Story C: The Ceremony
"NOOOOOOOOOO...!" Chilali screamed at the top of her lungs. The little five year old had somehow managed to scurry up a nearby tree in less than thrity seconds.
The girl's poor mother, Tareva-Chineshanay, walked over and tried to reach her but came just shy of the branch her daughter was clinging to. Tareva-Chineshanay sighs, "My little Chilali, please come down. We must go or we will be late. You don't want the Meda or Danan to be angry at us because of tardiness, do you?"
Chilali's little lower lip began to quiver. "N..no...", she wimpered. "...But...I don't want to go!" She started to cry as she pressed her face against the tree's trunk. "I like my hair...I don't want to see it go away...!"
"Chilali..."
Before Tareva-Chineshanay could finish her sentence, Chilali's two friends, Honiahaka and Sakari, appeared, heading in the direction Chilali's mother was tring to get her to go.
"Háu kola, Chilali!" Honiahaka shouted up at her as he tried and failed to hide the amused smile on his face.
"Osiyo, Honiahaka and Sakari," Chilali sighed as her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
Sakari waved sweetly up at her friend with a shy smile, "Háu kola, Chilali..." Sakari tilted her head to the side as she stared up at her. "Why are you in a tree, Chilali?"
When Chilali didn't respond, Tareva-Chineshanay answered for her, "My daughter refuses to go to the ceremony in honor of the late Istas." Her mother slowly shook her head, disappointed.
"She doesn't like ceremonies?" asks a confused Honiahaka. He gave a sharp cry in surprise when Sakari elbowed him. She raised a finger to her lips to shush him.
"She doesn't want her hair to get cut," was the reply from Chilali's mother, who was again trying to climb up after her daughter. The closer she got, the higher her daughter climbed. With a heavy sigh, Tareva-Chineshanay slowly but surely descended the tree to stand next to the two children. "Perhaps you two can convince her to come down? Please?" Tareva-Chineshanay pleaded to Honiahaka and Sakari.
The two children nodded. "We can do that!" Honiahaka exlaimed, with a mischievous grin. He turned to the tree and looked up at Chilali. "They have Saututhig for when you get your hair cut as a reward for being good!"
"That's not going to..." Tareva-Chineshanay started, unconvinced that the child's tactic to lure her daugher out of the tree with a star berry dessert would work, but one look from Sakari told her to wait.
Sure enough, the sound of rustling leaves could be heard as Chilai descended. Not long after, she was leaping from the last branch, landing on her bare feet. Standing from the recoil, she dusted herself off, a look of determination on her face.
Tareva-Chineshanay stared at her daughter, shock etched on her face. She turned to Honiahaka and Sakari for an answer as to this wonderful miracle they just preformed.
"What?" asked Honiahaka, a little nervous with the expression on Tareva-Chineshanay's face. "Chilali loves Saututhig. It's her favorite dessert."
"Yes..." agreed Chilali as she walked up to the trio, "The sugary, gooy goodness....the burst of the berries...." Her face took on a far away look as her daydreams floated around in her head. She licked her lips....and her stomach growled, loud enough for all to hear. Honiahaka and Sakari burst into laughing fits as Chialai's face turned a bright red.
"Stop laughing!" she groaned as she hid her face in her hands. "Talking about Saututhig made me hungry...."
As Honiahaka and Sakari calmed down and wiped away the tears from all the laughing, Tareva-Chineshanay ushered the three children along, "Come children, we can still make it on time if we hurry."
Chilali's stomach turned when her mother said that, but she trudged along with her friends and mother through the woods. As they walked, she tried to think of only eating Saututhig when it was all over, but the thought of loosing parts of her beautiful black locks shook her to her core. She had never gotten a hair cut before, since it was tradition to only cut one's hair after a tribes member passed. Their soul was belived to fly to the stars like the fowl or songbirds and watch over the rest of the tribe from the heavens. It was a way of honoring them, by cutting away the old to make room for the new. Though it's a nice sentiment, Chilali didn't understand why they couldn't just remember the departed some other way. Why not cut the hairs off of one of the animals? Or plant the seeds from a dying corn stalk? If anything, they could be like other tribes and make tapestries depicting the tribemember’s life. Chilali sighed to herself. She didn't think she would ever understand.
Moments later, the group of four arrived at a large clearing not far from the tribe's encampment. Danan Cheveyo and Meda Takoda were preforming the sacred hair cutting ceremony on one of Tareva-Chineshanay's friends, Dyani. Chilali watched as the woman's hair fell like feathers to the ground, terrified. Chilali franticly looked around for some thing, anything, that could save her from this nightmare.
Her mother gently pushed her into the line of people waiting their turn and instructed her to wait while she talked to Meda Takoda. Kissing her precious daughter on the head, she gently said told her, "Don't worry, my sweet little Chilali, it will all be over soon, and then you can have a slice of Saututhig." Chilali's mother pointed to a table full of the sweet treats being served by the Danan's wife, "Maybe if you are especially good, Olathe will give you two pieces." With that, Tareva-Chineshanay headed in Meda Takoda's direction, who had just finished with Dyani's hair.
