USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 17
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among other mystic functions, claimed the exclusive power and privilege of fighting the thunder. Whenever a storm which they wished to avert was threatening, the thunder- . fighters would take their bows and arrows, their guns, their magic drum, and a sort of whistle, made out of the 5 wingbone of the war eagle. Thus equipped, they would run out and fire at the rising cloud, whooping, yelling, whistling, and beating their drum, to frighten it down again. One
afternoon a heavy black cloud was coming up, and they repaired to the top of a hill, where they brought all their Io magic artillery into play against it. But the undaunted thunder, refusing to be terrified, kept moving straight on- ward, and darted out a bright flash which struck one of the party dead, as he was in the very act of shaking his long iron-pointed lance against it. The rest scattered 15 and ran yelling in an ecstasy of superstitious terror back to their lodges.
The lodge of my host Kongra-Tonga, or The Big Crow, presented a picturesque spectacle that evening. A score or more of Indians were seated around in a circle, their 20 dark naked forms just visible by the dull light of the smolder- ing fire in the center, the pipe glowing brightly in the gloom as it passed from hand to hand round the lodge. Then a squaw would drop a piece of buffalo-fat on the dull embers. Instantly a bright glancing flame would leap up, darting 25 its clear light to the very apex of the tall conical structure, where the tops of the slender poles that supported its cover- ing of leather were gathered together. It gilded the features of the Indians, as with animated gestures they sat around it, telling their endless stories of war and hunting. It dis- 30 played rude garments of skins that hung around the lodge; the bow, quiver, and lance suspended over the resting- place of the chief, and the rifles and powder-horns of the two white guests. For a moment all would be bright as day; then the flames would die away, and the fitful flashes 35 from the embers would illumine the lodge, and then leave it in darkness. Then all the light would wholly fade, and the lodge and all within it be involved again in obscurity.
As I left the lodge next morning, I was saluted by howl- ing and yelping from all around the village, and half its 40 canine population rushed forth to the attack. Being as
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cowardly as they were elamorous, they kept jumping around me at the distance of a few yards, only one little cur, about ten inches long, having spirit enough to make a direct assault. He dashed valiantly at the leather tassel which s in the Dahcotah fashion was trailing behind the heel of my moccasin, and kept his hold, growling and snarling all the while, though every step I made almost jerked him over on his back. As I knew that the eyes of the whole village were on the watch to see if I showed any sign of Io apprehension, I walked forward without looking to the right or left, surrounded wherever I went by this magic circle of dogs. When I came to Reynal's lodge I sat down by it, on which the dogs dispersed growling to their re- spective quarters. Only one large white one remained, 15 who kept running about before ine and showing his teeth. I called him, but he only growled the more. I looked at him well. He was fat and sleek; just such a dog as I wanted. " My friend," thought I, "you shall pay for this ! I will have you caten this very morning !"
20 I intended that day to give the Indians a feast, by way of conveying a favorable impression of my character and dignity; and a white dog is the dish which the customs of the Dahcotahs prescribe for all occasions of formality and importance. I consulted Reynal; he soon discovered 25 that an old woman in the next lodge was owner of the white dog. I took a gaudy cotton handkerchief, and lay- ing it on the ground, arranged some vermilion, beads, and other trinkets upon it. Then the old squaw was summoned. I pointed to the dog and to the handkerchief. She gave 3º a scream of delight, snatched up the prize, and vanished with it into her lodge. For a few more trifles I engaged the services of two other squaws, each of whom took the white dog by one of his paws, and led him away behind the lodges, while he kept looking up at them with a face 35 of innocent surprise. Having killed him they threw him into a fire to singe; then chopped him up and put him into two large kettles to boil. Meanwhile I told Raymond to fry in buffalo-fat what little flour we had left, and also to make a kettle of tea as an additional item of the repast.
40 The Big Crow's squaw was briskly at work sweeping out the lodge for the approaching festivity. I confided to
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my host himself the task of inviting the guests, thinking that I might thereby shift from my own shoulders the odium of fancied neglect and oversight.
