The Tree-bound · page 21 2101Together with his dangling pouches and tinkling ornaments, he placed it on the ground.102Now he climbed the tree unhindered.103Soon from the top he took the bird.104“My friend, toss to me your arrow that I may have the honor of wiping it clean on soft deerskin!” exclaimed Iktomi.105“How!” said the brave, and threw the bird and arrow to the ground.106At once Iktomi seized the arrow.107Rubbing it first on the grass and then on a piece of deerskin, he muttered indistinct words all the while.108The young man, stepping downward from limb to limb, hearing the low muttering, said: “Iktomi, I cannot hear what you say!”109“Oh, my friend, I was only talking of your big heart.”110Again stooping over the arrow Iktomi continued his repetition of charm words.111“Grow fast, grow fast to the bark of the tree,” he whispered.112Still the young man moved slowly downward.113Suddenly dropping the arrow and standing erect, Iktomi said aloud: “Grow fast to the bark of the tree!”114Before the brave could leap from the tree he became tight-grown to the bark.115“Ah! ha!” laughed the bad Iktomi.116“I have the magic arrow!117I have the beaded buckskins of the great avenger!”118Hooting and dancing beneath the tree, he said: “I shall kill the red eagle; I shall wed the chieftain's beautiful daughter!”119“Oh, Iktomi, set me free!” begged the tree-bound Dakota brave.120But Iktomi's ears were like the fungus on a tree.121He did not hear with them.122Wearing the handsome buckskins and carrying proudly the magic arrow in his right hand, he started off eastward.123Imitating the swaying strides of the avenger, he walked away with a face turned slightly skyward.124“Oh, set me free!125I am glued to the tree like its own bark!126Cut me loose!” moaned the prisoner.127A young woman, carrying on her strong back a bundle of tightly bound willow sticks, passed near by the lonely teepee.128She heard the wailing man's voice.129She paused to listen to the sad words.130Looking around she saw nowhere a human creature.131“It may be a spirit,” thought she.132“Oh! cut me loose! set me free!133Iktomi has played me false!134He has made me bark of his tree!” cried the voice again.135The young woman dropped her pack of firewood to the ground.136With her stone axe she hurried to the tree.137There before her astonished eyes clung a young brave close to the tree.138Too shy for words, yet too kind-hearted to leave the stranger tree-bound, she cut loose the whole bark.139Like an open jacket she drew it to the ground.checked by a teacher140With it came the young man also.141Free once more, he started away.142Looking backward, a few paces from the young woman, he waved his hand, upward and downward, before her face.143This was a sign of gratitude used when words failed to interpret strong emotion.144When the bewildered woman reached her dwelling, she mounted a pony and rode swiftly across the rolling land.145To the camp ground in the east, to the chieftain troubled by the red eagle, she carried her story.1 2← previousThe Badger and the Bearnext →Shooting of the Red Eagle↑ back to Old Indian LegendsThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/page/2/