USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 18
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15 Many of the Indians rode at full gallop toward the spot. We followed at a more moderate space, and soon saw the bull lying dead on the side of the hill. The Indians were gathered around him, and several knives were already at work. These little instruments were plied with such won- 20 derful address that the twisted sinews were cut apart, the ponderous bones fell asunder as if by magic, and in a moment the vast carcass was reduced to a heap of bloody ruins. The surrounding group of savages offered no very attractive spectacle to a civilized eye. Some were crack- 25 ing the huge thigh-bones and devouring the marrow within; others were cutting away pieces of the liver and other approved morsels, and swallowing them on the spot with the appetite of wolves. The faces of most of them, be- smeared with blood from car to car, looked grim and hor- 30 rible enough. My friend The White Shield proffered me a marrow bone, so skillfully laid open that all the rich sub- stance within was exposed to view at once. Another Indian held out a large piece of the delicate lining of the paunch; but these courteous offerings I begged leave to 35 decline. I noticed one little boy who was very busy with his knife about the jaws and throat of the buffalo, from which he extracted some morsel of peculiar delicacy. It is but fair to say that only certain parts of the animal are considered eligible in these extempore banquets. The 40 Indians would look with abhorrence on any one who should partake indiscriminately of the newly killed carcass.
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THE OGALLALLAH VILLAGE 1
We encamped that night, and marched westward through the greater part of the following day. On the next morning we again resumed our journey. It was the seventeenth of July, unless my notebook misleads me. At noon we stopped by some pools of rain-water, and in the afternoon 5 again set forward. This double movement was contrary to the usual practice of the Indians, but all were very anx- ious to reach the hunting ground, kill the necessary num- ber of buffalo, and retreat as soon as possible from the dangerous neighborhood. I pass by for the present some Io curious incidents that occurred during these marches and encampments. Late in the afternoon of the last men- tioned day we came upon the banks of a little sandy stream, of which the Indians could not tell the name; for they were very ill acquainted with that part of the country. 15 So parched and arid were the prairies around that they could not supply grass enough for the horses to feed upon, and we were compelled to move farther and farther up the stream in search of ground for encampment. The country was much wilder than before. The plains were 20 gashed with ravines and broken into hollows and steep declivities, which flanked our course, as, in long scattered array, the Indians advanced up the side of the stream. Mene-Seela consulted an extraordinary oracle to instruct him where the buffalo were to be found. When he with 25 the other chiefs sat down on the grass to smoke and con- verse, as they often did during the march, the old man picked up one of those enormous black-and-green crickets, which the Dahcotahs call by a name that signifies "They who point out the buffalo." The Root-Diggers, a wretched 30 tribe beyond the mountains, turn them to good account by making them into a sort of soup, pronounced by certain unscrupulous trappers to be extremely rich. Holding the bloated insect respectfully between his fingers and thumb, the old Indian looked attentively at him and in- 35 quired, "Tell me, my father, where must we go to-morrow to find the buffalo ?" The cricket twisted about his long
horns in evident embarrassment. At last he pointed, or seemed to point, them westward. Mene-Seela, dropping him gently on the grass, laughed with great glee, and said 40 that if we went that way in the morning we should be sure to kill plenty of game.
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Toward evening we came upon a fresh green meadow, traversed by the streamn, and deep-set among tall sterile bluffs. The Indians descended its steep bank; and as I was at the rear, I was one of the last to reach this point. 5 Lances were glittering, feathers fluttering, and the water below me was crowded with men and horses passing through, while the meadow beyond was swarming with the restless crowd of Indians. The sun was just setting, and poured its softened light upon them through an opening in the Io hills.
I remarked to Reynal that at last we had found a good camping-ground.
"Oh, it is very good," replied he ironically; "especially if there is a Snake war party about, and they take it into 15 their heads to shoot down at us from the top of these hills. It is no plan of mine, camping in such a hole as this !"
The Indians also seemed apprehensive. High up on the top of the tallest bluff, conspicuous in the bright even- ing sunlight, sat a naked warrior on horseback, looking 20 around, as it seemed, over the neighboring country ; and Raymond told me that many of the young men had gone out in different directions as scouts.
