[Dahcotah by Mary Eastman]@TWC D-Link bookDahcotah CHAPTER IV 3/14
Her trembling limbs refused to sustain her, as the Deer-killer, stalking towards the ring, calls aloud--"Take her from the sacred feast; should she eat with the maidens ?--she, under whose bosom lies a warrior's child? She is unworthy." And as the unhappy girl, with features of stone and glaring eyes, gazed upon him bewildered, he rudely led her from the ring. Wenona bowed her head and went--even as night came on when the sun went down.
Nor did the heart of the Deer-killer reproach him, for how dare she offend the Great Spirit! Were not the customs of his race holy and sacred? Little to Wenona were her father's reproaches, or her mother's curse; that she was no more beloved was all she remembered. Again was the Deer-killer by the side of Wanska, and she paid the penalty.
Her husband brought other wives to his wigwam, though Wanska was ever the favorite one. With her own hand would she put the others out of the wigwam, laughing when they threatened to tell their lord when he returned, for Wanska managed to tell her own story first; and, termagant as she was, she always had her own way. Wenona has ceased to weep, and far away in the country of the Sissetons she toils and watches as all Indian women toil and watch.
Her young son follows her as she seeks the suffering Dahcotah, and charms the disease to leave his feeble frame. She tells to the child and the aged woman her dreams; she warns the warrior what he shall meet with when he goes to battle; and ever, as the young girls assemble to pass away the idle hours, she stops and whispers to them. In vain do they ask of her husband: she only points to her son and says, "My hair, which is now like snow, was once black and braided like his, and my eyes as bright.
They have wept until tears come no more.
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