them if his light was good. They said it was not enough to illuminate the earth. Panther crept low and sulked. They appointed Spider to go east and come back. He did as he was told. He climbed up to the sky, hung there and made a small speck of light on the horizon. But it was too dim. He went west and hung there, too, but it was equally dim in that region. He came back to the gathering and asked if it was all right. They told him no, that his light was not great enough.
“So they appointed another. They chose Moon, because he was large and had great power. They told Moon to go east, come back across the heavens and go down in the west. Moon started out as they directed. When he came back from the east to the west he made better light than Panther or Spider, but sill it was not good enough.
“Then they chose another. They appointed Sun, because like Moon, he had hidden strength and it was known: he is the retainer of Master of Breath. They gave him the same instructions, and Sun left them to rise in the far heights. When Sun came back westward, he gave good light and when he went down to the horizon, it was all right, and they saw the beauty of the earth by it. Sun returned and asked their judgment. They said it was good, so the Sun was chosen to give light, and he gave everlasting light.
“Thus the earth was made and inhabited by the old time beings and was lit by Sun. Master of Breath smiled upon his creation, for he saw that it was good and bountiful and clean.
“Now, when the old time beings came down to earth and inhabited it as totem animals there again rose doubt. When Groundhog saw that Sun would give light to the earth, he told them, ‘If it is daylight all the time, we will not increase.’ He said, ‘If we have a period of darkness, then we will be able to rest from our work and procreate among our own kind.’
“So it was Groundhog who decided that there must be night to separate the day. They agreed with him, and so instructed Sun to come up between periods of darkness, which they called nightfall. But when night and day were set in order, they found that while Sun rested it was so dark that no one could see to travel. This would not do because creatures would not be able to find each other to multiply. So they sent Spider to scatter himself across the heavens and Moon to hang high above them, and Panther was to appear as the streaking night fire to announce danger, and it was all right. Thus Groundhog had made night through his own cunning, and they had all agreed with him and allowed it to remain so.
“So the earth was made, lighted by the sun, the moon, and the stars, and night came in, too. Master of Breath smiled again upon the earth. High in the far heights he still keeps his sacred fire in the sun. He holds dominion over us now as he did over the old time beings then, and directs Hayuya and Yahola, the spirits who reside in the air to act when we entreat them for their supplications of strength, long life, clearness of vision and thought. The first people came up from within the red earth at his calling. But when they came up they found a great fog. It covered the earth and they could not see well. At last the Wind came and blew the fog away. Then the people found their cunning. They acquired their creativity and their skills by learning them from the old time beings. The people established family clans and the clans have been the foundation of society since the beginning. Each clan has an ancestor in one of the old time beings. But the Wind clan has been the chief clan since its ancestor made it possible for the people to see the earth.
Bear began to catch another wind, and as he continued the initiates sat still and listened. The old warrior paused to look at them. Then he spoke.
“The legends tell about how people are the way they are. The legends were known first by the Ulibahali, the first people who spoke the old language. They had a word for the order of things. That word defines why the primal beings, the rocks, trees, the rivers and hills, are worshipped because they also have a spirit and are close to Master of Breath. They witnessed the peoples’ creation. That word is alive in our legends. I can speak that word only at sacred places honored by Master of Breath. It was the first word spoken. So when I speak it, I tremble. I wait for the silence. It comes and I can commune with Him in the skies. You will know that word one day. To know our ancestors you must know it.”
But Bear didn’t tell them the word. It was not the time or the place. The legends reeled off his tongue. He told his listeners how Grandmother Spider once stole the sun, the life and death of the Sweet Medicine, how the Mudheads did not know how to copulate until Groundhog told them. He told them how the miko of Kialgi lost his medicine, and of how Pasikola fought the lump of pitch.
The initiates soon became thirsty in the afternoon heat. Bear didn’t stop until the stories of pride and passion, lust and envy, vanity and greed, and nobility and loving-kindness of the people were told. By the time the sun had dropped below the clouds late in the day he still had them spellbound. And that was it.
“My talk is ended,” said the old warrior to his twelve initiates, “and I am done with you for today.” Otci, still alert to the old warrior’s legend-giving, turned from Nokusi’s eye and peered down the line of his brothers. They sat quietly in the brightness of the tales, unwilling to break from the grasp Nokusi held over them. Otci now felt a tinge of uneasiness, as he would feel if he showed up late for the departure to a hunt.
Bear spoke again. “The sun is heavy and yellowing now in the west, and my tongue is spent. Go down to the river and cleanse yourselves before returning to your mother’s fire. I will call you again in the morning.” The aged eyes flashed with the intensity of his younger, greener days. “I said it is ended,” he spoke sternly. “Go down to the river. You sit around staring stupidly like children. You are nearly men! Now go!”
Otci rose quickly as the others, too, jumped to their feet. They sprang out of the small clearing like a pack of wild horses, choking the narrow path leading down to the bluff above the river. He stepped aside to let them pass. Running and stumbling over each other, they bounded through the opening in the woods. The river would take them in. To it they would give the spirit so keenly held by their teacher back in the thicket.
Otci let them all run past. He was soaring in the expectancy of the Poskita. Nokusi’s words hung in his ear for that adventure, for his ambitions were formed by the flashing eyes and the broad sweeps of the hand that emphasized the low rumblings and musical quality of his voice in his lesson giving. In the quiet of his walk, he spoke to it from within:
I am strengthened for the fast and for the show of courage. The mockingbirds and the jays and the crows are calling out the woodland song that will lead me to the great silence. Their presence, too, increases my knowledge as does the council talk as I break into this shining, new world.
He walked on a ways.
They are all washing in the river now, he thought. The path lies open. The clamor of creation and the profusion of spirit is all so vigorous. Down the bluff is the source, the Long Person. There, like the strength of Esaugetu Emissee, is the moving water which restores. It takes away the spirit’s pollution that distances us from the divine. It is a living thing and its distance is long.
He reached the water’s edge to find them bathing. They washed in the single devotion which called to each of them: Hobithli (Fog), his companion in all adventures; Katutci (Little Panther), another companion; two ballplayer athletes, Illitci (Killer) and Kunip (Skunk); Tumchuli, the quiet one and, as some suspected, perhaps unready for this trial; the hunters, Fuswa (Bird) and Pinili (Turkey Foot); Lojutci (Little Fist), who scraped out burned-out cedar logs to fashion long canoes; Halpada (Alligator), the tall and guileful one; Eli Francis, the son of Owl clan mother and a white trader; and Hobayi (Faraway), the one different from them all by his silent, distant mien. Otci stripped off his breechcloth and dove into the cool, green water, closing his eyes to feel the water envelop him in a clean freshness.
He swam in the broad flow. Gliding downward in the cool water, he arched his body upward to face the wavelets. Splinters of dancing light flashed on the rippling face of the river. Bursting up
