Chapter 4

There was to be a feast after the binding of Two Bears and Bent Willow. Eagle Claw was determined to make it one that the tribe would long remember. He set out, along with several hunter friends of his, to trade with other villages, some as much as a day's walk distance for them, for the delicacies that were uniquely theirs. The people of the three rivers were long known for the potent drink they concocted of tree syrup and fermented grapes, and the people that slept in the valley between the big hills were noted for sweet cakes and long rolls filled with dried grapes, nut meats, apples and other tree fruit wrapped and slow cooked in a wheat paste. Eagle Claw took with him the trade goods that his village was most proud of. They cured their fish and meat with salt, fruit essences and smoke that made it tender and tasty, but kept it good for a long time unless it got wet somehow. Tribal women were also very skilled in making fine moccasins and leggings that they chewed to a supple softness and made flexible with oft repeated wetting and stretching after curing. Eagle Claw carried two fine bows that had been fashioned by Dark Tongue in the days when Eagle Claw had only been himself a young boy.

The actual process of trade was simple, but it involved making a presentation to the entire village. The visitors first had to describe and praise the worth of the items that they sought to acquire, and then describe the use they had for it. In the case of the tribe at the three rivers, Eagle Claw recounted how his own parents had made the journey to acquire strong drink for his own binding, and how his feast had spilled over well into the following day. As he spoke, his friends made a display of the goods that they had brought themselves for trade. That a successful trade would take place was never in doubt. It was a point of honor that each group tried to construct a trade wherein they gave away more than they accepted. After the trade was concluded, then the traders would simply give away whatever trade goods that hadn't been needed as offerings of friendship and good will between the two tribes. After the trade was completed, a small feast was held and the visiting traders were entertained by the tribe.

The trip to the valley between the big hills was especially sweet to Eagle Claw because his sister had married into that tribe many seasons before. He spent an extra day with them, hunting with his nephew and brother in law and being feted at their cook fire. This tribe didn't use the lodges of his tribe, but rather preferred to live in portable tee pees that were easy to relocate with the changing of the seasons. In this way, they could live in the hills during the warmer times and enjoy the good hunting and cooler temperatures that it offered, before coming down into the valley for the cold months, where they could shelter in the trees and where winter foraging was better.

Many hunters who were either friends of Eagle Claw or Two Bears, spent time each day in search of game to fill the large tribal cooking fires. Many women of the tribe gathered far more than their daily requirements, setting aside the choicest foods for preparation right before the feast. There was a special air of excitement because Eagle Claw and Storm Cloud were known as people who could always be counted on to assist others in the tribe in case of any need. The people of the tribe saw this as a wonderful opportunity to show their thanks. Almost the whole tribe turned out to help them prepare for their son's binding feast. In addition to their desire to help Two's parent's, everyone knew that the bigger and better the feast, the more they'd all enjoy it.

When the time of the new moon came, there was a last busy wave of preparation, and a bustle of activity that had seldom before been seen. Delicious smells rose from every lodge's fire pit, and many different types of game slow roasted over open spits on the big tribal cooking pits. By the time the sun had just began it's nightly disappearance, Tall Tree had gathered all of the people beside the giant knarled oak that was the totem for their tribe, and which served as a gathering place for occasions of importance, such as a marriage, war councils, trading parleys and the electing a chief to replace one who'd died. Nothing of real importance ever happened to the people of the tribe that wasn't witnessed by their oak. If the oak died, the tribe would pick up and leave the area, because a long line of their medicine men had long foretold that the oak and the tribe were intertwined. When everyone was gathered, Tall Tree began the joining ceremony.

Bent Willow came forward first, accompanied by both of her parents. Her clothes had been made special for this one occasion, and would be put away in storage after the day was over. Each piece that made up her outfit had been lovingly crafted by either Willow herself, or a member of her family. Her mother stood to her right and held a strip of leather about one inch wide and two feet long. Her father was on her left and held her left arm in both of his hands. They approached Tall Tree and halted, awaiting the appearance of Two Bears and his family. First to make an appearance was Still Shadow, Two's sister. She approached her friend and welcomed her as her new sister and then stepped away to the side. When she was in place, Eagle Claw and Storm Cloud approached the oak with Two Bears being pulled along between them. Two Bears was dressed in all new clothing as well. All that he wore had been crafted by the hands of his mother and sister, and all of it from the skins of animals that Two had killed himself. Storm Cloud was on her son's left and Eagle Claw his right. They came abreast of Willow's family and halted. The two mothers, each with a strip of leather, were now on the ends, while the fathers were next to each other gripping an arm of their child.

Tall Tree stepped forward from the shadow of the oak where he'd been waiting, and approached the two families. Without words, Tall Tree took the leather strips from each mother and wrapped one around each of the outstretched arms of the young couple. He then stepped back to allow each father in turn to tie a knot around the arm of the child who wasn't his. When both of the fathers had finished, they'd each bound the couple together, symbolizing their acceptance of the marriage. Finished with their parts, the parents retreated to behind the couple. Now Tall Tree spoke.

"The people are made up of many tribes. The tribes each have many families. Tribes make the people strong, and the families make the tribes strong. Today we make another family, and that will make us stronger. We welcome Two Bears and Bent Willow as an addition to our number. We bind them together to increase their strength. As they strengthen us, we will also strengthen them. Two Bears, do you consent to this binding? Bent Willow do you also consent?"

"I consent with all I am, and all I have. Bent Willow is now a part of me."

"I consent with all I am. I follow where he leads. I am Two Bears' woman."

That ended the ceremonial part of the binding. The feast would now begin. In tribal lore, time would be marked in the future by the night of feasting set to take place. At the hunter's fire they would later talk about the deer they'd brought down and offered for the feast, or trips of discovery they'd undertaken right before or right after. Babies born over the next year would have their ages told by being conceived around or at the time of Two Bears and Bent Willow's joining feast. Women would say that they had decided on a future match or against one also by the observed behaviors of the hunters at that feast. It was a night of merriment and celebration for all the tribe. There were people who chose to not participate for reasons of their own, but most were there, and it was the best binding feast in recent memory. People filled themselves with too much food and drank the sweet but potent drinks that Eagle Claw had traded for. The drink had raised the level of merriment, it had travelled far within the heavy skins and bladders in which it was carried. And some would long lament the foolish acts commited while they tippled from those skins. Many woke the next day with heavy heads and little memory of the foolishness they had gotten into from the previous night's excesses. Many were unlucky enough to have spouses that drank so little as to be able to supply the memory that they themselves now lacked.

It was long in coming, at least in Two Bears thinking, but finally he and Bent Willow were allowed to take their leave and go inside their own lodge to begin the private part of their new lives together. It was this part that Two had been thinking about almost constantly in the days that had led up to the ceremony they'd just been celebrating. He hadn't been told or taught the mechanics of what should now take place. He had seen the animals in rut though, and had both seen and heard his own parents at night beneath their sleeping furs.