Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906]New York State Historical Association. Meeting
History
Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906]
New York State Historical Association. Meeting
New York (State) -- History -- Periodicals; New York State Historical Association -- Periodicals
"In the sky above were man-beings, both male and female, who dwelt in
villages, and in one of the lodges was a man and woman, who were
down-fended, that is, they were secluded, and their lodge was
surrounded by the down of the cat-tail, which was a sign that no one
should approach them, nor were they allowed to leave this precinct.
The man became ill and stated that he would not get well until a
dogwood tree standing in his dooryard had been uprooted. So when his
people had uprooted the tree he said to his wife, 'Do thou spread for
me something there beside the place where stood the tree.' Thereupon
she spread something for him there and he then lay down on what she
had spread for him, and he said to his wife: 'Here sit thou, beside my
body.' Now at that time she did sit beside him as he lay there. Then
he said to her: 'Do thou hang thy legs down into the abyss.' For where
they had uprooted the tree there came to be a deep hole, which went
through the sky, and the earth was upturned about it.
"And while he lay there he recovered from his illness and turning on
his side he looked into the hole. After a while he said to his wife:
'Do thou look thither into the hole to see what things are occurring
there in yonder place.' And as she bent her body to look into the hole
he took her by the nape of the neck and pushed her and she fell into
the hole and kept falling into the darkness thereof. After a while she
passed through and as she looked about her, as she slowly fell, she
saw that all about her was blue in color and soon discovered that what
she observed was a vast expanse of water, on which floated all kinds
of water fowls in great numbers.
"Thereupon. Loon, looking into the water and seeing her reflection,
shouted, 'A man-being, a female is coming up from the depths of the
waters.' The Bittern, answering, said, 'She is not indeed coming up
out of the depths of the water, she is falling from above.' Thereupon
they held a council to decide what they should do to provide for her
welfare.
"They finally invited Great Turtle to come. Loon, thereupon, said to
him, 'Thou should float thy body above the place where thou art in the
depths of the water.' And then as Great Turtle arose to the surface,
a large body of ducks of various kinds arose from the face of the
water, elevated themselves in a very compact body, and went up to meet
her. And on their backs did she alight, and they slowly descended,
bearing her body on their backs, and on the back of Great Turtle they
placed her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account