Post by Mysti on Jul 3, 2007 11:32:32 GMT -5
svaha_storm : Long ago, in that far-off happy time when the world was new, and there were
no white people at all, only Indians and animals, there was a snake who was different from
other snakes
svaha_storm : he had big feet
svaha_storm : And the other snakes, because he was different, hated him, and made
life wretched for him
svaha_storm : Finally, they drove him away from the country where the snakes lived,
saying, "A good long way from here live other ugly creatures with feet like yours
svaha_storm : Go and live with them!" And the poor, unhappy Snake had to go away.
svaha_storm : For days and days, he travelled. The weather grew cold and food
became hard to find. At last, exhausted, his feet cut and frostbitten, he lay down on the
bank of a river to die.
svaha_storm : The Deer, E-se-ko-to-ye, looked out of a willow thicket, and saw the
Snake lying on the river bank. Pitying him, the deer took the Snake into his own lodge and
gave him food and medicine for his bleeding feet.
svaha_storm : The Deer told the Snake that there were indeed creatures with feet
like his who would befriend him, but that some among these would be enemies whom it would
be necessary to kill before he could reach safety.
svaha_storm : He showed the Snake how to make a shelter for protection from the
cold and taught him how to make moccasins of deerskin to protect his feet. And at dawn the
Snake continued his journey.
svaha_storm : The sun was far down the western sky, and it was bitter cold when the
Snake made camp the next night. As he gathered boughs for a shelter, Kais-kap the porcupine
appeared
svaha_storm : shivering he asked the snake can i shelter with you tonight
svaha_storm : The Snake said, "It's very little that I have, but you are welcome to
share it."
svaha_storm : "I am grateful," said Kais-kap, "and perhaps I can do something for
you. Those are beautiful moccasins, brother, but they do not match your skin.
svaha_storm : Take some of my quills, and make a pattern on them, for good luck."
So they worked a pattern on the moccasins with the porcupine quills, and the Snake went on
his way again.
svaha_storm : As the Deer had told him, he met enemies. Three times he was
challenged by hostile Indians, and three times he killed his adversary.
8spiritofthelynx is away.
svaha_storm : At last he met an Indian who greeted him in a friendly manner. The
Snake had no gifts for this kindly chief, so he gave him the moccasins.
svaha_storm : And that, so the old Ones say, was how our people first learned to
make moccasins of deerskin, and to ornament them with porcupine quills in patterns, like
those on the back of a snake
svaha_storm : And from that day on the Snake lived in the lodge of the chief,
counting his coup of scalps with the warriors by the Council fire and, for a long time, was
happy.
svaha_storm : But the chief had a daughter who was beautiful and kind, and the
Snake came to love her very much indeed. He wished that he were human, so that he might
marry the maiden, and have his own lodge
svaha_storm : He knew there was no hope of this unless the High Gods, the Above
Spirits took pity on him, and would perform a miracle on his behalf.
svaha_storm : So he fasted and prayed for many, many days. But all his fasting and
praying had no result, and at last the Snake came very ill.
svaha_storm : Now, in the tribe, there was a very highly skilled Medicine Man.
Mo'ki-ya was an old man, so old that he had seen and known, and understood, everything that
came within the compass of his people's lives, and many things that concerned the Spirits
svaha_storm : Many times, his lodge was seen to sway with the Ghost Wind, and the
voices of those long gone on to the Sand Hills spoke to him.
svaha_storm : Mo'ki-ya came to where the Snake lay in the chief's lodge, and
sending all the others away, asked the Snake what his trouble was. "It is beyond even your
magic," said the Snake, but he told Mo'ki-ya about his love for the maiden, and his desire
to become
svaha_storm : her husband
svaha_storm : Mo'ki-ya sat quietly thinking for a while. Then he said, "I shall go
on a journey, brother. Perhaps my magic can help, perhaps not. We shall see when I return."
And he gathered his medicine bundles and disappeared.
svaha_storm : It was a long and fearsome journey that Mo'ki-ya made. He went to the
shores of a great lake. He climbed a high mountain, and he took the matter to Nato'se, the
Sun himself.
svaha_storm : And Nato'se listened, for this man stood high in the regard of the
spirits, and his medicine was good. He did not ask, and never had asked, for anything for
himself, and to transform the Snake into a brave of the tribe was not a difficult task for
the Hig
svaha_storm : high gods
svaha_storm : The third day after the arrival of Mo'ki-ya at the Sun's abode,
Nato'se said to him, "Return to your own lodge Mo'ki-ya, and build a fire of small sticks.
svaha_storm : Put many handfuls of sweet-grass on the fire, and when the smoke
rises thickly, lay the body of the Snake in the middle of it."
svaha_storm : And Mo'ki-ya came back to his own land.
svaha_storm : The fire was built in the centre of the Medicine lodge, as the Sun
had directed, and when the sweetgrass smouldered among the embers, sending the smoke
rolling in great billows through the tepee
svaha_storm : Mo'ki-ya gently lifted the Snake, now very nearly dead, and placed
him in the fire so that he was hidden by the smoke
svaha_storm : The Medicine-drum whispered softly in the dusk of the lodge: the
chant of the old men grew a little louder, and then the smoke obscuring the fire parted
like a curtain, and a young man stepped out.
svaha_storm : Great were the rejoicings in the camp that night. The Snake, now a
handsome young brave, was welcomed into the tribe with the ceremonies befitting the
reception of one shown to be high in the favour of the spirits
svaha_storm : The chief gladly gave him his daughter, happy to have a son law of
such distinction.
svaha_storm : Many brave sons and beautiful daughters blessed the lodge of the
Snake and at last, so the Old ones say, his family became a new tribe-the Pe-sik-na-ta-pe,
or Snake Indians.
