last came into the lodge, I immediately fell down, but I did not lose
myself as before. I can remember seeing the thick and sparkling coat of
frost on the inside of the pukkwi lodge, and hearing my mother say that
she had kept a large fire in expectation of my arrival; and that she had
not thought I should have been so long gone in the morning, but that I
should have known long before night of her having moved. It was a month
before I was able to go out again, my face, hands, and legs having been
much frozen.
There is, on the bank of the Little Saskawjewun, a place which looks
like one the Indians would always choose to encamp at. In a bend of the
river is a beautiful landing-place, behind it a little plain, a thick
wood, and a small hill rising abruptly in the rear. But with that spot
is connected a story of fratricide, a crime so uncommon that the spot
where it happened is held in detestation, and regarded with terror. No
Indian will land his canoe, much less encamp, at '_the place of the two
dead men_.' They relate that many years ago the Indians were encamped
here, when a quarrel arose between two brothers, having she-she-gwi for
totems.[1] One drew his knife and slew the other; but those of the band
who were present, looked upon the crime as so horrid that, without
hesitation or delay, they killed the murderer, and buried them together.
As I approached this spot, I thought much of the story of the two
brothers, who bore the same totem with myself, and were, as I supposed,
related to my Indian mother. I had heard it said that, if any man
encamped near their graves, as some had done soon after they were
buried, they would be seen to come out of the ground, and either re-act
the quarrel and the murder, or in some other manner so annoy and disturb
their visitors that they could not sleep. Curiosity was in part my
motive, and I wished to be able to tell the Indians that _I_ not only
stopped, but slept quietly at a place which they shunned with so much
fear and caution. The sun was going down as I arrived; and I pushed my
little canoe in to the shore, kindled a fire, and, after eating my
supper, lay down and slept. Very soon I saw the two dead men come and
sit down by my fire, opposite me. Their eyes were intently fixed upon
me, but they neither smiled nor said anything. I got up and sat opposite
them by the fire, and in this situation I awoke. The night was dark and
gusty, but I saw no men, or heard any other sound than that of the wind
in the trees. It is likely I fell asleep again, for I soon saw the same
two men standing below the bank of the river, their heads just rising to
the level of the ground I had made my fire on, and looking at me as
before. After a few minutes, they rose one after the other, and sat down
opposite me; but now they were laughing, and pushing at me with sticks,
and using various methods of annoyance. I endeavoured to speak to them,
but my voice failed me; I tried to fly, but my feet refused to do their
office.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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