Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical SketchDenig, Edwin Thompson
History
Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch
Denig, Edwin Thompson
Assiniboine Indians; Indians of North America -- Missouri River Valley
The brothers on their return from hunting missed their sister and
suspecting the cause of her departure followed the tracks and arrived
outside the lodge where they found their sister nearly frozen to death.
After wrapping her in a robe, and she had somewhat recovered, the
eldest brother said, “Go back into the lodge and tell them a story in
return.” She entered and said, “I come to tell a tale. There was once
a woman coaxed off and forced to follow a strange man. She came to a
lodge of strangers, who instead of protecting her, robbed her of all
her clothing and threw her out in the snow to die. Such men have no
hearts.” On concluding, the hearts of all the Indians inside flew out
of their mouths and stuck to the lodge poles outside, where they were
cut to pieces by the brothers. She left with her brothers for their
home, but got separated from them in a snow storm and wandered every
way, she know not whither. In the end, after a long time she came to a
large house of iron with flames of fire coming out of the chimney. She
feared to enter. “Come in,” said the master of the house. “If I enter,
how shall I be treated? What relation shall I bear to you?” “I will be
your brother,” he said. “No,” was the answer. “I will be your father.”
“No,” was again the answer. “Your uncle,” “your friend,” still “no”
was her answer. “I will be your husband.” This time she replied “Yes,”
the large iron doors flew open and she entered, they closing violently
behind her.
The inhabitant was a large, ugly man, and the interior of the building
was strewn with human carcasses half devoured in their raw state.
He was the first cannibal! The woman would have fled but could not,
and was compelled to become his wife according to her promise. He
treated her badly and although not forcing her to eat human flesh
was continually devouring it himself. They lived as man and wife
for a length of time, during which she had a male child by him. The
brothers had never given up the search for their lost sister, and in
the course of their travels for that purpose came to the house of the
cannibal during his absence. The woman let them in and recognized them.
The child was beginning to speak a few words, and among the first
he pronounced were: “Mother, what fine, fat men; kill one of them
that I may eat some good meat.” The brothers stared—the child was a
cannibal! “You little fool,” said the mother, “would you eat your own
uncle?” The brothers held a council with their sister as to the way the
cannibal being could be killed and she undertook his destruction. It
appears this being had the power of coming into his house any way he
chose, through the floor, through the walls, or any other manner, and
the only vulnerable part of him was a cavity in the top of his head,
not protected by the bone of the skull. She heated a stone red hot,
and when the cannibal as usual was coming up through the floor, head
foremost, she threw the stone into the hole in his head and burned up
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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