Native American Legends
Why Blackfeet never kill Mice
A Blackfoot Legend
There was much quarreling among the animals and the birds. You
see the Bear wanted to be chief, under Old-man, and so did the Beaver.
Almost every night they would have a council and quarrel over it.
Beside the Bear and Beaver, there were other animals, and also birds,
that thought they had the right to be chief.
They couldn't agree and the quarreling grew worse as time went
on. Some said the greatest thief should be chosen. Others thought
the wisest one should be the leader; while some said the swiftest
traveler was the one they wanted. So it went on and on until they
were most all enemies instead of friends, and you could hear them
quarreling almost every night, until Old-man came along that way.
He heard about the trouble. I forget who told him, but I think
it was the Rabbit. Anyhow he visited the council where the quarreling
was going on and listened to what each one had to say. It took until
almost daylight, too. He listened to it all -- every bit. When they
had finished talking and the quarreling commenced as usual, he said,
'stop!' and they did stop.
Then he said to them: 'I will settle this thing right here and
right now, so that there will be no more rows over it, forever.'
He opened his paint sack and took from it a small, polished bone.
This he held up in the firelight, so that they might all see it,
and he said: "'This will settle the quarrel. You all see this
bone in my right hand, don't you?'
'Yes,' they replied.
'Well, now you watch the bone and my hands, too, for they are quick
and cunning.'
Old-man began to sing the gambling song and to slip the bone from
one hand to the other so rapidly and smoothly that they were all
puzzled. Finally he stopped singing and held out his hands -- both
shut tight, and both with their backs up.
'Which of my hands holds the bone now?' he asked them.
Some said it was in the right hand and others claimed that it was
the left hand that held it. Old-man asked the Bear to name the hand
that held the bone, and the Bear did; but when Old-man opened that
hand it was empty -- the bone was not there. Then everybody laughed
at the Bear. Old-man smiled a little and began to sing and again
pass the bone.
'Beaver, you are smart; name the hand that holds the bone this
time.'
"The Beaver said: 'It's in your right hand. I saw you put
it there.'
Old-man opened that hand right before the Beaver's eyes, but the
bone wasn't there, and again everybody laughed -- especially the
Bear.
'Now, you see,' said Old-man, 'that this is not so easy as it looks,
but I am going to teach you all to play the game; and when you have
all learned it, you must play it until you find out who is the cleverest
at the playing. Whoever that is, he shall be chief under me, forever.'
Some were awkward and said they didn't care much who was chief,
but most all of them learned to play pretty well. First the Bear
and the Beaver tried it, but the Beaver beat the Bear easily and
held the bone for ever so long. Finally the Buffalo beat the Beaver
and started to play with the Mouse. Of course the Mouse had small
hands and was quicker than the Buffalo -- quicker to see the bone.
The Buffalo tried hard for he didn't want the Mouse to be chief
but it didn't do him any good; for the Mouse won in the end.
It was a fair game and the Mouse was chief under the agreement.
He looked quite small among the rest but he walked right out to
the center of the council and said: 'Listen, brothers -- what is
mine to keep is mine to give away. I am too small to be your chief
and I know it. I am not warlike. I want to live in peace with my
wife and family. I know nothing of war. I get my living easily.
I don't like to have enemies. I am going to give my right to be
chief to the man that Old-man has made like himself.'
That settled it. That made the man chief forever, and that is why
he is greater than the animals and the birds. That is why we never
kill the Mice-people.
You saw the Mice run into the buffalo skull, of course. There is
where they have lived and brought up their families ever since the
night the Mouse beat the Buffalo playing the bone game. Yes -- the
Mice-people always make their nests in the heads of the dead Buffalo-people,
ever since that night.
Our people play the same game, even today. See," and War Eagle
took from his paint sack a small, polished bone. Then he sang just
as Old-man did so long ago. He let the children try to guess the
hand that held the bone, as the animal-people did that fateful night;
but, like the animals, they always guessed wrong.
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