Found In the Grass is a legend of the Algonquian-speaking nations of the Plains Indians and one of the most famous. The story is told in many different versions, but the best-known comes from the Cheyenne and features the child hero Mok-so-is and the trickster Wihio, famous from the Wihio tales.
Wihio appears in several Cheyenne stories as a villain, hero, wise man, fool, buffoon, or clown, and, in Found In the Grass, he provides comic relief as he keeps trying and sometimes succeeding in taking credit for the achievements of Mok-so-is. As in other Wihio tales, including Wihio and Coyote and The Wonderful Sack, Wihio fails in his objectives.
Wihio is a secondary character, however, as the focus of the piece is always on the magical child hero Mok-so-is ("Potbelly") a nickname given to Cheyenne children. Mok-so-is always appears in stories as a very young child who is capable of heroic action and has magical powers of transformation, appearing as an ugly boy or a handsome young man at will, and able always to find food – or create it magically – for the people who are in need. As in the story The Red Eagles, Mok-so-is is undeterred by others' doubts and, simply by trying what they claim is impossible, succeeds.
The story features several symbols and themes common to Cheyenne legend and lore, including the number four – considered sacred owing to its association with the four cardinal points of the compass – a young, poor boy who is usually an orphan, a village in need of help (usually with finding food or capturing some dangerous animal), and the cultural values of generosity, courage, and forgiveness. Mok-so-is never challenges any of Wihio's lies but instead forgives him, welcomes him into his home, and treats him as a member of his family, knowing that Wihio will eventually ruin himself simply because of who he is and his insistence on clinging to false values that cause him to place himself before others while Mok-so-is consistently places the good of the community ahead of his own interests, remaining humble even after saving the people from starvation.
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The following comes from By Cheyenne Campfires (1926) by anthropologist and historian George Bird Grinnell (l. 1849-1938), republished by University of Nebraska Press in 1971.
One day, Mok-so-is was playing with a number of boys when he said to them, "Look here, my friends, I am going to make a hoop and we will have races after it." He made one and all the others said, "The weather is perfectly still; it cannot go" for, when the wind is blowing, the hoop is sent with the wind and so often travels a long distance. The boys talked to one another and said, "We do not see how he is going to make it run."
Mok-so-is held the hoop in his hand and said, "Now, which of you will chase it first?" Because there was no wind, several said, "I will do it." After he had made four motions as if throwing it, Mok-so-is let it go and said to one of them, "Now follow it." As it left his hand, there came a little puff of wind. The first boy chased it a little way. Then the hoop fell over and he brought it back to Mok-so-is. The second time he threw it, he made the same motions, and it ran a little farther and a second boy brought it back. Mok-so-is took it in his hand a third time, and threw it, and another boy chased it and it went still farther before falling. The third boy came back saying, "That hoop runs pretty fast. I am all out of breath."
Before he threw it the fourth time, Mok-so-is said, "This time I will run after it myself." He said to the boys, "I am going to find another place to live in. Here, I am poor and have no mother to take care of me. You will not see me again for a long time." While he was talking, the wind blew still harder. He threw the hoop and ran after it till it sent over a big divide. They all watched for him, but he did not come back; they saw him no more.
The hoop led him to a big village. The lodges were planted in a circle and the hoop fell near one of the smallest in the circle. As Mok-so-is was tired, he lay down among the tall grass. A very old man and an old woman came out of this little lodge to cut some grass and began to work near Mok-so-is. He called to the old woman, saying, "Grandmother, do not hit me." The old woman took him by the hand, saying, "Why, I might have hit my grandson!" He said, "What is the news, grandmother?" and she said: "It is very bad. Everybody is starving for we have nothing to eat in the village." Mok-so-is said, "I will go with you to your lodge." The old woman's lodge was little and old – nearly worn out.
When she took Mok-so-is into the lodge, she said, "I do not know what I can give you to eat. I have nothing for you." Mok-so-is said, "Put a kettle on the fire and cook me some pounded – pulverized – roots." The old woman put on the kettle and said, "I do not see where I am to get you that mush." He said, "Go on, it will be well." He took a handful of ashes and put them in the kettle and said, "Now, cook it." When she commenced stirring it, the old woman saw the mush begin to thicken. The old man was delighted to see Mok-so-is do such a thing. When the mush was cooked, the old woman put it in three wooden bowls, and they all had as much as they could eat. After eating, Mok-so-is said, "Grandmother, is there any news at all in the village?"