The shadows had reached to the very summit of the bluffs before the lodges were erected and the village re- 25 duced again to quiet and order. A cry was suddenly raised, and men, women, and children came running out with animated faces, and looked eagerly through the opening on the hills by which the stream entered from the westward. I could discern afar off some dark, heavy 30 masses, passing over the sides of a low hill. They dis- appeared, and then others followed. These were bands of buffalo cows. The hunting ground was reached at last, and everything promised well for the morrow's sport. Being fatigued and exhausted, I went and lay down in Kongra- 35 Tonga's lodge, wlien Raymond thrust in his head, and called upon me to come and see some sport. A number of Indians were gathered, laughing, along the line of lodges on the western side of the village, and at some distance, I could plainly see in the twilight two huge black monsters 40 stalking, heavily and solemnly, directly toward us. They were buffalo bulls. The wind blew from them to the village,
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and such was their blindness and stupidity that they were advancing upon the enemy without the least consciousness of his presence. Raymond told me that two young men had hidden themselves with guns in a ravine about twenty yards in front of us. The two bulls walked slowly on, 5 heavily swinging from side to side in their peculiar gait of
stupid dignity. They approached within four or five rods of the ravine where the Indians lay in ambush. Here at last they seemed conscious that something was wrong, for they both stopped and stood perfectly still, without looking 10 either to the right or to the left. Nothing of them was to be seen but two huge black masses of shaggy mane, with horns, eyes, and nose in the center, and a pair of hoofs visible at the bottom. At last the more intelligent of them seemed to have concluded that it was time to retire. Very slowly, 15 and with an air of the gravest and most majestic delibera- tion, he began to turn round, as if he were revolving on a pivot. Little by little his ugly brown side was exposed to view. A white smoke sprang out, as it were from the ground; a sharp report came with it. The old bull gave 20 a very undignified jump and galloped off. At this his comrade wheeled about with considerable expedition. The other Indian shot at him from the ravine, and then both the bulls were running away at full speed, while half the juvenile population of the village raised a yell and ran 25 after them. The first bull soon stopped, and while the crowd stood looking at him at a respectful distance, he reeled and rolled over on his side. The other, wounded in a less vital part, galloped away to the hills and escaped.
In half an hour it was totally dark. I lay down to sleep, 30 and ill as I was, there was something very animating in the prospect of the general hunt that was to take place on the morrow.
CHAPTER XV
THE HUNTING CAMP
LONG before daybreak the Indians broke up their camp. The women of Mene-Seela's lodge were as usual among the first that were ready for departure, and I found the old man himself sitting by the embers of the decayed fire, 5 over which he was warming his withered fingers, as the morning was very chilly and damp. The preparations for moving were even more confused and disorderly than usual. While some families were leaving the ground the lodges of others were still standing untouched. At this ro old Mene-Seela grew impatient, and walking out to the middle of the village stood with his robe wrapped close around him, and harangued the people in a loud, sharp voice. Now, he said, when they were on an enemy's hunting grounds, was not the time to behave like children; 15 they ought to be more active and united than ever. His speech had some effect. The delinquents took down their lodges and loaded their pack horses; and when the sun rose, the last of the men, women, and children had left the deserted camp.
