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美国西北部印第安人的故事中所说的“大河”或者“巨大的河流”就是指哥伦比亚河，而"闪闪发光的大山”就是指落基山。 许多年前，一位上了年纪的印第安人说：“很久很久以前，世界刚刚诞生，人类还没有出现的时候，动物和鸟类是这个国家的居民。他们就像我们一样互相交谈,而且他们也会结婚。” 那时郊狼是最强大的动物，因为主神赐给了他特殊的力量。首先，他改变了“大河"的河道，使得瀑布都干涸了。在一些故事中，郊狼是动物而在别的故事中他却是人,有时是一个帅气的年轻人。 很久以前，当所有的人和动物都说同一种语言，郊狼经常会沿着“大河”旅行。有一次，他来到了一座大桥边，停了下来。河水从大桥下流过，大桥把河流两边的大山连接了起来。就在那儿，他把自己变成了一位年轻帅气的猎人。 上次他沿着河流往上走时，曾在离大桥不远的一个小村庄里看到过一位漂亮的姑娘。他下定决心去问问这位姑娘的父亲，他是否可以娶她为妻。姑娘的父亲是一位酋长，这位年轻人来到酋长家，带来他精心挑选的礼物以换取他的女儿。 郊狼的礼物是一堆动物的皮毛，多得他几乎都拿不动了。他带这么多又大又精美的礼物是因为他知道谁成了这位姑娘的丈夫，谁就会成为这个部落的酋长。 酋长并不了解眼前这位年轻人，只知道他看起来好像是位了不起的猎人。郊狼的礼物让酋长很高兴，但是酋长想让他的女儿也高兴。 ‘'她是我唯一的女儿，”酋长对年轻的猎人说，"她可是我的心头肉，我不会像其他的父亲那样拿她去换一堆毛皮。我想要我的女儿幸福，所以你必须赢得她的心才行" 于是郊狼每天都去酋长家，每次都带一些他认为会取悦酋长女儿的小礼物，但是他似乎从来没有带来过姑娘喜欢的东西。她总是羞答答地接过他的礼物，然后跑到那些坐在太阳底下，用鹿皮做衣服的妇女们那儿，或者跑到正在做游戏的孩子们中间。 郊狼想赢得姑娘芳心的渴望与日俱增，他冥思苦想给她带什么礼物才好。“也许是藏在森林里的最漂亮的花朵，”有一天他自言自语道，“这才是能让她心甘情愿嫁给我的礼物。” 他到"大河”岸边的森林里找了整整一天，然后带着他找到的最漂亮的花朵来到酋长家里，要求见酋长一面。 "我花了一整天的时间为您的女儿寻找这朵花，”郊狼对酋长说，“如果这都不能打动她的芳心，那什么才可以呢？我到底要带什么样的礼物才能赢得她的心呢？” 这位酋长是这个伟大部落中所有酋长里面最聪明的一个。他回答说："你为什么不问问我女儿呢？今天你就去问问她，什么样的礼物才能让她成为这个世界上最幸福的人。” 两人谈完话时，看到姑娘从森林里走了出来，郊狼又一次被她的年轻美丽所打动。他迎上前去问道：“啊，美丽的姑娘，你的心最渴望什么？说出来，任何东西我都会送给你。我在森林深处为你采到的这朵花就是我的誓言。’’ 姑娘惊讶地，或者说是看上去很惊讶地看了看这位年轻的猎人和他献上的那朵珍奇的白花。 “我想要一个水池，”她羞怯地说，“这样我就可以天天洗澡，也不会被人们看到了。” 说完，她就跑开了，没有接受郊狼花那么长时间找到的那朵花，像以前一样，她匆忙去和她的小伙伴们玩了。 郊狼转身对酋长说：“没关系，七天之后我会来找你和你的女儿。我会带你们去看她要的水池，水池将只归她所用。” 郊狼花了七天七夜来建造水池，以赢得他想娶的女孩的芳心。首先，他在"大河”南岸的山上切开一个巨大的口子，然后在边上种上树木、灌木和蕨类植物，一直种到面向大河的那高高的岩壁顶部。 然后，他来到岩壁底部，把岩壁往里斜挖进很远，足够挖出一个大水池。接着他又爬到岩壁顶上，走进山的深处，挖出一条小溪，把溪水引到他切开口子的地方，顺着倾斜的岩壁流下来。溪水从岩壁上落下来，激起阵阵浪花水雾，水流在岩壁底部形成一个巨大的屏风挡住了水池，没有人能看得到。 完工之后，郊狼来到村庄邀请酋长和她的女儿去看他建造的水池。他们对新建成的瀑布惊叹不已，接着郊狼带他们看了隐藏在瀑布和飞雾后面的水池，他注视着姑娘的眼睛。 姑娘先是微笑着看了看水池和前面的瀑布，接着看了看为自己建造水池和瀑布的这位年轻的猎人。他能看出姑娘很高兴，知道他最终贏得了她的心。姑娘告诉父亲她愿意成为这位年轻猎人的妻子。 在这之前更早的时候，有两位老奶奶整天坐在最高的山顶上，一个坐在‘‘大河”北面最高的山顶上,另一个坐在“大河”南面最高的山顶上。坐在北岸的老奶奶说话时,东到"闪闪发光的大山”，西到太阳每晚藏身的大海，北到世界之巅全都能听到。 坐在河南岸的老奶奶说话时，西到大海，南到天边也都能听得到。这两位老奶奶能看到发生的所有事情，每天他们都把这些事情告诉住在大河两岸的人们。 现在他们看见酋长的女儿每天早晨都到水池洗澡，郊狼则在瀑布和水雾形成的屏障外面等她。两位老奶奶听见他俩一起对歌，一起欢笑。两位老奶奶嘲笑这对情人,并且提高嗓门，把她们所看到的、听到的一切告诉了所有人。 不久，酋长的女儿知道了人们都在嘲笑她——从"大河”到“闪闪发光的大山"，从世界之巅到南面人们居住的最远的地方。 酋长的女儿不再感到幸福，不再欢快地歌唱。有一天她请求郊狼让她一个人去水池。两位老奶奶看着她走到瀑布后面，然后她们看到她从水池走出来，往下走进"大河”，从此人们再也没有见过她。 郊狼乘着一只快舟沿"大河”寻找她，发现她在前面漂游。于是，郊狼用尽全力划桨，在她被卷进每晚太阳藏身的大海之前抓住了她。 在那儿，郊狼和姑娘变成了两只小鸳鸯，浮在水面上。 这是很久很久以前的事了。但是直到今天，当太阳的余晖洒在"大河"南岸高高的悬崖上的时候，两只鸳鸯就会游出来，回望着从高山上猛冲下来的条条瀑布。他们久久地望着最低处的瀑布和飞雾，那后面隐藏着被树木环绕的水池。 想要明白其中缘由的人应该静静倾听，他们会听到歌声，那是酋长的女儿每个清晨洗完澡之后，和郊狼一起唱给彼此的歌。歌声开始非常轻柔低沉，然后突然高亢起来，接着慢慢消失。 The Big River, or Great River, in the stories of the Northwest Indians is the Columbia. The Big Shining Mountains are the Rockies. “Long，long ago, when the world was young and people had not come out yet,” said an elderly Indian years ago, “the animals and the birds were the people of this country. They talked to each other just as we do. And they married, too.” Coyote was the most powerful of the animal people, for he had been given special power by the Spirit Chief. For one thing, he changed the course of Big River, leaving Dry Falls behind. In some stories, he was an animal; in others he was a man, sometimes a handsome young man. In that long ago time before this time, when all the people and all the animals spoke the same language, Coyote made one of his frequent trips along Great River. He stopped when he came to the place where the water flowed under the Great Bridge that joined the mountains on one side of the river with the mountains on the other side. There he changed himself