The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-05
LEGEND OF THE ECHO.
AS Told By the Dakota indiana
Witch's Strange Power.

echoed answered hundreds or years ago,
and this is the way the chiefs of that
day accounted for it. The tale is one
of the traditions told by fathers to sons
about the tepee camp fires these hun
dreds eff years.
The whoop of the red-skinned hunts
men was answered in rayines and can
yons long ago, when the prairie5 of the
west were dotted with buffalo herds,
and when this broad country had no
homes but wigwams, no people but IN
dams.
The answering halloo grew fainter
and finally died away, leaving the hunt
ers puzzled to account for it. They
asked their chiefs. and this is the ex-
PLANTATION as the generations of time
have changed it:
Turtle Dove who lived years ago in
Bears gulch, in the Black hills or the
Dakotas, had one little babe, a boy,
whom she called Sage Cock, and girl
of named Ohoteu. 1t was her custom
when she daily gathered seeds in the
valleys to carry Sage Cock about on her
back, as Indians do, but one day she
grew so tired of her burden that she
laid Sage Cock, who was fast asleep,
under a sagebrush and told Ohoteu to
watch him. Turtle Dove went farther
and farther down the gulch and While
she was away an old witch, who had
been watching her chance, came hob
bling up.
.Ohoteu, is the little boy your broth
err" she asked in a cracked voice,
which she vainly tried to make pleas
ant. She knew without asking that II
was Sage Cock, but Ohoteu, who had
been taught that witches were more
likely to carry off boys than girls,
though frightened, answered quickly,
mo. it is my sister," Then the witch.
although bad enough herself, scolded
the trembling little maiden for her lie
and changed herself into so terrible
shape that Ohoteu was so frightened
she could not Interfere when the
witch ran off with her little brother.
taking him to her home on the side OF
a distant mountain.
The old witch was so ugly that no
man would marry her. She had de-
cided that her only course was to cap
ture a husband, and this was her rea-
son for wanting Sage Cock. When she
reached her cave she began transform
ing the baby into a full-grown man.
First she pulled at one limb, then an
other, until each was the size OF
mans. Finally Sage Cock, of mans
size and with a mans strength, stood
before her; she at last had husband.
But in spite of his size, Sage Cock, in
his heart and brain, was still a baby
and apt to do the same foolish Things
a baby would do. The witch had to
teach him to hunt and fish and to eat
dried buffalo meat, and as it was a
long time before his mother found him,
he had then learned to shoot we'll
1t was. not many moments after the
KIDNAPPING of Sage Cock before Turtle
Dove had all the seeds she could carry,
and, returning to the spot where she
had left her children, she met Ohoteu
crying, and was told of what had hap
pened. Ohoteu soon had other reasons
for crying.
But furnishing the little girl did not
lessen the mothers grief for the loss of
her baby. In great sorrow she started
Immediately on the long, hopeless
search for Sage Cock. Her brother,
Eagle. because he was a great traveller,
offered to aid her and, by flying very
swiftly and without rest, he visited a
great deal of territory. But 1t was
months before he spied the witch. BE
! did not then know that the man with
her was Sage Cock.
But when he told Turtle Dove OF
what he had seen, she started at once
with him for the witch's mountain,
sure that if the man was her boy,
transformed by the wicked magic Of
/ the witch. he would still recognize her
voice When the two finally reached
| been seen, Turtle Dove climbed into a
tree and cried aloud most mournfully,
while Eagle, from another tree, keenly
watched the effect on Sage Cock, who
Immediately recognized the voice and
cried repeatedly to the witch, Il hear
my mother! l hear my mother!" But
F., the witch only laughed and told him
to hide in the stomach of mountain
sheep, which was lying near, a trophy
of the boy-mans skill with the bow
and arrow Obedient Sage Cock
crawled into the sheep, so the legend
goes, and the old witch followed him.
Turtle and Eagle were puzzled at the
sudden disappearance of the two, but
had no thought of investigating the
interior workings of the dead noun
tain sheep, and were more wretched in
their disappointment than at any time
since the long search had begun. They
wandered aimlessly about for several
days. when Eagle decided that the
missing pair, and particularly Sage
Cock, who was half a baby, would soon
be so hungry they would have to come
out of their hiding for food. He killed
rabbit and hung it at the tor
of a small pine tree, peeled the tree
of its bark and limbs, that it might
be next to impossible to climb it
and then from the branch of a grea
tamarack he watched developments.
1t was but a few hours bef1re tn
witch appeared, as Eagle had expected
And when she saw the rabbit, which
was the nearest food at hand, she be
gan awkwardly climbing the tree. s.
slow was she that Eagle, who had seel
her emerge from the sheep, had tim
to pull Sage Cock out of the sheep
paunch and carry him off, while TIL
witch was granting and hugging' tn
tree, her eyes fixed on the rabbit above
Eagle carried his prize to the sam
spot under the sage brush from whic
Sage Cock was stolen, and SO soon a
Sage Cock, now a man, touched tn
earth he was instantly TRANSFORMS
into the same baby he had been whe
he had disappeared. AS Eagles track
were washed out by rain storms, whe
the witch discovered her loss she wa
unable to trace him. But she saw som
feathers which she knew were Eagle:
and at once OWNED what had hap
pened.
She decided to go to her grandfather
rattlesnake, for protection and, for hi
aid in avenging herself. The venerabl
reptile, Rattlesnake, with whom sl
was by no means popular was drows
ing in a glare of sunshine on big, fla
Y rock, and, vexed that she had awal
t ened him, he told her roughly, &c
: away, l don't want to see you" Bu
as she stood there pleading, Eagle al
peared. She was badly frightened, bt
as she did not lose her wits when RAJ
tlesnake cried, Hide, hide ST
jumped right into the old fellow
mouth and slid down to his middl
which gave old Rattlesnake such
pain that he begged the witch to GRAY
out, and when she refused, in his pa
oXysms of anguish he slipped out of h
skin, leaving the witch within it.
When Eagle called out, Where al
you, old witch?" in a threatening ton
she answered him derisively from h,
rlan1liar n11a 1tars rnnclzinnc what he he