"In the old days, when Father Junipero and his small band of priests and
soldiers came into the wilderness of California, with the cross uplifted
in one hand, the sword grasped in the other, there lived on this island
where we now sit, a beautiful Indian maiden. Her name was a very long
one, and its meaning in our language is the Smile of the Morning. She
lived with the old chief, her father, in a wigwam, where also lived her
sisters and brothers and various of her cousins and distant relatives.
The old chief had many daughters, but the Smile of the Morning was his
favorite child; and she it was who cooked his food for him, when he did
not eat it raw, and brought him his bow and arrows when he started on a
hunting party. The sisters of the favorite daughter all found mates
among the sons of the tribe, but she lived alone with only the wild bird
in the madrone tree for her lover. Her sisters, each of whom carried a
pappoose upon her back, laughed at the Smile of the Morning, and said
that she would die without a husband; but the girl did not mind them.
She was taller, by a head, than any woman of the tribe; she could charm
the wild birds, and draw the feathers from their tails to make
head-dresses for the old chief and ornaments for herself; she could
dance war-dances like one of the braves, only with more grace; and when
she told the stories which the fishes in the river whispered to her, the
old chieftain nodded his head wisely and patted the girl on the
shoulder. She should find a husband in good time; but he must be as
much taller and stronger than the other men of the tribe, as she was
fairer and wiser than her sisters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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