Читать книгу Living by Stories - Harry Robinson - Страница 6

A SPATLA WAS KILLED BY RABBIT AND CHIPMUNK

Eliminating spatla was no easy task.

I could tell that stories, three, four days

and never end.

But I can’t tell ’em all now.

Just a part of it, just the first part.

The Indians, they know, just like they do in the Bible says.

They know the same way almost,

not exactly the same way, but likely.

And these woman, Indian,

they say there’s four of them.

Women.

Big one.

Extra big.

And they call that spatla in our language.

But I cannot say what it would be called in English.

But only in my language, they call ’em spatla.

They are bad.

They packs that basket and they got the babies—

the two-year-old or more, or little baby,

and throw ’em in that basket.

Then they kill ’em by that cactus.

Then they take ’em in the bush and cook ’em and eat ’em.

They make a fire, and they roast ’em.

They roast ’em on the stick,

get ’em cooked, and eat.

They might eat the whole baby at one meal.

Then they look for another one for the next meal.

That’s what the spatla do.

They eat person.

They eat people.

Not the big one, but the small one.

They like the baby ones, because they tender.

Just like little deer.

And the chance they will get,

it will eat the big person if they can only kill ’em.

Well, they can kill ’em.

They easy to kill because him, herself, they’re big.

They do anything to the other person like we are.

They kill ’em and eat ’em.

But they like the smaller one more than they do the big one,

or the big person.

That’s the stories in Indian.

And in the Bible, that these two man,

they’re big too.

They alike and they sound the same way.

And these stories in Indian—spatla,

the white people, they must’ve heard that from some Indian

somehow in Omak maybe long time ago.

And one time, at the rodeo time,

that was about the 1980 or ’81, one of these years,

I was there.

And I see the white people,

they make a show, like that spatla.

Just how it was told for the stories.

One man, they make some kind of pack.

The other one make the two, three of ’em, maybe four.

And they packed a great big thing, you know,

but it’s not heavy.

They light but it looks like a heavy pack.

And they walks around in the ring,

on the outside the ring,

the way to go into a grandstand.

And they go around, the two of them.

That shows, they do that when they imbellable* stories.

The white man did that, not the Indians.

The white man can do.

Not the Indian.

But that was the stories

they know that from the Indian.

And they figure they do the same, but not exactly.

And a lot of people, white and Indian,

they don’t know what that is

when they see these mans around.

They only say,

“My, they’re a big mans too.

And they got a big pack.”

That’s all they knew because they couldn’t see.

And I did see.

But I knew that’s spatla.

That’s like the way they look like when he was there

between Konkonala and Loomis

in that little valley.

And I seen the place,

that little lake where they got killed.

That spatla with the pack on.

Well, whoever killed ’em,

they were just an awful little little person.

Rabbit and Chipmunk, they small.

They couldn’t kill the big animal like that.

But they did—they killed ’em.

That’s way, way back.

So that’s the stories.

I was wondering if anybody could remember

that time, that rodeo in 1980 or ’81,

when these two man,

they had a great big pack

and they goes around on the road, like,

when you go into a grandstand.

Go playing around, two, three times walk that way.

And everybody seen ’em.

And everybody thinks they big, tall man.

And they got the big pack too.

Why?

They don’t know why.

They don’t know anything about it,

white people and Indian.

I’m one of the Indian but I know what’s about.

That’s spatla.

That’s the way it looked like when he was ’round,

way, way back.

The white people, they heard that from the Indian somehow—

the part of the stories, a little,

And they make show for that.

See?

That’ll be all for the first few story.

One of these spatla, they called ’em,

that’s supposed to be a woman.

There’re four of them.

The other three was killed by the Indian somehow,

but I cannot remember how it came by this moment.

But later on, if I had a lot of time,

I could think a little

and I will know who killed ’em and how it’s killed.

But I can’t say that right now.

But one of them was killed by Rabbit and Chipmunk.

He was killed between Loomis and Konkonala.

In that, that little valley.

I go by on the horseback.

And I see that little lake, the small little lake.

That’s where they kill ’em.

A long, long time.

That’s one of ’em.

And the other two was killed by the Indian somehow

but I cannot say because I don’t remember.

But the other one, like the second one,

Coyote—he killed that.

Coyote, he met that woman, big woman—spatla.

And as soon as he met ’em,

Coyote, he knows this was a bad woman.

She’s a person-eater.

Person-killer, eater.

And they’re afraid

he might kill him and eat ’em.

So, the first thing they do, they make a friend with them.

They try to make a good friend with that woman.

So finally the woman they think that all right.

This is a good man, they can be my friend.

So they tell her that he do too.

He kill the person and eat ’em, just like she do.

Just tell that lie to her

just so they think they can be friend with ’em.

So, anyway, that way.

And Coyote, they got a

And Coyote, they got a chance to kill her.