The Eagle Crest

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Title:     The Eagle Crest
Author: Elaine Goodale Eastman [More Titles by Eastman]

It is well known that there is a certain clan which claims the Eagle for its crest or totem, and this is how it happened.

There was once a very poor man, so poor that he could not even get enough to eat. He was always cruising around in a small canoe, trying to catch a few little fish with which to keep himself alive. One day he caught nothing, and as he had brought no food with him in the boat he became very hungry.

Early in the morning, as he lay on the shore, he heard a voice but could not tell where it came from. The voice said: "I have come after you." The man looked all around him, but saw only a young Eagle perched upon the branch of a tree. Then the voice said quite plainly: "My grandfather has sent me to get you." This time the Eagle looked to him like a real person, and he followed it into the woods.

The trail led to a fine large house high up on a cliff, and inside there was plenty of good food. There were also mats to sit upon and all the comforts to be found in good houses. The Eagles treated the poor man well, and since he was wretched and despised among his own people, he wanted to stay with them always. He married one of the Eagle women and became one of them.

Now the mother and brothers of this man were just as poor and contemptible as he had been, and he pitied them, now that he himself was well off. Whenever he saw his brother out fishing, he would leave some fish where the other could find it. The brother was astonished at his luck and could not account for it.

One night his mother had a dream. She dreamed that a large fish might be found upon a certain point of land, and when they went there, the fish was where she had dreamed she saw it. Soon afterward she dreamed that they must camp on a certain spot, where they would find much food. While they camped there, they all saw an Eagle bring a fish ashore, after which he sat upon a branch not far from them, and exclaimed: "Do not be afraid; it is I!"

Such is the origin of the Eagle clan, which is now a large one and respected of all the people.

[The end]
Elaine Goodale Eastman's short story: Eagle Crest

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