Donna Rosenberg - Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away lyrics

One day while her husband was away on a hunt, a pregnant woman was murdered. The murderer cut open the victim, removed twin sons, and disposed of them separately. The murderer threw one behind the curtain in the tepee and the other into the spring. The husband of the murdered woman returned home. As he sat eating dinner alone, his son Lodge-Boy, who had grown into a young boy, came out from behind the curtain and joined him. Thereafter, each day the father went out hunting, and each evening he returned to have dinner with his son. One night Lodge-Boy said, "Father, I would like you to make me two bows and two sets of arrows." His father made them and then hid to see how his son used the weapons. When he found Lodge-Boy playing with another boy of the same age, the father said, "Have your friend come and live with us!" Lodge-Boy replied, "I will try to do that if you will make me a rawhide set of clothing. My friend lives in the spring and has the sharp teeth of an otter. Catching him will be difficult!" The first day Lodge-Boy wore the rawhide suit, he enticed his brother, Thrown-Away, out of the spring by suggesting a game with the bows and arrows. In the course of an argument over the score, Lodge-Boy captured Thrown-Away and held him until their father arrived. Thrown-Away tried to bite Lodge-Boy, and the water in the spring flooded the land to aid him, but Lodge-Boy and their father were too strong. They carried Thrown-Away to the crest of a nearby hill, burned incense under his nose, and turned him into a human being. From that time on, both sons lived in the tepee with their father. One day the boys decided to go to their mother's burial place and revive her. When they said, "Mother, your hide chest and your stone pot are both falling!" she sat up. When they said, "Mother, your bone crusher is falling!" she began to fix her hair. Then she exclaimed, "I have been sleeping a long time!" She stood up and returned home with her sons. Another day the father said to his sons, "You may play wherever you wish, but do not go near the old woman who lives at the bend in the river. Whenever she sees a living creature, she tips her pot of boiling liquid in its direction. The creature is then pulled into her pot and boiled for her dinner." The boys immediately went to the bend in the river, found the old woman asleep by her boiling pot, tilted the pot toward her, and watched as she was pulled into her own pot and boiled to d**h. They brought the pot home as a gift for their mother. One day the father said to his sons, "You may play wherever you wish, but do not go over the hill." The boys immediately went over the hill, where they found a huge serpent that resembled an alligator. The serpent opened its enormous mouth and swallowed the boys, and they found many other people inside. Some were dying, and some were already dead. The boys k**ed the serpent by cutting out its heart. Then they sliced open a pa**ageway between its ribs, helped those who were still alive to escape, took a piece of the serpent's heart for their father, and returned home. Another day the father said to his sons, "You may play wherever you wish, but do not go near the three trees that stand in the form of a triangle. They bend their branches to the ground and k** whatever comes beneath them!" The boys immediately found the three trees. They ran toward them as if seeking the shade beneath their branches, but then they stopped short. The trees, expecting two victims, sent their branches crashing to the ground. The boys jumped on the bent branches and broke them so that they could never again rise and k** anyone. One day the father said to his sons, "You may play wherever you wish, but do not go near the man who lives on top of the cliff with deep water at its base. He pushes anyone who comes near him over the cliff to become a meal for his father, who lives in the deep water!" The boys immediately headed for the clifftop. As the man rushed toward them, the boys suddenly fell to the ground. The man could not stop running in time and fell off the cliff to become a meal for his father. Another day the father said to his sons, "You may play wherever you wish, but do not go near the man who wears fiery moccasins. Whenever he wants anything, he walks upon it and burns it!" The boys found the man and waited until he was asleep. They quietly stole his moccasins, and each boy put on one of them. Then they jumped on him, burned him to ashes, and carried the moccasins home. One day as the brothers were walking, they felt themselves being lifted up and transported to the high peak of a mountain that rose out of a large lake. There they found themselves face to face with Thunder-Bird, who said, "I need your help. A great otter who lives in the lake below us eats all the young I produce. Please k** it for me!" The boys prepared to k** the otter. First they made many arrows. Then they went down to the shore, built a fire, and heated many rocks. When the otter approached they shot their arrows into its open mouth, but the animal kept coming. They waited until it was within close range and then threw their hot rocks into its open mouth, k**ing it. Thunder-Bird thanked them and transported them back to their tepee, where they continued to live happily for many more years.