{SHCSCDPP.UPD} EASTER 3/29/97    The Legend of The Sacred Pipe    -----------------------------    -----------------------------    (story of the Souix) Narrated by "Joshua"       Early one morning, very many winters ago, two Lakota were out *   hunting with their bows and arrows, and as they were standing on a *   hill looking for game, they saw in the distance something coming *   towards them in a very strange and wonderful manner. When this *   mysterious thing came nearer to them, they saw that it was a very *   beautiful woman, dressed in white buckskin, and bearing a bundle *   on her back... She took from her back, the bundle and holding it with both *   hands in front of the chief said: "Behold this and always love it!" *   It is ( lela wakan [very sacred] ), and you must treat it as such. *   No impure person should ever be allowed to see it; for within this *   bundle there is a sacred pipe.   (remove the Sacred Pipe from its pouch)    With this you will, during the winters to come, send your *   voices to ( Wakan-Takan [your Father and Grandfather] )."    After the mysterious woman said this, she took from the bundle a *   pipe, and also a small round stone which she placed on the ground. *   Holding the pipe up with its stem to the heavens, she said, "With *   this sacred pipe you will walk upon the Earth; the Earth is your *   Grandmother and Mother, and she is Sacred. Every step that is *   taken upon Her should be as a prayer. The bowl of this pipe is of *   red stone; it is the Earth. Carved in the stone and facing the *   center is the buffalo calf who represents all the four-leggeds who *   live upon your Earth Mother. The Stem of the pipe is of wood, and *   this represents all that grows upon the Earth. And these twelve *   feathers which hang here where the stem fits into the bowl are from *    ( Wambli Gale Shka [ the Spotted Eagle; spirit of the *   intellect ], and they represent the eagle and all the winged ones *   of the air. All these peoples, and all the things of the *   universe, are joined to you who smoke the pipe -- all send their *   voices to ( Wakan-Tanka [ the Great Spirit ] ).    Moving around the lodge in a sun-wise manner, the mysterious *   woman left, but after walking a short distance she looked back *   towards the people, and sat down. When she rose, the people *   were amazed to see that she had become a young red and brown buffalo *   calf. Then this calf walked farther, layed down, and rolled,   looking back at the people, and when she got up, she was a white *   buffalo. Again this white buffalo walked farther, and rolled on *   the ground, becoming now a black buffalo. This buffalo then *   walked farther away from the people, stopped, and after bowing to *   each of the four quarters of the Universe, disappeared over the *   hill. Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Souix Recorded and Edited by Joseph Epes Brown. Copyright 1953 by *    the University of Oklahoma Press       Reprinted in the book: Walk Quietly The Beautiful Trail /pg. 46 Lyrics and Legends of the American Indian    Edited by C. Merton Babcock    Copyright 1973 Hallmark Press