THE WIGWAM

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 95, 13 July 1927, Page 12

THE WIGWAM

An Open Air Page

For Big Girls and Boys

THE FRIENDLY FIRES “What have you in your hand, O Laughing Hunter ?” “A stranger’s arrow, O Chief, wet with the evening dew. ’Twas sped last twilight, and a message is tied to its shaft. It has fallen at the door of the Wigwam.” “And what says the scroll?” “ ’Tis the message of the wind picked up by the Sioux and speeded to the Wigwam.” “When the next moon swings her yellow lantern above the birch tree and the embers redden and the Chiefs and Braves come home from the chase, I shall read them the wanderer’s message. Hush! A footstep! AVho goes there?” “Blue Shadows-—a Brave. Long have I sought the friendly fires of the Wigwam.” “Greetings, Blue Shadows. See, the flap is lifted. . . AVho comes?” "A Great Paddle Maker, O Chief. If I am admitted to the friendly circle the tribes shall never lack paddles.” “It is well. Pass in, Great Paddle Maker. AVho follows"” “A Big Canoe Carver, cast into the prairie by a warlike Chief and left to die. In the distance I saw the light of the Wigwam. I can carve canoes, O Chief, and my art and all my knowledge are at the service of your tribes.’” “The hand of greeting, Big Canoe Carver. Pass in.” “The Totem Pole bears many new names, O Chief.” “ ’Tis built for such a purpose, Laughing Hunter.” “A new pen-name competition should soon ensue.’” “It is this day announced and others beside. These, if I mistake not, will please the Children of the AALgwam. Hark! They come—in all their merry multitudes and the trail is ringing to their laughter. And they are young. They can yet ascend “the ladder leaning on the cloud.” AA'elcome, O Children of the AVigwam !” —REDFEATHER.

OF INTEREST TO SCOUTS The District Scoutmaster, Mr. E. B. B. Boswell, has handed me the following news from headquarters for publication in this corner: Sea Scout Trident.—Admiral of the Fleet, Earl Jellicoe, has written to the Dominion Headquarters expressing his appreciation of the fact that the “Collingwood” Company has been successful in winning his trident for the current year, and he is also writing a letter of appreciation to the Sea Scoutmaster of the “Collingwood” Company ♦ * • Sir Alfred Robin, our Commissioner at Wellington, reports that two new Sea Scout companies are being formed, one at Petone and the other at Plimmerton. It was decided that a Certificate of Merit be granted to Patrol Leader G. M. Dodds of the Mosgiel Troop “for his Scout-like action in promptly rescuing a boy named Stevens from drowning in a stream at Mount Stewart during the Mosgiel School picnic.” The stream in which the scholars were bathing has an average depth of about 3ft., but here and there are deep holes. The boy Stevens stepped into one of these, and Patrol Leader Dodds, who was also bathing, happened to notice only the top of Stevens’s head, he having got out of his depth. Dodds being a bigger boy rushed to the rescue and

held Stevens up, he himself being completely under water; but as he only had to reach the bank a yard or two away, it was considered he was not endangering himself in effecting a rescue. The award is made, not as a tribute to bravery, but in recognition of alertness and promptitude.

A bar to his five years’ service medal has been awarded to District Scoutmaster F. E. Olds, Christchurch.

Information has just been received that the Chief Scout, Sir Robert Baden-Powell, has been pleased to award the silver cross to Rover Scout Thomas Rennie of Dunedin “for his gallant action in rescuing Mr. H. McIntyre from drowning in the undertow of the surf at St. Kilda Beach, Dunedin, on January 30 last.”

The report for the year 1926 of the Boy Scouts’ Association, presented at the annual meeting, shows a satisfactory increase all round, the number of Scouts, Ro/er Scouts and Wolf Cubs in Great Britain and Ireland being 320,019, an increase of 14,152 over the figures of 1925, or 4.626 per cent. The total for the whole Empire, including British troops in foreign countries, is 52,147, an increase of 46,952, or 9.901 per cent. The number of commissioners on the active list in Great Britain and Ireland is 1,778, an increase during the year of 90. The number of other officers has also increased from 27,337 in 1925 to 32.305 in 1926. The Scouts belonging to National Associations recognised by the International Committee and registered by the International Bureau, showed an increase of 79,147.

