brightness, she met a
handsome youth who told her that he was Morning Star, and that he had
come to earth for a day, impelled by her love.
So Feather Woman went back to Skyland with Morning Star, and by-and-by a
little son was born to her. At first she had been very happy in Skyland,
but there were times when she was sad because of the camp of the
Blackfeet, which she had left.
Now, in Skyland Feather Woman often dug in the garden, and she had been
cautioned not to uproot the turnip, lest evil befall. After she was
given this charge she looked long at the turnip and wondered what evil
might come from its uprooting. At last she took her flint and dug around
the least bit, not wanting to uproot it; but hardly had she loosened the
turnip when it came out of the ground, and she looked down through the
hole which it had made in the sky and saw the camp of the Blackfeet
spread before her.
Suddenly she began to weep for her friends; and when her father-in-law,
the Sun, saw her weeping, he said: "You have dug up the turnip and have
looked down at the camp of the Blackfeet. Now must you return thither."
So the star-weavers made a net, and Feather Woman and her child, the son
of Morning Star, were let down into the camp of the Blackfeet.
At first she was very happy, but soon she began to grieve for Morning
Star, and at last she died of sorrow because she could not return to
Skyland. Morning Star could not come to earth, for it had been given to
him to come but that one time when impelled by her love.
And so the little son of Feather Woman and Morning Star was left all
alone. And across his face was a great scar, which had been made there
when he had been let down from Skyland in the net woven by the
star-weavers. Because of this scar he was named, and because of it he
was very ugly, so that the children of the tribe were afraid of him, and
the older folks hated him; they said that evil must be in his heart that
he should have so ugly a face.
But there was no evil in the heart of Scar Face, and he hunted and
fished alone, and became a great hunter, bringing home much meat to the
tribe.
But he was not happy, because of the unfriendliness of the tribe. The
Chief had a very beautiful daughter, and all the young men of the tribe
loved her; and Scar Face, too, loved her, and longed to marry her.
So at last he went to her and told her of his love, and asked her to
marry him; and she, thinking to jest, said: "I will m
|