20 This movement was made merely for the purpose of finding a better and safer position. So we advanced only three or four miles up the little stream, before cach family assumed its relative place in the great ring of the village, and all around the squaws were actively at work in pre- 25 paring the camp. But not a single warrior dismounted from his horse. All the men that morning were mounted on inferior animals, leading their best horses by a cord, or confiding them to the care of boys. In small parties they began to leave the ground and ride rapidly away 30 over the plains to the westward. I had taken no food that morning, and not being at all ambitious of farther abstinence, I went into my host's lodge, which his squaws
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had erected with wonderful celerity, and sat down in the center, as a gentle hint that I was hungry. A wooden bowl was soon set before me, filled with the nutritious preparation of dried meat called pemmican by the northern voyagers and wasna by the Dahcotahs. Taking a hand- 5 ful to break my fast upon, I left the lodge just in time to see the last band of hunters disappear over the ridge of the neighboring hill. I mounted Pauline and galloped in pursuit, riding rather by the balance than by any mus- cular strength that remained to me. From the top of the Ic hill I could overlook a wide extent of desolate and un- broken prairie, over which, far and near, little parties of
naked horsemen were rapidly passing. I soon came up to the nearest, and we had not ridden a mile before all were united into one large and compact body. All was 15 haste and eagerness. Each hunter was whipping on his horse, as if anxious to be the first to reach the game. In such movements among the Indians this is always more or less the case; but it was especially so in the present instance, because the head chief of the village was absent, 20 and there were but few "soldiers," a sort of Indian police, who among their other functions usually assume the direc- tion of a buffalo hunt. No man turned to the right hand or to the left. We rode at a swift canter straight forward, uphill and downhill, and through the stiff, obstinate growth 25 of the endless wild-sage bushes. For an hour and a half the same red shoulders, the same long black hair rose and fell with the motion of the horses before me. Very little was said, though once I observed an old man severely reproving Raymond for having left his rifle behind him, 30 when there was some probability of encountering an enemy before the day was over. As we galloped across a plain thickly set with sage bushes, the foremost riders vanished suddenly from sight, as if diving into the earth. The arid soil was cracked into a deep ravine. Down we all went in 35 succession and galloped in a line along the bottom, until we found a point where, one by one, the horses could scramble out. Soon after, we came upon a wide shallow stream, and as we rode swiftly over the hard sand-beds and through the thin sheets of rippling water, many of the 40 savage horsemen threw themselves to the ground, knelt
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on the sand, snatched a hasty draught, and leaping back again to their seats, galloped on again as before.
Meanwhile scouts kept in advance of the party; and now we began to see them on the ridge of the hills, wav- 5 ing their robes in token that buffalo were visible. These however proved to be nothing more than old straggling bulls, feeding upon the neighboring plains, who would stare for a moment at the hostile array and then gallop clumsily off. At length we could discern several of these scouts Io making their signals to us at once; no longer waving their robes boldly from the top of the hill, but standing lower down, so that they could not be seen from the plains beyond. Game worth pursuing had evidently been discovered. The excited Indians now urged forward their tired horses 15 even more rapidly than before. Pauline, who was still sick and jaded, began to groan heavily; and her yellow sides were darkened with sweat. As we were crowding together over a lower intervening hill, I heard Reynal and Raymond shouting to me from the left; and looking in that 20 direction, I saw them riding away behind a party of about, twenty mean-looking Indians. These were the relatives of Reynal's squaw Margot, who, not wishing to take part in the general hunt, were riding toward a distant hollow, where they could discern a small band of buffalo which they 25 meant to appropriate to themselves. I answered to the call by ordering Raymond to turn back and follow me. He reluctantly obeyed, though Reynal, who had relied on his assistance in skinning, cutting up, and carrying to camp the buffalo that he and his party should kill, loudly 30 protested and declared that we should see no sport if we went with the rest of the Indians. Followed by Raymond I pursued the main body of hunters, while Reynal in a great rage whipped his horse over the hill after his ragamuffin relatives. The Indians, still about a hundred in number, 35 rode in a dense body at some distance in advance. They galloped forward, and a cloud of dust was flying in the wind behind them. I could not overtake them until they had stopped on the side of the hill where the scouts were stand- ing. Here, each hunter sprang in haste from the tired 40 animal which he had ridden, and leaped upon the fresh horse that he had brought with him. There was not a
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saddle or a bridle in the whole party. A piece of buffalo robe girthed over the horse's back served in the place of the one. and a cord of twisted hair lashed firmly round his lower jaw answered for the other. Eagle feathers were dangling from every mane and tail, as insignia of courage 5 and speed. As for the rider, he wore no other clothing than a light cincture at his waist, and a pair of moccasins. He had a heavy whip, with a handle of solid elk-horn, and a lash of knotted bull-hide, fastened to his wrist by an ornamental band. His bow was in his hand, and his quiver Ic of otter or panther skin hung at his shoulder. Thus equipped, some thirty of the hunters galloped away toward the left, in order to make a circuit under cover of the hills, that the buffalo might be assailed on both sides at once. The rest impatiently waited until time enough had elapsed 15 for their companions to reach the required position. Then riding upward in a body, we gained the ridge of the hill, and for the first time came in sight of the buffalo on the plain beyond.
