章节正文
and find out."
So he went near and pinched the raccoon on the nose and then on his
soft paws. The raccoon never moved. The crawfish then pinched him
on the ribs and tickled him so that the raccoon could hardly keep
from laughing. The crawfish at last left him. "The
raccoon is surely dead," he thought. And he hurried back to the
crawfish village and reported his find to the chief.
All the villagers were called to go down to the feast. The chief
bade the warriors and young men to paint their faces and dress in
their gayest for a dance.
So they marched in a long line--first the warriors, with their
weapons in hand, then the women with their babies and children--to
the place where the raccoon lay. They formed a great circle about
him and danced, singing:
"We shall have a great feast
"On the spotted-faced beast, with soft smooth paws:
"He is dead!
"He is dead!
"We shall dance!
"We shall have a good time;
"We shall feast on his flesh."
But as they danced, the raccoon suddenly sprang to his feet.
"Who is that you say you are going to eat? He has a spotted face,
has he? He has soft, smooth paws, has he? I'll break your ugly
backs. I'll break your rough bones. I'll crunch your ugly, rough
paws." And he rushed among the crawfish, killing them by
scores. The crawfish warriors fought bravely and the women ran
screaming, all to no purpose. They did not feast on the raccoon;
the raccoon feasted on them!
LEGEND OF STANDING ROCK
A Dakota had married an Arikara woman, and by her had one child.
By and by he took another wife. The first wife was jealous and
pouted. When time came for the village to break camp she refused
to move from her place on the tent floor. The tent was taken down
but she sat on the ground with her babe on her back The rest of the
camp with her husband went on.
At noon her husband halted the line. "Go back to your
sister-in-law," he said to his two brothers. "Tell her to come on
and we will await you here. But hasten, for I fear she may grow
desperate and kill herself."
The two rode off and arrived at their former camping place in the
evening. The woman still sat on the ground. The elder spoke:
"Sister-in-law, get up. We have come for you. The camp awaits
you."
She did not answer, and he put out his hand and touched her head.
She had turned to stone!
The two brothers lashed their ponies and came back to camp. They
told their story, but were not believed. "The woman has killed
herself and my brothers will not tell me," said the husband.
However, the whole village broke camp and came back to the place
where they had left the woman. Sure enough, she sat there still,
a block of stone.
The Indians were greatly excited. They chose out a handsome pony,
made a new travois and placed the stone in the carrying net. Pony
and travois were both beautifully painted and decorated with
streamers and colors. The stone was thought "wakan" (holy),
and was given a place of honor in the center of the camp. Whenever
the camp moved the stone and travois were taken along. Thus the
stone woman was carried for years, and finally brought to Standing
Rock Agency, and now rests upon a brick pedestal in front of the
Agency office. From this stone Standing Rock Agency derives its
name.
STORY OF THE PEACE PIPE
Two young men were out strolling one night talking of love affairs.
They passed around a hill and came to a little ravine or coulee.
Suddenly they saw coming up from the ravine a beautiful woman. She
was painted and her dress was of the very finest
material.
"What a beautiful girl!" said one of the young men. "Already I
love her. I will steal her and make her my wife."
"No," said the other. "Don't harm her. She may be holy."
The young woman approached and held out a pipe which she first
offered to the sky, then to the earth and then advanced, holding it
out in her extended hands.
"I know what you young men have been saying; one of you is good;
the other is wicked," she said.
She laid down the pipe on the ground and at once became a buffalo
cow. The cow pawed the ground, stuck her tail straight out behind
her and then lifted the pipe from the ground again in her hoofs;
immediately she became a young woman again.
"I am come to give you this gift," she said. "It is the peace
pipe. Hereafter all treaties and ceremonies shall be performed
after smoking it. It shall bring peaceful thoughts into your
minds. You shall offer it to the Great Mystery and to mother
earth."
The two young men ran to the village and told what they had seen
and heard. All the village came out where the young woman was.
She repeated to them what she had already told the young men and
added:
"When you set free the ghost (the spirit of deceased persons) you
must have a white buffalo cow skin."
She gave the pipe to the medicine men of the village, turned again
to a buffalo cow and fled away to the land of buffaloes.
A BASHFUL COURTSHIP
A young man lived with his grandmother. He was a good hunter and
wished to marry. He knew a girl who was a good moccasin maker, but
she belonged to a great family. He wondered how he could win
her.
