Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1Jones, James Athearn
History
Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1
Jones, James Athearn
Indians of North America -- Folklore
Let my brother listen to my words, and ponder deeply. Let him remain
mute, and his question shall be answered. He has asked the opinion
which the red men of the wilderness entertain of the Country of
Souls;--he has asked us whither the spirits of good men repair when
the sleep which knows no waking has come over them. Again, I say, let
my brother listen deeply, for the words he will hear are concerning
the question he has asked. We shall sing in his ears no tale of bloody
deeds--of scalps taken from stricken warriors, or of victims bound to
a naming stake. Our songs shall be songs of a state far happier than
that enjoyed by mortals; we shall tell of worlds, the air of which is
purer, the sun brighter, the moon milder, and the stars far more
glorious--of the Land of the Happy Hunting-Grounds. As my brother will
see, each nation has its own beloved place of rest for the soul. It is
well. Could the Chippewas dwell with the Hurons, whose blood they
have so frequently shed? Could a man of the Pawnee Loups embrace an
Omawhaw, who carried at his back the scalps of his wife and his
children? No; and, therefore, as they could not on earth dwell in
peace together, so each has in the world of souls his separate
hunting-grounds, his own rivers, lakes, valleys, mountains, forests,
where no envious hunter may intrude, which no bloody-minded warrior
may invade. An insurmountable and eternal barrier is placed between
tribes who had formerly been at war, lest they disturb the peace of
the blessed shades by a renewal of the quarrel, and shake the glorious
mansions with the violence of wars, like those they wage on earth. My
brother asks how, the Dahcotahs know these things. I answer, it was
seen by one of them in his sleep; it came in the shape of a dream to a
very wise man of our nation.
There was among us, in the days that are gone, a priest who was much
beloved by his Master, and was taught by him to know the future as he
knew the present, and to see and speak truly of things unseen by other
eyes. He had been many years on the earth, and was now called
"Akkeewaisee," a name signifying his great age. That he might better
converse with, and worship his master he had taken up his abode in a
hollow hill, near the great village of the Dahcotahs. Thither the tribe
resorted, to be taught those things which were necessary to be known in
respect to the proper ordering of the hunt or the war expedition, to the
season at which the corn should be planted, or the gathering of the
tribe at the chosen waters of the salmon should take place. Having never
known any thing predicted by him prove false; having ordered, under his
guidance, all their hunting and war expeditions right, and never failed,
when relying on his presentiments, to go to the haunts of the salmon, at
the proper season, and to return from thence with full bellies and glad
hearts, they listened to the words of Akkeewaisee, the Aged, and
believed the tale which he told them of the Land of Spirits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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