Old Indian Legends

OLD INDIAN LEGENDS RETOLD BY ZITKALA-SA WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANGEL DE CORA - 1902 - PREFACE THESE legends are relics of our countrys once virgin soil. These and many others are the tales the little black-haired aborigine loved so much to hear beside the night fire. For him the personified elements and other spirits played in a vast world right around the center fire of the wigwam. Iktoini, the snare weaver, Iya, the Eater, and Old Double-Face are not wholly fanciful creatures. There were other worlds of legendary folk for the young aborigine, such as The Star- Rlen of the Sky, The Thunder Birds Blink- ing Zigzag Lightning, and The Mysterious Spirits of Trees and Flowers. Under an open sky, nestling close to the earth, the old Dakota story-tellers have told me these legends. In both Dakotas, North and South, I have often listened to the same story told over again by a new story-teller. - While I recognized such a legend without the least difficulty, I found the renderings varying v Preface much in little incidents. Generally one helped the other in restoring some lost link in the original character of the tale. And now I have tried to transplant the native spirit of these tales -root and all -into the English lan- guage, since America in the last few centuries has acquired a second tongue. The old legends of America belong quite as much to the blue-eyed little patriot as to the black-haired aborigine. And when they are grown tall like the wise grown-ups may they not lack interest in a further study of Indian folklore, a study which so strongly suggests our near kinship with the rest of humanity and points a steady finger toward the great brother- hood of mankind, and by which one is soforci- bly impressed with the possible earnestness of life as seen through the teepee door If it be true that much lies in the eye of the beholder, then in the American aborigine as in any other race, sincerity of belief, though it mere based upon mere optical illusion, demands a little respect. After all he seems at heart much like other IKTOJII CONTENTS ........ AND THE TURTLE 101 ILLUSTRATIONS TIIE IUSRRAT BEGAN TO FEEL AVKWARD . . . . 28 A SHOWER OF RED COALS UPON IKTOJIIS BARE ARMS AND SOULDERS . . . . . . . . . 42 THERE AMONG TIEJI STOOD IITOJII IN BROW-N BUCKSKINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 OTER A BED OF COALS SHE BROILED THE VENISON 64 IKTOMI AND THE DUCKS