United States or Paraguay ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Why is it bad when an Indian gives away all his goods for others? That is what a great potlatch is. When white men give us whiskey and it is drunk too much, then it is very bad. But Tyee will not have that for Tanana's feast. We will drink only quass , as my people made it before they learned evil drinks and fire-water, which make them crazy."
The gift-feast was held to be the noblest service that an Indian could render his race. At the great Potlatch he would not only give away his private goods, but would take leave of the chieftainship which he had held for half a century. It was his cherished desire to see Benjamin made chief.
"Wear it on your first journey into the larger world than this island, and do nothing in all your life that would make her regret, were she alive, to see it round your waist." So little Ta-la-pus set forth with his father and brother, well equipped for the great Potlatch, and the meeting of many from half a score of tribes.
I am going to trust the friendship of the old Chief of the Cascades, and he will never betray it." It was summer, and there was to be a great Indian Potlatch feast under the autumn moon. The Potlatch is a feast of gifts.
Her fears or instincts told her that the interview had reference to plots which were associated with the great Potlatch, now near at hand. She had heard the strange visitor say, "The moon is growing," and there was something shadowy in the very tone in which the words were spoken. Mrs. Woods sat down in her home of bark and splints all alone after Gretchen's departure.
All of which Minchúmina John had collected from the people in the cabin, and now presented to me as reason why he should be released from further service. I was loath to let him go until we were actually at the road-house described, but he wanted to go back to the lake for the potlatch then preparing, and said that two days' delay would bar him from the best of the festivities.
This custom of distributing property prevails more or less among all the northwestern tribes. The potlatch is usually preceded by a feast, also provided by the donor.
His kindly old eyes closed, and his lips moved noiselessly, for a space, then he said aloud: "Oh, that the white boys of my great city church knew and practiced half as much of self-denial as has this little pagan Indian lad, who has given up his heart's dearest because his father and the honor of his people required it." The Potlatch*
He loved them better than food, better than his tillicums, better than his life. The entire tribe arose. They said Shak-shak had the disease of greed; that to cure it he must give a great potlatch, divide his riches with the poorer ones, share them with the old, the sick, the foodless. But he jeered and laughed and told them No, and went on loving and gloating over his gold.
He seemed to wish to reserve the influence of the instrument for the Potlatch, to make it an object of wonder and veneration for a time, that its voice might be more magical when it should be heard. There was a kind of tambourine, ornamented with fan-like feathers, in the lodge. Fair Cloud used to play upon it, or rather shake it in a rhythmic way.
Word Of The Day