Native American Legends
The Eye Juggler
A Cheyenne Legend
There was a man that could send his eyes out of his head, on the
limb of a tree, and call them back again, by saying "Eyes hang
upon a branch."
White-man saw him doing this, and came to him crying; he wanted
to learn this too.
The man taught him, but warned him not to do it more than four
times in one day. White-man went off along the river. When he came
to the highest tree he could see, he sent his eyes to the top. Then
he called them back. He thought he could do this as often as he
wished, disregarding the warning.
The fifth time his eyes remained fastened to the limb. All day
he called, but the eyes began to swell and spoil, and flies gathered
on them. White-man grew tired and lay down, facing his eyes, still
calling for them, though they never came; and he cried. At night
he was half asleep, when a mouse ran over him. He closed his lids
that the mice would not see he was blind, and lay still, in order
to catch one.
At last one sat on his breast. He kept quiet to let it become used
to him, and the mouse went on his face, trying to cut his hair for
its nest. Then it licked his tears, but let its tail hang in his
mouth. He closed it, and caught the mouse. He seized it tightly,
and made it guide him, telling him of his misfortune. The mouse
said it could see the eyes, and they had swelled to an enormous
size. It offered to climb the tree and get them for him, but White-man
would not let it go. It tried to wriggle free, but he held it fast.
Then the mouse asked on what condition he would release it, and
White-man said, only if it gave him one of its eyes.[94] So it gave
him one, and he could see again, and let the mouse go. But the small
eye was far back in his socket, and he could not see very well with
it.
A buffalo was grazing near by, and as White-man stood near him
crying, he looked on and wondered. White-man said: "Here is
a buffalo, who has the power to help me in my trouble." So
the Buffalo asked him what he wanted. White-man told him he had
lost his eye and needed one. The buffalo took out one of his and
put it in White-man's head. Now White-man could see far again. But
the eye did not fit the socket; most of it was outside. The other
was far inside. Thus he remained.
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