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The Black Lion Inn

CHAPTER III.-HOW FORKED TONGUE WAS BURNED

Word Count: 2783    |    Released on: 17/11/2017

es a great laugh wherever he goes. But the people are careful to laugh when the Ugly Elk's back is toward them. If the

can look out far on the plains an' see if the Pawnees go into the Sioux hills to hunt. Should the Pawnees try this, then Ugly Elk call

' run. Then Ugly Elk has peace in his tepees on the bluffs, an' eats an' smokes an' counts his scalps an' no Pawnee comes to anger him. An' the Sio

w the years grow deep an' deeper on his head. The nephew is named Running Water because there is no muddiness of lies about him, an' his life runs clear an' swift an' good. Some day Running Water will be chief, an' then they will call him Kill-Bear, because he once sat down an' waited until a grizzly came up; an' when he

r chief when he is gone. The Sioux say that if he will fight the Pawnees, like Ugly Elk, until the smoke of his camp is the smoke of fear to the Pawnees, he shall be their chief.

t is Forked Tongue, the medicine man; he is the cousin of Ugly Elk, an' full of lies an' treachery. Also, he wants to be chi

ngue with his medicine. Moh-Kwa, the Wise Bear, is very wise; also he wants reveng

Forked Tongue, who was false about the molasses. Thereupon, he rests his head on his paw, an

ys Moh-Kwa, "an' it

e notice because liars are ever quickest to believe, an' there is no one so easy to deceiv

when they're alone an' touches

hideous than a gray gaunt old wolf, an' that he must hold his head away when you an' he

Elk turned to

that?" says Ugly E

for Moh-Kwa has foreseen

Tongue. "When you an' Running Water are tog

is eyes on Ugly Elk or looks him in the face. An' the reason is this: Forked Tongue has told Running Water that Ugly Elk complained that Running Water's eye was evil; that his medicin

tell you this himse'f, but he loves you so much

n any mouth, an' believes Forked Tongue, an' resolves for

s he is hideous an' believes that Running Water laughs as Forked Tongue has told him. An' he grows

m, I cannot kill him with my hands.

as if he is hard at work inside his head

to death with wood. When the runner is gone, say to Running Water that he must go to the hunters when the sun wakes up in the east an' ask them if they have killed an' cooked the deer you

hen he makes this word to Running Water that he must go to the hunters when the sun comes up an' ask if they have killed an' cooked the deer he s

with a woman, so he has brought a young squaw of the lower Yellowstone who is so beautiful that her people named her the Firelight. Moh-Kwa makes the Firelight pitch camp where the tra

fills the redstone pipe an' spreads a blanket for him, the Running Water goes no further. He smokes an' rests on the b

nning Water has started for the

rned Running Water. An' I will go an' see an' bring back one

new lodge to him, he does not pause, for the lodge is closed so that the light will no

ast, an' he laughs deep in his hairy bosom; for Moh-Kwa likes rev

like a shadow an' never sees h

fear an' asks: "What is this to mean?" The hunters stop dancing an' say: "It means that it is time to sing the death song." With that they bring fire from their camp an' make a blaze in the twigs an' brush ab

ark eyes, an' Moh-Kwa comes from behind the tree an' gives him good words of wisdom; an' when he has once mo

0

comes to t

"Yes; he is killed an' cooked." Then they take him to the peeled pine tree, an' tell him of Forked Tong

lk that he may know his d

s, an' Ugly Elk when he hears, can hardly breathe for wonder. An' the Ugly Elk cannot speak for his great happiness when now that Running Water is sti

nning Water are wed; an' from that time she dwells in the tepee of Running Water, e

as he did, "it is ever a wondrous pleasure to meet with these tales of a primitive people. They are as simple as the romaunts in

om what I know of savage morals they would not seem to have had impressive effect u

eman, who was rolling a fresh cigar in his mout

Cattleman. "Which I knows that mu

als, then?" asked

e standp'int. Lookin' at 'em with the callous eyes of a savage, I

octor, they being, he said, the original literature of the world. With the end of it, however, there a

e best I could but give you certain personal experiences of my

me is empty-that your experiences are quite as glorious as my own; and yet, sir,"-here the Red Nosed Gentleman looked hard at the Sour Gentleman as th

offer," chimed in

I naturally hesitate when those stories of myself, which my poverty of imaginatio

llustrative virtues of what stories I will o

man. The information thrown out would seem

lack sheep at all events,

ouragement, I'll say right yere that in Arizona I was allowed to be some heinous

an my neighbors, I see nothing for it save to relate of the riches I made and lost in queer tobacco. I may add, too, that this particular incid

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