into a handsome young hunter. When travelling up the river the last time, he had seen a beautiful girl in a village not far from the bridge. He made up his mind that he would ask the girl’s father if he might have her for his wife. The girl’s father was a chief. When the handsome young man went to the chief’s lodge, he carried with him a choice gift for the father in return for his daughter. The gift was a pile of the hides and furs of many animals, as many skins as Coyote could carry. He made the gift large and handsome because he had learned that the man who would become the husband of the girl would one day become the chief of the tribe. The chief knew nothing about the young man except that he seemed to be a great hunter. The gift was pleasing in the father’s eyes, but he wanted his daughter to be pleased. “She is my only daughter,” the chief said to the young hunter. “And she is very dear to my heart. I shall not be like other fathers and trade her for a pile of furs. You will have to win the heart of my daughter, for I want her to be happy•” So Coyote came to the chiefs lodge every day, bringing with him some small gift that he thought would please the girl. But he never seemed to bring the right thing. She would shyly accept his gift and the run away to the place where the women sat in the sun doing their work with deerskins or to the place where the children were playing games. Every day Coyote became more eager to win the beautiful girl. He thought and thought about what gifts to take to her. “Perhaps the prettiest flower hidden in the forest，” he said to himself one day, “will be the gift that will make her want to marry me.” He went to the forest beside Great River and searched for one whole day. Then he took to the chief’s lodge the most beautiful flower he had found. He asked to see the chief. “I have looked all day for this flower for your daughter,” said Coyote to the chief. “If this does not touch her heart, what will? What gift can I bring that will win her heart?” The chief was the wisest of all the chiefs of a great tribe. He answered, “Why don’t you ask my daughter? Ask her, today, what gift will make her heart the happiest of all hearts.” As the two finished talking, they saw the girl come out of the forest. Again Coyote was pleased and excited by her beauty and her youth. He stepped up to her and asked, “Oh， beautiful one, what does your heart want most of all? I will get for you anything that you name. This flower that I found for you in a hidden spot in the woods is my pledge1.” Surprised, or seeming to be surprised, the girl looked at the young hunter and at the rare white flower he was offering her. “I want a pool,” she answered shyly. “A pool where I may bathe every day hidden from all eyes that might see.” Then, without accepting the flower that Coyote had searched for so many hours, she ran away. As before, she hurried to play with her young friends. Coyote turned to her father. “It is well. In seven suns I will come for you and your daughter. I will take you to the pool she asked for. The pool will be for her alone.” For seven suns Coyote worked to build the pool that would win the heart of the girl he wished to marry. First he cut a great gash2 in the hills on the south side of Great River. Then he lined that gash with trees and shrubs and ferns3 to the very top of a high wall that looked toward the river. Then he went to the bottom of the rock wall