They were a band of cows, four or five hundred in num- 20 ber, who were crowded together near the bank of a wide stream that was soaking across the sand-beds of the valley. This was a large circular basin, sun-scorched and broken, scantily covered with herbage and encompassed with high barren hills, from an opening in which we could see our 25 allies galloping out upon the plain. The wind blew from that direction. The buffalo were aware of their approach, and had begun to move, though very slowly and in a com- pact mass. I have no farther recollection of seeing the game until we were in the midst of them, for as we descended the 30 hill other objects engrossed my attention. Numerous old bulls were scattered over the plain, and ungallantly desert- ing their charge at our approach, began to wade and plunge through the treacherous quicksands or the stream, and gallop away toward the hills. One old veteran was strug- 35 gling behind all the rest with one of his forelegs, which had been broken by some accident, dangling about use- lessly at his side. His appearance, as he went shambling along on three legs, was so ludicrous that I could not help pausing for a moment to look at him. As I came near, 40 he would trv to rush upon me, nearly throwing himself
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down at every awkward attempt. Looking up, I saw the whole body of Indians full a hundred yards in advance. I lashed Pauline in pursuit and reached them just in time; for as we mingled among them, each hunter, as if by 5 a common impulse, violently struck his horse, each horse sprang forward convulsively, and scattering in the charge in order to assail the entire herd at once, we all rushed
headlong upon the buffalo. We were among them in an instant. Amid the trampling and the yells I could see 10 their dark figures running hither and thither through clouds of dust, and the horsemen darting in pursuit. While we were charging on one side, our companions had attacked the bewildered and panic-stricken herd on the other. The uproar and confusion lasted but for a moment. The dust 15 cleared away, and the buffalo could be seen scattering as from a common center, flying over the plain singly, or in long files and small compact bodies, while behind each followed the Indians, lashing their horses to furious speed, forcing them close upon their prey, and yelling as they 20 launched arrow after arrow into their sides. The large black carcasses were strewn thickly over the ground. Here and there wounded buffalo were standing, their bleeding sides feathered with arrows; and as I rode past them their eyes would glare, they would bristle like gigantic cats, and 25 feebly attempt to rush up and gore my horse.
I left camp that morning with a philosophic resolution. Neither I nor my horse were at that time fit for such sport, and I had determined to remain a quiet spectator; but amid the rush of horses and buffalo, the uproar and the 3º dust, I found it impossible to sit still; and as four or five buffalo ran past me in a line, I drove Pauline in pursuit. We went plunging close at their heels through the water and the quicksands, and clambering the bank, chased them through the wild-sage bushes that covered the rising ground 35 beyond. But neither her native spirit nor the blows of the knotted bull-hide could supply the place of poor Pauline's
exhausted strength. We could not gain an inch upon the
poor fugitives. At last, however, they came full upon a ravine too wide to leap over ; and as this compelled them 40 to turn abruptly to the left, I contrived to get within ten or twelve yards of the hindmost. At this she faced about,
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bristled angrily, and made a show of charging. I shot at her with a large holster pistol, and hit her somewhere in the neck. Down she tumbled into the ravine, whither her com- panions had descended before her. I saw their dark backs appearing and disappearing as they galloped along the bot- 5 tom; then, one by one, they came scrambling out on the other side and ran off as before, the wounded animal follow- ing with unabated speed.
· Turning back, I saw Raymond coming on his black mule to meet me; and as we rode over the field together, we Io counted dozens of carasses lying on the plain, in the ravines and on the sandy bed of the stream. Far away in the dis- tance, horses and buffalo were still scouring along, with little clouds of dust rising behind them; and over the sides of the hills we could see long files of the frightened animals 15 rapidly ascending. The hunters began to return. The boys, who had held the horses behind the hill, made their appearance, and the work of flaying and cutting up began in earnest all over the field. I noticed my host Kongra- Tonga beyond the stream, just alighting by the side of a 20 cow which he had killed. Riding up to him I found him in the act of drawing out an arrow, which, with the ex- ception of the notch at the end, had entirely disappeared in the animal. I asked him to give it to me, and I still retain it as a proof, though by no means the most striking 25 one that could be offered, of the force and dexterity with which the Indians discharge their arrows.