When feasting is in question, one hour of the day serves an Indian as well as another. My entertainment came 5 off about eleven o'clock. At that hour, Reynal and Ray- mond walked across the area of the village, to the admira- tion of the inhabitants, carrying the two kettles of dog- meat slung on a pole between them. These they placed in the center of the lodge, and then went back for the bread Io and the tea. Meanwhile I had put on a pair of brilliant moccasins, and substituted for my old buckskin frock a coat which I had brought with me in view of such public occasions. I also made careful use of the razor, an opera- tion which no man will neglect who desires to gain the good 15 opinion of Indians. Thus attired, I seated myself between Reynal and Raymond at the head of the lodge. Only a few minutes elapsed before all the guests had come in and were seated on the ground, wedged together in a close circle around the lodge. Each brought with him 20 a wooden bowl to hold his share of the repast. When all were assembled, two of the officials called "soldiers" by the white men, came forward with ladles made of the horn of the Rocky mountain sheep, and began to distribute the feast, always assigning a double share to the old men 25 and chiefs. The dog vanished with astonishing celerity, and each guest turned his dish bottom upward to show that all was gone. Then the bread was distributed in its turn, and finally the tea. As the soldiers poured it out into the same wooden bowls that had served for the substantial 30 part of the meal, I thought it had a particularly curious and uninviting color.
"Oh!" said Reynal, "there was not tea enough, so I stirred some soot in the kettle, to make it look strong."
Fortunately an Indian's palate is not very discriminating. 35 The tea was well sweetened, and that was all they cared for.
Now the former part of the entertainment being con- cluded, the time for speech-making was come. The Big Crow produced a flat piece of wood on which he cut up 40 tobacco and shongsasha, and mixed them in due propor-
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tions. The pipes were filled and passed from hand to hand around the company. Then I began my speech, each sentence being interpreted by Reynal as I went on, and echoed by the whole audience with the usual exclamations 5 of assent and approval. As nearly as I can recollect, it was as follows:
I had come, I told them, from a country so far distant, that at the rate they travel, they could not reach it in a year.
IO " How ! how !"
"There the Meneaska were more numerous than the blades of grass on the prairie. The squaws were far more beautiful than they had ever seen, and all the men were brave warriors."
15 " How ! how ! how !"
Here I was assailed by sharp twinges of conscience, for I fancied I could perceive a fragrance of perfumery in the air, and a vision rose before me of white kid gloves and silken mustaches with the mild and gentle countenances 20 of numerous fair-haired young men. But I recovered my- self and began again.
" While I was living in the Meneaska lodges, I had heard of the Ogallallahs, how great and brave a nation they were. how they loved the whites, and how well they could hunt 25 the buffalo and strike their enemies. I resolved to come and see if all that I heard was true."
" How ! how ! how ! how !"
" As I had come on horseback through the mountains, I had been able to bring them only a very few presents." " How !"
30
" But I had enough tobacco to give them all a small piece. They might smoke it, and see how much better it was than the tobacco which they got from the traders." " How ! how ! how !"
35 "I had plenty of powder, lead, knives, and tobacco at Fort Laramie. These I was anxious to give them, and if any of them should come to the fort before I went away, I would make them handsome presents."
" How ! how ! how ! how !"
40 Raymond then cut up and distributed among them two or three pounds of tobacco, and old Mene-Seela began to
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make a reply. It was quite long, but the following was the pith of it:
"He had always loved the whites. They were the wisest people on earth. He believed they could do every- thing, and he was always glad when any of them came 5 to live in the Ogallallah lodges. It was true I had not made them many presents, but the reason of it was plain. It was clear that I liked them, or I never should have come so far to find their village."
Several other speeches of similar import followed, and 10 then this more serious matter being disposed of, there was an interval of smoking, laughing, and conversation; but old Mene-Seela suddenly interrupted it with a loud voice.
