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"Thátkak ilá:ci:fó:kok
(The First Meeting of the Indians and the Europeans),"
#45 Swapping Stories
Bel Abbey, Elton, Louisiana
Geoffrey Kimball, a linguist
at Tulane Unversity, recorded, transcribed, and translated this
story told by Bel Abbey in February 1982. After fourteen years
of research, Kimball published the first Koasati/Coushatta grammar
in 1991. In order to emphasize that the original story was told
in Koasati, the Koasati version of the prologue and Scene 1 is
included. Reading the translation from Koasati helps convey a
sense of how Bel Abbey thought.
The First Meeting of the
Indians and the Europeans (English Translation)
Prologue
The Indians once were dwelling,
here in this land they dwelt.
When the white people arrived,
after the white people came,
they existed, so it is said,
and they knew that the Indians
might run and hide from them.
But, to change the subject
for a moment, the Indians were dwelling,
the Indians dwelt here, and
they hunted for game,
and lived by killing and
eating various sorts of things.
Scene 1: The Meeting
and Flight
Wherever the white people
were going about on our side of the ocean when
they arrived,
It seems to also have been
the first meeting.
On first arriving, they also
came to trade with them.
When the white people arrived,
when within a boat they arrived
over the water,
the Indians dwelling there,
on seeing them, ran from them, so it is said.
When they ran from them,
after they ran from them,
they did not meet them.
"Whatever could it be?
Why must they run off?" the white people said, so it
is
reported.
And then, they kept on fleeing
from them so,
sometimes they all ran from
them, at other time they all hid from them.
The Indians were afraid of
them, because they had never seen such people
as those.
It is said that they were
afraid of them.
They kept on fleeing from
them.
Scene 2: The Dilemma
of the Europeans
Then the white people said,
"How can we get to know
them before we speak to them?"
as they all ran hiding from
them.
If they looked into their
dwelling,
(those they had were somewhat
sunken in the earth),
they who were the openers
of their houses,
that those others dwelt in,
if the white people looked
into the Indians' own dwellings;
people's own dwelling were
looked into,
but contrary to expectation,
there were no Indians of any kind,
they had gone out and run
and hid from them and disappeared.
And then, "How ever
would it be possible for us to meet and speak with them?"
they kept on thinking.
It was impossible; the white
people did not know how they might do it.
Scene 3: The Leaving
of the Whiskey
They [the white people] went
around with liquor, they carried whiskey with them.
They brought over one keg
and went and laid it down for them, so it is said.
When they laid it down for
them, as for the drinking glass, if it were not such,
it was more or less like
a coffee cup, but I don't know.
How many they laid down or
them I don't know,
but having laid them down
for them, they returned [to their ship], so it is said.
Scene 4: The Return
and Debate of the Indians
And then, the Indians who
had gone off,
these Indians returned and
came arriving,
and when they saw it, the
Indians kept on returning.
There were many Indians there.
Having returned and arrived
back, they who said it [the keg] lying with it [the liquor],
upon seeing the one keg lying
there,
when they saw it, they said,
"What is it?
No! Do ye not approach it!
Whatever it is will hurt
you!
Whatever it is will kill
ye!" they said,
forbidding the rest, so it
is reported.
But then, contrary to expectation,
they kept on turning and looking at it,
turning and looking at it,
and they kept on so--so it
is said, they kept on so;
thereupon [one said], "What
is it?"
"I do not know, but
it is lying there with it [the liquor] just like that,"
said another.
Thereupon, when one person
said, "Let me test it by drinking!"
"No! Do not drink it!
It is bad by nature!"
"As it is a bad thing,
upon your drinking it, you will die," the other said.
Scene 5: The Intervention
of the Orphan
Thereupon, "I shall
be the one!
I shall be the one!"
said the orphaned man who was passing by, so it is reported.
Being without living relatives,
he was completely and utterly
alone.
He used to live by joining
up with people;
his relatives were no more.
It is an orphan that he lived.
"Well, I will be the
one!"
When he said, "I might
just drink it,"
"Nay!" said another.
"Do not drink it!"
As it is something bad by
nature, you will die!"
When he said this, the orphan
man would not quit begging to try drinking it, so it is said.
