You’ve Gotta Be Kidding
Copyright April 9, 2011
Aaron Lehman
“You’ve gotta be kidding!”
“Nope.”
“Where’d you hear that?”
“My Mosôm said his Mosôm could do it.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Well my Mosôm said it and I believe it.”
“Well my Mosôm is a more important elder than your Mosôm.”
“No he isn’t”
“Yes he is!”
Two young Aboriginal boys were having a discussion about something they heard from a Mosôm. Joey, a black haired, dark skinned, bright eyed youngster reported to his friend Sandy about his great grandfather’s vision. Sandy, a sandy haired, light skinned friend, about the same age, was a bit of a sceptic. Both boys had been forced to attend a powwow at the Métis Crossing. Although very different in looks, they were both Métis and related. They had been dragged along by their parents.
“You need to hear what the elders have to say. It will help you when you grow up. Blah! Blah! Blah!”
“This drumming is driving me crazy,” Joey mumbled to Sandy.
“Yeh, that weird singing by the elders is awful.”
“Let’s split when my Mom isn’t looking.”
“Okay. Head for the bushes and we’ll listen to some rap music on my I-pod.”
“Now!”
Slipping carefully to the back of the crowd, they inched toward the closest bush and then escaped without being detected by the sharp eyes of their Mothers.
“We made it!” Joey gasped.
“Yeh! Let’s crank up our music.”
“Do you believe all of that vision stuff?” Sandy asked Joey.
“No, but my brother said that once he was trapping with Mosôm and he wanted to break into a beaver lodge. Mosôm said to never disturb the beaver lodge because if you do, the beaver will stop counting the days and his calendar will miss a month. This could cause him to stay in his lodge too long in the spring and he would starve.”
“Do you believe that?”
“Well, my brother said that sometime later he did break into a beaver lodge without letting Mosôm know about it.”
“What did he find?” Sandy asked.
“He said the beaver had all vanished, but he saw twelve big sticks and three hundred sixty five little sticks. Some were arranged to show the month and day that he broke in.”
“Wow! Did it screw up their calendar?”
“I don’t know. He never went back.”
“What are they doing over their?” Sandy asked.
“It looks like they’re dancing,” Joey replied.
“Wait, one of the elders is in a trance.”
“Let’s slip into the dance and see what is going on,” Joey offered.
The boys joined the others in the round dance, but were captured by what Joey’s Mosôm was doing in the centre of the circle. The drummers were beating the drums with increasing speed. Mosôm’s voice reached a feverish pitch. The swaying of his body and the up and down change in pitch was causing him and others to go into a trance. On a stump in front of him lay two moth cocoons. As Mosôm reached the peak of his singing, the cocoons started to break open.
“I told you so”, Joey nudged Sandy.
“I don’t believe it, but the caterpillars are coming out of their cocoons and swinging in time with the singing.”
“See I told you, my Mosôm is better than your Mosôm. Now my Mosôm can do what his Mosôm did,” Joey chortled.
“Wow!”
“Maybe we should try this powwow thing.”
