American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
Forked Tongue travels fast; an’ as he runs by the lodge of the
Firelight, while it is a new lodge to him, he does not pause, for the
lodge is closed so that the light will not trouble Running Water where
he lies asleep with his head in the lap of the Firelight.
Moh-Kwa, the Wise Bear, is behind a tree as Forked Tongue trots past,
an’ he laughs deep in his hairy bosom; for Moh-Kwa likes revenge, an’ he
remembers how he was cheated of his bowl of molasses.
Forked Tongue runs by Moh-Kwa like a shadow an’ never sees him, an’
cannot hear him laugh.
When Forked Tongue comes to the hunters, they put their hands on him an’
tie him to the peeled pine tree. As they dance an’ shout an’ pile the
brush an’ wood about him, Forked Tongue glares with eyes full of fear
an’ asks: “What is this to mean?” The hunters stop dancing an’ say: “It
means that it is time to sing the death song.” With that they bring fire
from their camp an’ make a blaze in the twigs an’ brush about Forked
Tongue; an’ the flames leap up as if eager to be at him--for fire hates
a liar--an’ in a little time Forked Tongue is burned away an’ only the
ashes are left an’ the big bones, which are yet white hot.
The sun is sinking when Running Water wakes an’ he is much dismayed;
but the Firelight cheers him with her dark eyes, an’ Moh-Kwa comes from
behind the tree an’ gives him good words of wisdom; an’ when he has
once more eaten an’ drunk an’ smoked, he kisses the Firelight an’ goes
forward to the hunters as the Ugly Elk said.
[Illustration: 0055]
An’ when he comes to them, he asks:
“Have you killed an’ cooked the deer which was sent you by the Ugly
Elk?” An’ the hunters laugh an’ say: “Yes; he is killed an’ cooked.”
Then they take him to the peeled pine tree, an’ tell him of Forked
Tongue an’ his fate; an’ after cooling a great shin-bone in the river,
they wrap it in bark an’ grass an’ say:
“Carry that to the Ugly Elk that he may know his deer is killed an’
cooked.”
While he is returning to Ugly Elk much disturbed, Moh-Kwa tells Running
Water how Forked Tongue made his evil plan; an both Running Water when
he hears, an’ Ugly Elk when he hears, can hardly breathe for wonder. An’
the Ugly Elk cannot speak for his great happiness when now that Running
Water is still alive an’ has not made a joke of his ugliness nor
laughed. Also, Ugly Elk gives Moh-Kwa that bowl of molasses of which
Forked Tongue would cheat him.
The same day, Moh-Kwa brings the Firelight to the lodge of Ugly Elk,
an’ she an’ Running Water are wed; an’ from that time she dwells in the
tepee of Running Water, even unto the day when he is named Kill-Bear an’
made chief after Ugly Elk is no more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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