The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and ManuscriptsSchoolcraft, Henry Rowe
History
The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and Manuscripts
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
Indians of North America
would get others from her entertainers farther on, who would also give
her directions how to proceed to recover her son. She thus followed in
the pursuit, from valley to valley, and stream to stream, for months and
years; when she came, at length, to the lodge of the last of the
friendly old Nocoes, or grandmothers, as they were called, who gave her
final instructions how to proceed. She told her she was near the place
where her son was, and directed her to build a lodge of shingoob, or
cedar boughs, near the old Toad-Woman's lodge, and to make a little bark
dish and squeeze her milk into it. "Then," she said, "your first child
(meaning the dog) will come and find you out." She did accordingly, and
in a short time she heard her son, now grown, going out to hunt, with
his dog, calling out to him, "Monedo Pewaubik (that is, Steel or Spirit
Iron,) Twee, Twee!" She then set ready the dish and filled it with her
milk. The dog soon scented it and came into the lodge; she placed it
before him. "See my child," said she, addressing him, "the food you used
to have from me, your mother." The dog went and told his young master
that he had found his _real_ mother; and informed him that the old
woman, whom he _called_ his mother, was not his mother, that she had
stolen him when an infant in his cradle, and that he had himself
followed her in hopes of getting him back. The young man and his dog
then went on their hunting excursion, and brought back a great quantity
of meat of all kinds. He said to his pretended mother, as he laid it
down, "Send some to the stranger that has arrived lately." The old hag
answered, "No! why should I send to her--the Sheegowish."[6] He
insisted; and she at last consented to take something, throwing it in at
the door, with the remark, "My son gives you, or feeds you this." But it
was of such an offensive nature, that she threw it immediately out after
her.
[6] _Sheegowiss_, a widow, and _mowigh_, something nasty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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