One day she passed the tent on her way to get water at the river.
His grandmother was at work in the tepee with a pair of old
worn-out sloppy moccasins. The young man sprang to his feet.
"Quick, grandmother--let me have those old sloppy moccasins you
have on your feet!" he cried.
"My old moccasins, what do you want of them?" cried the astonished
woman.
"Never mind! Quick! I can't stop to talk," answered the grandson
as he caught up the old moccasins the old lady had doffed, and put
them on. He threw a robe over his shoulders, slipped through the
door, and hastened to the watering place. The girl
had just arrived with her bucket.
"Let me fill your bucket for you," said the young man.
"Oh, no, I can do it."
"Oh, let me, I can go in the mud. You surely don't want to soil
your moccasins," and taking the bucket he slipped in the mud,
taking care to push his sloppy old moccasins out so the girl could
see them. She giggled outright.
"My, what old moccasins you have," she cried.
"Yes, I have nobody to make me a new pair," he answered.
"Why don't you get your grandmother to make you a new pair?"
"She's old and blind and can't make them any longer. That's why I
want you," he answered.
"Oh, you're fooling me. You aren't speaking the truth."
"Yes, I am. If you don't believe--come with me now!"
The girl looked down; so did the youth. At last he said softly:
"Well, which is it? Shall I take up your bucket, or will you go
with me?"
And she answered, still more softly: "I guess I'll go with you!"
The girl's aunt came down to the river, wondering what kept her
niece so long. In the mud she found two pairs of moccasin tracks
close together; at the edge of the water stood an empty keg.
THE SIMPLETON'S WISDOM
There was a man and his wife who had one daughter. Mother and
daughter were deeply attached to one another, and when the latter
died the mother was disconsolate. She cut off her hair, cut gashes
in her cheeks and sat before the corpse with her robe drawn over
her head, mourning for her dead. Nor would she let them touch the
body to take it to a burying scaffold. She had a knife in her
hand, and if anyone offered to come near the body the mother would
wail:
"I am weary of life. I do not care to live. I will stab myself
with this knife and join my daughter in the land of spirits."
Her husband and relatives tried to get the knife from her, but
could not. They feared to use force lest she kill herself. They
came together to see what they could do.
"We must get the knife away from her," they said.
At last they called a boy, a kind of simpleton, yet with a good
deal of natural shrewdness. He was an orphan and very poor. His
moccasins were out at the sole and he was dressed in wei-zi (coarse
buffalo skin, smoked).
"Go to the tepee of the mourning mother," they told the simpleton,
"and in some way contrive to make her laugh and forget her grief.
Then try to get the knife away from her."
The boy went to the tent and sat down at the door as if waiting to
be given something. The corpse lay in the place of honor where the
dead girl had slept in life. The body was wrapped in a rich robe
and wrapped about with ropes. Friends had covered it with rich
offerings out of respect to the dead.
As the mother sat on the ground with her head covered she did not
at first see the boy, who sat silent. But when his reserve had
worn away a little he began at first lightly, then more heavily, to
drum on the floor with his hands. After a while he began to sing
a comic song. Louder and louder he sang until carried away with
his own singing he sprang up and began to dance, at the same time
gesturing and making all manner of contortions with his body, still
singing the comic song. As he approached the corpse he waved his
hands over it in blessing. The mother put her head out of the
blanket and when she saw the poor simpleton with his strange
grimaces trying to do honor to the corpse by his solemn waving, and
at the same time keeping up his comic song, she burst out laughing.
Then she reached over and handed her knife to the simpleton.
"Take this knife," she said. "You have taught me to forget my
grief. If while I mourn for the dead I can still be mirthful,
there is no reason for me to despair. I no longer care to die. I
will live for my husband."
The simpleton left the tepee and brought the knife to the
astonished husband and relatives.
"How did you get it? Did you force it away from her, or did you
steal it?" they said.
"She gave it to me. How could I force it from her or steal it when
she held it in her hand, blade uppermost? I sang and danced for
her and she burst out laughing. Then she gave it to me," he
answered.
When the old men of the village heard the orphan's story they were
very silent. It was a strange thing for a lad to dance in a tepee
where there was mourning. It was stranger that a mother should
laugh in a tepee before the corpse of her dead daughter. The old
men gathered at last in a council. They sat a long time without
saying anything, for they did not want to decide hastily. The pipe
was filled and passed many times. At last an old man spoke.
