The magic arrow
Native American lore

There was once a young man who wanted to go on a journey. His mother
provided him with sacks of dried meat and pairs of moccasins, but his
father said to him:
"Here, my son, are four magic arrows. When you are in need, shoot one of
them!"
The young man went forth alone, and hunted in the forest for many days.
Usually he was successful, but a day came when he was hungry and could
not find meat. Then he sent forth one of the magic arrows, and at the
end of the day there lay a fat Bear with the arrow in his side. The
hunter cut out the tongue for his meal, and of the body of the Bear he
made a thank-offering to the Great Mystery.
Again he was in need, and again in the morning he shot a magic arrow,
and at nightfall beside his camp-fire he found an Elk lying with the
arrow in his heart. Once more he ate the tongue and offered up the body
as a sacrifice. The third time he killed a Moose with his arrow, and the
fourth time a Buffalo.
After the fourth arrow had been spent, the young man came one day out of
the forest, and before him there lay a great circular village of skin
lodges. At one side, and some little way from the rest of the people, he
noticed a small and poor tent where an old couple lived all alone. At
the edge of the wood he took off his clothes and hid them in a hollow
tree. Then, touching the top of his head with his staff, he turned
himself into a little ragged boy and went toward the poor tent.
The old woman saw him coming, and said to her old man: "Old man, let us
keep this little boy for our own! He seems to be a fine, bright-eyed
little fellow, and we are all alone."
"What are you thinking of, old woman?" grumbled the old man. "We can
hardly keep ourselves, and yet you talk of taking in a ragged little
scamp from nobody knows where!"
In the meantime the boy had come quite near, and the old wife beckoned
to him to enter the lodge.
"Sit down, my grandson, sit down!" she said, kindly; and, in spite of
the old man's black looks, she handed him a small dish of parched corn,
which was all the food they had.
The boy ate and stayed on. By and by he said to the old woman:
"Grandmother, I should like to have grandfather make me some arrows!"
"You hear, my old man?" said she. "It will be very well for you to make
some little arrows for the boy."
"And why should I make arrows for a strange little ragged boy?" grumbled
the old man.
However, he made two or three, and the boy went hunting. In a short time
he returned with several small birds. The old woman took them and pulled
off the feathers, thanking him and praising him as she did so. She
quickly made the little birds into soup, of which the old man ate
gladly, and with the soft feathers she stuffed a small pillow.
"You have done well, my grandson!" he said; for they were really very
poor.
Not long after, the boy said to his adopted grandmother: "Grandmother,
when you see me at the edge of the wood yonder, you must call out: 'A
Bear! there goes a Bear!' "
This she did, and the boy again sent forth one of the magic arrows,
which he had taken from the body of his game and kept by him. No sooner
had he shot, than he saw the same Bear that he had offered up, lying
before him with the arrow in his side!
Now there was great rejoicing in the lodge of the poor old couple. While
they were out skinning the Bear and cutting the meat in thin strips to
dry, the boy sat alone in the lodge. In the pot on the fire was the
Bear's tongue, which he wanted for himself.
All at once a young girl stood in the doorway. She drew her robe
modestly before her face as she said in a low voice:
"I come to borrow the mortar of your grandmother!"
The boy gave her the mortar, and also a piece of the tongue which he had
cooked, and she went away.
When all of the Bear meat was gone, the boy sent forth a second arrow
and killed an Elk, and with the third and fourth he shot the Moose and
the Buffalo as before, each time recovering his arrow.
Soon after, he heard that the people of the large village were in
trouble. A great Red Eagle, it was said, flew over the village every day
at dawn, and the people believed that it was a bird of evil omen, for
they no longer had any success in hunting. None of their braves had been
able to shoot the Eagle, and the chief had offered his only daughter in
marriage to the man who should kill it.
When the boy heard this, he went out early the next morning and lay in
wait for the Red Eagle. At the touch of his magic arrow, it fell at his
feet, and the boy pulled out his arrow and went home without speaking to
any one.
But the thankful people followed him to the poor little lodge, and when
they had found him, they brought the chief's beautiful daughter to be
his wife. Lo, she was the girl who had come to borrow his grandmother's
mortar!
Then he went back to the hollow tree where his clothes were hidden, and
came back a handsome young man, richly dressed for his wedding.