William Alexander Fraser kindle The Blood Lilies

TO the tepee of Wolf Runner, the Cree, had come a little brave; and in the heavy face of Mi-yah-tis was the joy of motherhood. u Mi-yah-tis ” means the Ugly One, and no one had ever cried out against the injustice of the Cree woman’s naming. She was entitled to it in its application to her lack of physical grace. Then came the medicine-dreaming of a name for the little brave that was in the tepee of Wolf Runner. All through one summer night a medicine-man slept on the cone of a sand-hill, and, slumbering, listened for the dream-name the spirits would bring for the copper-tinged babe that lay swathed in a thick padding of softest muskeg moss. In the morning the medicine-man came to the tepee where waited Wolf Runner and Mi-yah-tis, and looked down at the wee brown face that peeped from the corded moss-bag with a troubled look in his eyes. “Is it a brave name, O Medicine-maker?” queried Wolf Runner. The dreamer nodded; and the eagle feathers that were in his head-dress fluttered in pride. “Is it a name of good fortune?” asked the Ugly One. The dreamer shook his head reluctantly; and the eagle feathers drooped like death-plumes. “ Speak, O great Medicine-man,” pleaded Wolf Runner. “ As I slept,” said the dreamer, “ I saw only a fierce red moon looking upon a prairie of blood lilies-” “And the name?” asked the father. “ The red moon is the moon of disaster—of lameness; and the blood lilies are the lilies of bravery—the courage flowers. Manitou calls them to grow from the blood of braves who fell in battle; they grow many on the plains where our people slew the Blackfeet. The Lame One will be a great brave, full of courage.” “ The Lame One! ” cried Mi-yah-tis in a voice of pain. “ That is the name? ” asked Wolf Runner. “ Yes, Mas-ki-sis, the Lame One. But he will do a brave thing—will be a great brave.” “And the evil, the lameness?” asked Mi-yahtis—for she was a mother. “ The red moon of crying will be at the time of the blood lilies.” Thus was the naming of Mas-ki-sis the Cree, son of Wolf Runner and Mi-yah-tis.