"But all the same, let
it be drunk,
because my relatives no longer
exist,
no one at all can feel sorry
about anything.
Nothing will sadden anyone.
Because I have been habitually
alone,
no one sorrows for me.
It will be a good thing if
I err in drinking it.
I want to know and tell you
how it is," he said.
The leader said, "Nay!
Please do not drink even
a little bit.
You as well deserve to live."
When he forbade him, the
other did not listen, and just did not quit pleading.
"All right, drink it
then," he said, and the other left off [begging].
"Take a drink of it
that you might tell us how it is," he said.
Scene 6: The Results
of Drinking
Thereupon, having left off
with him,
the orphan man filled up
a container and drank, so it is said.
He drank, and continued to
drink,
and now, when he was completely
dizzy, it is said that he was insensible.
He was in a state of insensibility,
as it is reported.
Thereupon, when he was completely
dizzy,
now also, he made noise
and what he said was unintelligible,
but he went on, so it is
said.
Now also they said, "Drinking
does so to us!"
"Listen! That is completely
and utterly what will happen to ye!"
Now you see it," they
said.
It is said that he was in
a state of insensibility.
He drank, went on drinking,
and became drunk.
Thereupon, they watched him
as he drank, got drunk, fell down, and lay down on the ground;
they all were really keeping
on watching him.
"He is almost dead.
He will die,
he is dying on us;
such is the case, he is going
to die," they said.
On watching him, they kept
on waiting for it, so it is said.
Thereupon, they kept on watching
him in the same way;
he was lying on the ground,
so it is said.
He really lay there;
I do not know how long he
lay there before he regained consciousness,
but he just lay there, and
he awoke;
he just lay there, woke up,
and moved.
"Look! Lo! He is about
to awaken!"
He was continuing to rub
himself as he was awakening
Thereupon, as he was awakening,
it is said that they asked him,
"How is it?
What is it like?
How was it for you?
How are you?" they said.
Then, this one here, contrary
to expectation said, "It was a very good soporific.
It was an extremely good
soporific.
This being so, drink ye it!
If we were to drink it,
it would be a very good soporific.
I liked it very, very much;
it was an extremely good
sleep," he said.
Scene 7: The Drinking
Bout
Thereupon, the remainder
of them,
thinking it to be the truth,
some drank
and others drank;
each lay about on the ground
drinking, as it is reported.
Thereupon, as they were doing
so,
as the Indians were doing
so,
the Indians were lying on
the ground,
they did so and lay on the
ground.
Scene 8: The Return
of the Europeans and Capture of the Indians
The aforementioned white
people, upon arriving,
came and caught some of them,
about two in number.
They caught them, returned
with them and
getting over there to the
boat put them into it.
After they regained consciousness,
when the other spoke to them,
they tried to run away,
but because they could tell
that they were on the water, they were unable to do so.
Their having given up [trying
to escape],
now they spoke to them and
taught them.
They spoke to them, and dressed
them in things such as clothing;
they would have dressed them
completely.
The rest also would tell
them nothing more than,
"Belt on the clothing
and so forth that we made and gave you."
Having spoken to each other,
all the white people went along accompanying the Indians.
They gave them things such
as clothing and made friends with them with it [clothing].
as liquor was with them,
and having met them with it,
[the Indians] were now habitual
drinkers.
Notes to the Teacher: A1427. Acquisition of spiritous
liquor. A Texas Coushatta tale on the first meeting of the Indians
and the Europeans is found in Martin (1966, 46-47); the
Texas version also concerns the introduction of alcohol but differs
substantially from Bel's account (CL). Bel's story features an
Orphan, a stock character in Koasati narrative. Kimball (1989,
49-50) discusses the sources of this fascination with
the Orphan. By being free of kinship ties, an orphan is free
to do things that others are not allowed to do, such as drinking
an unknown substance. At the moment in the story when the Orphan
reports that the liquor is good for inducing sleep, the Koasati
audience laughs heartily. Near the end of the narrative, Bel
mentions that the Spanish spoke to the Koasati "and dressed
them in things such as clothing." This detail seems to be
a well preserved memory of the first contact between these groups,
for clothing was indeed among the first gifts given by the Spanish
to the Koasati (Kimball 1987, 166-67) (GK).
About the Transcriptions
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