FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91  
92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>   >|  
dog's thin body, forcing from the little speechless brute a howl of agony. Then We-hro spoke--spoke in all the English he knew. "Bad! bad! You die some day--you! You hurt that dog. White man's God, he no like you. Indian's Great Spirit, he not let you shoot in happy hunting grounds. You die some day--you _bad_!" "Well, if I _am_ bad I'm no pagan Indian Hottentot like you!" yelled the angry driver. "Take the dog, and begone!" "Me no Hottentot," said We-hro, slowly. "Me Onondaga, all right. Me take dog;" and from that hour the poor little white cur and the copper-colored little boy were friends for all time. * * * * * * * * The Superintendent of Indian Affairs was taking his periodical drive about the Reserve when he chanced to meet old "Ten-Canoes," We-hro's father. The superintendent was a very important person. He was a great white gentleman, who lived in the city of Brantford, fifteen miles away. He was a kindly, handsome man, who loved and honored every Indian on the Grand River Reserve. He had a genial smile, a warm hand-shake, so when he stopped his horse and greeted the old pagan, Ten-Canoes smiled too. "Ah, Ten-Canoes!" cried the superintendent, "a great man told me he was coming to see your people--a big man, none less than Great Black-Coat, the bishop of the Anglican Church. He thinks you are a bad lot, because you are pagans; he wonders why it is that you have never turned Christian. Some of the missionaries have told him you pagans are no good, so the great man wants to come and see for himself. He wants to see some of your religious dances--the 'Dance of the White Dog,' if you will have him; he wants to see if it is really _bad_." Ten-Canoes laughed. "I welcome him," he said, earnestly, "Welcome the 'Great Black-Coat.' I honor him, though I do not think as he does. He is a good man, a just man; I welcome him, bid him come." Thus was his lordship, the Bishop, invited to see the great pagan Onondaga "Festival of the White Dog." But what was _this_ that happened? Never yet had a February moon waned but that the powerful Onondaga tribe had offered the burnt "Sacrifice of the White Dog," that most devout of all native rites. But now, search as they might, not a single spotlessly white dog could be found. No other animal would do. It was the law of this great Indian tribe that no other burnt sacrifice could possibly be offered than the strangled body of a white dog. We-hro he
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91  
92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Indian
 
Canoes
 
Onondaga
 
superintendent
 

Reserve

 

pagans

 

Hottentot

 

offered

 

thinks

 

earnestly


laughed

 

bishop

 

Anglican

 

dances

 

Church

 

missionaries

 

Christian

 
wonders
 
turned
 

religious


search

 

single

 
devout
 

native

 

spotlessly

 

sacrifice

 
possibly
 

strangled

 

animal

 
Sacrifice

powerful

 
lordship
 

Bishop

 

invited

 
February
 

Festival

 

happened

 

Welcome

 

honored

 

slowly


begone

 
yelled
 
driver
 

Superintendent

 

Affairs

 

friends

 

copper

 

colored

 

English

 
forcing