Arrow Boy, the wonderful boy, gives a magic performance still enacted
during Sioux Yuwipi ceremonies, in which the medicine man is tied up
with a rawhide thong and covered with a star blanket (formerly a buffalo
robe) while eerie lights flicker and invisible rattles and strange
voices are heard. The pottery-making Pueblos have another version of this
tale that they call the legend of the Water-Olla Boy.

After the Cheyenne had received their corn, and while they were still
in the north, a young man and woman of the tribe were married. The woman
became pregnant and carried her child in the womb for four years. The
people watched with great interest to see what would happen, and when
the woman gave birth to a beautiful boy in the fourth year, they regarded
him as supernatural. Before long the woman and her husband died, and
the boy was taken in by his grandmother, who lived alone. He learned to
walk and talk very quickly. He was given a buffalo calf robe and
immediately turned it inside out so that the hair side was outward, the way
medicine men wore it. Among the Cheyenne there were certain medicine men
of extraordinary wisdom and supernatural powers. Sometimes they would
come together and put up a lodge. Sitting in a large circle, they
chanted and went through curious rituals, after which each man rose and
performed wonders before the crowd. One of these magic dances was held when
the boy was about ten. He made his grandmother ask if he could take
part, and the medicine men let him enter the lodge. "Where do you want to
live?" the chief of the medicine men asked, meaning, "Where do you want
to sit?"

Without ceremony the boy took his seat beside the chief. To the man who
had ushered him in, the child gave directions to paint his body red and
draw black rings around his face, wrists, and ankles. The performance
began at one end of the circle. When the boy's turn came, he told the
people what he was going to do. He used sweet grass to burn incense. Then
he passed his buffalo sinew bowstring east, south, west, and north
through the smoke. He asked two men to assist him and told them to tie his
bowstring around his neck, cover his body with his robe, and pull at
the ends of the string. They pulled with all their might, but they could
not move him. He told them to pull harder, and as they tugged at the
string, his head was severed. It rolled out from under the robe, and the
men put it back. Next the men lifted the robe up. Instead of the boy, a
very old man was sitting in his place. They covered the old man with
the robe and pulled it away again, this time revealing a pile of human
bones with a skull. A third time they placed the robe over the bones and
lifted it. Nothing at all was there. But when for a fourth time they
spread the robe over the empty space and removed it, the wonderful boy
sat in his place as if nothing had happened.

After the magic dance, the Cheyenne moved their camp to hunt buffalo.
When a kill had been made, the wonderful boy led a crowd of boys who
went hunting for calves that might return to the place where they last saw
their mothers. The boys found five or six calves, surrounded them, and
killed a two-year-old with their arrows. They began to skin it very
carefully with bone knives, keeping the hide of the head intact and
leaving the hooves on, because the wonderful boy wanted the skin for a robe.
While they worked, a man driving a dog team approached them. It was
Young Wolf, head chief of the tribe, who had come to the killing ground to
gather what bones had been left. He said, "My children have favored me
at last! I'll take charge of this buffalo; you boys go on off." The
children obeyed, except for the wonderful boy, who kept skinning as he
explained that he wanted only the hide for a robe. The chief pushed the
wonderful boy aside, but the boy returned and resumed skinning. Then the
chief jerked the boy away and threw him down. The boy got up and
continued his work. Pretending that he was skinning one of the hind legs, he
cut the leg off at the knee and left the hoof on. When the chief
shouldered the boy out of the way and took over the work, the wonderful boy
struck him on the back of the head with the buffalo leg. The chief fell
dead. The boys ran to the camp and told the story, which caused great
excitement. The warriors assembled and decided to kill the wonderful
boy. They went out to look for him near the body of their chief, but the
boy had returned to camp. He was sitting in his grandmother's lodge
while she cooked food for him in an earthen pot, when suddenly the whole
tipi was raised by the warriors. Quickly the wonderful boy kicked the pot
over, sending the contents into the fire. As the smoke billowed up, the
boy rose with it. The old woman was left sitting alone. The warriors
looked around and saw the boy about a quarter of a mile away, walking off
toward the east. They ran after him but could not seem to draw closer.
Four times they chased him with no success, and then gave up.

