--- title: Nothing Child — The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian S… · full text with trees · page 2 description: Nothing Child, «The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories» by George Bird Grinnell: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: A long time ago there lived in the Blackfoot camp a young man who did not like company. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/15/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Punishment of the Stingy, and Othe…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/) / Nothing Child # Nothing Child · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/15/) **2** But the young men were not satisfied with this decision.[94](../../94/ "tree and pragmatics") They said that it was not fair, that the boy had made a chance shot, and they asked the chief to try their skill in some other way.[95](../../95/ "tree and pragmatics") So the chief told the young men that they might again try their luck for the young girls, and that whoever killed a white wolf with a black tail should have his daughters.[96](../../96/ "tree and pragmatics") All the men went out from the camp and built their wooden traps, and Nothing Child also went out and made a wooden trap.[97](../../97/ "tree and pragmatics") The next morning they all went out to visit their traps, and in almost all the traps they found something—wolves, foxes, badgers, and other animals.[98](../../98/ "tree and pragmatics") Some of the wolves were white all over, and some were white with gray tails, but no one had a white wolf with a black tail.[99](../../99/ "tree and pragmatics") The Nothing Child, with his grandmother, went out from the camp to his trap in a different direction from the rest, and in their trap they found a white wolf with a black tail.[100](../../100/ "tree and pragmatics") They took it into camp and to the chief’s lodge, and when he saw it he said that this was the wolf he wanted.[101](../../101/ "tree and pragmatics") Now all the young men in the camp were jealous of the Nothing Child, for it was certain that he would get the chief’s daughters for his wives.[102](../../102/ "tree and pragmatics") So they went to the chief and asked him to try his people once more, that they thought that the Nothing Child had not killed the wolf fairly.[103](../../103/ "tree and pragmatics") So the chief now said: “Whoever will bring me a white fox with a black-tipped tail shall have my daughters.[104](../../104/ "tree and pragmatics") This will be the last trial, and after this no one need complain.”[105](../../105/ "tree and pragmatics") The young men set their traps all over the prairie, but Nothing Child asked his grandmother to go with him, and he went to a place far from all the others and there set his trap.[106](../../106/ "tree and pragmatics") The next morning the young men all went out to look at their traps.[107](../../107/ "tree and pragmatics") Some had foxes and some had other animals, but when Nothing Child went to his trap, he found in it a white fox with a black-tipped tail, and when it was taken to the chief’s lodge he said that this was the fox he meant, and he told his daughters to get ready and go and marry the Nothing Child.[108](../../108/ "tree and pragmatics") The youngest girl was willing to do what her father ordered, but the elder was not.[109](../../109/ "tree and pragmatics") They put on their finest clothing and left their father’s lodge and started for Nothing Child’s home.[110](../../110/ "tree and pragmatics") As they walked along, the elder girl said to her sister, “I am not going to marry this child, to be laughed at by everybody.”[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") The younger sister said, “I am going to do what my father told me to.[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") It is better to do so.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") Besides that, the Nothing Child must be a very powerful person.[114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") See how many wonderful things he has done.”[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") The elder girl said, “Well, I am not going to his lodge.[116](../../116/ "tree and pragmatics") I am going to marry Masto pau (Raven Arrow).”[117](../../117/ "tree and pragmatics") This was a young man who had the power to turn himself into a raven whenever he wished.[118](../../118/ "tree and pragmatics") So the elder girl went her way to Raven Arrow, but the younger kept on towards Nothing Child’s lodge.[119](../../119/ "tree and pragmatics") When the girl came to the lodge and went in, the old woman told her to sit down.[120](../../120/ "tree and pragmatics") Nothing Child was playing at the back of the lodge.[121](../../121/ "tree and pragmatics") The girl said, “My father sent me to sit beside the person who killed the eagle, the white wolf with the black tail, and the white fox with the black-tipped tail.”