The hides and meat were piled upon the horses, and the hunters began to leave the ground. Raymond and I, too, getting tired of the scene, set out for the village, riding 3º straight across the intervening desert. There was no path, and as far as I could see, no landmarks sufficient to guide us; but Raymond seemed to have an instinctive percep- tion of the point on the horizon toward which we ought to direct our course. Antelope were bounding on all sides, 35 and as is always the case in the presence of buffalo, they seemed to have lost their natural shyness and timidity. Bands of them would run lightly up the rocky declivities and stand gazing down upon us from the summit. At length we could distinguish the tall white rocks and the 40 old pine trees that, as we well remembered, were just above
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the site of the encampment. Still, we could see nothing of the village itself until, ascending a grassy hill, we found the circle of lodges, dingy with storms and smoke, standing on the plain at our very feet.
5 I entered the lodge of my host. His squaw instantly brought me food and water, and spread a buffalo robe for me to lie upon; and being much fatigued, I lay down and fell asleep. In about an hour the entrance of Kongra- Tonga, with his arms smeared with blood to the elbows, Io awoke me. He sat down in his usual seat on the left side of the lodge. His squaw gave him a vessel of water for washing, set before him a bowl of boiled meat, and as he was cating pulled off his bloody moccasins and placed fresh ones on his feet; then outstretching his limbs, my 15 host composed himself to sleep.
And now the hunters, two or three at a time, began to come rapidly in, and cach, consigning his horses to the squaws, entered his lodge with the air of a man whose day's work was donc. The squaws flung down the load 20 from the burdened horses, and vast piles of meat and hides were soon accumulated before every lodge. By this time it was darkening fast, and the whole village was illumined by the glare of fires blazing all around. All the squaws and children were gathered about the piles of meat, exploring 25 them in search of the daintiest portions. Sone of these they roasted on sticks before the fires, but often they dis- pensed with this superfluous operation. Late into the night the fires were still glowing upon the groups of feasters en- gaged in this savage banquet around them.
30 Several hunters sat down by the fire in Kongra-Tonga's lodge to talk over the day's exploits. Among the rest, Mene-Scela came in. Though he must have seen full eighty winters, he had taken an active share in the day's sport. He boasted that he had killed two cows that morn- 35 ing, and would have killed a third if the dust had not blinded him so that he had to drop his bow and arrows and press both hands against his eyes to stop the pain. The fireliglit fell upon his wrinkled face and shriveled figure as he sat telling his story with such inimitable ges- 40 ticulation that every man in the lodge broke into a laugh. Old Mene-Seela was one of the few Indians in the vil-
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lage with whom I would have. trusted myself alone with- out suspicion, and the only one from whom I would have received a gift or a service without the certainty that it proceeded from an interested motive. He was a great friend to the whites. He liked to be in their society, and 5 was very vain of the favors he had received from them. He told me one afternoon, as we were sitting together in his son's lodge, that he considered the beaver and the whites the wisest people on earth; indeed, he was con- vinced they were the same; and an incident which had Ic happened to him long before had assured him of this. So he began the following story, and as the pipe passed in turn to him, Reynal availed himself of these interruptions to translate what had preceded. But the old man accom- panied his words with such admirable pantomime that 15 translation was hardly necessary.
He said that when he was very young, and had never yet seen a white man, he and three or four of his com- panions were out on a beaver hunt, and he crawled into a large beaver lodge, to examine what was there. Some- 20 times he was creeping on his hands and knees, sometimes he was obliged to swim, and sometimes to lie flat on his face and drag himself along. In this way he crawled a great distance underground. It was very dark, cold, and close, so that at last he was almost suffocated, and fell 25 into a swoon. When he began to recover, he could just distinguish the voices of his companions outside, who had given him up for lost, and were singing his death song. At first he could see nothing, but soon he discerned some- thing white before him, and at length plainly distinguished 30 three people, entirely white; one man and two women, sitting at the edge of a black pool of water. He became alarmed and thought it high time to retreat. Having suc- ceeded, after great trouble, in reaching daylight again, he went straight to the spot directly above the pool of water 35 where he had seen the three mysterious beings. Here he beat a hole with his war club in the ground, and sat down to watch. In a moment the nose of an old male beaver appeared at the opening. Mene-Seela instantly seized him and dragged him up, when two other beavers, both females, 40 thrust out their heads, and these he served in the same
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