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The Fire-Plume
by
Wassamo dropped his head and made no answer. The thought that he should behold his kindred no more, made him sad.
He was silent, and the Old Spirit continued: “Your wants will all be supplied; but you must be careful not to stray far from the lodge. I am afraid of that Spirit who rules all islands lying in the lakes. He is my bitter enemy, for I have refused him my daughter in marriage; and when he learns that you are a member of my family, he will seek to harm you. There is my daughter,” added the Old Spirit, pointing toward her. “Take her. She shall be your wife.”
Forthwith Wassamo and the Old Spirit’s daughter sat near each other in the lodge, and they were man and wife.
One evening the Old Spirit came in after a busy day’s work out among the sand-hills, in the course of which he had blown them all out of shape with great gusts of wind, and strewn them about in a thousand directions, and brought them back and piled them up in all sorts of misshapen heaps.
At the close of this busy day, when the Old Spirit came in very much out of breath, he said to Wassamo, “Son-in-law, I am in want of tobacco. None grows about this dry place of mine. You shall return to your people and procure me a supply. It is seldom that the few who pass these sand-hills offer me a piece of tobacco,–it is a rare plant in these parts,–but when they do, it immediately comes to me. Just so,” he added, putting his hand out of the side of the lodge and drawing in several pieces of tobacco which some one passing at that moment offered as a fee to the Old Spirit, to keep the sand-hills from blowing about till they had got by.
Other gifts beside tobacco came in the same way to the side of the lodge–sometimes a whole bear, then a wampum-robe, then a string of birds–and the Sand-Spirits altogether led an easy life; for they were not at the trouble to hunt or clothe themselves; and whenever the housekeeping began to fall short, nothing would happen but a wonderful storm of dust, all the sand-hills being straightway put in an uproar, and the contributions would at once begin to pour in at the side windows of the lodge, till all their wants were supplied.
After Wassamo had been among these curious people several months, the old Sand-Spirit said to him, “Son-in-law, you must not be surprised at what you will see next; for since you have been with us you have never known us to go to sleep. It has been summer when the sun never sets here where we live. But now, what you call winter, is coming on. You will soon see us lie down, and we shall not rise again till the spring. Take my advice. Do not leave the lodge. I have sure knowledge that that knavish Island Spirit is on the prowl, and as he has command of a particular kind of storm, which comes from the south-west, he only waits his opportunity to catch you abroad and do you a mischief. Try and amuse yourself. That cupboard,” pointing to a corner of the lodge, “is never empty; for it is there that all the offerings are handed in while we are asleep. It is never empty, and–” But ere the old Sand-Spirit could utter another word, a loud rattling of thunder was heard, and instantly, not only the Old Spirit but every one of his family, vanished out of sight.
When the storm had passed by, they all reappeared in the lodge. This sudden vanishing and reappearance occurred at every tempest.
“You are surprised,” said the Old Spirit, “to see us disappear when it thunders. The reason is this: that noise which you fancy is thunder, is our enemy the Island Spirit hallooing on his way home from the hunt. We get out of sight that we may escape the necessity of asking him to come in and share our evening meal. We are not afraid of him, not in the least.”