The owner of a Medicine Pipe could force any one to purchase it,
regardless of the wishes of his victim, provided he could catch him. If
he found him asleep and touched him with the Pipe, he dared not resist;
death and ill luck were the penalties for refusing a Medicine Pipe.
But Big Spring had warning that Lone Chief was after him. He did not
want the care and expense of owning a Pipe. So he stayed away from his
tepee that night. The scouts could not find him and Lone Chief had to
make another choice.
Some medicine-pipe men were assembled in the lodge of Lone Chief. They
had opened his Pipe Bundle and were singing and drinking. They kept on
with the ceremony, waiting for their scouts to report favorably. Then
they would go forth together. In their actions they imitated the
grizzly bear, stealing quietly upon their victim, to take him by
surprise in the night, the way a bear does; because the power of the
Pipe came from the grizzly bear. They sang bear songs and imitated the
sound the grizzly makes when he charges, also owl songs to cast a spell
over their victim, so he could not escape; the owl is a bird of night
and its power also belongs to the Pipe. So Lone Chief and his friends
kept on with their ceremony throughout the night, awaiting their
scouts.
In the meantime, I returned to my lodge and lay down on my couch. That
night the noise and confusion of the camp kept every one in our tepee
awake. Even the baby, Tears-in-Her-Eyes, was restless in her little
hammock-bed. Strikes-on-Both-Sides sang to her, rocking the hammock,
singing over and over the old Indian cradle song: “Come, wolf, eat this
baby if she don’t sleep.”
It was clear moonlight. The dogs were restless, barking and fighting
and on foraging expeditions. Near midnight, a dog came silently into
our lodge and tried to steal a side of bacon, but Strikes-on-Both-Sides
followed him so closely he dropped his prize and fled yelping through
the door.
Then a party of young men came close to the lodge and gave a begging
dance, expecting me as the owner to make presents; it added to the
prestige of every lodge owner in the camp to have a reputation for
generosity. After we gave them food, they went to dance at another
tepee. In this way it was customary for a party to visit four places,
and then disband for the night.
Morning Plume’s lodge was so close I could hear every sound. His small
son was restless and bothered his aged grandmother. When the fire
burned low he was cold and began to cry. He wanted her to cover him
warmly. She was no sooner back in her own bed than he cried again for
water. This wakened his baby brother. So the mother sang a cradle song
and rocked him to sleep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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