Grandpère by Janet Romain Page B

think it was only in the fifties when that kind of thing was allowed again. Potlatch and everything, it was all against the law long before I was born. You tell her about the sweat.”
    I smile at him. We talked about the sweat for days after I went. He wanted to know every little detail. I wonder if I’ll remember all the teachings they gave us that day.
    “Well,” I begin, “it was late in the fall. I remember the drive up there with Rose. The leaves were all turned colour, and it was a beautiful day. We were told beforehand to bring a dress or long pajamas to wear inside. When we got there, we went and changed in a shed in the yard. A huge fire was blazing in the backyard, heating up the rocks. They were red-hot. There were stones in a path from the fire to the little conical mound that was the sweat lodge, which was all covered up with blankets and had a blue tarp over the top. They explained to us that the lodge was like a womb of the mother earth, and the fire was tied to the lodge by the rocks like an umbilical cord. We were told to walk clockwise around the fire to enter the lodge.
    “We went into the sweat, both men and women. The first round was the welcoming round. The hosts were modern medicine people who told us about some personal challenges in their lives and how they overcame them. They talked about a more holistic view of health and how the spirit has to be healed at the same time as the body. They talked about how the ancestors were always there to be relied on for advice. They told us the rocks they brought in signified the wisdom of the ancestors, and when they brought them in, we should acknowledge their presence. The significance of the building was explained as a circle to denote the circle of life, with nine rows of saplings, one for each month the child is carried in the womb of the mother. They are bound together by four horizontal rows that signify the four ages of humans. The rows of twigs leave a round opening at the centre peak. This circle is crossed by tied twigs oriented in the four directions. Hanging from the centre is a large eagle feather.
    “The four ages of humans start with infancy, from the time you are born till about twelve or thirteen. That is the time of being looked after. Childhood begins then, and that is the time you learn to care for others and be responsible for yourself and others. Childhood lasts different times for different people. The next stage is adulthood, which you are in for the longest period. Adulthood leads finally to being an elder. The elders are the ones who have learned to turn knowledge to wisdom. Adults and children have to look after infants and elders.
    “They passed the pipe around. It was huge, just like the peace pipes in old movies. You could either puff some of the tobacco in it or just touch it to your shoulders when it came by. It got passed around three times, always clockwise.
    “They told us about the four sacred elements — earth, air, fire and water — that were all there with us in the earth we were sitting on, the air we were breathing, the fire in the hot rocks and the water sprinkled on the rocks.
    “They brought in the hot rocks one by one. The first one went in the centre, then the next four went in the four directions. They got sprinkled with a nice-smelling herb when they came in. Then they closed the door, and it got incredibly hot in there. At first you could see the dull red glow of the rocks, and then when they sprinkled the water on, it was so humid that the sweat just poured out and so dark that you couldn’t see the hands in front of your face. The people who held the sweat started singing, and Rose and I were singing too, even though we’d never heard that song before. It repeated itself four times.
    “Then they opened the door, and the cold air rushing in felt nice. There were four rounds of putting more rocks in; they brought in seven each time after that. Between rounds they would give us more teachings. After