"Now is a good time," he said, "when all the old men and chiefs are here together, to decide what the people 15 shall do. We came over the mountain to make our lodges for next year. Our old ones are good for nothing; they are rotten and worn out. But we have been disappointed. We have killed buffalo bulls enough, but we have found no herds of cows, and the skins of bulls are too thick and 20 heavy for our squaws to make lodges of. There must be plenty of cows about the Medicine-Bow mountain. We ought to go there. To be sure it is farther westward than we have ever been before, and perhaps the Snakes will attack us, for those hunting-grounds belong to them. But 25 we must have new lodges at any rate; our old ones will not serve for another year. We ought not to be afraid of the Snakes. Our warriors are brave, and they are all ready for war. Besides, we have three white men with their rifles to help us." 30
I could not help thinking that the old man relied a little too much on the aid of allies, one of whom was a coward, another a blockhead, and the third an invalid. This speech produced a good deal of debate. As Reynal did not interpret what was said, I could only judge of the 35 meaning by the features and gestures of the speakers. At the end of it, however, the greater number seemed to have fallen in with Mene-Seela's opinion. A short silence followed, and then the old man struck up a discordant chant, which I was told was a song of thanks for the enter- 40 tainment I had given them.
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"Now," said he, "let us go and give the white men a chance to breathe."
So the company all dispersed into the open air, and for some time the old chief was walking round the village, 5 singing his song in praise of the feast, after the usual cus- tom of the nation.
At last the day drew to a close, and as the sun went down the horses came trooping from the surrounding plains to be picketed before the dwellings of their respective Io masters. Soon within the great circle of lodges appeared another concentric circle of restless horses; and here and there fires were glowing and flickering amid the gloom on the dusky figures around them. I went over and sat by the lodge of Reynal. The Eagle-Feather, who was a 15 son of Mene-Seela, and brother of iny host The Big Crow, was seated there already, and I asked him if the village would move in the morning. He shook his head, and said that nobody could tell, for since old Mahto-Tatonka had died, the people had been like children that did not know 20 their own minds. They were no better than a body without a head. So I, as well as the Indians themselves, fell asleep that night without knowing whether we should set out in the morning toward the country of the Snakes.
At daybreak, however, as I was coming up from the 25 river after my morning's ablutions, I saw that a move- ment was contemplated. Some of the lodges were re- duced to nothing but bare skeletons of poles; the leather covering of others was flapping in the wind as the squaws were pulling it off. One or two chiefs of note had resolved, 30 it seemed, on moving; and so having set their squaws at work, the example was tacitly followed by the rest of the village. One by one the lodges were sinking down in rapid succession, and where the great circle of the village had been only a moment before, nothing now remained but a 35 ring of horses and Indians, crowded in confusion together. The ruins of the lodges were spread over the ground, to- gether with kettles, stone mallets, great ladles of horn, buffalo robes, and cases of painted hide, filled with dried meat. Squaws bustled about in their busy preparations, 40 the old hags screaming to one another at the stretch of their leathern lungs. The shaggy horses were patiently standing
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while the lodge-poles were lashed to their sides, and the baggage piled upon their backs. The dogs, with their tongues lolling out, lay lazily panting, and waiting for the time of departure. Each warrior sat on the ground by the decaying embers of his fire, unmoved amid all the con- 5 fusion, while he held in his hand the long trail-rope of his horse.
As their preparations were completed, each family moved off the ground. The crowd was rapidly melting away. I could see them crossing the river, and passing in quick suc- Io cession along the profile of the hill on the farther bank. When all were gone, I mounted and set out after them, followed by Raymond, and as we gained the summit, the whole village came in view at once, straggling away for a mile or more over the barren plains before us. 'Every- 15 where the iron points of lances were glittering. The sun never shone upon a more strange array. Here were the heavy-laden pack horses, some wretched old women lead- ing them, and two or three children clinging to their backs. Here were mules or ponies covered from head to tail with 20 gaudy trappings, and mounted by some gay young squaw, grinning bashfulness and pleasure as the Meneaska looked at her. Boys with miniature bows and arrows were wander- ing over the plains, little naked children were running along on foot, and numberless dogs were scampering among the 25 feet of the horses. The young braves, gaudy with paint and feathers, were riding in groups among the crowd, and often galloping, two or three at once along the line, to try the speed of their horses. Here and there you might see a rank of sturdy pedestrians stalking along in their 30 white buffalo robes. These were the dignitaries of the village, the old men and warriors, to whose age and ex- perience that wandering democracy yielded a silent def- erence. With the rough prairie and the broken hills for its background, the restless scene was striking and pictu- 35 resque beyond description. Days and weeks made me familiar with it, but never impaired its effect upon my fancy.
