USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 22
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In the morning I found, to my great disgust, that the 15 camp was to retain its position for another day. I dreaded its languor and monotony, and to escape it, I set out to explore the surrounding mountains. I was accompanied by a faithful friend, my rifle, the only friend indeed on whose prompt assistance in time of trouble I could im-
20 plicitly rely. Most of the Indians in the village, it is true, professed good-will toward the whites, but the experience of others and my own observation had taught me the extreme folly of confidence, and the utter impossibility of foreseeing to what sudden acts the strange unbridled 25 impulses of an Indian may urge him. When among this people danger is never so near as when you are unpre- pared for it, never so remote as when you are armed and on the alert to meet it any moment. Nothing offers so strong a temptation to their ferocious instincts as the ap- 3º pearance of timidity, weakness, or insecurity.
Many deep and gloomy gorges, choked with trees and bushes, opened from the sides of the hills, which were shaggy with forests wherever the rocks permitted vegeta- tion to spring. A great number of Indians were stalking 35 along the edges of the woods, and boys were whooping and laughing on the mountain-sides, practicing eye and hand, and indulging their destructive propensities by fol- lowing birds and small animals and killing them with their little bows and arrows. There was one glen, stretch- 40 ing up between steep cliffs far into the bosom of the moun- tain. I began to ascend along its bottom, pushing iny
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way onward among the rocks, trees, and bushes that ob- structed it. A slender thread of water trickled- along its center, which since issuing from the heart of its native rock could scarcely have been warmed or gladdened by a ray of sunshine. After advancing for some time, I con- 5 ceived myself to be entirely alone; but coming to a part of the glen in a great measure free of trees and under- growth, I saw at some distance the black head and red shoulders of an Indian among the bushes above. The reader need not prepare himself for a startling adventure, 10 for I have none to relate. The head and shoulders be- longed to Mene-Seela, my best friend in the village. As I had approached noiselessly with my moccasined feet, the old man was quite unconscious of my presence; and turning to a point where I could gain an unobstructed 15 view of him, I saw him seated alone, immovable as a statue, His face was turned upward,
among the rocks and trees. and his eyes seemed riveted on a pine tree springing from a cleft in the precipice above. The crest of the pine was swaying to and fro in the wind, and its long limbs waved 20 slowly up and down, as if the tree had life. Looking for a while at the old man, I was satisfied that he was engaged in an act of worship or prayer, or communion of some kind with a supernatural being. I longed to penetrate his thoughts, but I could do nothing more than conjecture 25 and speculate. I knew that though the intellect of an Indian can embrace the idea of an all-wise, all-powerful Spirit, the supreme Ruler of the universe, yet his mind will not always ascend into communion with a being that seems to him so vast, remote, and incomprehensible; and 30 when danger threatens, when his hopes are broken, when the black wing of sorrow overshadows him, he is prone to turn for relief to some inferior agency, less removed from the ordinary scope of his faculties. He has a guardian spirit, on whom he relies for succor and guidance. To him 35 all nature is instinct with mystic influence. Among those mountains not a wild beast was prowling, a bird singing, or a leaf fluttering, that might not tend to direct his destiny or give warning of what was in store for him; and he watches the world of nature around him as the astrologer watches 40 the stars. So closely is he linked with it that his guardian
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spirit, no unsubstantial creation of the fancy, is usually embodied in the form of some living thing - a bear, a wolf, an eagle, or a serpent; and Mene-Seela, as he gazed intently on the old pine tree, might believe it to inshrine 5 the fancied guide and protector of his life.
Whatever was passing in the mind of the old man, it was no part of sense or of delicacy to disturb him. Silently retracing my footsteps, I descended the glen until I came to a point where I could climb the steep precipices that Io shut it in, and gain the side of the mountain. Looking up, I saw a tall peak rising among the woods. Something impelled me to climb; I had not felt for many a day such strength and elasticity of limb. An hour and a half of slow and often intermitted labor brought me to the very summit; 15 and emerging from the dark shadows of the rocks and pines, I stepped forth into the light, and walking along the sunny verge of a precipice, seated myself on its extreme point. Looking between the mountain peaks to the westward, the pale blue prairie was stretching to the farthest horizon 20 like a serene and tranquil ocean. The surrounding moun- tains were in themselves sufficiently striking and impres- sive, but this contrast gave redoubled effect to their stern features.
