Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 8, 2025
"'Who says you are a witch? "'All my village, and especially Waba-mooin. I brought sickness on the village, and on you hunger and the breaking of your vow. "'I have seen Waba-mooin, I said. 'I do not think too much of his opinions. "'He is the Shaman of my village, said Nukewis. 'My father was Shaman before him, a much greater Shaman than Waba-mooin will ever be.
At that the girl sprang up and spread her arms between me and the people, crying something in her own tongue, but a stone struck her on the point of the shoulder. She would have dropped, but I caught her, I held her in my arms and looked across at the angry villagers and Waba-mooin. Suddenly power came upon me....
She crouched at my feet covering her face with her long hair. The people stood off without answering, and somebody raised a cry for Waba-mooin. It was tossed about from mouth to mouth until it reached the principal hut, and presently a man came swaggering out in the dress of a Medicine Man. He was older than I, but he was also fat, and for all his Shaman's dress I was not frightened.
No more stones struck me; the arrow of Waba-mooin went past me and stuck in an oak. My power was upon me. "I must have walked half the night, hearing the drums at Crooked Water scaring away evil influences. I would feel the girl warm and soft in my arms as a fawn, and then after a time she would seem to be a part of me. The trail found itself under my feet; I was not in the least wearied.
They ran for Waba-mooin, and when I saw him coming in all his Shaman's finery, I put on the old Medicine Man's shirt and his pipe and went out to smoke with him as one Shaman with another." The Onondaga laughed to himself, remembering. "It was funny to see him try to go through with it, but there was nothing else for him to do.
He wanted my father's Medicine bundle which hung over the door to protect me; my father left it to me when he died. But afterward there was a sickness in the village, and Waba-mooin said it was because the powerful Medicine bundle was left in the hands of an ignorant girl. He said for the good of the village it ought to be taken away from me.
But I thought it was because so many people came to my house with their sick, because of my Medicine bundle, and Waba-mooin missed their gifts. He said that if I was not willing to part with my father's bundle, that he would marry me, but when I would not, then he said that I was a witch! "'Where is the bundle now? I asked her. "'I hid it near our winter camp before we came into the mountains.
I knew by the way the girl stopped crying that she both knew and feared him. "The moment Waba-mooin saw her he turned black as a thunderhead. He scattered words as a man scatters seeds with his hand. I was too far to hear him, but the people broke out with a shower of sticks and stones.
But there was sickness in the mountains and Waba-mooin said that it also was my fault. So they drove me out with sticks and stones. That is why they would not take me back. "'Then, I said, 'when Waba-mooin goes back to the winter camp, he will find the Medicine bundle. "'He will never find it, she said, 'but he will be the only Shaman in the village and will have all the gifts.
I ought to have punished him a little for what he did to Nukewis, but my heart was too full of happiness and my Mystery. And perhaps it was punishment enough to have me staying there in the village with all the folk bringing me presents and neglecting Waba-mooin. I think he was glad when we set out for my own village in the Moon of the Sap Running.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking