The hatchet. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1883-19??, 1900-07-08
LEG END OF THE ECHO
A QUAINT INDIAN STORY OF HOW IT
ORIGINATED.

Tho whOop of the red skinned huntsmcn
was answered in ravincs and canyons long
ago, when, the prairies of tho west were
dotted with buffalo herds, and when this
broad country had no homes but wig.
vans, no people but Indians. The an
swerlng halloo grew fainter, and finally
died away, leaving the hunters puzzled to
account for IL. They askei their chiefs,
and this is the explanation as the genera.
tions of time have changed it,
Turtle Dove, who lived years ago In
Bears gulch, in the Black Hills Of the
Dakotas had one little babe a boy, whom
she called Sage Cock, and a girl of
named Ohoteu. II was her custom when
she daily gathered seeds in the valley to
carry Sage Cock about on her back, as In
dams do, but one day she grew so tired of
her burden that she laid Sage Cock, who
was fast asleep, under a sagebush and told
Ohotcu to watch him. Turtle Dove went
farther and farther down the gulch, and
while she was away an old witch came hob
bling up.
"Ohoteu, is the little boy your brother?"
she asked She knew without asking that
1t was Sage Cock, but Ohoteu who had
been taught that witches were more likely
to carry off boys than girls, though fright
encd, answered quickly, "No, it is my
sister" Then the witch, although bad
enough herself scolded the trembling lit
tie maiden for her lie and changed herself
into so terrible a shape that Ohotcu 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
This old witch was so ugly that no man
would marry her. She had decided that
her only course was to capture n husband,
and this was her reason for wanting Sage
Cock. When she reached her cave, she
began transforming the baby into n full
grown man First she pulled at one limb,
then another, until each was the size of
mans. Finally Sage Cock, of II mans
size and with mans strength stood be-
fore her. She at last had husband. But
In spite of his size Sage Cock in his heart
and brain was still baby and apt to do
the same foolish things a baby would Go.
The witch had to teach him to hunt AID
fish and to eat dried buffalo meat
1t was not long 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 what
had happened.
In great sorrow, the mother started i'm
mediately on the long, hopeless search for
Sage Cock. Her brother Eagle, because
he was great traveller offered to aid her,
and, by flying very swiftly and without
rest he visited great deal Of territory.
But il was months before he sped the
witch. He did not then know that the
man with her was Sage Cock.
Il, H., col l.. NH hah
he had seen she started at once with him
for the witch g 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 the ncighborhood where the witch
had previously been seen Turtle Dove
climbed into 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 motherl hear my mothor" But
the witch only laughed and told him to
hide in the stomach of IA 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 and the old witch followed him.
Il
sudden disappearance of the two, but had
no thought of investigating the interior
workings Of the dead mountain sheep
They wandered amlessly about for several
DAYS, when Eagle decided that the missing
pair, and particularly Sage Cock, who was
half 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 top of small pine tree, peeled the tree
of its bark and limbs that it might he
next to impossible TO climb it, and then
from the branch of a great tamarack he
watched developments.
1t was but Il few hours before the witch
appeared as Eagle had expected. And
when she saw the rabbit, which was the
nearest food at hand, she began awkward
" climbing the tree. SO slow was she that
Eagle, who had seen her emerge from the
sheep, had time TO pull Sage Cock out of
the sleeps paunch and carry him off,
while the witch was gunting and hug.
ging the tree, her eyes fixed on the rabbit
above Eagle carried his prize to the same
spot under the sagebush from which Sage
Cock was stolen, and so soon as Sage Cock,
now n man, touched the earth he was in
stantly transformed into the same baby he
had been when he had disappeared. As
Eagles tracks were washed out by rain
storms when the witch discovered her loss
she was unable to trace him. But she saw
some feathers which she knew We're Ea
giles, and at once OWNED what had hap
pened
She decided TO go 70 her grandfather, a
attlcsnako, for protection and for his aid
In avenging herself The venerable rep
tile, Rattlesnake, with whom she was by
no means popular, was browsing in
glare of sunshine on n big, fat rock, and,
vexcd that she had awakened him, he told
her roughly, go away; l don't want to
see you" But as she stood there pleading,
Eagle appeared She was badly brighten.
ed, but as she did not lose her wits when
Rattlesnake cried Glide, hideW she
jumped right into the old fellows mouth
and slid down to his middle, which gave
old Rattlesnake such a pain that he begged
the witch TO crawl out, and when she re.
fused, in his paroxysms of anguish he
slipped out of his skin, leaving the witch
within it,
When Eagle called out where are you,
old witchS' in threatening tone, she an
swered him dorisively from her peculiar
quarters, knocking what he had said.
As she feared no disturbance in such M
abode, She has lived there over since and,
glorylng in hor seclusion, her voice is often
hoard. alwavs deriding and hooking peo-