CHAPTER XIX
PASSAGE OF THE MOUNTAINS
WHEN I took leave of Shaw at La Bonté's camp, I prom- ised` that I would meet him at Fort Laramie on the first of August. That day, according to my reckoning, was now close at hand. It was impossible, at best, to fulfill my engagement exactly, and my meeting with him must have 5 been postponed until many days after the appointed time, had not the plans of the Indians very well coincided with my own. They too, intended to pass the mountains and move toward the fort. To do so at this point was impossible, because there was no opening; and in order to find a pas- 10 sage we were obliged to go twelve or fourteen miles south- ward. Late in the afternoon the camp got in motion, de- filing back through the mountains along the same narrow passage by which they had entered. I rode in company with three or four young Indians at the rear, and the moving 15 swarm stretched before me, in the ruddy light of sunset, or in the deep shadow of the mountains far beyond my sight. It was an ill-omened spot they chose to encamp upon. When they were there just a year before, a war party of ten men, led by The Whirlwind's son, had gone out 20 against the enemy, and not one had ever returned. This was the immediate cause of this season's warlike prepara- tions. I was not a little astonished when I came to the camp, at the confusion of horrible sounds with which it was filled; howls, shrieks, and wailings were heard from all the women 25 present, many of whom, not content with this exhibition of grief for the loss of their friends and relatives, were gashing their legs deeply with knives. A warrior in the village, who had lost a brother in the expedition, chose another mode of displaying his sorrow. The Indians, 30 who, though often rapacious, are utterly devoid of avarice, are accustomed in times of mourning, or on other solemn occasions, to give away the whole of their possessions,
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and reduce themselves to nakedness and want. The war- rior in question led his two best horses into the center of the village, and gave them away to his friends; upon which songs and acclamations in praise of his generosity mingled 5 with the cries of the women.
On the next morning we entered once more among the mountains. There was nothing in their appearance either grand or picturesque, though they were desolate to the last degree, being mere piles of black and broken rocks, Io without trees or vegetation of any kind. As we passed among them along a wide valley, I noticed Raymond riding by the side of a young squaw, to whom he was ad- dressing various insinuating compliments. All the old squaws in the neighborhood watched his proceedings in 15 great admiration, and the girl herself would turn aside her head and laugh. Just then the old mule thought proper to display her vicious pranks; she began to rear and plunge most furiously. Raymond was an excellent rider, and at first he stuck fast in his seat; but the moment after, I 20 saw the mule's hind-legs flourishing in the air, and my unlucky follower pitching head foremost over her cars. There was a burst of screams and laughter from all the women, in which his mistress herself took part, and Ray- mond was instantly assailed by such a shower of witticisms, 25 that he was glad to ride forward out of hearing.
Not long after, as I rode near him, I heard him shouting to me. He was pointing toward a detached rocky hill that stood in the middle of the valley before us, and from behind it a long file of elk came out at full speed and en- 3º tered an opening in the side of the mountain. They had scarcely disappeared when whoops and exclamations came from fifty voices around me. The young men leaped from their horses, flung down their heavy buffalo robes, and ran at full speed toward the foot of the nearest mountain.
35 Reynal also broke away at a gallop in the same direction, "Come on ! come on !" he called to us. "Do you see that band of bighorn up yonder ? If there's one of them, there's a hundred !"
In fact, near the summit of the mountain, I could see a 40 large number of small white objects, moving rapidly up- ward among the precipices, while others were filing along
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its rocky profile. Anxious to see the sport, I galloped forward, and entering a passage in the side of the moun- tain, ascended among the loose rocks as far as my horse could carry me. Here I fastened her to an old pine tree that stood alone, scorching in the sun. At that moment 5 Raymond called to me from the right that another band of sheep was close at hand in that direction. I ran up to the top of the opening, which gave me a full view into the rocky gorge beyond; and here I plainly saw some fifty or sixty sheep, almost within rifle-shot, clattering upward Ic among the rocks, and endeavoring, after their usual cus- tom, to reach the highest point. The naked Indians bounded up lightly in pursuit. In a moment the game and hunters disappeared. Nothing could be seen or heard- but the occasional report of a gun, more and more distant, 15 reverberating among the rocks.