To the remotest places in the world the great Boy Scout idea lias permeated. Now at Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point on the North American Continent, it has come to do its work for Eskimo boys. ‘Whether or not the Wales Eskimo Boy Scouts can claim the distinction of being the first Eskimo Scouts we are unable to state,” writes a United States Government teacher and scoutmaster. “Just the same, we have at Wales on Behring Strait, a scout organisation made up of a bunch of live-wire Eskimo boys. Handicapped in numerous ways they are nevertheless endeavouring to assimilate the wonderful principles of ACQutdom.

‘When it is considered that only 33 years ago the United States Bureau of Education brought to them the civilisation of the white man, we are forced to take cognisance of their marked progress in learning. Before that the Wales Eskimos were considered a barbarous tribe, but their barbarism was really meek when compared to that of other aboriginal peoples.”

Seven Scouts of the progressive Avondale Troop recently made a barrow while working for their carpenters’ badges. The barrow has now been sold for 30s, and with the proceeds a team football has been purchased. Other Scouts in the same troop are now, at work on equipment for the gymnasium* —Redfeather.

GIRL GUIDES’ CORNER From Paddle Carver comes the following:—. “What is the use of working for Badges?” asks someone. “What is the use of a girl who can’t cook, can’t sew, can’t do laundrywork and a good many other useful household tasks?” is the reply. The mind and body should always be occupied. If guides can sew, cook, learn carpentry, astronomy, boot-repairing and “helping other people at all times,” they will bring more happiness to their parents and friends than girls who are not useful in their homes. Guides, therefore, work for badges so that they may be of use to others, and make ideal mothers when their turn comes. Smoke Plume has forwarded the following little creed which is among her favourites: “Never speak ill of anyone. Refuse to listen when anyone speaks ill of another, but gently say: ‘Perhaps it is not true, and even if it is, it is kinder not to speak of it.’ ” Somehow it calls to mind those three wise monkeys carved above the door of the temple in Nippon, one with his eyes covered by his hands, the second with a hand over his mouth, the third shielding his ears! “See no evil. Speak no evil. Hear no evil.” Or that proverb from the Chinese: “Four things come not back—the spent arrow, the past life, the neglected opportunity and the spoken word.” Red Star writes front Hamilton: “Greetings, O Chief! With pleasure in my heart I once again speed down the path to pay my weekly visit to the Wigwam. Eagerly I life the flap and enter. Greetings, O Redfeather! “The voice of Sitting Bull, the Sioux has again been heard by the children of the Wigwam . . . We raise our voices in unison with our Great Chief’s, and repeat: ‘Who art thou?’ ” Several of the guides of the First Church Company (to which I belong) have recently gained their Ambulance Badges, and one girl has been awarded her Electrician’s Badge. Also Service Stars have been given to several of the guides. Star on the river writes: —“Last month I spent three Saturdays at headquarters passing badges. I have been lucky again, I think, as I managed to obtain my knitter’s, needlewoman’s and health badges. We have not had the test for the writer’s badge yet, so in the meantime I am cutting out all my stories you have published, and am going to paste them in a small book and then decorate the edges of the pages by painting them.

The “Dominion Girl Guide” for July is a fine number with some jolly photographs and an article relating to the Ranger Camp, “Otimai.” It contains also an interesting study of the Makomako, or wineberry, by Mr. Johannes C. Anderson, and the announcement of a competition for the best design in colour for a Dominion standard. The competition closes at the Girl Guide Headquarters on August 1. —Redfeather. FROM A BRAVE Far out in the wilds I have felt a touch of spring. I know that soon, very soon, little green and gold days will come—days when all the world is young and fresh, bubbling over with the joy of living, days when the air is sweet and cold, filled with a tang of growth. Oh, Great Chief! can you imagine how wonderful it will be to see again the youth of the gardens —to see, each morning, some new beauty, some little green, soft shoot in the trees; some young flower unfolding its silken petals in the spring sunshine? —Flying Cloud. THE THREE GATES Somewhere in the world are three gates, one leading to the other. On the first gate are the words: Be bold. On the second gate are these: Be bold, be bold, and evermore be bold. And on the last gate, very near the sacred place, is this: Be not too bold. FROM A SCOUT-CHIEF I thought you would be interested to hear something of our St. Barnabas Scouts. Last week. July 1, PatrolLeaders J. Thode and M. and E. Seely were presented with their ambulance badges, which made them King’s Scouts. We are, of course, very proud of them. On the same night some of the members of the troop attended the first pound night of the St. George Scouts, Kingsland. On July 22 we are holding a plain and fancy dress social and dance. —-Singing Arrow.

