Recently Hispanic Heritage month led to some ghostly stories since October storytelling spends so much of the time with Halloween. This past Monday was both Columbus Day and the contrasting Indigenous Peoples Day. Before Columbus and other Europeans arrived there was already a strong storytelling tradition here in North America. We are fortunate that the late 19th century produced an interest in saving their folklore. Charles Eastman was the rare writer of such work born into the culture he recorded. . . the Dakota Sioux. His writing and social activism was combined with his work as a physician for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Indian Health Service on the Pine Ridge Reservation and later at the Crow Creek Reservation, both in South Dakota, even caring for Indians after the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre. Of the 38 or more victims he treated, only seven died.[6] .
His book, Wigwam Evenings; Sioux Folk Tales Retold is easily enjoyed by a wide age span as his preface states: The stories are more particularly intended to be read beside an open fire to children of five years old and upward, or in the school-room by the nine, ten, eleven-year-olds in the corresponding grades.
Eastman uses the frame of telling the stories each evening for 27 nights. As I noted last week, the principle of saving the best until last is often used. "The Ghost Wife" is the final story in the book. (Actually the compiler of an anthology often has the stories they considered the best as the first and last tales.) Wigwam Evenings is illustrated by Edwin Willard Deming.
Storytellers easily will see familiar ideas in "The Ghost Wife", but that doesn't make it any less important. For younger listeners they are an introduction to themes they will discover is common in folklore around the world.
If you read the Wikipedia article earlier given in a hotlink, you will understand that Eastman's involvement in both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls and his own summer camp truly gave the introduction provided by the frame.
TWENTY-SEVENTH EVENING
On this last evening, the children are told to be especially quiet, and to listen reverently and earnestly, "for these are the greater things of which I am about to tell you," says their old teacher.
"You have heard that the Great Mystery is everywhere. He is in the earth and the water, heat and cold, rocks and trees, sun and sky; and He is also in us. When the spirit departs, that too is a mystery, and therefore we do not speak aloud the name of the dead. There are wonders all about us, and within, but if we are quiet and obedient to the voice of the spirit, sometime we may understand these mysteries!"
It is thus the old sage concludes his lessons, and over all the circle there is a hush of loving reverence.
There was once a young man who loved to be alone, and who often stayed away from the camp for days at a time, when it was said that Wolves, Bears and other wild creatures joined him in his rovings.
He was once seen with several Deer about him, petting and handling them; but when the Deer discovered the presence of a stranger, they snorted with fear and quickly vanished. It was supposed that he had learned their language. All the birds answered his call, and even those fairy-like creatures of the air, the butterflies, would come to him freely and alight upon his body.
One day, as he was lying in the meadow among the wild flowers, completely covered with butterflies of the most brilliant hues, as if it were a gorgeous cloak that he was wearing, there suddenly appeared before him a beautiful young girl.
The youth was startled, for he knew her face. He had seen her often; it was the chiefs daughter, the prettiest maiden in the village, who had died ten days before!
The truth was that she had loved this young man in secret, but he had given no thought to her, for he cared only for the wild creatures and had no mind for human ways. Now, as she stood silently before him with downcast eyes, he looked upon her pure face and graceful form, and there awoke in his heart the love that he had never felt before.
"But she is a spirit now!" he said to himself sorrowfully, and dared not speak to her.
However, she smiled archly upon him, in his strange and beautiful garment, for she read his thoughts. Toward sunset, the butterflies flew away, and with them the ghost maiden departed.
After this the young man was absent more than ever, and no one knew that the spirit of the maiden came to him in the deep woods. He built for her a lodge of pine boughs, and there she would come to cook his venison and to mend his moccasins, and sit with him beside his lonely camp-fire.
But at last he was not content with this and begged her to go with him to the village, for his mother and kinsfolk would not allow him to remain always away from them.
"Ah, my spirit wife," he begged, "can you not return with me to my people, so that I may have a home in their sight?"
"It may be so," she replied thoughtfully, "if you will carefully observe my conditions. First, we must pitch our tent a little apart from the rest of the people. Second, you must patiently bear with my absences and the strangeness of my behavior, for I can only visit them and they me in the night time. Third, you must never raise your voice in our teepee, and above all, let me never hear you speak roughly to a child in my presence!"
"All these I will observe faithfully," replied the young husband.
Now it happened that after a longer absence than usual, he was seen to come home with a wife. They pitched their tent some way from the village, and the people saw at a distance the figure of a graceful young woman moving about the solitary white teepee. But whenever any of his relatives approached to congratulate him and to bid her welcome, she would take up her axe and go forth into the forest as if to cut wood for her fire, or with her bucket for water.
At night, however, they came to see the young couple and found her at home, but it appeared very strange that she did not speak to any of them, not even by signs, though she smiled so graciously and sweetly that they all loved her. Her husband explained that the girl was of another race who have these strange ways, and by and by the people became used to them, and even ceased to wonder why they could never find her at home in the day time.
So they lived happily together, and in due time children came to them; first a boy, and a little girl afterward. But one night the father came home tired and hungry from the hunt, and the little one cried loudly and would not be quieted. Then for the first time he forgot his promise and spoke angrily to the mother and child.
Instantly the fire went out and the tent was dark.
When he had kindled the fire again, he saw that he was alone, nor did tears and searchings avail to find his wife and children. Alas, they were gone from him forever!
***
Surely adolescent listeners also will enjoy this tale of a childhood romance that didn't have a "fairy tale ending." Older listeners may recognize the similarity to Irish stories of a Selkie wife. Did it travel out to the plains? Stories do tend to travel.
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This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain." The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated. I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century. My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them. I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.
At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience. Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week. This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here. (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.) Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-
There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection. I have long recommended it and continue to do so. He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories. There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"
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