I turned to descend, and as I did so I could see the valley below alive with Indians passing rapidly through it, on horseback and on foot. A little farther on, all were stop- ping as they came up; the camp was preparing, and the 2c lodges rising. I descended to this spot, and soon after Reynal and Raymond returned. They bore between them a sheep which they had pelted to death with stones from the edge of a ravine, along the bottom of which it was at- tempting to escape. One by one the hunters came drop- 25 ping in; yet such is the activity of the Rocky mountain sheep that, although sixty or seventy men were out in pur- suit, not more than half a dozen animals were killed. Of these only one was a full-grown male. He had a pair of horns twisted like a ram's, the dimensions of which were 30 almost beyond belief. I have seen among the Indians ladles with long handles, capable of containing more than a quart, cut out from such horns.
There is something peculiarly interesting in the character and habits of the mountain sheep, whose chosen retreats 35 are above the region of vegetation and of storms, and who leap among the giddy precipices of their aërial home as actively as the antelope skims over the prairies below.
Through the whole of the next morning we were mov- ing forward, among the hills. On the following day the 40 heights gathered around us, and the passage of the moun-
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tains began in earnest. Before the village left its camp- ing ground, I set forward in company with The Eagle- Feather, a man of powerful frame, but of bad and sinister face. His son, a light-limbed boy, rode with us, and an- 5 other Indian, named The Panther, was also of the party. Leaving the village out of sight behind us, we rode to- gether up a rocky defile. After a while, however, The Eagle-Feather discovered in the distance some appear- ance of gaine, and set off with his son in pursuit of it, while Io I went forward with The Panther. This was a mere nom de guerre;º for, like many Indians, he concealed his real name out of some superstitious notion. He was a very noble looking fellow. As he suffered his ornamented buf- falo robe to fall in folds about his loins, his stately and 15 graceful figure was fully displayed; and while he sat his horse in an easy attitude, the long feathers of the prairie cock fluttering from the crown of his head, he seemed the very model of a wild prairie-rider. He had not the same features with those of other Indians. Unless his hand- 20 some face greatly belied him, he was free from the jeal- ousy, suspicion, and malignant cunning of his people. For the most part, a civilized white man can discover but, very few points of sympathy between his own nature and that of an Indian. With every disposition to do justice to 25 their good qualities, he must be conscious that an impass- able gulf lies between him and his red brethren of the prairie. Nay, so alien to himself do they appear that, having breathed for a few months or a few weeks the air of this region, he begins to look upon them as a troublesome 3º and dangerous species of wild beast, and, if expedient, he could shoot them with as little compunction as they them- selves would experience after performing the same office upon him. Yet, in the countenance of The Panther, I gladly read that there were at least some points of sympathy 35 between him and me. We were excellent friends, and as we rode forward together through rocky passages, deep dells, and little barren plains, he occupied himself very
zealously in teaching me the Dahcotah language. After a while, we came to a little grassy recess, where some goose- 40 berry bushes were growing at the foot of a rock: and these offered such temptation to my companion, that he gave
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over his instruction, and stopped so long to gather the fruit that before we were in motion again the van of the village came in view. An old woman appeared, leading down her pack horse among the rocks above. Savage after savage followed, and the little dell was soon crowded 5 with the throng.
