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从前，有一家人为捕捉海狸不停地搬家，从一座湖泊到另一座湖泊，一条溪流到另一条溪流，从未在任何一个地方呆到可以安家的时间。妻子有时暗地里希望他们能在一个村庄的某个地方和孩子一起定居下来。但丈夫不愿安定下来，所以他们还是不停地搬家 一天傍晚，在一个大湖旁搭好帐篷之后，年轻的妈妈背着孩子出去用网捕海狸。用雪橇装满了海狸肉后,她返回了营地。天色渐渐暗了下来，黄昏，这位妻子正在行走，忽听身后什么地方传来砰——砰——评的巨大脚步声。她停了下来，心狂跳不已。有个巨大的东西在跟踪她，一想到自己身后拖着的肉，她的手便开始打颤。那东西肯定是闻到了肉味，循气味而来的。 她担心转身会使野兽受惊，便弯下腰装作要从雪路上捡什么东西，迅速从两腿间往后瞥了一眼。只见沿着雪地大踏步走来一头高大的，像桶一样长着长毛的怪物，巨大的獠牙和长长的鼻子使它更加吓人。那是一头猛犸象，它看起来饥饿难耐。她迅速直起身，匆匆把肉扔到雪地上，拖着雪橇以最快的速度跑回了营地。一路上因为颠簸冲撞，孩子吓得大哭，直到他们安全地进了帐篷，她才哄哄孩子。 她立刻把可怕的猛犸象暗中跟踪她，并抢走了海狸肉的事情告诉了丈夫。丈夫摇了摇头说她是在做梦，大家都知道猛犸象已经灭绝了。他丝毫不担心，还说她肯定是把肉给了英俊的心上人了。她气愤极了，极力否认，她知道丈夫肯定是以为她不小心弄翻了雪橇，肉沉到冰冷的湖水里了。 丈夫又去织补海狸网了，她开始准备晚餐。饭在火上煮着的时候，她围着营地转了一圈。万一饥饿的猛犸象在晚上袭击他们，他们可以有路从柳树丛里逃跑。 吃过晚饭后，丈夫和妻子在火堆旁躺下来睡觉。丈夫看到妻子睡觉时脚上穿着鞋，怀里抱着孩子，吃吃地笑了起来。"你害怕猛犸象来袭击我们吗？”他笑着问道。妻子点点头，丈夫却大笑起来，嘲笑她。不一会儿，丈夫就睡着了，但妻子却躺在那里很长时间都睡不着，她一直仔细地听着动静。 半夜时分,妻子刚打了个盹儿，就被猛犸象越来越近的刺耳声音惊醒了。“老公！”她边喊边企图摇醒丈夫。丈夫生气地睁开眼问到底怎么回事。她告诉他饥饿的猛犸象来吃他们了，但他根本不听，说她是在做噩梦。妻子求他，甚至拖着他和她一起走。但丈夫坚决不走，最后冲她喊叫说她害怕的话，就滚蛋。妻子绝望中抱着孩子跑出了帐篷。 逃跑时，她听到了那庞然大物刺耳的咆哮声，也听到丈夫出其不意地面对它时发出的惨叫声，接着周围一片寂静。妻子知道丈夫死了，她哭泣着，抱起孩子跑开,寻找她以前听说过的附近的一个村庄。天快亮的时候，她听到那怪物的大脚砰——砰——砰地踩在雪地上，正跟着她的脚印而来。偶尔，那怪物会发出一声像婴儿哭般的嚎叫。 女人继续吃力地往前跑，一边竭尽所能地哄着孩子。天刚破晓，她看见一个营地，里面住满了人，他们住在湖中一个小岛的岸边。她以最快的速度走过宽阔的冰面,警告人们说凶残无比的猛犸象吃了她丈夫，正往这边赶来。勇士们迅速来到冰面上，在他们村子附近的冰上钻了许多洞使冰面脆弱，这样猛犸象踩上去就会掉到水里淹死。 夜幕降临的时候，人们看到猛犸象穿过冰面向仕们走来。猛犸象刚一靠近他们岛上的营地，就从脆弱的冰面上一头栽了下去。大家都欢呼起来，以为它被淹死了。但是猛犸象那长满长毛的大头又浮出了水面，它摇着长长的獠牙怒吼起来，沿着湖底往前走，用他巨大的象牙把冰扫向一边。 人们恐慌起来，尖叫个不停，急得团团转，一些人吓得站在那儿呆若木鸡，盯着猛犸象从冰里出来，走上小岛的岸边。丈夫被猛犸象吃掉的那个妻子抱着孩子逃跑了，一边尽可能地催促在她身边的这些新朋友们跟她一起逃。但是许多人落在后面吓得动弹不得。 这时一个男孩从帐篷里走出来，好奇地问什么事把大家吓得尖叫不已。他头顶上戴着一个驼鹿囊袋，盖住了头发，看上去就像秃头一样。他是一个很奇怪的孩子，当地人都想方设法避开他。只有他外婆知道他是一个强大的萨满巫师，有神裤和神箭，能够杀死任何猛兽。 男孩看到了饥肠辘辘、怒火中烧的猛犸象，便让外婆把神裤和神箭拿来。他穿上裤子，不停地晃动着头，直晃得囊带爆裂，长发散落下来垂到腰部。他拿着神弓、神箭跳到惊恐的人群前面，用箭朝猛兽射去。一开始从一边射，然后换到另一边。猛犸象咆哮起来，摇晃着身子，试图攻击男孩。但是萨满巫师的魔力很强大，一会儿功夫猛兽就倒在地上死了。 可怜的寡妇和她的孩子带领着为躲避猛犸象而逃跑的人们又回到了营地。头上戴囊袋的男孩救了人们的性命，大家齐声欢呼，兴奋地把男孩团团围住。为了表示感谢，人们推举这位萨满巫师做他们的首领，还送给他两位漂亮女孩做妻子，但他只接受了一位。寡妇和她的孩子也受到了部落的欢迎。几个月后，寡妇嫁给了一名勇敢的武士，这名勇士成了首领萨满巫师的亲密朋友。 从那时起到现在，人们一直由一任任的首领领导，再也没有猛犸象找过他们的麻烦。 A man and his family were constantly on the move, hunting for beaver1. They traveled from lake to lake, stream to stream, never staying any place long enough for it to become a home. The woman sometimes silently wished that they would find a village and settle down somewhere with their little baby, but her husband was restless, and so they kept moving. One evening, after setting up camp on a large lake, the young mother went out to net some beaver, carrying her baby upon her back. When she had a toboggan2 full of beaver meat, she started back to camp. As she walked through the darkening evening, she heard the thump-thump-thump of mighty footsteps coming from somewhere behind her. She stopped; her heart pounding. She was being followed by something very large. Her hands trembled as she thought of the meat she was dragging behind her. The creature must have smelled the meat and was stalking3 the smell. Afraid to turn around and alert the beast, she bent over as if to pick something off the snowy path and glanced quickly past her legs. Striding boldly through the snowy landscape was a tall, barrel-shaped, long-haired creature with huge tusks and a very long trunk. It was a mammoth，and it looked hungry. She straightened quickly and hurriedly threw the meat into the snow. Then she ran as fast as she could back to camp, dragging the toboggan behind her. Her little baby cried out fearfully, frightened by all the jostling, but she did not stop to comfort him until she was safe inside their shelter. She told her husband at once about the terrible mammoth that had stalked her and taken the beaver meat. Her husband shook his head and told her she was dreaming. Everyone knew that the mammoth had all died away. Then he light-heartedly4 accused her of giving the meat away to a handsome sweetheart. She denied it resentfully, knowing that he really believed that she had carelessly overturned the toboggan and had let the meat sink beneath the icy waters of the lake. After her husband went to set more beaver nets, she prepared the evening meal. While it was cooking over the fire, she walked all around the camp, making sure that there was an escape route through the willow-brush just in case the hungry mammoth attacked them in the night. The