Atondido Stories
The next morning the giant went out and soon came back
with a fat young buffalo, all skinned and ready for cooking.
They roasted it on a spit over the fire and had a good meal. The
boy fed some meat to the dog, but his father, when he saw what
the boy was doing, beat him soundly, and said, "Have I not told
you the dog is an evil thing? You must not disobey me." But
again the woman pleaded for her boy, and the dog was fed. That
night when all the world was asleep, the dog and the stick
changed back to their human form and had a good supper of
what was left of the buffalo-meat. And the Chief said to the
youth, "The giant is the Buffalo-thief who keeps the herds from
coming to the prairies. It is useless to kill him until we have
found where he has hidden them." So they changed back to the
shapes of dog and stick and went to sleep.
The next morning the woman and her boy set off to the forest
near the mountain, to gather berries and to dig up medicine
roots. They took the dog and the stick with them. At noon, after
they had worked for some time, they sat down to have their
luncheon. The woman threw the stick down on the ground, and
the boy let the dog run away among the shrubs. The dog wan-
dered to the side of the mountain. There he found an opening
like the mouth of a cave. Peering into the place he saw many
buffaloes within, and he knew that at last he had found the hid-
ing place of the giant's plunder. He went back to the woman and
the boy and began to bark. This was the signal agreed on with
his companion. The woman and her son thought he was barking
at a bird, and they laughed at his capers as he jumped about. But
he was in reality calling to his comrade. The stick understood the
call and wiggled like a snake through the underbrush to the
dog's side, unseen by the boy and his mother. They then entered
the large cave in the side of the mountain, and there they found
30