30. The Bungling Host

30. THE BUNGLING HOST (58)

A Rabbit wandering about came upon a Bear cooking a piece of his flesh. When it was done the Bear sharpened his knife, bent over a pot in which beans were cooking, slit his belly and let grease run out of it into the beans in order to season them. He gave the Rabbit a dish of beans and the Rabbit ate a great quantity of them. When he was

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through eating he invited the Bear to go and see him in his turn. After the Bear got there the Rabbit began skipping about preparing the meal, and he too cooked some beans. When they were done he also sharpened his knife, bent over the pot and tried to make slits in his belly. When he did so he cried "Wī." At the second attempt his knife went through and he fell over on one side. The Bear said to him, "You have hurt yourself badly. I am just that way, the way I was doing when you came to see me. I will go and find a doctor for you." By and by the Bear brought the Buzzard back with him and the Buzzard said, "When I treat a person I don't want anybody to be present. People always make a hole at the top of the house to give me light." Then the Buzzard began doctoring, and every now and then they could hear the Rabbit squeal. The Bear, who was sitting just outside of the door, would say, "What is the matter?" and the Buzzard would answer, "It is hurting him where I am doctoring him. Once in a while I blow into his wound." After a while the Rabbit stopped crying. The Bear said, "How is the patient?" "He is better," said the Buzzard, and presently he flew out of the hole in the roof of the house and lighted on top of a tree. Several different animals, the Skunk, Raccoon, etc., had gathered about the house, and the Buzzard said to them, "I am through." Then they opened the door and went in and there lay only a pile of bones. They said, "Buzzard has done a great wrong. Let us kill him." So they shot at him with arrows, and shot through his nose, making the nostrils as we see them to-day. The Buzzard said, "You have made a place good for me to breathe through." Then he flew off.

Footnotes

254:1 Told by a Creek Indian.