How The Indians Learned To Heal

When we help each other, we often learn all sorts of things about our world and ourselves. Practicing compassion brings wisdom, as this Iroquois tale reminds us.
As told a long, long time ago, some Indians were running along a trail that led to an Indian settlement. As they ran, a rabbit jumped from a bush and sat before them. The Indians stopped, for the rabbit still sat up before them and did not move from the trail. They shot their arrows at him, but they came back unstained with blood. A second time they drew their arrows. Now no rabbit was to be seen. Instead, an old man stood on the trail. He seemed to be weak and sick. The old man asked them for food and a place to rest. But they would not listen, and went on to the settlement.
Slowly the old man followed them, down the trail to the wigwam village. First he stopped at a wigwam and asked for help. But they turned him away. And as he tried several more wigwams, he was turned away at each of them and told to move on. They did not want a sick man there. Each were just as unkind as the first one.
At last he came to a wigwam where a kind old woman lived. "I will ask once as I need a place to rest," he thought. The old woman brought food for him to eat, and spread soft skins for him to lie upon. The old man thanked her. He said that he was very sick and he told the woman what plants to gather in the woods, to make him well again. This she did, and soon he was healed.
A few days later the old man was again taken sick. Again he told the woman what roots and leaves to gather in the wood, to make him well again. She did as she was told, and soon he was well. Many times the old man fell sick. Each time he had a different sickness. Each time he told the woman what plants and herbs to find to cure him. Each time she remembered what she had been told. And, soon, this woman knew more about healing than all the other people.
One day, the old man told her that the Great Spirit had sent him to earth, to teach the Indian people the secrets of healing. "I came, sick and hungry, to many a wigwam door. No blanket was drawn aside for me to pass in. You alone lifted the blanket from your wigwam door and bade me to enter. Therefore all other clans shall come to you for help in sickness. You shall teach all the clans what plants, and roots, and leaves to gather, that the sick may be healed.
The Indian woman turned and lifted her hands to thank the Great Spirit for this great gift and knowledge of healing. When she turned back to the old man, he had disappeared. No one was there, but a rabbit was running swiftly down the trail.