THE COMING OF FIRE This is the Indian story of how fire was brought to the tribes. It was long long ago, when men and beasts talked together with understanding, and the grey coyote was friend and counsellor of man. There was a boy of the tribe who was swift of foot and keen of eye, and he and the coyote ranged the wood together. They saw the men catching fish in the creeks with their hands and the women digging roots with sharp stones. This was in summer. But when winter came on they saw the people running naked in the snow, or huddled in caves of the rocks, and most miserable. They noticed this, and were very unhappy for the misery of the people. “I do not feel it," said the coyote. “You have a coat of good fur,” said behtyo, the boy, “and my people have not.” “Come to the hunt,” said the coyote. “I will hunt no more till I have found a way to help my people against the cold,” said the boy. “Help me, o counsellor!” Then the coyote ran away, and came back after a long time. Pie said he had found a way, but it was a hard way. "No way is too hard,” said the boy. So the coyote told him that they must go to the Burning Mountains and bring fire to the people. “What is fire?” said the boy. And the coyote told him that fire was red like a flower, yet not a flower; swift to . run in the grass and to destroy, like a, beast, yet no beast; fierce and hurtful, yet a good servant to keep one warm, if kept among stones and fed with small sticks. “We will get this fire!” said the boy. First the boy had to persuade the people to give him 100 swift runners. Then he and they and the coyote started at a good pace for the faraway Burning Mountain. At the end of the first day’s trail they left the weakest of the runners to wait; at the end of the second, the next stronger; at the end of the third the next, and so on for each of the hundred days of the journey; and the boy was the strongest runner, and went to the last trail with the counsellor. High mountains they crossed, and great plains, and giant woods, and at last they came to the Big Water, quaking along the sand at the foot of the Burning Mountain. It stood up in a high-peaked cone, and smoke rolled out of it endlessly along the sky. At night the fire spirits danced, and the glare reddened the big water far out. There the counsellor said to the boy: “Stay thou here till I bring thee a brand from the burning; be ready and right for running, for I shall be far spent w'hen I come again, and the fire spirits will pursue me.’ Then he went up to the mountain; and the Fire Spirits only laughed when they saw him, for he looked so slinking, inconsiderable and mean, that none of them thought harm from him. And in the night, when they were at their dance about the mountain, the Coyote stole the fire, and ran with it down the slope of the Burning Mountain. When the Fire Spirits saw what he had done they streamed out after him, red and angry, with a humming sound like a swarm of bees. But the Coyote was. still ahead; the sparks of the brand streamed out along his flanks, as he carried it in his mouth; and he stretched his body to the trail. The boy saw him coming like a falling star against the mountain; he heard the singing sound of the Fire Spirits close behind, and the labouring breath of the Counsellor. And when the good beast panted down beside him, the boy caught he brand from his jaws and was off, like an arrow from a bent bow. Out he shot on the homeward path, and the Fire Spirits snapped and sang behind him. But as fast as they pursued he fled faster, till he saw the next runner standing in his place, his body bent for the running. To him he passed it, and it was off and away, with the Fire Sipirts raging in chase.

So it passed from hand to hand, and the Fire Spirits tore after it through the scrub till they came to the mountains of the snows; these they could not pass. Then the dark sleek runners with the backward streaming brand bore it forward, shining starlike in the night, glowing red in sultry noons, violet pale in twilight glooms, until they came in safety to their land.

And there they kept it among the stones, and fed it with small sticks as the Counsellor advised; a*nd it kept the people warm. Ever after the boy was called the Fire-Bringer; and ever after the coyote bore the sign of the bringing, for the fur along his flank Avas singed and yellow from the flames that streamed backwards from the brand.

MEMBERSHIP SEALS Girl Boy Scouts and young people between the ages of 15 and 20 are invited to send their names, ages and addresses to Red* feather, the Wigwam, SUN Office, Auckland, when a membership seal will reach them at an early date.

COMPETITIONS I. A book prize will be awarded for the best original short story with an open air setting, not exceeding 500 words. 2. —A book prize will be awarded for the best original poem. Maximum length, 20 lines. 3. —A book prize will be awarded for the best list of 20 pen-names with an Indian flavour, such as those appearing each week “Under the Totem Pole.” Examples: Little Silver Crescent (brave), Black Mocassin (chief). Conditions: Open to Girl Guides, Boy Scouts and young people between the ages of 15 and 20, entries to be written or typed on only one side of the paper, endorsed as original and to reach Redfeather, the SUN Office, Auckland, not later than July 27.

ANY WALNUTS?