Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
“To be a scout,” he instructed, “you must become accustomed to the wilderness. You must begin to think of it as your home, and you must feel as comfortable here as you would in your England.”
She nodded.
It was early morning. The sun was up in the eastern sky, but barely, its pinks and reds diffused across the barren landscape, welcoming in the new day with color.
Both Marietta and Grey Coyote were seated in the gully, on the ground.
There was no fire between them, but a breakfast of dried meat had appeased their hunger.
Her first lesson had begun, and she was instructed to learn it well, for she and Grey Coyote would begin their travels on this very evening.
“Mother Earth will provide everything for you,” Grey Coyote was saying. “All of your needs, be they food, medicines or weapons. But you must open your heart and your mind. You must become one with all existence.”
“Become one with existence?”
He nodded. “There is a oneness with nature. A feeling of belonging, of being part of it. It is true power. We are, all of us, connected. Every living creature is part and parcel of every other living creature. When you can feel this aliveness, this oneness with all life, you have then truly become a scout.”
“But I don’t understand.”
“Close your eyes and tell me, what do you see a mile away from here?”
She chortled. “I can’t see a mile away from here.”
“Yes, you can,” he encouraged. “Keep your eyes closed and feel the life around you.”
She tried to do as he said.
“Can you sense the boulder?”
Heaven forbid, she did perceive something. She asked, albeit a little shyly, “Is it to my left?”
“It is. I am proud of you. You can do this.”
“But the boulder is quite close to me.”
“It does not matter,” he responded. “How far away something is is not important. It is not the distance that matters, it is one’s feeling of belonging to all life. Now, tell me, what do you discern in the far distance from here?”
She tried to look. She tried very hard, but at last she shook her head. “Nothing. I can’t do this.”
“You can. But it is perhaps too soon. You must practice. You must sit here. You must close your eyes and feel the life around you, for there is much activity here. You must permit yourself to become part of it, to be it. We are all of us connected. You need only to sense the connection, and the rest is easy, for all your needs are provided by our Mother, the earth.”
“But—”
“This is why it is important to take care of the earth.” He expanded on the thought.
“All life needs her, as she needs us. We are all joined by the life that flows through every living creature. This is why you must remember that to destroy something beautiful in the earth is to destroy something beautiful in yourself.”
She sat for a moment in thought. “I understand. You reap what you sow.”
He nodded. “The life force which one uses to destroy another is one’s own life force.
It comes from none other than oneself. This energy of life exists as surely as the air you breathe, and it will come back to you, for you are the one who emanated it.
And so it is that what one receives is good, or is bad, according to what one puts out into the world. ”
She gazed up at him. Her throat constricted, as she recognized the truth of what he was saying. In some way, somehow, what Grey Coyote was saying…touched her.
“How have you managed to become aware of all this?”
“My grandfathers. And they learned from their grandfathers before them. But come, there is more you should know about scouting”—holding out his hand, he pulled her to her feet—“The first duty one must keep in mind when he is scouting is this: one must avoid all man-made and animal trails. In truth, a scout avoids all trails. And a scout never uses the same path twice.”
Marietta tried earnestly to understand. After all, she had promised him to learn all she could as quickly as possible. However, she couldn’t help but have a few questions. “But if you avoid all trails,” she asked, “how do you know where you’re going?”
“There are landmarks one can use to tell one’s way. The sun is used during the day, the seven brothers at night, for they will point you to the Star that Stands Still, the North Star.”
“Seven brothers?”
“The white man calls these stars the Big Dipper. But the Indians call the same stars the seven brothers.”
“Really? Why seven brothers?”
“It is from an old Cheyenne legend. In the legend, seven brothers escaped into the sky to avoid death. It is an excellent legend, and perhaps it is because of this that many of the surrounding tribes have come to adopt the name for this group of stars.”
“I see.” She nodded. “Will you tell it to me?”
“Hau, but perhaps at a later time. For now, I will give you lessons on how never to get lost.”
“Really?”
