A Guide to MythologyClarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
General
A Guide to Mythology
Clarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
Mythology -- Juvenile literature
When the feast came to be served up and they were summoned to be in
attendance, one of them, a sprightly young fellow of an inquisitive turn
of mind, was found upon the roof of the lodge, with his head half way
down the smoke-hole, with a view to learn what they were to have for
dinner. Another, a middle-aged bear with very long arms, who was put in
charge of the children in the character of nurse, squeezed three or four
of the most promising young pappooses to death, while the mothers were
outside to look after the preparations; and another, when he should have
been waiting at the back of his master, had climbed a shady tree and was
indulging in his afternoon nap. And when, at last, the dinner was ready
to be served, they came tumbling in with the dishes, heels over head, one
after the other, so that one half of the feast was spread upon the ground
and the other half deposited out of doors, on the other side of the lodge.
After a while, however, by strict discipline and threatening to cut off
their provisions, the bear-servants were brought into tolerable control.
Yet Paup-puk-keewiss, with his ever-restless disposition, was uneasy;
and, having done so many wonderful things, he resolved upon a strict and
thorough reform in all the affairs of the village. To prevent future
difficulty he determined to adopt new regulations between the bears and
their masters.
With this view, he issued an edict that henceforward the bears should eat
at the first table, and that the Indians were to wait upon them; that
in all public processions of an honorable character the bears should go
first; and that when any fighting was to be done, the Indians should have
the privilege reserved of receiving the first shots. A special exemption
was made in behalf of Paup-puk-keewiss’s favorite and confidential
adviser, Pipe-bearer (who had been very busy in private recommending the
new order of things), who was to be allowed to sit at the head of the
feast, and to stay at home with the old women in the event of battle.
Having seen his orders strictly enforced, and the rights of the bears
over the Indians fairly established, Paup-puk-keewiss fixed his mind upon
further adventures. He determined to go abroad for a time, and having
an old score to settle with Manabozho, he set out with a hope of soon
falling in with that famous giant. Paup-puk-keewiss was a blood relation
of Dais Imid, or He of the Little Shell, and had heard of what had passed
between that giant and his kinsman.
After wandering a long time he came to the lodge of Manabozho, who was
absent. He thought he must play him a trick, and so he turned everything
in the lodge upside down and killed his birds, of which there was an
extraordinary attendance, for Manabozho is master of the fowls of the
air, and this was the appointed morning for them to call and pay their
court to him. Among the number was a raven, accounted the meanest of
birds, which Paup-puk-keewiss killed and hung up by the neck, to insult
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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