A Guide to MythologyClarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
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A Guide to Mythology
Clarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
Mythology -- Juvenile literature
“Hold!” cried the West. “My son, you know my power, and although I allow
that I am now fairly out of breath, it is impossible to kill me. Stop
where you are, and I will also portion you out with as much power as your
brothers. The four quarters of the globe are already occupied, but you
can go and do a great deal of good to the people of the earth, which is
beset with serpents, beasts, and monsters, who make great havoc of human
life. Go and do good, and if you put forth half the strength you have
to-day you will acquire a name that will last forever. When you have
finished your work I will have a place provided for you. You will then go
and sit with your brother, Kabinocca, in the North.”
Manabozho gave his father his hand upon this agreement. And parting from
him, he returned to his own grounds, where he lay for some time sore of
his wounds.
These being, however, greatly allayed, and soon after cured by his
grandmother’s skill in medicines, Manabozho, as big and sturdy as ever,
was ripe for new adventures. He set his thoughts immediately upon a war
excursion against the Pearl Feather, a wicked old Manito, living on the
other side of the great lake, who had killed his grandfather. He began
his preparations by making huge bows and arrows without number; but he
had no heads for his shafts. At last Noko told him that an old man, who
lived at some distance, could furnish him with such as he needed. He
sent her to get some. She soon returned with her wrapper full. Manabozho
told her that he had not enough, and sent her again. She came back with
as many more. He thought to himself, “I must find out the way of making
these heads.”
Instead of directly asking how it was done, he preferred—just like
Manabozho—to deceive his grandmother to come at the knowledge he desired,
by a trick. “Noko,” said he, “while I take my drum and rattle, and sing
my war-songs, do you go and try to get me some larger heads, for these
you have brought me are all of the same size. Go and see whether the old
man is not willing to make some a little larger.”
He followed her at a distance as she went, having left his drum at the
lodge, with a great bird tied at the top, whose fluttering should keep
up the drumbeat, the same as if he were tarrying at home. He saw the old
workman busy, and learned how he prepared the heads; he also beheld the
old man’s daughter, who was very beautiful; and Manabozho now discovered
for the first time that he had a heart of his own, and the sigh he heaved
passed through the arrow-maker’s lodge like a gale of wind.
“How it blows!” said the old man.
“It must be from the south,” said the daughter; “for it is very fragrant.”
Manabozho slipped away, and in two strides he was at home, shouting forth
his songs as though he had never left the lodge. He had just time to free
the bird which had been beating the drum, when his grandmother came in
and delivered to him the big arrow-heads.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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