He simply smiled at her. “Hau, hau. It is easy to find the seven brothers in the sky, for they are always in view unless it is cloudy. And from the brothers, one can gain direction and can ascertain how early or late it is in the evening, for the brothers rotate around the Star that Stands Still.”
“Yes, yes. I do know about this, but what I didn’t know is how to tell direction because of it. Nor have I ever learned how to tell time because of it.”
“Wa?té, good. Now to find your way, you have only to take the two stars at the very end of the cup and make a straight line upward from them. The first star you will come to is the Star that Stands Still.”
“The Star that Stands Still, and this is how you find it, from the stars you call the Seven Brothers?”
He inclined his head. “It is so. It is good we have discussed this, for you should never be lost again. Tonight, when we are on the trail, I will have you trace this path in the sky so you can see how easily it is done.”
“I would like this, very much,” she answered with a smile.
“Remember once you can determine north—for the Star that Stands Still points north always—you have only to set your course accordingly until at last you come across landmarks which you know.”
“Ah, I see how it’s done. Well, I must say, this is an enlightening lesson to have learned.” She wrinkled her brow. “But what if it’s a cloudy night and you can’t see the stars? Do you simply not travel?”
“There is always a means to find your way. When it is cloudy, one notes the course of the wind, which, depending on the season, comes from a particular direction. One can set one’s path by this.”
“The wind?”
“Hau,” he said. “The wind. Now, when we leave here tonight, I will tell you the direction we must go, and you will lead me.”
“I? But—”
“It is the only way to learn.” He peered at her as though he were trying to read her mind. “But there is much time before evening, and there is yet one more skill you must know, a very important skill.”
“Oh? And what is that?”
“How to travel as a scout. Because a scout must remain invisible to be of use to his tribe, a scout must set his mind to traveling through the most difficult regions of the plains.”
“What do you mean by difficult regions?”
“The swamps, the bushes, the places no one would think to travel. On the prairie, only men in great numbers can afford to keep to the easier paths. A scout goes where no one else wants to go, where no one else would think to go. Thus he remains invisible. So that you might understand this further, it is a matter of shame for a scout to be seen when he is on a mission for his people. A scout is powerful, and his skills are only valuable to others and to his tribe when he remains undetected.”
“I think I begin to understand.” She bobbed her head slightly. “But how can one become invisible? It isn’t as though a person is invisible. And a scout must walk, or crawl. He must exert some motion. Can’t his motion be seen?”
“This is a good question,” Grey Coyote validated.
“Yet a scout must for all practical purposes be invisible, and there are several ways for him to do so. One is to blend into the environment—to take on its color and aspects so well it would be hard for another to distinguish the scout from the land. Another is to camouflage oneself as an animal, perhaps one that is often seen on the prairie.”
“Ah. Like a buffalo? You make yourself up to look like a buffalo.”
He shook his head. “It is the wolf. Wolves are a common animal on the plains. Few warriors, even when they see them, pay attention to the wolf, or kill them, either, for there is a saying that a bow which shoots a wolf will never shoot straight again.”
“Hmmm…” She furrowed her brow. “So are you saying that in order to make ourselves invisible, we’ll become like wolves?”
“Hiya, no. We cannot because I have no means to make us appear as wolves. A wolf skin is often kept for this purpose, but I have none with me. Nor do I wish to kill a wolf in order to obtain its skin. Instead, we will disguise ourselves in another way.”
“Oh? What way is this?”
He pointed off to the small stream that gurgled merrily through the gully.
“We’re going to wade in water?”
He smiled gently, shaking his head. “Come. I will show you.”
Taking her hand in his own, he led her to the water.
They squatted next to the stream, and Grey Coyote, picking up her hand, directed it to the different textures of the soil, asking her to identify each one. “What do you feel here?”
“Mostly sand,” she replied.
“This is true. There is much sand, and sandstone. You see it in the cliffs. But is there anything else?”
“Hmmm… Well, there’s dirt and clay.”
“Hau, there is dirt and clay. And do you see this clay is the same color as the soil, and that it is also the same shade as the dry, golden grass?”
“Hmmm…” she murmured, hesitating. “Yes, I guess I can.”