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Mahonoy

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medicine mans headdress and hit the floor. It was a sign that the Great Spirit had sent a sacred bird to come and carry Kuskusky's spirit away to another place. Mahonoy's husband had been summoned back from a hunting trip, but only the men sent to retrieve him came back. They told the grieving woman beside the now still body of her only daughter, that her husband had been killed by a wounded bear, and was not returning to their longhouse again. And so, Mahonoy was faced the same day with the loss of the two people she loved most in her life and would now be alone at her cooking fire in the longhouse.
There was nothing she could do; Mahonoy had to part with her daughter who now walked a different trail with her father. All during this talk …show more content…

She was so weary from the traveling and what she had been going through. She silently watched what was going on in her new surroundings. Other Indians came in through the outside door, said something to Mahonoy in a very respectful manner, and then disappeared to another part of the longhouse. Amelia was beginning to understand that the longhouse was a place several people lived in, with rooms separated by partitions. It was late, and Mahonoy raked coals together in the fire for the night and cleaned up her cooking area. Amelia watched her work and looked closer at the middle-aged woman's attire. She had a soft leather skirt on that came halfway to her ankles. It appeared not to be tight or hard to move in, although it was made of thin leather. The hem of it was cut all around into narrow fringe that hung around her ankles like tassels. On her body she wore a loose fitting tunic that came down over the top of the skirt. It was made of the same type of leather skin. The tunic had no sleeves to it and the neckline at the top was just an opening cut straight across for the head to go through. It had fringe along the bottom of the tunic also. The waist was cinched in by a belt tied into a knot. She wore a small decorated pouch on a long leather thong around her neck that hung down like a pendant. Her hair had been black but now was streaked with grey, straight and long. She had a fabric headband tied around her forehead with some geometric decorations and feathers tied on it that hung down by the side of her head. On her feet were moccasins that had tops coming halfway up to her knees. Amelia thought she recognized silver coins with holes drilled in them, sewn onto the moccasins as decorations along with some colorful beads. Mahonoy's hands were the hands of a woman who has done hard work. Her fingers were broad and had knarled knuckles and short, nails. Once in awhile when she moved to lift something Amelia heard a

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