Chilali was too distracted by the sick feeling in her stomach to care about dessert. No amount of Saututhig could possibly be worth it. Suddenly, an idea came to her. Looking behind her, she saw more people had lined up behind her. Perfect... Chilali thought to herself. Quiet as a rabbit, she slipped in and out of the line until she was at the very back. She looked ahead with satisfaction. If any more people came she could just as easily slip in behind them too. Perhaps if she kept delaying her turn, they would forget about her and she wouldn't have to get her hair cut! Smiling to herself, she settled into a routine...
As the day turned to dusk Chilali would slide through tribe members like a trout gliding through water. She started to play a game with herself where she would see how many diffrent tactics she could use to cut backwards in line. She was up to forty-seven when she happened to glance in the direction the hair cutting was taking place and, to her horror, spotted her mother going next. Chilali froze. The world seemed to slow down as Meda Takoda started to speak to Tareva-Chineshanay. Chilali was too far away to hear, but what she saw next made her believe she would have nightmares for the rest of her childhood, if not her life! Meda Takoda held a sharp stone knife to Tarena-Chineshanay's hair and began to expertly cut it. The once long hair slowly but surely was cut to shoulder length, the discarded bits falling to the matted grass below.
Chilali felt like she was going to throw up. From the glint of the sharp stone to her own mother's hair slowly descending to the ground was too much for the little girl. Before she could turn away, Chilali saw Honiahaka and Sakari walk up to Meda Takoda. She gasped when the Meda motioned for Danan Cheveyo to approach Honiahaka while she herself approached Sakari. Chilali's breath caught in her throat and her legs began feeling weak as she witnessed the same terrifying act that was done to her mother be done to her two best friends. No longer able to bare it, Chialai fainted.
When she came to, Chilali found herself surrounded by what she thought were Angenis, but once her vision focused, she realized it was her mother, Honiahaka, Sakari, Meda Takoda, and Danan Cheveyo, all of which had their hair cut.
"What happed....?" Chilali asked with a sleepy groan when she saw the worried expressions on everyone's faces. Their new hair styles were strange to her, but she found herself more fascinated than scared.
"Oh, my sweet Chilai!" exclaimed Tareva-Chineshanay as she embraced her daughter in a tight hug, sighing with relief. "You passed out, thank the ancestors you are alright! Are you hurt? You didn't hurt anything, did you?" Tareva-Chineshanay franticly checked over her daughter, like a mother hen counting her chicks.
"I'm fine..." Chilali assured her mother.
"Little Chilali, what caused you to faint like a flower blown down by the wind?" asked Meda Takoda.
"I...." Chilali paused, ashamed, before she continued. "I'm afraid to get my hair cut...." Chilali felt like crying, having revealed her secret to the two respected leader, her friends, and her mother.
"Oh, my little Chialai..." soothed her mother as she pulled her daughter close.
Chilali burried her face in her mother's neck to hide the tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm sorry..." Her voice wavered and her lip quivered as she spoke, waiting to see what fate the Danan and Meda would had instore for her.
Danan Cheveyo smiled softly at her. "Fear is a natural thing, little one," he said, "Everyone fears something. Even me sometimes."
"Really...?" Chilali asked in awe. The brave Danan Cheveyo was afraid sometimes? This came as a huge surprise to the little girl. She had always thought the Danan was without fear, leading the tribe into a better tomorrow for thier betterment.
"How did you over come it...?" asked the wide-eyed child.
The Danan stretched out a welcoming hand to her. When she took it, he raised her to her feet and answered, "By facing it head on."
With the encouragement of Danan Cheveyo and the presence of those close to her, Chilali's nerves were calmed as the group helped her sit so she could get the long awaited hair cut. Her friends gave her reassuring nobs while her mother started to tear up with pride at the fact that her baby was facing her greatest fear.
"Little Chilali," said Meda Takoda, "before we continue, I must ask, why are we doing this?"
"To remember Istas," replied Chilali. It seemed obvious. Everyone in the tribe knew that.
"Yes, the action is to remember her, but why?" pressed the Meda.
Chilali stared at her blankly, "I don't know, Meda. Why?"
Meda Takoda smiled, "We do it to remember the souls who have passed, yes, but also to remind ourselves that everything comes to an end. But with and end, there is also a beginning, new and clean. With each death, there will be a birth. With the end of a cold winter comes a warm spring. This, little Chilali, is why we cut away one's hair, so that we have a reminder for the years to come constantly with us, wherever we go... Now let us begin..."
Chilali closed her eyes as the Meda began to gut her hair. Her mother held her hand, wispering words of encouragement to her daughter. Her friends also whispered encouraging words.
After a few moments, Meda spoke, "You can open your eyes now, Chilali."
Chilali did as she was told and looked around. Was it really done? That fast? Her friends excitedly dragged her over to the nearby pond to look at her reflection. What she saw made her gasped in awe. Before her was a girl who looked like a slightly old version of herself, her hair the length of her shoulders. When she reached for her face, the reflection did the same. Was this really her? Yes, it was. She looked at her reflection again. Maybe this hair cut thing wasn't so bad after all...
