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(Tuggle collection)
Once there was a little boy who lived with his grandmother. He grew up to be very fond of hunting and had three dogs named "Simursitty," "Jeudawson," and "Ben-boten." 2 His name was "Tookme." He killed many bison and that caused them to hold a council at which two bison agreed to turn themselves into pretty girls and attempt to destroy Tookme. They went one evening to his grandmother's house and, though they made themselves very agreeable, the old lady did not fancy them and warned her grandson against them. The dogs growled at them whenever they came near. As night came on the bison begged Tookme to chain his dogs, for fear they might bite them during the night. He consented and chained them, for they said they could not sleep if the dogs were loose. Tookme was pleased with the girls, but his grandmother insisted that something was wrong. The next morning the girls said they must return to their home and asked Tookme to go with them. "No," said his grandmother, "he can not go." But finally it was agreed that he should go a part of the way to a certain prairie. When
they came to this prairie, a herd of bison was feeding there. Suddenly the girls changed to bison, at whose signal the herd surrounded Tookme. In alarm he stuck one of his arrows in the ground, when, behold, it turned into a cottonwood tree; and Tookme quickly ascended it out of reach of the angry bison. They began to punch at the tree with their horns and continued doing so until it fell. Then Tookme stuck another arrow in the ground and another cottonwood tree shot up in the air, into the branches of which he jumped as the first one was falling. This he repeated until his arrows were all gone, when he threw down his bow and a tall sycamore sprang up. While he was in the sycamore he began to call his dogs:
Simursitty, come,
Jeudawson, come,
Ben-boten, come,
Come to Tookme,
Come to Tookme.
The bison mocked him, saying: "Tookme," "Tookme."
His grandmother was asleep, but the howling of the dogs awakened her, and running to them she saw them trying to break their chains and then she heard the voice of her grandson in the distance:
Simursitty, come,
Jeudawson, come,
Ben-boten, come,
Come to Tookme,
Come to Tookme.
She knew he was in danger, so she broke the chains and away flew the faithful dogs. They frightened the bison away and rescued their master.
72:1 This has been published in German by Dr. E. C. Parsons in the work mentioned below (p. 268).
72:2 The names of the dogs in this story may be corruptions, and it has been suggested that they ought to be Pin-Poyer [pin poya], "the turkey destroyer," Cho-arsur [tco asa], "the deer-runner," and Nussarsur [yanas asa], "the buffalo runner."--Tuggle. This seems far-fetched.