svaha_storm bows
no white people at all, only Indians and animals, there was a snake who was different from
other snakes
svaha_storm : he had big feet
svaha_storm : And the other snakes, because he was different, hated him, and made
life wretched for him
svaha_storm : Finally, they drove him away from the country where the snakes lived,
saying, "A good long way from here live other ugly creatures with feet like yours
svaha_storm : Go and live with them!" And the poor, unhappy Snake had to go away.
svaha_storm : For days and days, he travelled. The weather grew cold and food
became hard to find. At last, exhausted, his feet cut and frostbitten, he lay down on the
bank of a river to die.
svaha_storm : The Deer, E-se-ko-to-ye, looked out of a willow thicket, and saw the
Snake lying on the river bank. Pitying him, the deer took the Snake into his own lodge and
gave him food and medicine for his bleeding feet.
svaha_storm : The Deer told the Snake that there were indeed creatures with feet
like his who would befriend him, but that some among these would be enemies whom it would
be necessary to kill before he could reach safety.
svaha_storm : He showed the Snake how to make a shelter for protection from the
cold and taught him how to make moccasins of deerskin to protect his feet. And at dawn the
Snake continued his journey.
svaha_storm : The sun was far down the western sky, and it was bitter cold when the
Snake made camp the next night. As he gathered boughs for a shelter, Kais-kap the porcupine
appeared
svaha_storm : shivering he asked the snake can i shelter with you tonight
svaha_storm : The Snake said, "It's very little that I have, but you are welcome to
share it."
svaha_storm : "I am grateful," said Kais-kap, "and perhaps I can do something for
you. Those are beautiful moccasins, brother, but they do not match your skin.
svaha_storm : Take some of my quills, and make a pattern on them, for good luck."
So they worked a pattern on the moccasins with the porcupine quills, and the Snake went on
his way again.
svaha_storm : As the Deer had told him, he met enemies. Three times he was
challenged by hostile Indians, and three times he killed his adversary.
8spiritofthelynx is away.
svaha_storm : At last he met an Indian who greeted him in a friendly manner. The
Snake had no gifts for this kindly chief, so he gave him the moccasins.
svaha_storm : And that, so the old Ones say, was how our people first learned to
make moccasins of deerskin, and to ornament them with porcupine quills in patterns, like
those on the back of a snake
svaha_storm : And from that day on the Snake lived in the lodge of the chief,
counting his coup of scalps with the warriors by the Council fire and, for a long time, was
happy.
svaha_storm : But the chief had a daughter who was beautiful and kind, and the
Snake came to love her very much indeed. He wished that he were human, so that he might
marry the maiden, and have his own lodge
svaha_storm : He knew there was no hope of this unless the High Gods, the Above
Spirits took pity on him, and would perform a miracle on his behalf.
svaha_storm : So he fasted and prayed for many, many days. But all his fasting and
praying had no result, and at last the Snake came very ill.
svaha_storm : Now, in the tribe, there was a very highly skilled Medicine Man.
Mo'ki-ya was an old man, so old that he had seen and known, and understood, everything that
came within the compass of his people's lives, and many things that concerned the Spirits
svaha_storm : Many times, his lodge was seen to sway with the Ghost Wind, and the
voices of those long gone on to the Sand Hills spoke to him.
svaha_storm : Mo'ki-ya came to where the Snake lay in the chief's lodge, and
sending all the others away, asked the Snake what his trouble was. "It is beyond even your
magic," said the Snake, but he told Mo'ki-ya about his love for the maiden, and his desire
to become
svaha_storm : her husband
svaha_storm : Mo'ki-ya sat quietly thinking for a while. Then he said, "I shall go
on a journey, brother. Perhaps my magic can help, perhaps not. We shall see when I return."
And he gathered his medicine bundles and disappeared.
svaha_storm : It was a long and fearsome journey that Mo'ki-ya made. He went to the
shores of a great lake. He climbed a high mountain, and he took the matter to Nato'se, the
Sun himself.
svaha_storm : And Nato'se listened, for this man stood high in the regard of the
spirits, and his medicine was good. He did not ask, and never had asked, for anything for
himself, and to transform the Snake into a brave of the tribe was not a difficult task for
the Hig
svaha_storm : high gods
svaha_storm : The third day after the arrival of Mo'ki-ya at the Sun's abode,
Nato'se said to him, "Return to your own lodge Mo'ki-ya, and build a fire of small sticks.
svaha_storm : Put many handfuls of sweet-grass on the fire, and when the smoke
rises thickly, lay the body of the Snake in the middle of it."
svaha_storm : And Mo'ki-ya came back to his own land.
svaha_storm : The fire was built in the centre of the Medicine lodge, as the Sun
had directed, and when the sweetgrass smouldered among the embers, sending the smoke
rolling in great billows through the tepee
svaha_storm : Mo'ki-ya gently lifted the Snake, now very nearly dead, and placed
him in the fire so that he was hidden by the smoke
svaha_storm : The Medicine-drum whispered softly in the dusk of the lodge: the
chant of the old men grew a little louder, and then the smoke obscuring the fire parted
like a curtain, and a young man stepped out.
svaha_storm : Great were the rejoicings in the camp that night. The Snake, now a
handsome young brave, was welcomed into the tribe with the ceremonies befitting the
reception of one shown to be high in the favour of the spirits
svaha_storm : The chief gladly gave him his daughter, happy to have a son law of
such distinction.
svaha_storm : Many brave sons and beautiful daughters blessed the lodge of the
Snake and at last, so the Old ones say, his family became a new tribe-the Pe-sik-na-ta-pe,
or Snake Indians.
svaha_storm bows