Ugh...

Such objectification, it's appalling.

What's with the impersonal possession?

I've seen her say this a couple times now. Is this just her saying she can't find the words to express whatever she feels or is there literally something which forbids her from declaring it.

whether or not you like Mary at this point, it's hard not to see how sad her story is. Just the thought of walking through a deserted town to me is rather haunting.

There's a lot of head knocking or threatening to hit people in the face in this. I wonder if they view Mary as a rogue in some way? Brings up the question of how she got in this situation again.

Quite a gross paragraph, but these are effective tactics for survival. Native Americans were well versed in living off the land it seems.

So in her mind, god is nourishing the enemy of his people to be a scourge upon his people, and in so going they have to eat the worst food possible that dogs and hogs wouldn't eat. I can't even imagine the line of thought here. Yes, Puritans didn't believe in an all loving god, but their view of god here comes off rather fickle and confused.

A lot of people seem to want to hit Mary in the face. She must come off as insufferable to them.

I feel like this is most of what Mary says throughout these removes. Everything is doleful, and everything reminds her of, and is remedied by, a psalm.

Though I think we know that she will be restored one way or another.

Sometimes I forget this is back when people still used swords in regular combat.

"Nux" must loosely translate to something like yes. I'm not used to N's being in positive words.

It's commendable to keep faith in such despair, It's quite the coping mechanism. Her experience sounds so awful, some amount of relief is welcome.

And what a large contribution that was. (sarcasm) A bible seems like very little to get excited about and the native gave it to you.

poor feeble condition seems like a bit of an understatement. Especially, considering it seems like she's on death's door.

Who were they?

Doleful - like saddening and dreary

Quite a horrifying quality of life, regardless of perspective.

And all's well that ends well, but should this be taught, I'd say it seems somewhat like a useful source to view one facet of Native-American culture. Seeing as America (the country, and I suppose to some degree colonials in general) has swept the vast majority of Native American cultures into its own, it seems fitting to canonize some of their stories. At the very least, this short story, has merit in the morals and themes it's discussing or referencing, such as honor, perseverance, justice, and honesty. Lastly, it kind of strikes me as oddly Hemingway, like, I feel like there's a much bigger story here with hexes, water people, and feuding brothers, meanwhile the story's kind of skin and bones at face value and so on.

Just for posterity, I'm going to note how I still find this whole curse to be perplexing. Is it special sinew? Do you need intent to kill certain people when you throw the sinew? Does it have to be sinew? I can't dig anything up on it or really pin an answer down here. My how odd it is!

I'm wondering if this is based on some real life event, like is this relevant to something that actually happened historically? Maybe this story is a kind of folk lore or something of the like.

A lot of the dialogue and goings on in this are very matter of fact. It all sounds so mechanical, I wonder if that's something lost in translation? The general flow and natural spee

And this is where I know it dips into the supernatural completely. This is some kind of hex I suppose, or a kind of curse. Maybe this has something to do with the symbolism of the sinew, a sort of tough fibrous muscle tissue, it's a piece of a living thing being burned. I wonder if this is unique to this story, or a common occurrence in Blackfeet stories (certainly not in their real life, hexes don't work in real life) and culture?

What a very tough guy thing for Bull to say, I feel like the Blackfeet culture in my limited experience skimming through this and other stories, seems to value strong men, but also accepts their emotional integrity as well. Like, I think there are specific gender roles in their society, but it also seems like they're relatively open with those that go against the grain. A strange duality I'm probably only imagining from lack of exposure though.

I'm still a little lost with this supernatural stuff, like did Bull really "die" and get brought back? Or, is this just like some heightened symbolism and metaphor, like saying someone was sleeping a "dead sleep" and waking them up. I want to lean more towards the latter.

Oh, I see the symbols here... Wolf intended to kill Bull going after eagle feathers, and Bull didn't die, but returns during a famine with Buffalo and turns the situation around, and turns the murder back on wolf and his wife. Tricky symbolism in there to be unpackaged, but it's interesting to say the least. Bull Turns Around literally turns around this situation with Buffalo.

There's also so little remorse in this character, I have to wonder if there isn't more to this story that's been lost somewhere, like did Wolf really dislike Bull, and that's why he's so okay with his death? Is this a cultural thing, or more to show how awful Wolf is?

I want to play devil's advocate, but I just can't, even if Bull had done this, why kill him, or why would he lie in this scenario. Additionally this is Wolf's brother. Did the bonds between man and wife mean more than a man and his brother? It's interesting, but that doesn't change the fact that Wolf is headstrong and gullible.

I find it funny Wolf's Tail has any reservation at all, in the sense that it takes so little to convince him to kill his brother, I'm surprised there's any resistance.

I'm not entirely sure I know what happened to the woman's face either, because I'm left to believe this was an allergic reaction, rubbing the the bird on herself and all, however, given that there are supernatural elements in the story, it seems also possible that this was a kind of spell. Maybe that's jumping to conclusions. It's still a drastic act for something so childish.

I wonder if this is another group or wholesale tribe, it's not very clear, I'll assume it's a group for now.

Wonderful and Supernatural