The Woman of Stone

In one of the niches or recesses formed by a precipice in the cavern of Kickapoo Creek, which is a tributary of the Wisconsin, there is a gigantic mass of stone presenting the appearance of a human figure. It is so sheltered by the overhanging rocks and by the sides of the recess in which it stands as to assume a dark and gloomy character. Of the figure the following legend is related:--

ウィスコンシン川の支流キカプー川の洞窟には、断崖がつくる窪みのひとつに、人の姿に見える巨大な石のかたまりがある。張り出した岩と、それの立つ窪みの側壁にすっかり覆われているので、暗く陰鬱なようすを帯びている。この像について、次のような言い伝えが語られている——

Once upon a time there lived a woman who was called Shenanska, or the White Buffalo Robe. She was an inhabitant of the prairie, a dweller in the cabins which stand upon the verge of the hills. She was the pride of her people, not only for her beauty, which was very great, but for her goodness. The breath of the summer wind was not milder than the temper of Shenanska, the face of the sun was not fairer than her countenance.

むかし、シェナンスカ、すなわち白い野牛の衣と呼ばれる女が住んでいた。女は草原の住人で、丘の端に立つ小屋に住んでいた。女は、たいそう美しいばかりでなく、その善良さのためにも一族の誇りだった。夏の風の息吹もシェナンスカの気立てより穏やかではなく、太陽の顔もその面ざしより美しくはなかった。

At length the tribe was surprised in its encampment on the banks of the Kickapoo by a numerous band of the fierce Mengwe. Many of them fell fighting bravely, the greater part of the women and children were made prisoners, and the others fled to the wilds for safety. It was the fortune of Shenanska to escape from death or captivity. When the alarm of the war-whoop reached her ear as she was sleeping in her lodge with her husband, she had rushed forth with him and gone with the braves to meet their assailants. When she saw half of the men of her nation lying dead around, then she fled. She had been wounded in the battle, but she still succeeded in effecting her escape to the hills. Weakened by loss of blood, she had not strength enough left to hunt for a supply of food, and she was near perishing with hunger.

やがて一族は、キカプー川の岸の野営地で、荒々しいメングウェ族の大軍に不意を襲われた。多くの者が勇敢に戦って倒れ、女と子どもの大部分は捕らえられ、残りの者は身を守るために荒野へ逃げた。シェナンスカは運よく死も捕らわれも免れた。夫と小屋で眠っていて、ときの声が耳に届くと、シェナンスカは夫と一緒に飛び出して、戦士たちとともに襲撃者を迎え撃ちに行った。自分の部族の男の半分がまわりに倒れて死んでいるのを見て、はじめてシェナンスカは逃げた。戦いで傷を負っていたが、それでもなんとか丘へ逃げのびた。血を失って弱っていたので、食べ物を狩る力も残っておらず、飢えで死にかけていた。

While she lay beneath the shade of a tree there came to her a being not of this world.

シェナンスカが木陰に横たわっていると、この世のものではない者がやって来た。

"Shenanska," said he, in a gentle voice, "thou art wounded and hungry, shall I heal thee and feed thee? Wilt thou return to the lands of thy tribe and live to be old, a widow and alone, or go now to the land of departed spirits and join the shade of thy husband? The choice is thine. If thou wilt live, crippled, and bowed down by wounds and disease, thou mayest. If it would please thee better to rejoin thy friends in the country beyond the Great River, say so."

「シェナンスカ」とその者は優しい声で言った。「そなたは傷を負い、飢えている。わたしがそなたを癒し、食べさせてやろうか。そなたの部族の土地へ戻り、未亡人として一人きりで年老いるまで生きるか、それとも今、去った霊たちの国へ行って夫の魂と一緒になるか。選ぶのはそなただ。傷と病に身をかがめ、不自由な体で生きたいなら、そうするがよい。大いなる川の向こうの国で友らと再び会うほうがよいなら、そう言うがよい。」

Shenanska replied that she wished to die. The spirit took her, and placed her in one of the recesses of the cavern, overshadowed by hanging rocks. He then spoke some words in a low voice, and, breathing on her, she became stone. Determined that a woman so good and beautiful should not be forgotten by the world, he made her into a statue, to which he gave the power of killing suddenly any one who irreverently approached it. For a long time the statue relentlessly exercised this power. Many an unconscious Indian, venturing too near to it, fell dead without any perceptible wound. At length, tired of the havoc the statue made, the guardian spirit took away the power he had given to it. At this day the statue may be approached with safety, but the Indians hold it in fear, not intruding rashly upon it, and when in its presence treating it with great respect.

シェナンスカは死にたいと答えた。霊はシェナンスカを連れていき、張り出した岩に覆われた洞窟の窪みのひとつに置いた。それから低い声で何か言葉を唱え、シェナンスカに息を吹きかけると、シェナンスカは石になった。これほど善良で美しい女が世に忘れられてはならないと心に決めて、霊はシェナンスカを像にし、不敬に近づく者を誰でもたちまち殺す力をその像に与えた。長いあいだ、像は容赦なくこの力をふるった。何も知らずに近づきすぎた多くのインディアンが、目に見える傷もなく倒れて死んだ。とうとう像のもたらす惨禍にうんざりして、守護の霊は与えた力を取り上げた。今日ではこの像に近づいても安全だが、インディアンたちは今もこれを恐れ、みだりに近づかず、その前ではたいそう敬意を払ってふるまう。