Hush, hushaby, little woman!Be brave and weep not! The spirits sleep not;'Tis they who ordainTo woman, pain.
Hush, hushaby, little woman!Now, all things bearing, A new gift sharingFrom those above--To woman, love.--Sioux Lullaby.
"Chinto, weyanna! Yes, indeed; she is a real little woman," declares the old grandmother, as she receives and crit- ically examines the tiny bit of humanity.
There is no remark as to the color of its hair or eyes, both so black as almost to be blue, but the old woman scans sharply the delicate pro- file of the baby face.
"Ah, she has the nose of her ancestors! Lips thin as a leaf, and eyes bright as stars in mid- winter!" she exclaims, as she passes on the furry bundle to the other grandmother for her inspec- tion.
"Tokee! she is pretty enough to win a twinkle rom the evening star," remarks that smiling personage.
"And what shall her name be?
"Winona, the First-born, of course.That is hers by right of birth." "Still, it may not fit her.One must prove herself worthy in order toretain that honorable name."
"Ugh," retorts the first grandmother, "she can at least bear it on probation!""Tosh, tosh," the other assents.
Thus the unconscious little Winona has passed the first stage of the Indian's christen- ing.
Presently she is folded into a soft white doe- skin, well lined with the loose down of cattails, and snugly laced into an upright oaken cradle, the front of which is a richly embroidered buck- skin bag, with porcupinequills and deers' hoofs suspended from its profuse fringes. This gay cradle is strapped upon the second grand- mother's back, and that dignitary walks off with the newcomer.
"You must come with me," she says. "We shall go among the father and mother trees, and hear them speak with their thousand tongues, that you may know their language forever. I will hang the cradle of the woman-child upon Utuhu, the oak; and she shall hear the love-sighs of the pine maiden!"In this fashion Winona is introduced to nature and becomes at once "nature-born," in accord with the beliefs and practices of the wild red man. "Here she is! Take her," says the old woman on her return from the woods.She pre- sents the child to its mother, who is sitting in the shade of an elm-tree as quietly as if she had not just passed through woman'sseverest or- deal in giving a daughter to the brave Cheton- ska!
"She has a winsome face, as meek and in- nocent as the face of an ermine," graciously adds the grandmother.
The mother does not speak. Silently and al- most reverently she takes her new and first-born daughter into her arms. She gazes into its vel- vety little face of a dusky red tint, and uncon- sciously presses the closely swaddled form to her breast. She feels the mother-instinct seize upon her strongly for the first time. Here is a new life, a new hope, a possible link between herself and a new race!
Ah, a smile plays upon her lips, as she realizes that she has kissed her child!In its eyes and mouth she discerns clearly the features she has loved in the strong countenance of another, though in the little woman's face they are soft- ened and retouched by the hand of the "Great Mystery." The baby girl is called Winona for some months, when the medicine- man is summoned and requested to name publicly the first-born daughter of Chetonska, the White Hawk; but not until he has received a present of a good pony with a finely painted buffalo-robe.It is usual to confer another name besides that of the "First-born," which may be resumed later if the maiden proves worthy.The name Wi- nona implies much of honor.
It means char- itable, kind, helpful; all that an eldest sister should be!
The herald goes around the ring of lodges announcing in singsongfashion the christening, and inviting everybody to a feast in honor of the event. A real American christening is al- ways a gala occasion, when much savage wealth is distributed among the poor and old people. Winona has only just walked, and this fact is also announced with additional gifts. A well- born child is ever before the tribal eye and in the tribal ear, as every little step in its progress toward manhood or womanhood--the first time of walking or swimming, first shot with bow and arrow (if a boy), first pair of moccasins made (if a girl)--is announced publicly with feasting and the giving of presents.
So Winona receives her individual name of Tatiyopa, or Her Door. It is symbolic, like most Indian names, and implies that the door of the bearer is hospitable and her home attrac- tive.
The two grandmothers, who have carried the little maiden upon their backs, now tell and sing to her by turns all the legends of their most noted female ancestors, from the twin sisters of the old story, the maidens who married among the star people of the sky, down to their own mothers. All her lullabies are feminine, and designed to impress upon her tender mind the life and duties of her sex.
As soon as she is old enough to play with dolls she plays mother in all seriousness and gravity. She is dressed like a miniature woman (and her dolls are clad likewise), in garments of doeskin to her ankles, adorned with long fringes, embroidered with porcupine quills, and dyed with root dyes in various colors. Her lit- tle blanket or robe, with which she shyly drapes or screens her head and shoulders, is the skin of a buffalo calf or a deer, soft, white, embroi- dered on the smooth side, and often with the head and hoofs left on.
"You must never forget, my little daughter, that you are a woman like myself. Do always those things that you see me do," her mother often admonishes her.
Even the language of the Sioux has its fem- inine dialect, and the tiny girl would be greatly abashed were it ever needful to correct her for using a masculine termination.
