The magic arrow

Native american lore

There was once a young man who wanted to go on a journey. His mother

provided him with sacks of dried meat and pairs of moccasins, but his

father said to him:

"Here, my son, are four magic arrows. When you are in need, shoot one of

them!"

The young man went forth alone, and hunted in the forest for many days.

Usually he was successful, but a day came when he was hungry and could

not find meat. Then he sent forth one of the magic arrows, and at the

end of the day there lay a fat Bear with the arrow in his side. The

hunter cut out the tongue for his meal, and of the body of the Bear he

made a thank-offering to the Great Mystery.

Again he was in need, and again in the morning he shot a magic arrow,

and at nightfall beside his camp-fire he found an Elk lying with the

arrow in his heart. Once more he ate the tongue and offered up the body

as a sacrifice. The third time he killed a Moose with his arrow, and the

fourth time a Buffalo.

After the fourth arrow had been spent, the young man came one day out of

the forest, and before him there lay a great circular village of skin

lodges. At one side, and some little way from the rest of the people, he

noticed a small and poor tent where an old couple lived all alone. At

the edge of the wood he took off his clothes and hid them in a hollow

tree. Then, touching the top of his head with his staff, he turned

himself into a little ragged boy and went toward the poor tent.

The old woman saw him coming, and said to her old man: "Old man, let us

keep this little boy for our own! He seems to be a fine, bright-eyed

little fellow, and we are all alone."

"What are you thinking of, old woman?" grumbled the old man. "We can

hardly keep ourselves, and yet you talk of taking in a ragged little

scamp from nobody knows where!"

In the meantime the boy had come quite near, and the old wife beckoned

to him to enter the lodge.

"Sit down, my grandson, sit down!" she said, kindly; and, in spite of

the old man's black looks, she handed him a small dish of parched corn,

which was all the food they had.

The boy ate and stayed on. By and by he said to the old woman:

"Grandmother, I should like to have grandfather make me some arrows!"

"You hear, my old man?" said she. "It will be very well for you to make

some little arrows for the boy."

"And why should I make arrows for a strange little ragged boy?" grumbled

the old man.

However, he made two or three, and the boy went hunting. In a short time

he returned with several small birds. The old woman took them and pulled

off the feathers, thanking him and praising him as she did so. She

quickly made the little birds into soup, of which the old man ate

gladly, and with the soft feathers she stuffed a small pillow.

"You have done well, my grandson!" he said; for they were really very

poor.

Not long after, the boy said to his adopted grandmother: "Grandmother,

when you see me at the edge of the wood yonder, you must call out: 'A

Bear! there goes a Bear!' "

This she did, and the boy again sent forth one of the magic arrows,

which he had taken from the body of his game and kept by him. No sooner

had he shot, than he saw the same Bear that he had offered up, lying

before him with the arrow in his side!

Now there was great rejoicing in the lodge of the poor old couple. While

they were out skinning the Bear and cutting the meat in thin strips to

dry, the boy sat alone in the lodge. In the pot on the fire was the

Bear's tongue, which he wanted for himself.

All at once a young girl stood in the doorway. She drew her robe

modestly before her face as she said in a low voice:

"I come to borrow the mortar of your grandmother!"

The boy gave her the mortar, and also a piece of the tongue which he had

cooked, and she went away.

When all of the Bear meat was gone, the boy sent forth a second arrow

and killed an Elk, and with the third and fourth he shot the Moose and

the Buffalo as before, each time recovering his arrow.

Soon after, he heard that the people of the large village were in

trouble. A great Red Eagle, it was said, flew over the village every day

at dawn, and the people believed that it was a bird of evil omen, for

they no longer had any success in hunting. None of their braves had been

able to shoot the Eagle, and the chief had offered his only daughter in

marriage to the man who should kill it.

When the boy heard this, he went out early the next morning and lay in

wait for the Red Eagle. At the touch of his magic arrow, it fell at his

feet, and the boy pulled out his arrow and went home without speaking to

any one.

But the thankful people followed him to the poor little lodge, and when

they had found him, they brought the chief's beautiful daughter to be

his wife. Lo, she was the girl who had come to borow his grandmother's

mortar!

Then he went back to the hollow tree where his clothes were hidden, and

came back a handsome young man, richly dressed for his wedding.