[122](../../122/ "tree and pragmatics") Nothing Child said, “I am the person who did that, but I do not want any woman to sit beside me.”[123](../../123/ "tree and pragmatics") The girl answered: “My father sent me to sit beside you, and I shall stay here.[124](../../124/ "tree and pragmatics") I am not going home any more.”[125](../../125/ "tree and pragmatics") When the boy saw that the girl was resolved to stay, he said, “Very well, you shall be my wife.”[126](../../126/ "tree and pragmatics") So she stayed, and was pleasant and nice with the boy and played with him, and he liked her.[127](../../127/ "tree and pragmatics") She saw that he was very poor, but she seemed to take no notice of that.[128](../../128/ "tree and pragmatics") At this time the camp was very short of food.[129](../../129/ "tree and pragmatics") The young men scouted far and near over the prairie, but could find no buffalo.[130](../../130/ "tree and pragmatics") It was a hard time; everybody was hungry.[131](../../131/ "tree and pragmatics") One day Nothing Child said to his wife: “Now you stay here for a while.[132](../../132/ "tree and pragmatics") I am going away for a time.[133](../../133/ "tree and pragmatics") I am going to try to find a band of buffalo and bring them into camp.”[134](../../134/ "tree and pragmatics") He made ready for his journey and started.[135](../../135/ "tree and pragmatics") After he had travelled a long way he came to a wet, marshy place near the mountains, where in summer many buffalo had been.[136](../../136/ "tree and pragmatics") Here he gathered up buffalo chips, and made great piles of them in a row, and when he had finished, he went back some way, and then came running and shouting towards the piles of chips.[137](../../137/ "tree and pragmatics") When he got close to them he stopped, and then went back again, and again came running and shouting upon the chips, but nothing happened.[138](../../138/ "tree and pragmatics") He repeated this a third and a fourth time, and the fourth time, when he got near the piles, the chips turned into buffaloes and rushed off over the prairie, and Nothing Child ran them towards the camp and drove them over the cliff into the piś kun, so that once more the camp was supplied with meat.[139](../../139/ "tree and pragmatics") The next day Nothing Child told his wife to go to her father’s lodge for the day, and not to return until night.[140](../../140/ "tree and pragmatics") After the girl had gone he spoke to his grandmother and said: “Grandmother, you have seen what strange things I have done, and you can see that I have some power.[141](../../141/ "tree and pragmatics") That power which I have was given to me by a bear that has helped me, and because I have done just what he told me to I have been able to accomplish the things that you have seen me do.[142](../../142/ "tree and pragmatics") I do not know the secret of my power, but I know that I have it.[143](../../143/ "tree and pragmatics") Now, Grandmother, I want you to do something for me.[144](../../144/ "tree and pragmatics") I want you to take a rope and tie me by the feet to the lodge poles, so that I may hang head downward from the poles.[145](../../145/ "tree and pragmatics") I am little, and you can easily hold me up.”[146](../../146/ "tree and pragmatics") The old woman did as he had told her, and he hung there head downward.[147](../../147/ "tree and pragmatics") Pretty soon he opened his mouth, and a little piece of cowskin stuck out.[148](../../148/ "tree and pragmatics") Nothing Child took hold of this and began to pull on it, and more and more came out, and at last he had pulled out the whole of his old lodge, and then he pulled out the lining, and afterwards many of his old belongings.[149](../../149/ "tree and pragmatics") When he had eaten all these things they had been old, but now they were new and white, and finely ornamented.[150](../../150/ "tree and pragmatics") The lodge was painted, the woman’s clothing was beautifully worked with porcupine quills; there was a new full set of war clothing for himself—all very fine.[151](../../151/ "tree and pragmatics") After he had done this Nothing Child asked the old woman to untie him, and when he was on his feet again it was seen that he was no longer a child, but a full-grown man, very handsome.[152](../../152/ "tree and pragmatics") He told the old woman to set up the new lodge, and she did so.[153](../../153/ "tree and pragmatics") When his wife returned she was surprised to see all the new things.[154](../../154/ "tree and pragmatics") They looked strange to her.[155](../../155/ "tree and pragmatics") Also her husband, who, when she last saw him, was a small boy and rather ugly, was now a big, fine-looking man.[156](../../156/ "tree and pragmatics") The girl was pleased with the change, and now they lived together for a long time very happily.