How Deer got His Antlers

[Robert Spiritwalker Murchison]

A long time ago, deer (a-wi) had no antlers whatsoever. His head was just as
bald as a doe's head with no antlers at all. And deer and rabbit started
arguing one day about who's the fastest. The rabbit (tsi-s-du) said, "I am
fastest." And A-wi the deer said, "No, I am fastest. Let's wager." Tsi-s-du
said, "Alright that is good, but what shall be the prize?" They thought for a
while and they thought, "I think a headdress like A-we-qua, the elk, would be
nice." And they both agreed.


So while the conjurers were talking with A-we-qua and the spirits to make
this marvelous prize for the race, Tsi-s-du and A-wi went out to set the
course. Tsi-s-du said, "I've never been in this area before. Perhaps I should
go and look to make sure where to go and what the landmarks are so I can get
back and it will be a fair race." They thought that was a good idea, so while
they were working on other things, Tsi-s-du went off. After a while Tsi-s-du
didn't come back, and the people said, "I wonder what that old rabbit is up
to? Maybe we'd better go see."


And they went out into the forest and found old rabbit was eating a hole
through the underbrush making a road so it would be easy for him to win the
race. They came back and told the animal people, "Rabbit is cheating. He is
making a road for himself."


They said, "That should not be." And all the animal people went to see, and,
sure enough, there was rabbit eating away at the underbrush. They said, "This
is no good. You have cheated, therefore there will be no race and the prize
will go to A-wi. He, the ga-la-gi-ni, the buck, will wear the headdress." And
that's how deer got antlers and why Tsi-s-du, to this day, eats the plants .
. . because that's what he did then.