American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
It is among the big trees by the Yellowstone that Strike Axe meets
Moh-Kwa, the Wise Bear, while Moh-Kwa is hunting for a bee tree. But he
can’t find one, an’ he is sad an’ hungry an’ tells Strike Axe he fears
the bees have gone far away to live with the Pawnees.
But Strike Axe says “No!” an’ takes Moh-Kwa to a bee-tree he has found;
an’ Moh-Kwa sings in his joy, an’ climbs an’ eats until he is in pain;
while Strike Axe stands a long way off, for the bees are angry an’ their
knives are out.
Moh-Kwa is grateful to Strike Axe when his pain from much honey is gone,
an’ says he will come each day, an’ eat an’ fight with the bees while
there is honey left. An’ Moh-Kwa asks Strike Axe to remember that he
is the Great Wise Bear of the Yellowstone, an’ to tell him what is evil
with him so Moh-Kwa can do him good.
Strike Axe thinks very hard; then he tells Moh-Kwa how the Feather’s
heart is against him an’ has left him; he would know what the Feather
will do an’ where her heart has gone.
Moh-Kwa puts his paw above his eyes to keep out the sun so he can
think better; an’ soon Moh-Kwa remembers that the wife of the Great
Rattlesnake of the Rocks, when he met her hunting rats among the cliffs,
told him she was now a widow, for Yellow Face had killed the Great
Rattlesnake of the Rocks--who was his brother medicine--an’ fed his
heart to the Feather.
Moh-Kwa tells Strike Axe how the Feather was bewitched by Yellow Face.
“Come now with me,” said Moh-Kwa to Strike Axe, “an’ I will show you
what the Feather an’ Yellow Face do while you are gone. You are a young
buck an’ a good buck, an’ because of your youth an’ the kind deed you
did when you found for me the bees--to whom I shall go back an’ fight
with for more honey to-morrow and every day while it lasts--I will show
you a danger like a lance, an’ how to hold your shield so you may come
safe from it.”
Moh-Kwa took Strike Axe by the hand an’ led him up a deep canyon an’
into his cavern where a big fire burned in the floor’s middle for light.
An’ bats flew about the roof of Moh-Kwa’s cavern an’ owls sat on points
of rock high up on the sides an’ made sad talks; but Strike Axe being
brave an’ with a good heart, was not afraid an’ went close to the fire
in the floor’s middle an’ sat down.
Moh-Kwa got him a fish to eat; an’ when it was baked on the coals an’
eaten, brought him a pipe with kinnikinick to smoke. When that was done,
Moh-Kwa said:
“Now that your stomach is full an’ strong to stand grief, I will show
you what the Feather an’ Yellow Face do while you are gone; for they
make medicine against you an’ reach out to kill you an’ take your life.”
Moh-Kwa then turned over a great stone with his black paws an’ took
out of a hole which was under the stone, a looking glass. Moh-Kwa gave
Strike Axe the looking glass an’ said, “Look; for there you shall see
the story of what the Feather an’ the wicked Yellow Face do.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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