Death
Hawk clan, starts their campfire using his fire-making kit. It has a pointed stick of poplar, a little square piece of white oak, and dry wood chips. The youngest member of the party shot two rabbits and caught a large rattlesnake today. He skins and guts the animals with his knife before he puts them on the fire to roast. Those men who still have strips of dried meat chew on the last pieces. They sit around the fire, talking about how the village will celebrate their return. At-Night sits apart, smoking some of the tobacco his trading partner gave him. It has been a good day. Death Some weeks have passed since the traders returned from their trip. This early fall day finds most of the village busy with harvest activities. The open space in front of each house is covered with ears of corn drying on mats in the warm afternoon sun. Mothers and daughters sit side by side near the drying corn. They are shelling kernels from already dried ears or braiding the husks into long corn ropes. Other women are returning to the village from the fields. They carry large full baskets of freshly picked corn. They dump the ears of corn onto empty mats, then stop for a drink of cool water from the water jar. With so much corn to pick, they return at once to the 33 fields. Near the council house, a group of men practice a dance. The harvest ceremony is less than two weeks away. Ears of corn also dry in front of the house located next to Fishes-With-Hands' house, but no women are shelling corn or braiding corn ropes there. The house seems deserted except for the smoke rising from the cooking fire near the front door. A young woman, looking drawn, tired, and sad, is leading an old woman toward this house. Bent over from the arthritis in her back, the old woman walks with a wooden cane in one hand. She carries a beaverskin bag in the other. The old woman is Bright-Horn, a member of the Deer clan. She is a healer. As a child, the spirits came to her in a dream, calling her to this task. She learned to be a healer from her teacher, who was also a healer. But she also taught herself about certain plants. During her long life, Bright-Horn has used her knowledge of healing, soothing, and pain-killing plants to cure her people's illnesses. She brews teas to stop stomach cramps and women's pain. She prepares dressings to draw infection from wounds. She uses cobwebs to stop bleeding and offers willow bark to help toothache and headache. Many of Bright-Horn's cures cannot work without the aid of the good spirits. They are called to help when she sings the proper song or performs the proper 34 roject MUSE (2024-04-25 00:51 GMT) ceremony. She shakes turtle shell rattles or beats a small drum when she sings her songs. She uses the hollow leg bones of a turkey to suck the evil spirits from the bodies of the sick. With a special chert knife, she makes small cuts on an arm or leg to allow sickness put there by the evil spirits to escape. Bright-Horn has helped women in the village through difficult childbirth and has eased the suffering of the dying. Now she has been called to help this young woman's father, Masked-Eyes, a member of the Raccoon clan. Masked-Eyes is one of the chief's cousins. He is a respected village elder, and he sits in council with the oldest men of the village. A good hunter and runner in his youth, he became known as a peacemaker later in life. He wears a shell gorget shaped like a human face as a sign of this ability. Several times this summer, Bright-Horn has been led to his house. On her first visit, she made a series of short, deep cuts on Masked-Eyes' right arm with her knife while she sang a curing song. This treatment seemed to improve Masked-Eyes' health somewhat. His visits to the village sweathouse seemed to help, too. The sweathouse is a tiny building located near the river. Large stones, heated very hot in a fire built near the sweathouse, are carried into it with wooden tongs. A sick person sits in the hot sweathouse and...
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