The Myths of the North American IndiansSpence, Lewis
History
The Myths of the North American Indians
Spence, Lewis
Indian mythology -- North America; Indians of North America -- Folklore
"Remember," she said, "that I shall have the power to recall you when I
please, for you will still be my husband. And above all do not marry
an Earth-woman, or you will taste of my vengeance."
The young man readily promised to respect her injunctions. So he went
to sleep, and awoke a little later to find himself lying on the grass
close by his father's lodge. His parents greeted him joyfully. He had
been absent, they told him, for more than a year, and they had not
hoped to see him again.
The remembrance of his sojourn among the Star-people faded gradually to
a dim recollection. By and by, forgetting the wife he had left there,
he married a young and handsome woman belonging to his own village.
Four days after the wedding she died, but Cloud-carrier failed to draw
a lesson from this unfortunate occurrence. He married a third wife.
But one day he was missing, and was never again heard of. His
Star-wife had recalled him to the sky.
The Snow-Man Husband
In a northern village of the Algonquins dwelt a young girl so
exquisitely beautiful that she attracted hosts of admirers. The fame
of her beauty spread far {160} and wide, and warriors and hunters
thronged to her father's lodge in order to behold her. By universal
consent she received the name of 'Handsome.' One of the braves who was
most assiduous in paying her his addresses was surnamed 'Elegant,'
because of the richness of his costume and the nobility of his
features. Desiring to know his fate, the young man confided the secret
of his love for Handsome to another of his suitors, and proposed that
they two should that day approach her and ask her hand in marriage.
But the coquettish maiden dismissed the young braves disdainfully, and,
to add to the indignity of her refusal, repeated it in public outside
her father's lodge. Elegant, who was extremely sensitive, was so
humiliated and mortified that he fell into ill-health. A deep
melancholy settled on his mind. He refused all nourishment, and for
hours he would sit with his eyes fixed on the ground in moody
contemplation. A profound sense of disgrace seized upon him, and
notwithstanding the arguments of his relations and comrades he sank
deeper into lethargy. Finally he took to his bed, and even when his
family were preparing for the annual migration customary with the tribe
he refused to rise from it, although they removed the tent from above
his head and packed it up for transport.
The Lover's Revenge
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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