That morning's march was one not easily to be for- gotten. It led us through a sublime waste, a wilderness of mountains and pine forests, over which the spirit of loneliness and silence seemed brooding. Above and be- 10 low little could be seen but the same dark green foliage. It overspread the valleys, and the mountains were clothed with it from the black rocks that crowned their summits to the impetuous streams that circled round their base. Scenery like this, it might seem, could have no very cheer- 15 ing effect on the mind of a sick man (for to-day my disease had again assailed me) in the midst of a horde of savages; but if the reader has ever wandered, with a true hunter's spirit, among the forests of Maine, or the more pictur- esque solitudes of the Adirondack mountains, he will under- 20 stand how the somber woods and mountains around me might have awakened any other feelings than those of gloom. In truth they recalled gladdening recollections of similar scenes in a distant and far different land. After we had been advancing for several hours through pas- 25 sages always narrow, often obstructed and difficult, I saw at a little distance on our right a narrow opening between two high wooded precipices. All within seemed darkness and mystery. In the mood in which I found myself some- thing strongly impelled me to enter. Passing over the 30 intervening space I guided my horse through the rocky portal, and as I did so instinctively drew the covering from my rifle, half expecting that some unknown evil lay in ambush within those dreary recesses. The place was shut in among tall cliffs, and so deeply shadowed by a 35 host of old pine trees that, though the sun shone bright on the side of the mountain, nothing but a dim twilight could penetrate within. As far as I could see it had no tenants except a few hawks and owls, who, dismayed at my intrusion, flapped hoarsely away among the shaggy 40 branches. I moved forward, determined to explore the
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mystery to the bottom, and soon became involved among the pines. The genius of the place exercised a strange influence upon my mind. Its faculties were stimulated into extraordinary activity, and as I passed along many 5 half-forgotten incidents, and the images of persons and things far distant, rose rapidly before me with surprising dictinctness. In that perilous wilderness, eight hundred miles removed beyond the faintest vestige of civilization, the scenes of another hemisphere, the seat of ancient re- Io finement, passed before me more like a succession of vivid paintings than any mere dreams of the fancy. I saw the church of St. Peter'sº illumined on the evening of Easter day, the whole majestic pile, from the cross to the foun- dation stone, penciled in fire and shedding a radiance, 15 like the serene light of the moon, on the sea of upturned faces below. I saw the peak of Mount Etnaº towering above its inky mantle of clouds and lightly curling its wreaths of milk-white smoke against the soft sky flushed with the Sicilian sunset. I saw also the gloomy vaulted 20 passages and the narrow cells of the Passionist convento where I once had sojourned for a few days with the fanat- ical monks, its pale, stern inmates in their robes of black, and the grated window from whence I could look out, a forbidden indulgence, upon the melancholy Coliseumº and 25 the crumbling ruins of the Eternal city.º The mighty glaciers of the Splügenº too rose before me, gleaming in the sun like polished silver, and those terrible solitudes, the birthplace of the Rhine,º where, bursting from the bowels of its native mountains, it lashes and foams down the rocky 3º abyss into the little valley of Andeer.º These recollections, and many more, crowded upon me, until remembering that it was hardly wise to remain long in such a place, I mounted again and retraced my steps.
Issuing from between the rocks I saw a few rods before 35 me the men, women, and children, dogs and horses, still filing slowly across the little glen. A bare round hill rose directly above them. I rode to the top, and from this point I could look down on the savage procession as it passed just beneath my feet, and far on the left I could see its 40 thin and broken line, visible only at intervals, stretching away for miles among the mountains. On the farthest
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ridge horsemen were still descending like mere specks in the distance.
I remained on the hill until all had passed, and then, de- scending, followed after them. A little farther on I found a very small meadow, set deeply among steep mountains; 5 and here the whole village had encamped. The little spot was crowded with the confused and disorderly host. Some of the lodges were already completely prepared, or the squaws perhaps were busy in drawing the heavy coverings of skin over the bare poles. Others were as Ic yet mere skeletons, while others still - poles, covering, and all - lay scattered in complete disorder on the ground among buffalo robes, bales of meat, domestic utensils, harness, and weapons. Squaws were screaming to one another, horses rearing and plunging, dogs yelping, eager 15 to be disburdened of their loads, while the fluttering of feathers and the gleam of barbaric ornaments added live- liness to the scene. The small children ran about amid the crowd, while many of the boys were scrambling among the overhanging rocks, and standing, with their little bows 20 in their hands, looking down upon the restless throng. In contrast with the general confusion, a circle of old men and warriors sat in the midst, smoking