Oowikapun | Page 8

packed on it his furs and camping outfit,
and the two little bears, which had become quite tame, and started out
on his return journey to his far-away northern home. Loaded as he was,
he saw it would take him several days to make the journey, and so he
resolved to go a little out of his way and visit a village of Indians, at the
meeting place of three rivers, and spend a little time with them, as they
were of the same tribe as his own people, and some of them were
distant relatives. Unfortunately for him they were in the midst of one of
their superstitious dances. The dances and sacrifices of dogs were a
kind of propitiatory offering to the Muche-Manito, the devil, to put him
in good humour, so that he would not interfere with them and prevent
their having great success in the coming spring hunt. Of course
Oowikapun was invited to join in the dance, but much to their surprise
he at first refused. This they could not understand, as in previous visits
he had been eager to spring into the magic circle and display his agility
and powers of endurance. When questioned as to his reasons for
declining, he told them of his visit to the camp of Memotas and what he
had heard and witnessed. They gathered around him and, Indianlike,
patiently listened in silence until he had told them his story.
Unfortunately it was not only received with incredulity, but with scorn.
The men were astounded, and indignantly exclaimed: "So he lets his
wife eat with him, does he? and cuts the wood himself, and carries the
water and prays to the Kissa-Manito to bless his enemies, instead of
trying to poison or shoot them! That is the white man's religion, is it?
which that Memotas has accepted. Well, let him keep it. It is not what
we want. As our fathers lived and died so will we. Don't be a fool,
Oowikapun. You will be wanting one of our daughters one of these
days to be your wife; then if you treat her like Memotas treats his, she

will be coming back and telling our women all about it, and there will
be a pretty fuss. O no; this will never do. You have had bad medicine
thrown into your eyes, and you do not see straight."
Thus they answered him; and day after day they bantered him, until at
length the poor fellow--anxious to follow the entreaties of Memotas,
but as yet unconscious of the divine power which he might have had if
only he had asked for it, and so lacking the strength to resist the
entreaties of his heathen friends, especially when he heard from lying
conjurers that even the black-eyed maidens were talking about his
strange unwillingness to join in the religious ceremonies for success in
the hunt--yielded to the tempter's power, and sprang into the circle, and
with wild abandon engaged in the dance. Madly and recklessly he
danced to the monotonous drummings of the wicked old conjurers and
medicine-men, who had been fearful that they were about to lose their
grip upon him. A wild frenzy seemed to have entered into him, and so
he danced on and on until even his hardened, stalwart frame could
stand it no longer, and suddenly he fell upon the ground in a state of
unconsciousness, and had to be carried away to a little wigwam, where
on a bed of spruce branches he was left to recover consciousness when
he might.
Such occurrences among the Indians in their wild state when
celebrating some of their religious ceremonies, such as this devil
worship or their sun or ghost dances, were not at all uncommon.
Wrought up to a state of frenzy, some of these devotees ceased not their
wild dancings day or night, sometimes for three days continuously; and
then when utterly exhausted fell into a deathly swoon, which often
continued for many hours. In this sad plight was poor Oowikapun.
For hours he remained more like a corpse than a living being, in a state
of absolute unconsciousness, and without an apparent movement of
either muscle or limb. After a time the mind began to act, and strange
and distorted dreams and visions flitted through his disordered mind
and troubled him. At first all was confusion and discord. Then there
came to him something more like a vision than a dream, and so vividly
was it impressed upon him that it was never forgotten.

Here it is as told me years after. Oowikapun dreamed that he was one
of a large company of his people who were on a long journey, which all
had to take. It led them over high mountains and trackless plains, along
swift rivers