Owindia : a true tale of the MacKenzie River Indians, North-West America — John Shaqi
Owindia : a true tale of the MacKenzie River Indians, North-West AmericaBompas, Charlotte Selina
History
Owindia : a true tale of the MacKenzie River Indians, North-West America
Bompas, Charlotte Selina
Foundlings -- Fiction; Indians of North America -- Canada -- Fiction; Murder -- Fiction
offered none; for without attempting to stir or even look me in the
face, he smiled a ghastly smile, and muttered, 'It has done its work
then--well, I am glad! Look in your horse-saddle, and never provoke
me more.' I hesitated for a moment whether to loosen my hold upon the
man, and to believe so improbable a story; but on the whole I deemed
it better to do so. He had fulfilled his threat of revenge, and had
caused me months of suffering in body and mind; he knew me well
enough to be sure that I was in earnest when I told him that his life
would be forfeited if the spell were not removed. So I released my
hold and quitted the house. On cutting open my saddle I discovered
that the whole original lining had been removed and replaced by an
immense number of baneful roots and herbs, which I burnt on the spot.
How this evil deed had been effected I could not even surmise, but so
it was, and from that hour I was a different man--my mind recovered
its equilibrium, I was no longer affected by pain and distress of
body, or haunted by nightly visions. Those who smile at the
medicine-man, and are sceptical as to his power, may keep to their
own opinions; I believe that the Almighty has imbued many of His
creatures, both animate and inanimate, with a subtle power for good
or evil, and that it is given to some men to evoke that power and to
bring about results which it is impossible for the uninitiated to
foresee or to avert!"
But we have wandered too far from Accomba and her sad history. We
must now transport the reader to that portion of the shores of the
Mackenzie which was described at the opening of our story. The scene
indeed should be laid a few miles lower down the river than that at
first described, but the aspect and condition of things is but little
altered. A number of camps are there, pitched within some ten,
twenty, and thirty yards of each other. The dark brown, smoke-tinted
leather tents or lodges, have a certain air of comfort and
peacefulness about them, which is in no wise diminished, by the smoke
curling up from the aperture at the top, or the voices of children
running in and out from the tent door. These are the tents of
Mackenzie River Indians, speaking the Slave tongue, and mostly known
by name to the Company's officers at the neighbouring forts or
trading posts, known also to the Bishop and Clergy at the Mission
stations, who have often visited these Indians and held services for
them at their camps, or at the little English churches at Fort
Simpson, Fort Norman, etc. etc., and those little dark-eyed children
are, with but few exceptions, baptized Christians. Many of them have
attended the Mission Schools for the few weeks in Spring or Fall,
when their parents congregate round the forts; they can con over
portions of their Syllabic Prayer-books, and find their place in the
little Hymn books, for "O come, all ye faithful," "Alleluia! sing to
Jesus;" and "Glory to thee, my God, this night," while such anthems
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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