As we moved on the broken column grew yet more scat- tered and disorderly, until, as we approached the foot of 40 a hill, I saw the old men before mentioned seating them-
N
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selves in a line upon the ground, in advance of the whole They lighted a pipe and sat smoking, laughing, and tell- ing stories, while the people, stopping as they successively came up, were soon gathered in a crowd behind them. 5 Then the old men rose, drew their buffalo robes over their shoulders, and strode on as before. Gaining the top of the hill, we found a very steep declivity before us. There was not a minute's pause. The whole descended in a mass, amid dust and confusion. The horses braced their ro feet as they slid down, women and children were scream- ing, dogs yelping as they were trodden upon, while stones and earth went rolling to the bottom. In a few moments I could see the village from the summit, spreading again far and wide over the plain below.
15 At our encampment that afternoon I was attacked anew by my old disorder. In half an hour the strength that I had been gaining for a week past had vanished again, and I became like a man in a dream. But at sunset I lay down in The Big Crow's lodge and slept, totally uncon- 20 scious till the morning. The first thing that awakened me was a hoarse flapping over my head, and a sudden light that poured in upon me. The camp was breaking up, and the squaws were moving the covering from the lodge. I arose and shook off my blanket with the feeling 25 of perfect health; but scarcely had I gained my feet when a sense of my helpless condition was once more forced upon me, and I found myself scarcely able to stand. Ray- mond had brought up Pauline and the mule, and I stooped to raise my saddle from the ground. My strength was 30 quite inadequate to the task. "You must saddle her," said I to Raymond, as I sat down again on a pile of buf- falo robes:
"Et hæc etiam fortasse meminisse juvabit,"º
I thought, while with a painful effort I raised myself into 35 the saddle. Half an hour after, even the expectation that Virgil's line expressed seemed destined to disappointment. As we were passing over a great plain, surrounded by long broken ridges, I rode slowly in advance of the Indians, with thoughts that wandered far from the time and from the 40 place. Suddenly the sky darkened, and thunder began
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to mutter. Clouds were rising over the hills, as dreary and dull as the first forebodings of an approaching calamity ; and in a moment all around was wrapped in shadow. I looked behind. The Indians had stopped to prepare for the approaching storm, and the dark, dense mass of savages 5 stretched far to the right and left. Since the first attack of my disorder the effects of rain upon me had usually been injurious in the extreme. I had no strength to spare, having at that moment scarcely enough to keep my seat on horseback. Then, for the first time, it pressed upon me Io as a strong probability that I might never leave those deserts. "Well," thought I to myself, "a prairie makes quick and sharp work. Better to die here, in the saddle to the last, than to stifle in the hot air of a sick chamber; and a thousand times better than to drag out life, as many 15 have done, in the helpless inaction of lingering disease." So, drawing the buffalo robe on which I sat over my head, I waited till the storm should come. It broke at last with · a sudden burst of fury, and passing away as rapidly as it came, left the sky clear again. My reflections served me 20 no other purpose than to look back upon as a piece of curious experience; for the rain did not produce the ill effects that I had expected. We encamped within an hour. Having
no change of clothes, I contrived to borrow a curious kind of substitute from Reynal : and this done, I went home, that 25 is, to The Big Crow's lodge, to make the entire transfer that was necessary. Half a dozen squaws were in the lodge, and one of them taking my arm held it against her own, while a general laugh and scream of admiration was raised at the contrast in the color of the skin. 30
Our encampment that afternoon was not far distant from a spur of the Black hills, whose ridges, bristling with fir trees, rose from the plains a mile or two on our right. That they might move more rapidly toward their proposed hunting-grounds, the Indians determined to leave at this 35 place their stock of dried meat and other superfluous articles. Some left even their lodges, and contented themselves with carrying a few hides to make a shelter from the sun and rain. Half the inhabitants set out in the afternoon, with loaded pack horses, toward the mountains. Here 40 they suspended the dried meat upon trees, where the wolves
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and grizzly bears could not get at it. All returned at even- ing. Some of the young inen declared that they had heard the reports of guns among the mountains to the eastward, and many surmises were thrown out as to the origin of 5 these sounds. For my part, I was in hopes that Shaw and Henry Chatillon were coming to join us. I would have welcomed them cordially, for I had no other companious than two brutish white men and five hundred savages. I little suspected that at that very moment iny unlucky Io comrade was lying on a buffalo robe at Fort Laramie, fevered with ivy poison, and sołacing his woes with tobacco and Shakspere.