husband and wife lay down to sleep next to the fire after they finished the evening meal. The husband chuckled when he saw that his wife kept her moccasins5 on and the baby clutched in her arms. “Expecting the mammoth to attack us?” he asked jovially6. She nodded, and he laughed aloud at her. Soon he was asleep, but the woman lay awake for a long time, listening. The wife was awakened from a light doze around midnight by the harsh sounds of the mammoth approaching. “Husband!” she shouted, shaking him. He opened his eyes grumpily7 and demanded an explanation. She tried to tell him that the hungry mammoth was coming to eat them, but he told her she was having a nightmare and would not listen. The wife begged and pleaded and tried to drag him away with her, but he resisted and finally shouted at her to begone8 if she was afraid. In despair, she clutched her little child to her chest and ran away from the camp. As she fled, she heard the harsh roar of the giant creature and the sudden shout of her husband as he came face to face with the creature. Then there was silence, and the woman knew her husband was dead. Weeping, she fled with her child, seeking a village that she had heard was nearby. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, she heard the thump-thump- thump of the creature’s massive feet stomping through the snow-fields，following her trail. Occasionally, it made a wailing9 sound like that of a baby crying. The woman kept jogging along, comforting her little baby as best she could. As light dawned, she saw a camp full of people who were living on the shores of an island on the lake. She crossed the icy expanse as quickly as possible and warned the people of the fierce mammoth that had killed her husband. The warriors quickly went out onto the ice and made many holes around the edges of their village, weakening the ice so that the mammoth would fall through and drown. As evening approached, the people saw the mammoth coming toward them across the ice. When it neared their camp on the island, the creature plunged10 through the weakened ice. Everyone cheered, thinking that the animal had drowned. Then its large hairy head emerged out of the water and it shook its long tusks and bellowed in rage. The mammoth started walking along the bottom of the lake, brushing aside the ice with his large tusks. The people panicked11. They screamed and ran in circles, and some of them stood frozen in place, staring as the mammoth emerged from the ice and walked up onto the banks of the island. The wife of the eaten man fled with her baby, urging as many of her new¬found friends as she could reach, to flee with her. But many remained behind, paralyzed12 with fear. Then a boy emerged from one of the shelters, curious to know what was causing everyone to scream in fear. He wore the bladder13 of a moose14 over his head, covering his hair so that he looked bald. He was a strange lad, and was shunned15 by the locals. Only his grandmother knew that he was a mighty shaman16 with magic trousers and magic arrows that could kill any living beast. When the boy saw the hungry, angry mammoth, he called out to his grandmother to fetch the magic trousers and the magic arrows. Donning his clothing, he shook his head until the bladder burst and his long hair fell down to his waist. Then he took his magic bow and arrows and leapt in front of the frightened people and began peppering the beast with arrows, first from one side and then the other. The mammoth roared and weaved and tried to attack the boy, but the shaman’s magic was powerful, and soon the beast lay dead upon the ground. Then those who fled from the mammoth returned to the camp, led by the poor widow and her baby. The people whose lives had been saved by the bladder-headed boy gave a cheer and gathered in excitement around the boy. In gratitude, the people made the shaman their chief and offered him two beautiful girls to be his wives, though he accepted only one of them. The widow and her baby were welcomed into the tribe, and a few months later she married a brave warrior who became close friends with the shaman-become-chief. And from that day to this, the people have always had chiefs to lead them, and no mammoths have troubled them again. |
