St. Nicholas/Volume 40/Number 6/Nature and Science/Camp-Fire Girls

WOHELO! WOHELO!

It sounds like an Indian cry, but it is not. It is a call made up of parts of three important English words, and is addressed to American girls of the present time. This Wohelo, “Wo-he-lo,” is a new word composed of the first two letters of the important watchwords of the Camp-Fire Girls—work, health, love, these really comprising about all there is to life. The call, therefore, is not only euphonious, but is followed by a long, rolling echo when sung in the right tone where the echoes live. Try it sometime on the bank of a lake, in a valley, and hear the sound come ringing back from the rugged hills in a hearty response from old Mother Nature, reciprocating your desire to work, to have health, and to let your whole life be permeated by a spirit of loving, kindly regard for your associates. Therein is the secret of the great success of the Camp-Fire Girls. It combines the development of a knowledge and love of nature with regard for others.

“THE FIRST DEGREE IS THAT OF WOOD-GATHERER.”

The symbol of the Camp-Fire Girls is also admirable. It is fire, as one would naturally expect from the term, and the fire means more than the ordinary flame for cooking or heating. The intense heat of fire is a symbol of enthusiasm. Anything that is worth doing at all is worth doing well and heartily. We are inspired to good works by seeing the work of others, and here is the first step in the life of a Camp-Fire Girl. She never finds the fire ready-made. She must learn to be independent of every one else. The first degree is that of wood-gatherer, and the emblem, crossed logs. She must go alone when the others go, each into her own section of the woods, to find her contribution to the general fire. Each has her own field to glean from and to develop. But while she is working in her own part of the field, others are working elsewhere. She strives to excel, and so do they, a commendable preliminary to the fire-building, which typifies the work of life.

“THE GIRLS STAND IN A CIRCLE AROUND THE GATHERED FAGOTS.”

Having brought the symbols to one common social center, they cannot fail to have impressed upon their minds the advantages of cooperation, and that any community, even the world itself, is, after all, only a unit. It is one fire from the contributions of many workers.

When the wood-gatherer has fulfilled these duties for a period of not less than three months, she advances to the next degree, that of fire-maker. While she is merely a wood-gatherer, she expresses her desire as follows:

“Seek beauty.
Give service.
Pursue knowledge.
Be trustworthy.
Hold on to health.
Glorify work.
Be happy.”

AROUND THE FIRE—“SO SHE TAKES SOME OF THIS FIRE AND CARRIES IT TO OTHERS.”

But after a candidacy of three months, satisfactory to the Guardians, she is permitted to become a fire-maker, and then no longer does she have isolated work, but joins with others in the common desire to build a fire. The girls stand in a circle around the gathered fagots, hold their hands aloft, and repeat the fire-maker’s desire:

“As fuel is brought to the fire,
So I purpose to bring
My strength,
My ambition,
My heart’s desire,
My joy,
And my sorrow,
To the fire
Of humankind.
For I will tend,
As my fathers have tended,
And my fathers’ fathers,
Since time began,
The fire that is called
The love of man for man,
The love of man for God.”

But after she has brought her own life of individual service into union with that of her associates,

A TYPICAL CAMP-FIRE GIRL AND HER COSTUME.

she and the others must not be content with their own selfish enjoyment of even the most picturesque fire, or of the ardor of enthusiasm. She must make that fire beneficial and helpful to others in their work. She must be a humanitarian, and do missionary work for the good of others. So she takes some of this fire and carries it to others, and then, having become a torch-bearer, she expresses her desire in the following words:

“That light which has been given to me,
I desire to pass undimmed to others.”

She is now next to the Guardian, and must be trustworthy, happy, unselfish, a good leader, a good “team worker,” and liked by the other girls. There is one pretty symbolism in the building of the fire that not only brings to us the picturesque primitive methods of the Indians, but carries a lesson with it. The fire, as the instruction book says, “may be started with matches, but better still it may be started with the rubbing of sticks. If directions are carefully followed, it is not difficult to learn this method of starting a fire.” The management wisely recommends this Indian method, which not only takes the girls and the bystanders back to primitive days, but impresses this important lesson: do not wait to be led; do not wait for somebody to inspire you. Create your own original fire of enthusiasm. There are many young people, and older ones too, I fear, who are ready to follow, but slow to originate. They wait till somebody else coaxes and urges or inspires them. This is not the best method. The fire of enthusiasm should be developed by one’s own personal efforts. It is, therefore, wisely directed that this fire in the woods of the Camp- Fire Girls shall, if possible, be started by individual effort, not with borrowed fire or even with matches, for that symbolizes some one else’s work. But what, after all, is the ardor of enthusiasm worth if it does not lead to loftier, spiritual ideals? So the ode sung by the girls standing around the fire leads their thoughts to the Infinite.

