I Reached a little Spring
It was about sunset when I, a little child, was sent with a handful of powdered tobacco leaves and red feathers to make an offering to the spirit who had caused the sickness of my little sister. It had been a long, hard winter, and the snow lay deep on the grassland as far as the eye could reach. The medicine woman’s directions had been that the offering must be laid upon the naked earth, and that to find it I must face toward the setting sun.
But now where was a spot of earth to be found Omega Replica Watches in all that white monotony? They had talked of death at the houses I hoped that my little sister would live, but I was afraid of nature.
1 reached a little spring. I looked down to its bottom, wondering whether I should leave my offering there, or keep on in search of a spot on earth If I put any offering in the water, would ii reach the bottom and touch the earth, or would it float away, as it had always done when I made my offering to the water spirit?
Once more I started on in my search of the bare ground.
The surface was crusted in some places, and walking was easy; in other places I would wade through a foot or more of snow. Often I paused, thinking to clear the snow away in some place and there lay my offering. But no, my faith must be in nature, and I must trust to it to lay bare the earth. It was a hard struggle for so small a child.
I went on and on; the reeds were waving in the wind. I stopped and looked at them. A reed, whirling in the wind, had formed a space round its stem, making a loose socket. I stood looking into the opening. The reed must be rooted in the ground, and the hole must follow the stem to the earth. If 1 poured my offerings into the hole, surely they must reach the ground; so 1 said the prayer that I had been taught, and dropped my tobacco and red feathers into the opening that nature itself had created.
No sooner was the sacrifice accomplished Replica Breitling than a feeling of doubt and fear thrilled me. What if my offering should never reach the earth? Would my little sister die?
Not till I turned homeward did I realize how cold I was. When at last I reached the house they took me in and warmed me, but did not question me, and I said nothing. Everyone was sad, for the litter one had grown worse.
The next day the medicine-woman said my little sister was beyond hope; she could not live. Then bitter remorse was mine, for I thought I had been unfaithful, and therefore my little sister was to be called to the spirit land. I was a silent child, and did not utter my feelings; my remorse was intense.
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