<>THE LEGEND OF THE SONG DOGS<>
The earthen long house was so warm and comfortable, sitting around the crackling fire with all elders and people of the tribe. The long winter nights pass with the much laughter and story telling and sharing of one�s experiences that happened in the months of spring and summer and fall.
The Legend Keeper/Storyteller was sitting and enjoying the fire, napping and nodding off as one of the warriors told of a counting coup party on nearby tribe. When he had finished, and the talking and congratulations were through, the silence that followed was filled with the songs of coyotes as they frolicked through the forest, some distance away. As everyone was listening to the music of the coyotes, a small voice from somewhere around the fire said, �Grandfather, tell the story of the Song Dogs, please.�
The Legend Keeper/Storyteller snorted awake, as one of the women gently squeezed his arm to alert him of the request for another story.
Everyone tried not to laugh, but the snort was really loud indeed! The woman leaned over and whispered in his ear the name of the story that was asked.
The Elder collected himself, despite the blush of embarrassment in his checks and face. �Yes, very well.� Said the old one, again shifting his position. �Long ago, during the time when Earth Mother was very young and all was fresh and new made by the Great Spirit hands, there was a special time when our four legged brothers and sisters, winged ones, ones that crawl, ones that swim, the trees and plants and all of nature could talk in one voice as we do now.
During this time, the spirit of love and the spirit of song were strongest; they were two young spirits that loved each other very much. These two grew up together, loving the other more each day.�
�Soon their hearts swelled with that special love that is felt only between lovers. They began to sing such a song that could be heard all over the forest. Even into the little village, the people would look at each other with a smile and say, �It�s the Lovers again.�
�Now deep in the forest, in the darkest part, where no breeze stirred, there lived a lonely and unhappy medicine man, whose wife had died many years ago. By now, his heart was empty and cold.� �Every day he could hear the lovers song. And every day his hatred and envy grew. Finally on one special day their songs were so beautiful, he could not stand his pain of remembrance of the loss his wife, and the utter loneliness no longer.�
�The medicine man began to gather certain herbs together, along with certain items to create a potion, not of good medicine to help heal, but one that would supposedly do harm to the lovers to stop their happiness and song!�
�The medicine man came out from his part of the forest where no breeze ever stirred, and found the two lovers embraced in each other�s arms sitting on a log. � The medicine man threw the bad medicine upon them both at the same time, saying �You both shall always run in the forest, but not on two legs, and there will be no lovers words for your lovers songs!� �
�At that moment there was such a silence in the forest, then in a blink of an eye the lovers had changed! They looked at each other in amazement, for they had changed into dogs. But no ordinary dog, their sleek trim bodies now had golden fur streaked with black, topped with silver. As their sparkling eyes beheld the others beauty, their hearts swelled even more with love. They again rose their voices in a lovers song, but it also changed now more beautiful than before.�
�So on nights like tonight, when off in a distance you hear the song dogs, you will know it�s the lovers frolicking in the forest and singing of their eternal love one for another.�
�As far as what happened to the medicine man, because his heart was of stone, and that he chose to do evil instead of good, the Great Spirit of all Creation turned him into the a stone. This certain gray stone, we now can find in our mountains of the lands of our people. In our language we have no word for it, but in the sky eyes language it is called granite.�
<>THE END<>