"We have a hard question. A mother has laughed before the corpse
of her daughter, and many think she has done foolishly, but I think
the woman did wisely. The lad was simple and of no training, and
we cannot expect him to know how to do as well as
one with good home and parents to teach him. Besides, he did the
best that he knew. He danced to make the mother forget her grief,
and he tried to honor the corpse by waving over it his hands."
"The mother did right to laugh, for when one does try to do us
good, even if what he does causes us discomfort, we should always
remember rather the motive than the deed. And besides, the
simpleton's dancing saved the woman's life, for she gave up her
knife. In this, too, she did well, for it is always better to live
So he went near and pinched the raccoon on the nose and then on his
soft paws. The raccoon never moved. The crawfish then pinched him
on the ribs and tickled him so that the raccoon could hardly keep
from laughing. The crawfish at last left him. "The
raccoon is surely dead," he thought. And he hurried back to the
crawfish village and reported his find to the chief.
All the villagers were called to go down to the feast. The chief
bade the warriors and young men to paint their faces and dress in
their gayest for a dance.
So they marched in a long line--first the warriors, with their
weapons in hand, then the women with their babies and children--to
the place where the raccoon lay. They formed a great circle about
him and danced, singing:
"We shall have a great feast
"On the spotted-faced beast, with soft smooth paws:
"He is dead!
"He is dead!
"We shall dance!
"We shall have a good time;
"We shall feast on his flesh."
But as they danced, the raccoon suddenly sprang to his feet.
"Who is that you say you are going to eat? He has a spotted face,
has he? He has soft, smooth paws, has he? I'll break your ugly
backs. I'll break your rough bones. I'll crunch your ugly, rough
paws." And he rushed among the crawfish, killing them by
scores. The crawfish warriors fought bravely and the women ran
screaming, all to no purpose. They did not feast on the raccoon;
the raccoon feasted on them!
LEGEND OF STANDING ROCK
A Dakota had married an Arikara woman, and by her had one child.
By and by he took another wife. The first wife was jealous and
pouted. When time came for the village to break camp she refused
to move from her place on the tent floor. The tent was taken down
but she sat on the ground with her babe on her back The rest of the
camp with her husband went on.
At noon her husband halted the line. "Go back to your
sister-in-law," he said to his two brothers. "Tell her to come on
and we will await you here. But hasten, for I fear she may grow
desperate and kill herself."
The two rode off and arrived at their former camping place in the
evening. The woman still sat on the ground. The elder spoke:
"Sister-in-law, get up. We have come for you. The camp awaits
you."
She did not answer, and he put out his hand and touched her head.
She had turned to stone!
The two brothers lashed their ponies and came back to camp. They
told their story, but were not believed. "The woman has killed
herself and my brothers will not tell me," said the husband.
However, the whole village broke camp and came back to the place
where they had left the woman. Sure enough, she sat there still,
a block of stone.
The Indians were greatly excited. They chose out a handsome pony,
made a new travois and placed the stone in the carrying net. Pony
and travois were both beautifully painted and decorated with
streamers and colors. The stone was thought "wakan" (holy),
and was given a place of honor in the center of the camp. Whenever
the camp moved the stone and travois were taken along. Thus the
stone woman was carried for years, and finally brought to Standing
Rock Agency, and now rests upon a brick pedestal in front of the
Agency office. From this stone Standing Rock Agency derives its
name.
STORY OF THE PEACE PIPE
Two young men were out strolling one night talking of love affairs.
They passed around a hill and came to a little ravine or coulee.
Suddenly they saw coming up from the ravine a beautiful woman. She
was painted and her dress was of the very finest
material.
"What a beautiful girl!" said one of the young men. "Already I
love her. I will steal her and make her my wife."
"No," said the other. "Don't harm her. She may be holy."
The young woman approached and held out a pipe which she first
offered to the sky, then to the earth and then advanced, holding it
out in her extended hands.
"I know what you young men have been saying; one of you is good;
the other is wicked," she said.
She laid down the pipe on the ground and at once became a buffalo
cow. The cow pawed the ground, stuck her tail straight out behind
her and then lifted the pipe from the ground again in her hoofs;
immediately she became a young woman again.
