| |
The beautiful long feathers surprised and delighted him, and by trading
some valuable Indian possession of his own he managed to buy a few of
them, which he took with him to the mountains and hid, until he was ready
to use them, in an old beaver lodge under the river bank. To get into the
beaver lodge he had to dive under the water.
Then he set to work secretly and made himself a headdress, with the long
peacock feathers in the front and trailing out behind and the shorter ones
at the sides. At the next dance he wore the new headdress, and asserted
that he had been up to the sky and that these were star feathers. He made
a long speech also, which he pretended was a message he had received from
the star spirits to deliver to the people.
Everyone wondered at the beautiful feathers, so different from any they
had ever seen before. They made no doubt that he had been up to the sky
and talked with spirits. He became a great prophet, and used to keep
himself hidden all day in the beaver hole, and whenever there was a night
gathering for a dance or a council he would suddenly appear among them
wearing his feather headdress and give the people a new message from the
sky. Then he would leave them again, pretending that he went up to heaven.
He grew famous, and powerful among all the medicine men, until at last it
happened that another Cherokee went down among the white settlements and
saw there another peacock, and knew at once that the prophet was a fraud.
On his return he quietly told some of his friends, and they decided to
investigate.
When the next night dance came around the prophet was on hand as usual
with a new message fresh from the stars. The people listened reverently,
and promised to do all that he commanded. Then he left them, saying that
he must return at once to the sky, but as he went out from the circle the
spies followed him in the darkness, and saw him go down to the river and
dive under the water. They waited, but he, did not come up again, and they
went back and told the people.
The next morning a party went to the spot and discovered the beaver
lodge under the bank. One man dived and came up inside, and there he found
the prophet sitting with the peacock feathers by his side.
Click here to Return to the Native
American Myth and Folklore contents page
|