The old woman said: "Well, I will tell you. The chief of this village has a handsome younger daughter. He is anxious to get a real red fox and he says that anyone who can trap one for him shall have his daughter in marriage." Mok-so-is said: "Is that true, grandmother? I think I am the one who will catch one. I will make one or two dead falls." His grandmother said, "My grandson, I do not think you can catch it. Everybody has tried," but Mok-so-is said, "Well, I shall try my luck."
The other young men had their traps all about outside the camp. Mok-so-is went out and fixed his trap not far from some of these. One of the young men said to him: "What are you doing? You will not be able to catch the red fox."
Wihio was living in this camp. He said to Mok-so-is, "You are too ugly to catch the red fox anyway." Mok-so-is had a fine piece of fat meat for his bait and, early next morning, when he went out to look at his traps, he found the red fox in one of them and brought it to the village and everybody ran to see it. Wihio said, "Oh, I caught that and Mok-so-is took it from one of my traps." The chief called out and said: "I believe that Wihio caught that fox. I wouldn't have Mok-so-is for my son-in-law anyway. He is too ugly." He said to his solders, "Go and take that fox away from Mok-so-is." A part of them went to take the fox away. Mok-so-is pulled some of the hair from the fox skin and hid it and gave up the fox, and they took it back and the chief hung it as a token on the top of his lodge. As soon as it was hung up, it turned white and was not a red fox anymore. When Mok-so-is looked under the robe where he had hidden the hair, there was another red fox skin.
Mok-so-is said to the old man he lived with: "Grandfather, make me a bow and arrows. The camp has nothing to eat, and I want to get something." His grandfather said, "What are you going to do with them?" Mok-so-is said, "Go on and make them. I will show you." The old man made them and Mok-so-is told him to paint two of the arrows black. After they were finished, Mok-so-is said, "Grandmother, make me a wheel for the game of wheel-and-stick." The old woman said, "I have no rawhide to make it of." Mok-so-is said, "Go around among some of the lodges and see if you can't find some." She went out and found some pieces and, when she returned, said to Mok-so-is, "Now that I have got it, see what you can do." He said, "Go ahead and make it. Cut the hide into strips and make the wheel." The old woman began it and soon it was finished. Then Mok-so-is said, "Hand that to the old man." Mok-so-is had the bow and arrows in his hand and was pulling on the bow to see if it was good, well-made, and strong.
All three were in the little lodge alone, no one else knew anything about it. Mok-so-is said to the old man, "You and grandmother are old and, If I were to make a big buffalo, you could not chew it. It would be too tough for you." Then he told the old man to roll the wheel and said, "Grandfather, make the motion to throw the wheel four times and, as you let it go the fourth time, say `Grandson, here comes a two-year-old heifer'." When he rolled the wheel, the old man said, "My grandson, here comes a two-year-old heifer." As the wheel passed, Mok-so-is shot it and it turned into a two-year-old heifer and fell down inside the lodge. Then he said, "Go ahead now and cut it up." He stepped out of the lodge and there near the door was a pile of ashes. He kicked the ashes up into the air and, at once, a big snowstorm began. He did that so that nobody would know about the buffalo in the lodge. They cut up the meat and the little lodge was filled with the cut-up meat drying. No one outside knew anything about it. It snowed hard for four days.
Somehow, Mok-so-is must have exercised his power, for the chief's daughter came to the lodge to visit. When she came in, she was surprised to see the little old lodge full of meat. Mok-so-is said, "Grandmother, giver her all she wants to eat." He spat toward the fire, and there dropped from his mouth an ar-ri-cas – a sort of shell highly prized and found by the big lakes. She picked it up and was very much pleased with it. She said, "Mok-so-is, spit again." He did so and another shell fell. Mok-so-is was so ugly that nobody thought he could do such things. He kept spitting till she had a whole handful and she said, "I will wear them in my ears." She tied them up and, when she looked at the boy, he had turned into a handsome young man. She hung her head and looked down and, when she raised her eyes again, he had changed again and was very ugly.