"I am come to give you this gift," she said. "It is the peace
pipe. Hereafter all treaties and ceremonies shall be performed
after smoking it. It shall bring peaceful thoughts into your
minds. You shall offer it to the Great Mystery and to mother
earth."
The two young men ran to the village and told what they had seen
and heard. All the village came out where the young woman was.
She repeated to them what she had already told the young men and
added:
"When you set free the ghost (the spirit of deceased persons) you
must have a white buffalo cow skin."
She gave the pipe to the medicine men of the village, turned again
to a buffalo cow and fled away to the land of buffaloes.
A BASHFUL COURTSHIP
A young man lived with his grandmother. He was a good hunter and
wished to marry. He knew a girl who was a good moccasin maker, but
she belonged to a great family. He wondered how he could win
her.
One day she passed the tent on her way to get water at the river.
His grandmother was at work in the tepee with a pair of old
worn-out sloppy moccasins. The young man sprang to his feet.
"Quick, grandmother--let me have those old sloppy moccasins you
have on your feet!" he cried.
"My old moccasins, what do you want of them?" cried the astonished
woman.
"Never mind! Quick! I can't stop to talk," answered the grandson
as he caught up the old moccasins the old lady had doffed, and put
them on. He threw a robe over his shoulders, slipped through the
door, and hastened to the watering place. The girl
had just arrived with her bucket.
"Let me fill your bucket for you," said the young man.
"Oh, no, I can do it."
"Oh, let me, I can go in the mud. You surely don't want to soil
your moccasins," and taking the bucket he slipped in the mud,
taking care to push his sloppy old moccasins out so the girl could
see them. She giggled outright.
"My, what old moccasins you have," she cried.
"Yes, I have nobody to make me a new pair," he answered.
"Why don't you get your grandmother to make you a new pair?"
"She's old and blind and can't make them any longer. That's why I
want you," he answered.
"Oh, you're fooling me. You aren't speaking the truth."
"Yes, I am. If you don't believe--come with me now!"
The girl looked down; so did the youth. At last he said softly:
"Well, which is it? Shall I take up your bucket, or will you go
with me?"
And she answered, still more softly: "I guess I'll go with you!"
The girl's aunt came down to the river, wondering what kept her
niece so long. In the mud she found two pairs of moccasin tracks
close together; at the edge of the water stood an empty keg.
THE SIMPLETON'S WISDOM
There was a man and his wife who had one daughter. Mother and
daughter were deeply attached to one another, and when the latter
died the mother was disconsolate. She cut off her hair, cut gashes
in her cheeks and sat before the corpse with her robe drawn over
her head, mourning for her dead. Nor would she let them touch the
body to take it to a burying scaffold. She had a knife in her
hand, and if anyone offered to come near the body the mother would
wail:
"I am weary of life. I do not care to live. I will stab myself
with this knife and join my daughter in the land of spirits."
Her husband and relatives tried to get the knife from her, but
could not. They feared to use force lest she kill herself. They
came together to see what they could do.
"We must get the knife away from her," they said.
At last they called a boy, a kind of simpleton, yet with a good
deal of natural shrewdness. He was an orphan and very poor. His
moccasins were out at the sole and he was dressed in wei-zi (coarse
buffalo skin, smoked).
"Go to the tepee of the mourning mother," they told the simpleton,
"and in some way contrive to make her laugh and forget her grief.
Then try to get the knife away from her."
The boy went to the tent and sat down at the door as if waiting to
be given something. The corpse lay in the place of honor where the
dead girl had slept in life. The body was wrapped in a rich robe
and wrapped about with ropes. Friends had covered it with rich
offerings out of respect to the dead.
As the mother sat on the ground with her head covered she did not
at first see the boy, who sat silent. But when his reserve had
worn away a little he began at first lightly, then more heavily, to
drum on the floor with his hands. After a while he began to sing
a comic song. Louder and louder he sang until carried away with
his own singing he sprang up and began to dance, at the same time
gesturing and making all manner of contortions with his body, still
singing the comic song. As he approached the corpse he waved his
hands over it in blessing. The mother put her head out of the
blanket and when she saw the poor simpleton with his strange
grimaces trying to do honor to the corpse by his solemn waving, and
at the same time keeping up his comic song, she burst out laughing.
Then she reached over and handed her knife to the simpleton.
