she disappeared
forever A bit of Passamaluoddv folklore relates
how the Partridge lost his wife, Shedrakc Duck
by threatening 10 beat her with his bow. The
fairy bride of a Welshman in Carnarvonshiie, when
i'll treated by him. few away like wood hen II
is interesting 10 observe that in the Backfoot tale
there can be no question about the woman having
been ghost. Licbrecht would read the tale with
delight and would have added il gleefully TO the
instances from which he drew the hypothesis that
all swan-maiden myths and similar supelstltlonS
were simply ghost stories worked over in varied
forms The BlackfOOt husband was forbidden to
whip. TO stab or to burn his wife, three particn-
lars So in Welsh tales three causeleSs blows
are specified. In the medieval tale of Llangorse
Lake preserved by Walter Mapes, the supernatural
woman vanshes when struck with a bride by her
husband and in many cases harsh word does the
mischief Neither ghosts nor any other supcrnat-
ural beings have liking for iron. The Arabian
linn will not permit the name Of this metal 10 be
mentioned in their presence, and the Carnarvon-
shire fairy Just now spoken OF. deserted her hus
band merely because Of the touch of colo IRON
Possibly the mention of the knife in the Blackfoot
legend has something 10 do with similar pfeluolce'
In Jack and the Beanstalk' the incident most
frequently referred TO is the giants olfactory
acuteness whenever there is an Engllshman within
smelling distance. For Enclshman read person as
Mr. Grinnel renders his Blacktoot original, ahi
YOU have an element of universal folklore which
recurs over and over again In these pages FOR
example, when the poor young man who had scar
on his face fell in love with young girl and then
learned that she had devoted herself TO the sun
and must receive that luminary's consent before
she could be married, he travelled labOrousy TO
the end of the world hid himself in the lodge
where the sun slept at night, and was drcadiully
frightened when the sun came in from his journey
and exclaimed. Il smell IA person. The buffalo
kidnapper already mentioned was also possessed OF
acute sensibilitics; for when the girl fetched him
a horn of water from the spring near which her
father lay concealed, he Immediately cried out
Ha. A person is close by here" The ghosts, too,
were equally sensitive 10 the presence of the Black
foot Orpheus There is person mere, they said,
with snin and the story-teler added. with
charming naivcte. 1t seems as if there was some
thing about him they could not bear the smell Of.