Taken by the Shawnee by Sallie Bingham

Author:Sallie Bingham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Turtle Point Press

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MARGARET RECOGNIZED HER good fortune when, by the time of the first full moon of the new year, Waban was fully recovered. The story of her healing spread rapidly through the village, and Margaret knew there would be other calls for her herbal remedy. Earlier, she had recognized two of the herbs, houndstooth and purslane, growing at the edge of the village, but now they were covered with snow and she would not be able to pluck and dry their leaves to add to her little pouch. Meanwhile, she had used the last of the precious herbs her mother had given her to help Waban and her pouch was now empty.

Fearing what might happen as word of the healing spread, she asked Little Mouse, who often spoke in council, to explain that the white sister could only heal infants or very old people, leaving the others to be saved by traditional means, such as the sweat lodge and the rituals of the medicine man and woman. Little Mouse told her that there was some grumbling at this news, but since Margaret’s authority in the matter of healing was not questioned, her rule held.

Next she gathered strips of yellow birch and alder bark, shredding them and boiling them with a drop of her hoarded honey to make a tea. She was able to bring two babies through sieges of croup and to lessen the suffering of three elders on their death beds.

White Bark, watching her boil the tea, reached out his right hand, touched her shoulder, and said the strange words of her new name, which Robert Dean translated for her. “Why does he call me Little Ship Under Full Sail?” she asked Robert; he was sharpening his hunting knife on the other side of the fire. “These are people of creeks, streams, and rivers, with no occasion to see a sailing ship.”

“One of their myths tells that long ago they lived by a great water, perhaps one of the northern lakes, in truth an inland sea,” he explained.

“Why is this name given to me?”

“You are noted for moving rapidly, like a ship under full sail.”

Now that she understood the meaning, Margaret was glad to accept her new name. In the evening as she fell asleep, she repeated it. The words took the place of the prayers she was beginning to forget.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.