As we moved over the plains on the next morning several young men were riding about the country as scouts; and 15 at length we began to see them occasionally on the tops of the hills, shaking their robes as a signal that they saw buffalo. Soon after some bulls came in sight. Horsemen darted away in pursuit, and we could see from the distance that one or two of the buffalo were killed. Raymond .
20 suddenly became inspired. I looked at him as he rode by my side; his face had actually grown intelligent.
"This is the country for me !" he said; "if I could only carry the buffalo that are killed here every month down to St. Louis I'd make my fortune in one winter. I'd grow 25 as rich as old Papin, or Mackenzie either. I call this the poor man's market. When I'm hungry I have only got to take my rifle and go out and get better meat than the rich folks down below can get with all their money. You won't catch me living in St. Louis another winter."
3º " No," said Reynal, "you had better say that after you and your Spanish woman almost starved to death there. What a fool you were ever to take her to the settlements." " Your Spanish woman ?" said I; "I never heard of her before. Are you married to her ?"
35 "No," answered Raymond, again looking intelligent ; "the priests don't marry their women, and why should I marry mine ?"
This honorable mention of the Mexican clergy intro- duced the subject of religion, and I found that my two as- 40 sociates, in common with other white men in the country, were as indifferent to their future welfare as men whose
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lives are in constant peril are apt to be. Raymond had never heard of the pope. A certain bishop, who lived at Taosº or at Santa Fé, embodied his loftiest idea of an ec- clesiastical dignitary. Reynal observed that a priest had been at Fort Laramie two years ago, on his way to the 5 Nez Percé mission, and that he had confessed all the men there and given them absolution. "I got a good clear- ing out myself that time," said Reynal, "and I reckon that will do for me till I go down to the settlements again."
Here he interrupted himself with an oath and exclaimed : 10 . "Look ! look ! The Panther is running an antelope !"
The Panther, on his black and white horse, one of the best in the village, came at full speed over the hill in hot pursuit of an antelope that darted away like lightning before him. The attempt was made in mere sport and 15 bravado, for very few are the horses that can for a moment compete in swiftness with this little animal. The antelope ran down the hill toward the main body of the Indians who were moving over the plain below. Sharp yells were given and horsemen galloped out to intercept his flight. 20 At this he turned sharply to the left and scoured away with such incredible speed that he distanced all his pur- suers and even the vaunted horse of The Panther himself. A few moments after we witnessed a more serious sport. A shaggy buffalo bull bounded out from a neighboring 25 hollow, and close behind him came a slender Indian boy, riding without stirrups or saddle and lashing his eager little horse to full speed. Yard after yard he drew closer to his gigantic victim, though the bull, with his short tail erect and his tongue lolling out a foot from his foaming jaws, 30 was straining his unwieldy strength to the utmost. A moment more and the boy was close alongside of him. It was our friend The Hail-Storm. He dropped the rein on his horse's neck and jerked an arrow like lightning from the quiver at his shoulder. 35
"I tell you," said Reynal, "that in a year's time that boy will match the best hunter in the village. There he has given it to him! and there goes another ! You feel well, now, old bull, don't you, with two arrows stuck in your lights? There, he has given him another! Hear 40 how The Hail-Storm yells when he shoots! Yes, jump
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at him; try it again, old fellow ! You may jump all day before you get your horns into that pony !"
The bull sprang again and again at his assailant, but the horse kept dodging with wonderful celerity. At length 5 the bull followed up his attack with a furious rush, and The Hail-Storm was put to flight, the shaggy monster following close behind. The boy clung in his seat like a leech, and secure in the speed of his little pony, looked round toward us and laughed. In a moment he was again Io alongside of the bull, who was now driven to complete desperation. His eyeballs glared through his tangled mane, and the blood flew from his mouth and nostrils. Thus, still battling with each other, the two enemies dis- appeared over the hill.
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