and slanted4 it back a long way, far enough to hollow out a wide pool. He climbed up the wall again and went far back into the hills. There he made a stream come out of the earth, and he sent it down the big gash he had made, to fall over the slanting rock wall. From the edge of that wall the water dropped with spray and mist. And so the water made, at the bottom, a big screen that hid the pool from all eyes. When he had finished his work, Coyote went to the village to invite the chief and his daughter to see what he had made. When they had admired the new waterfall, he showed them the pool that lay behind it and the spray. He watched the eyes of the girl. She looked with smiling eyes, first at the pool and the waterfall in front of it, and then at the young hunter who had made them for her. He could see that she was pleased. He could see that at last he had won her heart. She told her father that she was willing to become the wife of the young hunter. In that long ago time before this time, two old grandmothers sat all day on top of the highest mountains. One sat on the top of the highest mountain north of Great River. The other sat on the highest mountain south of it. When the one on the north side talked, she could be heard eastward as far as the Big Shining Mountains, westward as far as the big water where the sun hides every night, and northward to the top of the world. The grandmother on the south side of the river also could be heard as far west as the big water and as far south as anyone lived. The two old women saw everything that was done, and every day they told all the people on both sides of the river. Now they saw the chief’s daughter go every morning to bathe in the pool, and they saw Coyote wait for her outside the screen of waterfall and spray. The old grandmothers heard the two sing to each other and laugh together. The grandmothers laughed at the pair, raised their voices, and told all the people what they saw and heard. Soon the chiefs daughter knew that all the people were laughing at her-all the people from the big water to the Big Shining Mountains, all the people from the top of the world to as far south as anyone lived. She was no longer happy. She no longer sang with joy. One day she asked Coyote to allow her to go alone to the pool. The old grandmothers watched her go behind the waterfall. Then they saw her walk from the pool and go down into Great River. Her people never saw her again. Coyote, in a swift canoe, went down Great River in search of her. He saw her floating and swimming ahead of him, and he paddled as fast as he could. He reached her just before she was carried out into the big water where the sun hides at night. There the two of them, Coyote and the girl, were turned into little ducks, little summer ducks, floating on the water. That was a long, long time ago. But even today, when the sun takes its last look at the high cliff south of Great River, two summer ducks swim out to look back at the series of waterfalls that dash7 down the high mountain. They look longest at the lowest cascade8 and the spray that hides the tree-fringed9 pool behind them. If those who want to understand will be silent and listen, they will hear the little song that the chief's daughter and Coyote used to sing to each other every morning after she had bathed in the pool. The song begins very soft and low, lifts sharply to a high note, and then fades gently away. |