in profound indif- ference and tranquillity. The disorder at length subsided. The horses were driven away to feed along the adjacent 25 valley, and the camp assumed an air of listless repose. It was scarcely past noon; a vast white canopy of smoke from a burning forest to the eastward overhung the place, and partially obscured the sun; yet the heat was almost insupportable. The lodges stood crowded together with- 30 out order in the narrow space. Each was a perfect hothouse, within which the lazy proprietor lay sleeping. The camp was silent as death. Nothing stirred except now and then an old woman passing from lodge to lodge. The girls and young men sat together in groups under the pine 35 trees upon the surrounding heights. The dogs lay panting on the ground, too lazy even to growl at the white man. At the entrance of the meadow there was a cold spring among the rocks, completely overshadowed by tall trees and dense undergrowth. In this cool and shady retreat a number of 40 girls were assembled, sitting together on rocks and fallen
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logs, discussing the latest gossip of the village, or laughing and throwing water with their hands at the intruding Mene- aska. The minutes seemed lengthened into hours. I lay for a long time under a tree, studying the Ogallallah tongue, 5 with the zealous instructions of my friend The Panther. When we were both tired of this I went and lay down by the side of a deep, clear pool formed by the water of the spring. A shoal of little fishes of about a pin's length were playing in it, sporting together, as it seemed, very Io amicably; but on closer observation, I saw that they were engaged in a cannibal warfare among themselves. Now and then a small one would fall a victim, and immedi- ately disappear down the maw of his voracious conqueror. Every moment, however, the tyrant of the pool, a mon- 15 ster about three inches long, with staring goggle eyes, would slowly issue forth with quivering fins and tail from under the shelving bank. The small fry at this would sus- pend their hostilities, and scatter in a panic at the appear- ance of overwhelming force.
20 "Soft-hearted philanthropists," thought I, "may sigh long for their peaceful millennium; for from minnows up to men, life is an incessant battle."
Evening approached at last, the tall mountain-tops around were still gray and bright in sunshine, while our 25 deep glen was completely shadowed. I left the camp and ascended a neighboring hill, whose rocky summit com- manded a wide view over the surrounding wilderness. The sun was still glaring through the stiff pines on the ridge of the western mountain. In a moment he was 30 gone, and as the landscape rapidly darkened, I turned again toward the village. As I descended the hill, the howling of wolves and the barking of foxes came up out of the dim woods from far and near. The camp was glow- ing with a multitude of fires, and alive with dusky naked 35 figures, whose tall shadows flitted among the surrounding crags.
I found a circle of smokers seated in their usual place; that is, on the ground before the lodge of a certain war- rior, who seemed to be generally known for his social 40 qualities. I sat down to smoke a parting pipe with my savage friends. That day was the first of August, on
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which I had promised to meet Shaw at Fort Laramie. The fort was less than two days' journey distant, and that my friend need not suffer anxiety on my account, I re- solved to push forward as rapidly as possible to the place of meeting. I went to look after The Hail-Storm, and 5. having found him, I offered him a handful of hawks'-bells and a paper of vermilion, on condition that he would guide me in the morning through the mountains within sight of Laramie creek.
The Hail-Storm ejaculated "How !" and accepted the Io gift. Nothing more was said on either side; the matter was settled, and I lay down to sleep in Kongra-Tonga's lodge.
Long before daylight Raymond shook me by the shoulder. "Everything is ready," he said.
I went out. The morning was chill, damp, and dark; 15 and the whole camp seemed asleep. The Hail-Storm sat on horseback before the lodge, and my mare Pauline and the mule which Raymond rode were picketed near it. We saddled and made our other arrangements for the journey, but before these were completed the camp began 20 to stir, and the lodge-coverings fluttered and rustled as the squaws pulled them down in preparation for depar- ture. Just as the light began to appear we left the ground, passing up through a narrow opening among the rocks which led eastward out of the meadow. Gaining the top 25 of this passage, I turned round and sat looking back upon the camp, dimly visible in the gray light of the morning. All was alive with the bustle of preparation. I turned away, half unwilling to take a final leave of my savage associates. We turned to the right, passing among rocks 30 and pine trees so dark that for a while we could scarcely see our way. The country in front was wild and broken, half hill, half plain, partly open and partly covered with woods of pine and oak. Barriers of lofty mountains en- compassed it; the woods were fresh and cool in the early 35 morning; the peaks of the mountains were wreathed with mist, and sluggish vapors were entangled among the forests upon their sides. At length the black pinnacle of the tallest mountain was tipped with gold by the rising sun. About that time The Hail-Storm, who rode in front, gave 40 a low exclamation. Some large animal leaped up from
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