Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-12-23
Indian
Lodge Tales
By
Ford G. Prick
Observation-Disclosures
THE DECISION OF DEATH

N10NA when the Manitou created the
=. fed Man to rule over the wNr1d he
crstd him in his own im5A lad
\ mak him walk upright with III eyes
the sky-and he was not Fsrcsd to
8(,1tch5 his feet, as were the beasts.
But when the Red Man was created
4 and had lived for years in the peace
s mi valley the Manitou found that he
i was too strong and too brave and that
4 ba had been created too much in the
n image of the Maker of us all. So he
II decided that 1t would not do for the
8 Red Man to live too long, else he
Y would become as wise and as great as
3 MaDit0u himself
So one day the ManitOu appeared
10 his daughter, the mother of the
A Red Man, and to her he told his fears.
q And as a remedy he suggested that
Il tbp Red Man he allowed to live only
for an allotted span of years, and
that then he be supplanted by his
81 children and his children's children
until time ended.
But first he thought he would give
tbe Red Man a chance to determine
n how he was to live. And so, in COM
u many with his daughter he went to the
valley, where lived the Chosen People.
and he called forth the wisest and old.
est chief of them all to be the judge.
In his one hand he took a buffalo
x IN, bo Ill
with the chief and his daughter he
went to the bank of the stream to make
IA The test.
First he tossed the buffalo chip into
q The stream and the chip floated for
awhile until it struck the rapids and
then it submerged for, little way
and again it 1loated and again it sub
merged, until finally it disappeared
from sight around a bend in the
stream.
And so the Manitou ruled that the
Red Man should live for four years
il and then die and remain dead for four
come TO life for a similar period And
81 The old chief was pleased and accepted
he ruling
But the daughter of Manitou, the
bother of all the Red Men, was not
AeaSed and pleaded with her father
bat some other arrangement might
bel4ge7 Apd the Mention ghp loved
bis daughter dearly, listened TO her
beading and agreed that there should
he one more test made and that the
ASAsllt of that test should stand for
GAVEE and tha method of the test he left
ANlis daughter A~
he seeing that the Manitou had
yet thrown the stone, and thffNi1g
srlat perhaps the stone had some magic
Auaknown except. terrible sEalzerspf US all
Suggested that 'he~tEtr6wF the <stone In
watefaaa ggy es5aq,9itaa rsa
Nhe llanitpu, taking her at. her
8Fprd tossed Il ltone far out into the
zHeam, and ii fell with splash into
be water and sank out of sight And
bus was the fate of the Red Men de-
dded
The Manitou ruled that each Red
Van should live in the valley an al
cited span of years, and that then lie
toud die and his body should perish
bonn the earth and should never more
ONE to life in the valley.
But in order that the Red Men
8l0ud not be hopeless and forlorn he
8rOmiSed that those of them who Kept
Ne faith and praised the Manitou and
good work should live again in the
0py hunting ground above the Peak,
here there would be no death and
here there would be no war and no
80uble. And so the ruling stood. The
Jed Men were made mortal, to die
'hen their time came, but knowing
the promise of ManitOu they felt no
ear Of death. And so it is today. We
must die, but living well, we live
gain in that great hunting ground,
mere all is happiness and peace.
Note This 1popnd hears marked