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
Returning with his game on his shoulders one morning, he discovered his
wife perfuming herself with sweet pine, which she burned over the fire.
He suspected that she was thus making herself attractive for the
benefit of some one else, but, preserving silence, he told her that on
the following day he would set his spider-web at a greater distance, as
the game in the neighbouring forest was beginning to know the trap too
well. Accordingly he went farther afield, and caught a deer, which he
cut up, carrying part of its meat back with him to his lodge. He told
his wife where the remainder of the carcass was to be found, and asked
her to go and fetch it.
His wife, however, was not without her own suspicions, and, concluding
that she was being watched by {206} her husband, she halted at the top
of the nearest hill and looked back to see if he was following her.
But he was sitting where she had left him, so she proceeded on her way.
When she was quite out of sight the Indian himself climbed the hill,
and, seeing that she was not in the vicinity, returned to the camp. He
inquired of his children where their mother went to gather firewood,
and they pointed to a large patch of dead timber. Proceeding to the
clump of leafless trees, the man instituted a thorough search, and
after a while discovered a den of rattlesnakes. Now it was one of
these reptiles with which his wife was in love, so the Indian in his
wrath gathered fragments of dry wood and set the whole plantation in a
blaze. Then he returned to his lodge and told his children what he had
done, at the same time warning them that their mother would be very
wrathful, and would probably attempt to kill them all. He further said
that he would wait for her return, but that they had better run away,
and that he would provide them with three things which they would find
of use. He then handed to the children a stick, a stone, and a bunch
of moss, which they were to throw behind them should their mother
pursue them. The children at once ran away, and their father hung the
spider-web over the door of the lodge. Meanwhile the woman had seen
the blaze made by the dry timber-patch from a considerable distance,
and in great anger turned and ran back to the lodge. Attempting to
enter it, she was at once entangled in the meshes of the spider-web.
The Pursuing Head
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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