Ghost and the
Spirit World
Two Ghostly Lovers
[Brule Sioux]
Long ago there lived a
Yet the young man, the
One day when the elk
After ths holy man had
The medicine man
His parents dressed him
One eveing many days'
People tried to sleep,
Weeping I roam. I
After that night, the
Well, it all happened
young, good-looking man
whom no woman could
resist. He was an elk
charmer-a man who had
elk medicine, which
carries love power.
When this man played
the siyotanka, the
flute, it produced a
magic sound. At night
a girl hearing it would
just get up and go to
him, forsaking her
father and mother, her
own lover or husband.
Maybe her mind told her
to stay, but her heart
was already beating
faster and her feet
were running.
elk charmer himself,
was a lover with a
stone heart. He wanted
only to conquer women,
the way a warrior
conquers an enemy.
After they came to him
once, he had no more
use for them. So in
spite of his wonderful
powers, he did not act
as a young man should
and was not well liked.
charmer went out to
hunt buffalo, he did
not return to the
village. His parents
waited for him day
after day, but he
never came back.
At last they went to a
special kind of
medicine man who has
"finding stones" that
give him the power to
locate lost things and
lost people.
used his finding stones,
he told the parents: "I
have sad news for you.
Your son is dead, and
not from sickness or
an accident. He was
killed. He is lying
out there on the
prairie."
decribed the spot where
they would find the
body, it was as he had
said. Out on the
prairie their son was
lying dead, stabbed
through the heart.
Whether he had been
killed by an enemy
warrior, or a wronged
husband from his own
tribe, or even a
discarded, thrown-away
girl, no one ever knew.
in his finest war shirt,
which he had loved more
than all his women, and
in dead man's moccasins,
whose soles are beaded
with spirit-land
designs. They put his
body up on the funeral
scaffold, and then the
tribe left that part of
the country. For it was
a very bad thing, this
killing was probably
within the tribe. It
was, in fact, the very
worst thing that could
happen, even though
everybody was thinking
that the young man had
brought it on himself.
ride away, when the
people had already
forgotten this sad
happening and were
feasting in their tipis,
all the dogs in camp
started howling. Then
the coyotes in the
hills took up their
mournful cry. Nobody
could discover the
reason for all this
yowling and yipping.
But when it finally
stoped, the people
could hear the hooting
of many owls, speaking
of death and ghostly
things. The laughter
in camp stopped. The
fires were put out,
and the entry flaps to
the tipis were closed.
but instead they found
themselves listening.
They knew a spirit
was coming. Finally
they heard the
unearthly sounds of a
ghost flute and a voice
they knew very well-the
voice of the dead young
man with the elk
medicine. They heard
this voice singing:
thought I was the only
one Who had known many
loves, Many girls, many
women, Too many of them.
Now I am having a hard
time. I am roaming,
roaming, and I have to
keep on roaming As long
as the world stands.
people heard the song
many times. A lone girl
coming home late from
a dance, a young woman
up before sunrise to
get water from the
stream, would hear the
ghostly song mixed with
the sound of the flute.
And they would see the
shape of a man wrapped
in a gray blanket
hovering above the
ground, for even as a
ghost this young man
would not leave the
girls alone.
long ago, but even now
the old-timers at
Rosebud, Pine Ridge, and
Cheyenne River are still
singing this ghost song.
Now, there was another
The young warrior went
Well, this young man
He went inside, and
After serving him a
The young man-though
As the thought sank in,
young man who also had
a cold heart. He too
made love to many girls
and soon threw them
away. He was brave
warrior, though. He was
out a few times with a
girl who was in love
with him, and he said
he would marry her.
But he didn't really
mean it; he was like
many other men who
make the same promise
only to get under a
girl's blanket. One day
he said: "I have to
go away on a
horse-stealing raid.
I'll be back soon, and
then I'll marry you."
She told him: "I'll
wait for you forever!"
off and never came back;
he forgot all about her.
The girl, waited for
a long time.
roamed about for years
and had many loves.
Then one time when he
was out hunting, he saw
a fine tipi. It had a
sun-and-moon design
painted on it. He
recognized it
immediately: it was the
tipi of the girl he
had left long ago. "Is
she still good-looking
and loving?" he
wondered. "I'll find
out!"
there was the girl,
lovelier than ever.
She was dressed in a
white, richly quilled
buckskin dress. She
smiled at him. "My
lover, have you come
back at last?"
fine meal, she helped
him take off his
moccasins and his war
shirt. She traced his
scars from many fights
with her fingers. "My
warrior," she said,
"lie down here beside
me, on this soft,
soft buffalo robe." He
lay down and made love
to her, and it was
sweeter than he had
ever experienced,
sweeter than he could
have imagined. Then she
said: "Rest and sleep
now."
not so very young
anymore-woke up in the
morning and saw the
morning sun shining
into the tipi. But the
tipi was no longer
bright and new; it was
ragged and rotting. The
buffalo robe under
which they had slept
was almost hairless and
full of holes. He
lifted the robe and
pulled it aside to look
at the girl, and
instead of a living,
beautiful woman, he
found a skeleton. A few
strands of black hair
still adhered to the
skull, which seemed to
smile at him. The young
girl had died there
long ago, waiting for
him to come back. He
had made love to a
spirit. He had embraced
bones. He had kissed a
skull. He had coupled
with a skeleton!
The warrior cried aloud,
jumped up, and began
running in great fear,
running he knew not
where. When he finally
came to, he was witko, mad.
He spoke in strange
sounds. His eyes
wandered. His thoughts
went astray. He was
never right in his
mind again.
---Told by Lame Deer
at Winner, Rosebud Indian
Reservation, South
Dakota, 1970. Recorded
by Richard Erdoes.
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