酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

The Land of Little Rain-Part6_Mary Hunter Austin(1868-1934)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页


medicine-men of the Paiutes.

Where the lot falls when the campoodie chooses a medicine-man



there it rests. It is an honor a man seldom seeks but must wear,

an honor with a condition. When three patients die under his



ministrations, the medicine-man must yield his life and his office.

Wounds do not count; broken bones and bullet holes the Indian can



understand, but measles, pneumonia, and smallpox are

witchcraft. Winnenap' was medicine-man for fifteen years. Besides



considerable skill in healing herbs, he used his prerogatives

cunningly. It is permitted the medicine-man to decline the case



when the patient has had treatment from any other, say the white

doctor, whom many of the younger generationconsult. Or, if before



having seen the patient, he can definitely refer his disorder to

some supernatural cause wholly out of the medicine-man's



jurisdiction, say to the spite of an evil spirit going about in the

form of a coyote, and states the case convincingly, he may avoid



the penalty. But this must not be pushed too far. All else

failing, he can hide. Winnenap' did this the time of the measles



epidemic. Returning from his yearly herb gathering, he heard of it

at Black Rock, and turning aside, he was not to be found, nor did



he return to his own place until the disease had spent itself, and

half the children of the campoodie were in their shallow graves



with beads sprinkled over them.

It is possible the tale of Winnenap''s patients had not been



strictly kept. There had not been a medicine-man killed in the

valley for twelve years, and for that the perpetrators had been



severely punished by the whites. The winter of the Big Snow an

epidemic of pneumonia carried off the Indians with scarcely a



warning; from the lake northward to the lava flats they died in the

sweathouses, and under the hands of the medicine-men. Even



the drugs of the white physician had no power.

After two weeks of this plague the Paiutes drew to council to



consider the remissness of their medicine-men. They were sore with

grief and afraid for themselves; as a result of the council, one in



every campoodie was sentenced to the ancient penalty. But

schooling and native shrewdness had raised up in the younger men an



unfaith in old usages, so judgment halted between sentence and

execution. At Three Pines the government teacher brought out



influential whites to threaten and cajole the stubborn tribes. At

Tunawai the conservatives sent into Nevada for that pacific old



humbug, Johnson Sides, most notable of Paiute orators, to harangue

his people. Citizens of the towns turned out with food and



comforts, and so after a season the trouble passed.

But here at Maverick there was no school, no oratory, and no



alleviation. One third of the campoodie died, and the rest killed

the medicine-men. Winnenap' expected it, and for days walked and



sat a little apart from his family that he might meet it as became

a Shoshone, no doubt suffering the agony of dread deferred. When



finally three men came and sat at his fire without greeting he knew

his time. He turned a little from them, dropped his chin upon his



knees, and looked out over Shoshone Land, breathing evenly. The

women went into the wickiup and covered their heads with



their blankets.

So much has the Indian lost of savageness by merely desisting



from killing, that the executioners braved themselves to their work

by drinking and a show of quarrelsomeness. In the end a sharp



hatchet-stroke discharged the duty of the campoodie. Afterward his

women buried him, and a warm wind coming out of the south, the



force of the disease was broken, and even they acquiesced in the

wisdom of the tribe. That summer they told me all except the names



of the Three.

Since it appears that we make our own heaven here, no doubt we



shall have a hand in the heaven of hereafter; and I know what

Winnenap''s will be like: worth going to if one has leave to live



in it according to his liking. It will be tawny gold underfoot,

walled up with jacinth and jasper, ribbed with chalcedony, and yet



no hymnbook heaven, but the free air and free spaces of Shoshone

Land.



JIMVILLE

A BRET HARTE TOWN



When Mr. Harte found himself with a fresh palette and his




文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号