Mok-so-is told his grandmother to give the girl some meat to take home to her people – for he liked her. He told his grandmother to go over to the lodge where the girl lived, taking with her a small piece of buffalo fat. The old woman said, "Oh, I am so old, ugly, and poor, they will order me out of the lodge." But he said, "Go ahead." He also said to her, "Now, when you come out of the chief's lodge, drop the bit of fat. When they see you drop it, they will tell you you have dropped something. Then you must tell them it is the fat that Mok-so-is uses to grease his face and eyes with."
The old woman went to the chief's lodge as he had told her and, when she dropped the fat, all cried out, saying, "Give me that. Let me have it."
When the old woman returned to the lodge, Mok-so-is said to her, "Now, take some of this buffalo meat to them and also this red fox and give it to the chief." Then the old woman took the meat on her back and also the red fox skin on top, so that everybody could see it. She went to the lodge and went in with the red fox skin on top of the meat and said, "My grandson has sent you this. Now he wants to marry your daughter." When the old woman came back, she told Mok-so-is that everything was well.
They had the lodge put up for him and, when night came, Mok-so-is said, "Now I will go over and take possession." He went over to the lodge and, when he entered, the girl was in there by herself sitting on the bed. He had become a fine-looking man, and she recognized him, for she had seen him look like that once before.
Mok-so-is said, "You go and tell your father to come over to this lodge." When his father-in-law arrived, he told him to go out and cry through the village that Mok-so-is was going out to look for food.
When daylight came, Mok-so-is started out to look for buffalo and went over a big hill. The snow had melted from the ground except in a few spots. He set to work to collect a large pile of buffalo chips and piled them together in one place; then he took two of the chips and set them at some distance on one side of the pile.
When he returned to his lodge, he said to his wife, "Go and tell your father that there is a big herd of buffalo on the other side of that hill." His father-in-law went out and cried through the camp that there was a big herd of buffalo on the other side of the hill. Wihio said, "Why, I went up on that hill and saw the buffalo. This boy saw them after I did."
Everybody went out after the buffalo. After all had left the camp, Mok-so-is started with his wife. He said, "They will kill all those buffalo, but let us go this way." He said to his wife, "We will go this way" – meaning to the place where he had laid the two chips. They found two big fat cows lying there and he killed them, and his wife began to cut them up. Wihio got nothing but an old bull which he had killed because it looked so large. Everybody else got good meat. Mok-so-is and his wife returned among the last to camp. He and his wife had each a red bird skin tied on the head and looked very fine.
Wihio went up to Mok-so-is and said he wanted to be his friend and Mok-so-is said this would please him. Wihio then said, "I want to come over with my wife to your lodge." Mok-so-is said, "It is good; you just come over and we will live in the same lodge." So, Wihio and his wife moved in with Mok-so-is and placed their bed on the opposite side of the lodge.
One night, Mok-so-is said, "I am going over to see my grandfather and grandmother. So not be uneasy or frightened when I come back late tonight." When he returned, his steps sounded very loud and sparks of fire flashed all around him and, when he went to bed, they could see the sparks flying out all over him.
Next morning, Mok-so-is said, "I am going out again to look for buffalo." Wihio said, "I also will go." He started out ahead of Mok-so-is but went too far. Mok-so-is went out soon after, picked up buffalo chips as before, and went back to his lodge and told his wife to tell her father that another herd of buffalo was in pretty nearly the same place as before.
His father-in-law again called out through the village that there was a big herd of buffalo there again and that everyone should get ready and go out. Everybody went out to the herd and Mok-so-is and his wife went to the same place to which they had gone before. When he started, he tied the two red birds on his and his wife's head again. Meantime, Wihio, who had returned, went out and caught two woodpeckers and tied one on his head and one on his wife's head, just as Mok-so-is had done with the red birds. He and his wife rushed out with the woodpeckers tied to their heads. Mok-so-is and his wife came back loaded with meat and the red birds came to life and flew around over their heads. Wihio's woodpeckers also came to life and pecked his wife's head till her scalp was all torn to pieces.
That night, Wihio said, "I am going out, so do not be alarmed if I come in late." The morning after Mok-so-is had gone out at night, Wihio had seen the tracks of a buffalo bull coming toward the lodge so, this night when he came back, he tied buffalo hoofs on his hands and feet and put coals of fire around so that they would sparkle when he moved or lay down.
Sometime after that, Mok-so-is announced that he was going back to where he came from and said his name would be "Found in the Grass" – Mio in Ihko.
