﻿244 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 78 



But, the Celebrant in comforting terms says : " We now level the uptorn 

 earth over the place where rests the one thou didst trust for words of wisdom. 

 .... A fine slab of wood do We, the Three Brothers, place over these ; and 

 gathered moss and grasses plucked up ; for verily, there are two things which 

 are done by the Day and also by the Night ; the one is that, should it so be, that 

 should the Day put forth fierce rays of sunlight, they shall not, therefore, 

 pierce through to him ; the other is, that should it so be, that driving rains fall 

 heavily upon them by night, these too shall not go through to where he lies — 

 though nothing save the bones be visible there. So then there will his bones 



lie peacefully So that even for one little day thou shouldst think your 



thoughts in contentment." 



X. "Twenty (Strings of Wampum) are the Penalty for it" (Homicide). 



But the Celebrant comforts with these words among others : " Do thou 



know it My Ofifspring ({. e., the Mother Side) .... that now, we, 



Three Brothers take that up now, and that, let them say it, ' Now, we wrap up 

 thy bones, one and all (as a protection), fixing the penalty of twenty (strings 

 of wampum) on them (for any hurt done them).' " 



XL " The Fire of the Home, Around Which the People are wont to go to 

 and fro." 



" Our grandsires, now dead, whom our minds trusted implicitly, decreed, 

 because they failed to perceive the lineaments of its Face, the Face indeed, of 

 that Being that abuses us ceaselessly by day and by night, of that Being of 

 Darkness, crouching hard by the barklodges, goes about with uplifted bludg- 

 eon — with its couched weapon at the very top of our heads — eagerly miUttering 

 its fell purpose, saying, ' I, I it is, who will destroy all things,' they decreed, 

 I say, that they would name it the Great Destroyer, the Being Without a Face, 

 the Being Malefic in Itself — ^Death. So, putting forth its sinister power in 

 thy booth of bark, it struck down one therein on whom thou didst depend 

 confidently for words of wisdom and for kindly service, and there is therein 

 now a vacant mat. By this blow It scattered widely the fire-brands of thy 

 fire, and in mocking derision the Great Destroyer has stamped out thy fire." 



But the Celebrant orator utters these words of cheer and comfort: " So now, 

 do thou know it, my Ofifspring, that we, the Three Brothers, having perfected 

 our preparations, say, ' Now, we gather together again the scattered fire-brands 

 of thy home fire, and so indeed, we jrekindle thy fire for thee ; and the smoke 

 thereof shall rise again ; that smoke shall be fine, and it shall even pierce the 



sky (smoke — the activities of life) Now, indeed, we raise thee again 



to full stature.' " 



XII. "Woman." 



" Now, another thing. It is that wherein the Perfector of our Faculties who 

 dwelleth in the sky, established it, in that He desired that He should have 

 assistants above and even down to the earth ; that some shall devote their care 

 to the matters which pertain to the earth ' I have ordained,' He says, 'one 

 and all.' It is that, in fact, that He, therefore, caused the person of our 

 Mother — the Woman — to be of noble worth. He designed that She shall be 

 entrusted with the duties pertaining to the birth and the nurture of mankind, 

 and that She shall circle around the fire in preparing, — that she shall care for, — 

 that by which life is sustained. 



" And that, too, is a calamity, that, it may be, the Great Destroyer will make 

 a swift stroke there in the ranks of our mothers, felling one there. The evil 



