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The young brave stepped aside as another brave came to Bull Shield’s side, carrying four white eagle feathers.
The brave with the eagle feathers stood back somewhat from Bull Shield while the shaman opened the bundle of tobacco and sprinkled some in his left hand.
Bull Shield nodded to the young brave, who took the bundle. Then the other one, who held the eagle feathers, stepped next to Bull Shield.
One by one, Bull Shield took the eagle feathers. He knelt down beside the fire and placed the feathers on the ground, one in each direction.
He then took the bundle from the other young brave and placed it on the ground beside the feathers.
Raising his eyes heavenward, he chanted for a while, then sprinkled tobacco into the fire, as an offering to the manitou of the fire.
Scarcely breathing, Kaylene watched this religious ritual. She listened to Bull Shield as he spoke in a drone over the fire. He actually seemed to be addressing the fire, asking its spirit or manitou to carry his words to the manitous of the sky and winds.
A few moments passed as Bull Shield said and did nothing as he waited to be sure that rapport had been established with the manitous.
Then he spoke again, so that everyone could hear. He asked for blessings, health, and a long life for his people, and that Chief Fire Thunder be protected, that their enemies be destroyed, and that the Kickapoo live as mortals again in the hereafter.
He asked for Kaylene’s recovery, and that the manitous look to her as though her skin was copper, not white, and as though her heart was Indian, not white.
The drums beat four times.
The flute blew four times, once in each direction.
Bull Shield chanted a song four times.
A woman brought a boiling kettle of food into the council house and set it down beside Bull Shield. Several women and men came and stood around the pot, chanting.
To Kaylene’s surprise and horror, the chanters then dipped their hands and arms into the boiling kettle of food and extracted portions which they, one by one, offered to Kaylene.
Kaylene sat with eyes wide and mouth agape, aghast at how the men and women had plunged their hands in the boiling pot of food without any signs of having been burned.
She stared at the food that lay in their hands, horrorstricken to know that she must eat it.
Understanding her dismay and fears, Fire Thunder leaned close to Kaylene and whispered to her. “To avoid burning their hands and arms, the chanters prepared themselves by rubbing on a mixture of ground prickly pear and a plant called Hercules crab. They offer the food to you as a part of the healing process. Take it. Eat it. If you do not, you will humiliate not only my people, but also the manitous.”
Kaylene sighed heavily, gave Fire Thunder a nervous smile, then took the food and ate it. She recognized pieces of carrots, potatoes, and some sort of meat. It had a pleasant taste which made it easier to swallow under the circumstances she had just witnessed.
After the chanters left, and the pot of food had been carried away, Bull Shield came to Kaylene and knelt before her. In his hand he held out to her some sort of plant. She gave Fire Thunder a questioning stare.
He nodded toward her. “You must also eat that,” he whispered. “It is the root of the Solomon’s seal plant combined with the rhizome of the wild purple iris. Swallowing small bits of this curing component will ensure your good health.”
Kaylene looked guardedly at Bull Shield, gazed into his blind eyes, then allowed him to place the healing plants in the palm of her hand.
Her fingers trembled as she slipped bits of the plants between her lips, relieved that even this was
not bad tasting, except for a slight bitterness.
Bull Shield smiled at Kaylene, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and then sat down between her and Fire Thunder as dancers sheathed in buffalo robes appeared.
Both men and women danced to the rhythm of the music. It went on for some time and Kaylene found it harder and harder to sit there. The walk to the river had tired her, oh, so sorely tired her. The tension that had built up inside her as she had waited for the curing ceremony had taken its toll. And the heat of the council house was stifling as wood kept being fed into the already great, roaring fire.
As a lightheadedness seized her, Kaylene tried to clear her head by slightly shaking it.
But nothing could stop the spinning.
Not wanting to embarrass herself or Fire Thunder, she fought off the urge to faint.
But she could not help the way the music seemed to be swallowing her whole, nor the way the heat from the fire made her feel as though she were melting.