People became afraid of the wonderful boy. Still, they looked for him
everyday and at last saw him on top of a nearby hill. The whole camp
gathered to watch as he appeared on the summit five times, each time in a
different dress. First he came as a Red Shield warrior in a headdress
made out of buffalo skin. He had horns, a spear, and a red shield. And
two buffalo tails tied to each arm. The second time he was a Coyote
warrior, with his body painted black and yellow and with two eagle feathers
sticking up on his head. The third time he appeared as a Dog Men
warrior wearing a feathered headdress and carrying an eagle-bone whistle a
rattle of buffalo hoof, and a bow and arrows. The fourth time he was a
Hoof Rattle warrior. His body was painted, and he had a rattle to sing by
and a spear about eight feet long, with a crook at one end and the
shaft at the other end bent in a semicircle. The fifth time his body was
painted white, and on his forehead he wore a white owl skin. After this
the wonderful boy disappeared entirely. No one knew where he went,
people thought him dead, and he was soon forgotten, for the buffalo
disappeared and famine came to the Cheyenne. During this time the wonderful boy
traveled alone into the highest ranges of the mountains. As he drew
near a certain peak, a door opened in the mountain slope. (Read "The Gold
Of The Gods" by Erich Von Daniken, - such door actually exists! - Even
though Von Daniken talks a lot of crap desperately trying to prove that
"aliens" exist, nevertheless - his archeological discoveries are still
rocking the many foundations of what we have held to be "world
history", and completely tears it to pieces, but you have to be strong minded
enough to ignore his mad ramblings and read on! Might this also be the
reference made by the Sioux as to where the buffalo disappeared when
they "went inside a mountain"? Note that almost ALL tribes have legends of
a mountain or mountains with a "door" in it - that leads to other
places. It, and some of the connecting tunnels - some of which are literally
HUNDREDS of miles long, extend underground to various places all over
South America, and may also be the place to which Moctezuma alluded,
when he told his people to take the remaining gold to other lands by going
"inside the mountains", after the Spanish broke their promises, and
then later killed him, they never did solve the mystery though, of where
such enormously huge quantities of gold disappeared to in such a short
time!).He passed through into the earth, and the opening closed after
him. There inside the mountain he found a large circle of men. Each
represented a tribe and was seated beneath that tribe's bundle. They
welcomed the wonderful boy and pointed out the one empty place under a bundle
wrapped in fox skin. "If you take this seat, the bundle will be yours
to carry back to the Cheyenne," the headman said. "But first you will
remain here four years, receiving instruction in order to become your
tribe's prophet and counselor." The wonderful boy accepted the bundle, and
all the men gave thanks. When his turn came to perform the bundle
ceremony, they took it down and showed him its sacred ceremonies, songs, and
four medicine arrows, each representing certain powers. Then for four
years under the mountain peak, they taught him prophecies, magic, and
ceremonies for warfare and hunting. Meanwhile the Cheyenne were weak with
hunger, threatened by starvation. All the animals had died, and the
people ate herbs.

One day as the tribe was traveling in search of food, five children
lagged behind to look for herbs and mushrooms. Suddenly the wonderful boy,
now a young man bearing the name of Arrow Boy, appeared before them.
"My poor children, throw away those mushrooms," he said. "It is I who
brought famine among you, for I was angry with your people when they drove
me from their camp. I have returned to provide for you; you shall not
hunger in the future. Go and gather some dried buffalo bones, and I will
feed you." The children ran away and picked up buffalo bones, and the
wonderful boy, Arrow Boy, made a few passes that turned them into fresh
meat. He fed the children with fat, marrow, liver, and other
strengthening parts of the buffalo. When they had eaten all they wanted, he gave
them fat and meat. "Take this to your people," he said. "Tell them that
I, Motzeyouf, Arrow Boy, have returned." Though the boys ran to the
camp, Motzeyouf used magic to reach it first. He entered the lodge of his
uncle and lay down to rest, for he was tired. The uncle and his wife
were sitting just outside, but they did not see Arrow Boy pass by. The
boys arrived in camp with their tale, which created great excitement. The
uncle's wife went into the lodge to get a pipe, and it was then that
she saw Arrow Boy lying covered with a buffalo robe. The robe, and his
shirt, leggings, and his moccasins, all were painted red. Guessing that
he was Motzeyouf, the men went into the lodge, asked the stranger to sit
up, and cried over him. They saw his bundle, and knowing that he had
power, they asked him what they should do. Motzeyouf told the Cheyenne to
camp in a circle and set up a large tipi in the center. When this had
been done, he called all the medicine men to bring their rattles and
pipes. Then he went into the tipi and sang the sacred songs that he had
learned. It was night before he came to the song about the fourth arrow.
In the darkness the buffalo returned with a roar like thunder. The
frightened Cheyenne went in to Arrow Boy and asked him what to do. "Go and
sleep," he said, "for the buffalo, your food, has returned to you." The
roar of the buffalo continued through the night as long as he sang. The
next morning the land was covered with buffalo, and the people went out
and killed all they wanted. From that time forth, owing to the medicine
arrows, the Cheyenne had plenty to eat and great powers.

- Retold from a tale reported by George A. Dorsey in 1905.


The medicine arrows brought down from the mountains by Motzeyouf
still exist and are cared for by the Arrow Keeper of the Southern
Cheyenne in Oklahoma.