“ODE TO FIRE
“Oh Fire!
 Long years ago, when our fathers fought with great animals, you were their protection.
 From the cruel cold of winter, you saved them.
 When they needed food, you changed the flesh of beasts into savory meat for them.
 During all the ages, your mysterious flame has been a symbol to them for Spirit.
 So (to-night) we light our fire in remembrance of the Great Spirit who gave you to us.”

After roll-call, reports, bestowing of honors, initiation of new members, songs, toasts, or any other part of the program, the girls rise and repeat in unison:

“Burn, fire, burn !
Flicker, flicker, flame !
Whose hand above this blaze is lifted
Shall be with magic touch engifted
To warm the hearts of lonely mortals
Who stand without their open portals.
The torch shall draw them to the fire
Higher, higher,
By desire.
Whoso shall stand by this hearthstone,
Flame-fanned,
Shall never, never stand alone;
Whose house is dark, and bare, and cold,
Whose house is cold, this is his own.
Flicker, flicker, flicker, flame;
Burn, fire, burn!”

SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE MYNAH CAMP-FIRE.

The fire is then extinguished, and the hearth left in order, to symbolize that, from the hearth of interest in the activities of life, we may attain the best results by storing away in our heart the unseen fire of spiritual desire that shall animate and permeate our life, and inspire it to higher ideals.

What are these higher ideals? Certainly it is the first of Wohelo—our work. In a ceremony of lighting three candles where one stands for work, one for health, and one for love, the Camp-Fire Girl light one candle and repeats the following :

“I light the light of Work, for Wohelo means work.”

After the candle is lighted, she says:

“Wohelo means work.
 We glorify work because through work we are free.
 We work to win, to conquer, to be masters.
 We work for the joy of working, and because we are
free.
Wohelo means work.”

She then retires, and her place is taken by a second girl, who comes forward and says, in reference to the spirit of health:

“I light the light of Health, for Wohelo means health.”

After lighting the candle, she says:

“Wohelo means health.
 We hold on to health, because through health we serve and are happy.
 In caring for the health and beauty of our persons, we are caring for the very shrine of the Great Spirit.
Wohelo means health.”

A third comes forward and lights the candle of love, and says:

“I light the light of Love, for Wohelo means love.”

And as it burns, she adds:

“Wohelo means love.
 We love Love, for love is life, and light, and joy, and sweetness.
 And love is comradeship, and motherhood, and fatherhood, and all dear kinship.
 Love is the joy of service so deep that self is forgotten.
Wohelo means love.”

While the candles of work and health and love are slowly burning, these two stanzas are sung:

“Lay me to sleep in sheltering flame,
 O Master of the Hidden Fire.
Wash pure my heart, and cleanse for me
 My soul’s desire.

“In flame of sunrise bathe my mind,
 O Master of the Hidden Fire,
That, when I wake, clear-eyed may be
 My soul’s desire.”

CAMP-FIRE GIRLS IN FRONT OF ONE OF THE TENTS OF THEIR ENCAMPMENT.

The practical things of the Camp-Fire Girls are as commendable as the symbolisms and ideals. They include a long list of health-giving activities pertaining to regularity of school or other work, diet, sleep, games, athletics of a wide variety of interests. The Home Craft includes marketing, washing and ironing, housekeeping, inventing methods for doing better work, of entertaining members of the family, and caring for the little folks.

Under “Nature Lore,” there are the identification and description of fifteen trees, keeping records of outings, doing work in the garden, learning the planets and seven constellations with their stories, identifying a large number of birds, keeping bird books, making notes, providing lunch-counters, etc. There are further requirements in connection with the identification of wild flowers, caring for a hive of bees for a season, learning the habits of honey-bees, and making careful study of four-footed animals.

Naturally, the Camp-Fire Girls should understand Camp Craft, and they have a long list of methods for erecting and keeping the tent, selecting a proper location, making a shelter and a bed of material found in the woods, making a bed on the ground and sleeping on it out-of-doors for five nights, doing for one day camp cooking for four or more persons without help or advice. This includes getting wood and making an open fire. One must know Weather Lore, how to follow the trail, to tie knots in strings and ropes, to do clay modeling, brasswork, silver work, dyeing, basketry, wood-carving, carpentry, textile work. The girls are also instructed in business, and thoroughly trained in patriotism, including the proper celebration of all the principal holidays; they are taught the conservation of streams, birds, trees, forests; the beautifying of front yards, and a knowledge of the history of the country.

They are to attend religious services ten times in three months, and to give brief accounts of what has been done in the world of religious work.

Patriotism is united with religion, and they are required to commit to memory Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the preamble to the Constitution, and to the Declaration of Independence, and also one hundred verses of the Bible, or stanzas of hymns or other sacred literature. So the pursuits of the Camp-Fire Girls comprise all that makes life really worth living. Long may echo the call of Wohelo to inspire thousands and thousands of girls in outdoor activities in personal improvement, and in helpfulness to others.