Legend Of The Ammonite

[fig rocks]

Legend of the First Iniskim*

Let me tell you the ancient story about Iniskim as I learned it from the Old Man.

In the long-ago, before the People had horses, they sometimes starved when they were unable to move their camps fast enough to keep up with the moving buffalo herds. This story takes place during such a famine. Three sisters were out gathering firewood. The youngest sister was carrying a large load of wood when her carrying strap broke. As she bent over to fix the strap, she thought she heard a voice singing. She became frightened and got up to leave, but the voice called out to her. Then she noticed in the direction of the voice an unusual- looking stone sitting up on the ground near her pile of wood. She went over to take a closer look and saw that the stone was sitting on a little bunch of buffalo hair. The voice began to sing again; it came from the stone: "You - woman - will you take me? I am Powerful! Buffalo is our Medicine."

That night, she had a dream. The stone came to her and sang its song again. Then it told her, "I have come to you and your people because I pity you. My Power is able to communicate with the buffalo and bring them here. I have chosen you to bring to camp because you are humble and I know your thoughts are good. I will have my Power bring back the buffalo. But you must warn your People: my Power is always announced by a strong storm, and when it arrives it will look like a buffalo, a lone bull. You must tell your People not to harm him. The rest of the herd will follow as soon as he has passed safely through the camp."

The lniskim told her that he had many relatives about the prairie, and that all of them were in contact with the same Power as he. He told that any of the people who wished to have good fortune from this Power should look for one of his relatives and bring them home and treat them with respect.

Our Old People were always skeptical of someone who claimed to have been called upon in a dream and given Power.

With the approval of the holy men, the husband asked the young wife to sit at the head of the tipi and lead the ceremony that had been shown to her. While she covered the stone with the sacred paint she sang one of the songs: lniskim, he says: "buffalo is my medicine." lniskim, he is saying: "I am Powerful"

The men knew that it was not an ordinary stone, but a sacred stone. They were anxious to see if it really had any Power. The woman then rubbed the lniskim over her body four times and prayed at great length. Then she sang another song: "This lniskim, my man, it is Powerful" Before they left, the woman told them about the warning in the dream. A crier was sent around camp telling the People to prepare for a big storm also not to harm the single bull that was to show up in camp after the storm.

Before long the breeze turned into wind, and the tipi covers flapped loudly against their poles. The unfastened tipis of those who disbelieved the woman were blown down and their contents hurled away. They heard loud hoof beats and heavy breathing in the darkened camp. It was the lone bull wandering through the camp. No one dared harm him.

In the morning the storm stopped and there was a large herd of buffalo grazing beside the camp. The People were able to bring down as many as they need, for the animals just wandered without alarm. The People cried with happiness for they had real food again. Everyone brought a tiny offering of buffalo meat or fat and placed before the sacred lniskim, which was sitting a little pile of fur inside of the cleared-earth altar at the back of the tipi.

Ever since then our People have had the Power of the lniskims.

* Abridged version from The Blood People by Adolphe Hungry Wolf

[Auspex]

That is really wonderful; thank you for enlightening my day

[Terry Dactyll]

Fig rocks... Thanks.... thats a great story..... the form of the ammonite has inspired many myths and stories, Its a form im attracted to in collecting the different species, and prepping them as well, bringing them back from inside the rock after all that time.....one that stands out in the uk is this one......

'' Certainly in England ammonites were frequently interpreted as being coiled snakes that had been turned to rock and had somehow lost their heads, and were often known as snakestones. Most of the legends surrounding snakestones centred around Whitby in Yorkshire. In 1586 William Camden in his Britannia recorded stones that 'if you break them you will find within stony serpents, wreathed up in circles, but generally without heads'. Sir Walter Scott records in his Marmion in 1808 the classic legend of how these snakestones came to be:

When Whitby's nuns exhalting told...,

...Of thousand snakes each one

Was changed into a coil of stone.

When holy Hilda pray'd:

Themselves, within their holy ground.

Their stony folds had often found.

St. Hilda was a Saxon abbess (614-680AD) and Queen of the ancient Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Bede records that she hosted the Synod of Whitby, at which Celtic and Roman Christians met to decide on liturgical matters in 664, consequently she is an important character in the history of the early development of Christianity in Britain. Legend has it that she turned all the snakes to stone in Whitby in order to clear the ground for the building of a new convent. After a bout of devout praying the snakes coiled up, turned to stone and fell off the edge of the cliffs after she had cut their heads off with a whip. The absence of heads in these fossils is sometimes attributed to a further curse by St. Cuthbert. ''......

[fig rocks]

That's cool to hear what the legends are on the other side of the pond!

Thanks Terry

[mommabetts]

That story made my day, thanks so much for sharing.

[jeepinthemud]

That was good! I enjoyed that!

(Im glad that no one harmed the Lone Bull!)

[Sedative]

Here in South and Southeast Asia, ammonites are worshiped as manifestations (murtis) of Vishnu called a Shaligram Sila. Although they are not always ammonites.

There's also a different set of stones worshiped as Dvaraka Silas, again manifestations of Vishnu, his consort Lakshmi, or Krishna. They are more varied than Shaligram Silas but are usually coral fossils.

[Auspex]

I find the legends and lore of native peoples to be fascinating!

There is a book that has been mentioned on the Forum some time ago;

Fossil Legends of the First Americans, by Adrienne Mayor; I have not read it, but would like to hear from anyone who has. Here's a link:

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7923.html

[lawooten]

I loved this story you told and love to read books on Pre-History Native Americans. I like to make notes on the herbs that are used in healing and Jean M Auel has a lot in her books. Life was not easy like it is today for sure. I have just finished reading all five books by Jean M Auel Starting with the Clan of the Cave Bear and can not wait to get my hands on the sixth and last book of the series. Also great books to read the Steve Alton MEG series.

[lawooten]

I find the legends and lore of native peoples to be fascinating!

There is a book that has been mentioned on the Forum some time ago;

Fossil Legends of the First Americans, by Adrienne Mayor; I have not read it, but would like to hear from anyone who has. Here's a link:

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7923.html

Auspex ,

Thanks for the book information I just ordered it and am looking forward to reading it.