"Take this knife," she said. "You have taught me to forget my
grief. If while I mourn for the dead I can still be mirthful,
there is no reason for me to despair. I no longer care to die. I
will live for my husband."
The simpleton left the tepee and brought the knife to the
astonished husband and relatives.
"How did you get it? Did you force it away from her, or did you
steal it?" they said.
"She gave it to me. How could I force it from her or steal it when
she held it in her hand, blade uppermost? I sang and danced for
her and she burst out laughing. Then she gave it to me," he
answered.
When the old men of the village heard the orphan's story they were
very silent. It was a strange thing for a lad to dance in a tepee
where there was mourning. It was stranger that a mother should
laugh in a tepee before the corpse of her dead daughter. The old
men gathered at last in a council. They sat a long time without
saying anything, for they did not want to decide hastily. The pipe
was filled and passed many times. At last an old man spoke.
"We have a hard question. A mother has laughed before the corpse
of her daughter, and many think she has done foolishly, but I think
the woman did wisely. The lad was simple and of no training, and
we cannot expect him to know how to do as well as
one with good home and parents to teach him. Besides, he did the
best that he knew. He danced to make the mother forget her grief,
and he tried to honor the corpse by waving over it his hands."
"The mother did right to laugh, for when one does try to do us
good, even if what he does causes us discomfort, we should always
remember rather the motive than the deed. And besides, the
simpleton's dancing saved the woman's life, for she gave up her
knife. In this, too, she did well, for it is always better to live
- circle [´sə:kəl]
n.圆圈 v.环绕；盘旋 (初中英语单词) - sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- jealous [´dʒeləs] a.妒忌的 (初中英语单词)
- hasten [´heisən] vt.催促；促进 vi.赶紧 (初中英语单词)
- agency [´eidʒənsi] n.代理商；机构；代理 (初中英语单词)
- advanced [əd´vɑ:nst] a.先进的；高级的 (初中英语单词)
- peaceful [´pi:sfəl] a.和平的；平静的 (初中英语单词)
- mystery [´mistəri] n.神秘；秘密；故弄玄虚 (初中英语单词)
- grandmother [´græn,mʌðə] n.(外)祖母 (初中英语单词)
- hunter [´hʌntə] n.猎人；猎狗；猎马 (初中英语单词)
- softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
- mourning [´mɔ:niŋ] n.悲伤；治丧；戴孝 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- lightly [´laitli] ad.轻微地，稍微 (初中英语单词)
- blessing [´blesiŋ] n.祝福 (初中英语单词)
- solemn [´sɔləm] a.严肃的；隆重的 (初中英语单词)
- despair [di´speə] vi.&n.绝望 (初中英语单词)
- hastily [´heistili] ad.急速地；草率地 (初中英语单词)
- motive [´məutiv] n.动机；主题 a.运动的 (初中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- bravely [´breivli] ad.勇敢地；毅然 (高中英语单词)
- dakota [də´kəutə] n.&a.达科他人(语) (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- hereafter [hiər´ɑ:ftə] ad.&n.将来；来世 (高中英语单词)
- repeated [ri´pi:tid] a.反复的；重复的 (高中英语单词)
- buffalo [´bʌfələu] n.水牛；野牛 (高中英语单词)
- bucket [´bʌkit] n.水桶 (高中英语单词)
- orphan [´ɔ:fən] n.&a.孤儿 vt.使成孤儿 (高中英语单词)
- contrive [kən´traiv] v.发明；设计；图谋 (高中英语单词)
- wisely [´waizli] ad.明智地，聪明地 (高中英语单词)
- beautifully [´bju:tifəli] ad.美丽地；优美地 (英语四级单词)
- pedestal [´pedistl] n.垫座 vt.给...装上座 (英语四级单词)
- ravine [rə´vi:n] n.沟壑；深谷 (英语四级单词)
- bashful [´bæʃful] a.害羞的，忸怩的 (英语四级单词)
- corpse [kɔ:ps] n.尸体 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
- extended [iks´tendid] a.伸长的；广大的 (英语六级单词)
- moccasin [´mɔkəsin] n.鹿皮鞋；软(拖)鞋 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
- foolishly [´fu:liʃli] ad.愚蠢地 (英语六级单词)
- discomfort [dis´kʌmfət] n.不适；不安；困难 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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