Oowikapun, or, How the Gospel reached the Nelson River IndiansYoung, Egerton Ryerson
History
Oowikapun, or, How the Gospel reached the Nelson River Indians
Young, Egerton Ryerson
Indians of North America -- Missions -- Fiction
Startled and confounded at this reply, given in such decided tones by
this maiden, Oowikapun, in spite of all his efforts to appear unmoved,
felt abashed before her, and his eyes fell under her searching gaze.
Recovering himself as well as he could, he said: "Will the fair maiden
please tell me what she means?"
"Yes," she answered. "What she means is that she is very much surprised
that a man who for days has been a guest in the wigwam of Memotas and
Meyooachimoowin, and who has heard their songs and prayers to the Good
Spirit, should again be found in the circle of the devil dance."
"How do you know I was with Memotas?" he replied.
"From your own lips," she answered. "I was with the maidens, with only
a deerskin partition dividing us from the place where you told the men
of your battle with the wolf, and of Memotas's love and words about the
book of heaven and the Good Spirit to you. And yet," she added, and
there was a tinge of sorrow in her voice, "after having heard all that,
you went to the old bad way again."
Stung by her words so full of reproof, he retorted with some bitterness:
"And you and the other maidens goaded me on to the dance."
With flashing eyes she drew herself up proudly, and said: "Never! I
would have died first. It was a lie of the conjurers, if they said
anything of the kind."
A feeling of admiration, followed by one of almost envy, came over him
as he listened to the decided words, uttered with such spirit, and he
heartily wished some of it had been his when tempted to join in the
dance of sin. With the consciousness of weakness and with his proud
spirit quelled, he said: "Why are you of this mind? How is it that you
know so much about the white man's way? Did I not see you in the wigwam
of Kistayimoowin, the chief, whose brother is the great medicine man of
the tribe? How is it that you, the chief's daughter and the conjurer's
niece, should have such different thoughts about these things?"
Her answer, which was a little bit of her family history, was as
follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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