, and shoot yonder bird for
me!" With these words Iktomi pointed toward the tree-top, where sat
a bird on the highest branch. The young avenger, always ready to help
those in distress, sent an arrow upward and the bird fell. In the next
branch it was caught between the forked prongs.

"My friend, climb the tree and get the bird. I cannot climb so high. I
would get dizzy and fall," pleaded Iktomi. The avenger began to scale
the tree, when Iktomi cried to him: "My friend, your beaded buckskins
may be torn by the branches. Leave them safe upon the grass till you are
down again."

"You are right," replied the young man, quickly slipping off his
long fringed quiver. Together with his dangling pouches and tinkling
ornaments, he placed it on the ground. Now he climbed the tree
unhindered. Soon from the top he took the bird. "My friend, toss to
me your arrow that I may have the honor of wiping it clean on soft
deerskin!" exclaimed Iktomi.

"How!" said the brave, and threw the bird and arrow to the ground.

At once Iktomi seized the arrow. Rubbing it first on the grass and then
on a piece of deerskin, he muttered indistinct words all the while.
The young man, stepping downward from limb to limb, hearing the low
muttering, said: "Iktomi, I cannot hear what you say!"

"Oh, my friend, I was only talking of your big heart."

Again stooping over the arrow Iktomi continued his repetition of charm
words. "Grow fast, grow fast to the bark of the tree," he whispered.
Still the young man moved slowly downward. Suddenly dropping the arrow
and standing erect, Iktomi said aloud: "Grow fast to the bark of the
tree!" Before the brave could leap from the tree he became tight-grown
to the bark.

"Ah! ha!" laughed the bad Iktomi. "I have the magic arrow! I have the
beaded buckskins of the great avenger!" Hooting and dancing beneath the
tree, he said: "I shall kill the red eagle; I shall wed the chieftain's
beautiful daughter!"

"Oh, Iktomi, set me free!" begged the tree-bound Dakota brave. But
Iktomi's ears were like the fungus on a tree. He did not hear with them.

Wearing the handsome buckskins and carrying proudly the magic arrow in
his right hand, he started off eastward. Imitating the swaying strides
of the avenger, he walked away with a face turned slightly skyward.

"Oh, set me free! I am glued to the tree like its own bark! Cut me
loose!" moaned the prisoner.

A young woman, carrying on her strong back a bundle of tightly bou