“I take you, my child, that my relatives and children may be free from
sickness.”
Two more women knelt in front of the bundle. Then these four women
together imitated beavers, moving their bodies in time with the
chanting and drumming. They covered their heads to represent beavers
hidden in their den under the water. Then the imaginary beavers rose to
the surface of the water and swam around while working on their dams.
Mad Wolf brought forth a bag of beaver-gnawed-sticks and handed them to
the women. They held these sticks in their mouths, like beavers holding
branches. They made swimming motions with their hands, and imitated
beavers diving under the water, then coming to the surface and swimming
in the stream. They went out upon an imaginary bank; and sat upright as
if to cut down trees, brushing their faces with their hands as beavers
do with their paws; looking carefully around, always alert for danger.
The four women danced together round the tepee, with hands crossed on
their breasts. They kept turning and swaying their bodies in time with
the chanting and drumming of the beaver men. Mad Wolf handed a
beaver-skin to his wife who was at the head of the line. The singing
and drumming of the beaver men now became louder, while the women
circled the fire and gave the call of the beaver. Gives-to-the-Sun in
the lead held the beaver-skin under her robe and moved it as though it
were swimming round her waist and then round her neck. After she had
danced once round the tepee, she handed the skin to the woman next in
line, with the prayer:
“I do not give you away, my child (beaver), because I am tired of you,
but because the child of this woman is ill. May it be restored to
health!”
Catches-Two-Horses who received the skin prayed: “I take you, my child
(beaver), that my husband and children may be from sickness; may they
live to be old!”
She danced once round the tepee, with the skin across her shoulders.
Each of the other women took the skin in turn, and then it was returned
to the bundle.
The women held up two winter-skins of weasels. The weasel, that great
hunter, was included in the bundle, because of its power as a provider
of food to its family. Mad Wolf began the Weasel Song; the beaver men
beat with their rattles and joined in the song. White Calf, the
venerable head-chief, rose and took one of the skins. He held it to his
breast with a prayer, and then danced round the tepee. He blew on his
medicine whistle to represent the cry of the weasel, and imitated its
actions hunting for food. Finally he stopped in front of me and held up
the snow-white skin, so that all could see. There was silence as he
looked straight at me, and said earnestly:
“This is the white weasel, one of the sacred animals of our Beaver
Bundle. We name you ‘Á-pe-ech-e-ken’ (White-Weasel-Moccasin), because
your color is light and your eyes are blue. We pray this name may bring
you long life and good luck.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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