[157](../../157/ "tree and pragmatics") After a time Raven Arrow became jealous of Nothing Child because of his power, but Nothing Child did not notice this, and, because Raven Arrow was poor, he asked him to come and live with him in his lodge.[158](../../158/ "tree and pragmatics") He did so, and they lived together for some time, and now the elder daughter of the chief was sorry that she had not done as her father had told her to.[159](../../159/ "tree and pragmatics") One day, in the early summer, Nothing Child’s wife said to him, “Oh, how much I would like some fresh berries to eat!”[160](../../160/ "tree and pragmatics") He said to her: “Do you want some fresh berries?[161](../../161/ "tree and pragmatics") Well, now, go out and gather a lot of sarvis berry branches and bring them to me here in the lodge.”[162](../../162/ "tree and pragmatics") The woman did as he had told her, and brought in the bushes and threw them down on the floor of the lodge.[163](../../163/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Nothing Child took a tanned elk-skin and covered the bushes with it.[164](../../164/ "tree and pragmatics") In a short time he told his wife to take the skin off the brush, and when she did so she was astonished, for she found the twigs loaded with fine ripe berries, as though they were growing.[165](../../165/ "tree and pragmatics") Now, when Raven Arrow’s wife saw this she felt that she too would like some berries, and she asked her husband if he could do this.[166](../../166/ "tree and pragmatics") But he said: “No. It is useless for me to try to do things that I know I cannot do.[167](../../167/ "tree and pragmatics") I can change myself into a raven and can do many other things, but I cannot make ripe berries grow in the spring, nor can I do many other things that Nothing Child does.”[168](../../168/ "tree and pragmatics") After some time it happened that food again became scarce in the camp, and the chief sent word to his son-in-law, asking him if he could not again bring the buffalo into the camp, as he had done before.[169](../../169/ "tree and pragmatics") The hunters had been out and had travelled far over the prairie, but they could see nothing.[170](../../170/ "tree and pragmatics") Nothing Child sent word back that this was a hard thing he was asked to do; he feared he could not do it, but he would try.[171](../../171/ "tree and pragmatics") He made ready for his journey and started, travelling a long way looking for the buffalo, but he found none.[172](../../172/ "tree and pragmatics") He then went to the marsh where he had made buffalo before, and again made many little piles of buffalo chips in rows, and again went back some distance and then came charging down on the piles running and shouting.[173](../../173/ "tree and pragmatics") And the fourth time he did this the piles of chips changed into real buffalo and started running.[174](../../174/ "tree and pragmatics") And Nothing Child ran the herd over the cliff, as he had done before, and again the camp was supplied with meat.[175](../../175/ "tree and pragmatics") In this herd was one white buffalo.[176](../../176/ "tree and pragmatics") His wife met him at the cliff, and he told her that this white buffalo was hers.[177](../../177/ "tree and pragmatics") That she must be careful of the skin when she had taken it off.[178](../../178/ "tree and pragmatics") His wife told her husband that Raven Arrow had changed himself into a raven, and had flown away to look for buffalo, saying that if he found any he was going to drive them out of the country.[179](../../179/ "tree and pragmatics") This made Nothing Child angry, but he said nothing and waited.[180](../../180/ "tree and pragmatics") One day, as he was sitting by the fire, Raven Arrow, in the shape of a white raven, flew into the lodge and lit on the ground by him.[181](../../181/ "tree and pragmatics") When Nothing Child saw him he seized him and tied him by the feet to a lodge pole high up in the smoke and kept him there until he was nearly dead from the smoke.[182](../../182/ "tree and pragmatics") At last Nothing Child asked him if he would promise never again to drive the buffalo away from the people.[183](../../183/ "tree and pragmatics") Raven Arrow promised that he would never again do so, and Nothing Child untied him and let him down, when he changed into a man again.[184](../../184/ "tree and pragmatics") Up to that time ravens had always been white, but ever since the smoking that this raven got they have been black.[185](../../185/ "tree and pragmatics") Nothing Child and his wife lived to full age and always had plenty of everything.[186](../../186/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/15/) **2** - ← previous: [page 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/15/) - next →: [Shield Quiver’s Wife](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/16/) - ↑ back to [The Punishment of the Stingy, and Other Indian Stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66596/)