60. Rabbit and the Turkeys

p. 210

60. RABBIT AND THE TURKEYS

Rabbit got into a sack way up on a hill and rolled down, laughing as he went, and, while he was doing so, some Turkeys eating acorns watched him from a distance. They liked to watch him and came near. Then Rabbit said to them, "I am enjoying myself very much doing this." "You lie," they said. "All right, suppose one of you gets in here and I will roll it for him." So one got in, he rolled it, and the Turkey went on down laughing, and saying, "Yes, it is good fun. I like it." Then all got in, he rolled them, and they went on down. Arrived at the bottom, he took them up, put them over his arm, and carried them off.

He went on and got to the place where his grandmother lived. There he locked the Turkeys up in a corncrib and said to his grandmother, "Do not open the corncrib." Then he went off.

But after some time had passed his grandmother opened that corncrib and the Turkeys flew off, making a noise like "lopopop." She held up her hands in the endeavor to catch them, but got only one Turkey by both feet. Then she cried, "Hapasa (a story name of Rabbit), I have a Turkey by the feet." He came back to her and said, "I told you not to do that. Kill and cook this one. I wanted to give a feast to a number of people. Anyhow when this is cooked I will invite a few people." He went away, walked around at random, and came back. "Many people are coming," he said. Though he had said many people were coming, it was he himself who talked in such a way as to convey the impression of a crowd. Then his grandmother put the cooked food in dishes, and he said, "Bring it down here." When the dishes were placed upon a cane platform, he said, "All ready. Let us eat." And, making a noise all the time like a great crowd talking, he jumped upon the platform in one place and then in another place all around it, like a crowd of people. And he finished all of the turkey meat.

After that he mashed up some slippery-elm spunk, mixed it with soup, and put it down for his grandmother. "Eat some of this which is left," he said, and she ate it. "It tastes like old spunk," she said, but he answered, "It is always like that at this time of the year." Then he said, "All of the people have gone." The two of them ate what was left.