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Post by blackcrowheart on Oct 3, 2007 13:08:18 GMT -5
Fed by a Ghost - Blackfoot
Once a man was camping alone [with his family]. He had gone out to hunt by himself. In the night they heard a voice saying, "My mother wants to use your pail." Then the man said to his wife, "Woman, let them have it." After a time the pail was brought back into the lodge, and they heard a voice saying, "You can eat what is in it. It is meat." Now when they looked into the pail they found a piece of an old lodge-cover that had been boiled. After a while the Ghost came again and said, "You did not eat it. I will give you something else." "No," said the man, "we do not need anything else. We ate it." He said this because they had hidden it. "Well," said the Ghost, "I want to borrow the pail again." So the man said, "Woman, let him have it." After awhile the Ghost brought the pail filled, and said, "Here are some ribs and tripe." Now, when they looked into the pail, they found some very old bones and sticks of wood, with no meat. The man said, "I am hungry, but I cannot eat that." "Well," said the Ghost, "I shall send out a young man to kill some game." Now the next morning, as the man was going out of the lodge he heard some one say, "Here is meat." On looking around he saw a buffalo-cow lying on the ground. Then he began to butcher. Now he was happy because he had something to eat. Now it has boiled over.
Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History, Vol. II, 1908.
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