Early Indigenous Literatures

Sleep and silence

The grandmother fears here that the young woman will not remember such a "sacred tale" because she has fallen asleep at the end of its telling. The danger of sleep here is in its potential for silence. We saw this too in "A Warrior's Daughter" when Bonnin describes the enemy camp as one which has fallen asleep and therefore is unprotected. However, the sleep of the grandchild here is complicated in the next paragraph.

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