Chapter 4

It was not long before Austin, Brian, and Basil were again listening to the interesting accounts given by their friend, the hunter; and it would have been a difficult point to decide whether the listeners or the narrator derived most pleasure from their occupation. Austin began without delay to speak of the aborigines of North America.

"We want to know," said he, "a little more about what these people were, and when they were first found out."

_Hunter._ When America was first discovered, the inhabitants, though for the most part partaking of one general character, were not without variety. The greater part, as I told you, were, both in hot and cold latitudes, red men with black hair, and without beards. They, perhaps, might have been divided into four parts: the Mexicans and Peruvians, who were, to a considerable extent, civilized; the Caribs, who inhabited the fertile soil and luxuriant clime of the West Indies; the Esquimaux, who were then just the same people as they are now, living in the same manner by fishing; and the Red Men, or North American Indians.

_Austin._ Then the Esquimaux are not Red Indians.

_Hunter._ No; they are more like the people who live in Lapland, and in the North of Asia; and for this reason, and because the distance across Behring's Straits is so short, it is thought they came from Asia, and are a part of the same people. The red men are, however, different; and as we agreed that I should tell you about the present race of them, perhaps I may as well proceed.

_Austin._ Yes. Please to tell us first of their wigwams, and their villages, and how they live.

_Brian._ And what they eat, and what clothes they wear.

_Basil._ And how they talk to one another.

_Austin._ Yes; and all about their spears and tomahawks.

_Hunter._ The wigwams of the Indians are of different kinds: some are extremely simple, being formed of high sticks or poles, covered with turf or the bark of trees; while others are very handsome. The Sioux, the Blackfeet, and the Crows, form their wigwams nearly in the same manner; that is, by sewing together the skins of buffaloes, after properly dressing them, and making them into the form of a tent. This covering is then supported by poles. The tent has a hole at the top, to let out the smoke, and to let in the light.

_Austin._ Ay, that is a better way of making a wigwam than covering over sticks with turf.

_Hunter._ The wigwams, or lodges, of the Mandans are round. A circular foundation is dug about two feet deep; timbers six feet high are set up all around it, and on these are placed other long timbers, slanting inwards, and fastened together in the middle, like a tent, leaving space for light and for the smoke to pass. This tent-like roof is supported by beams and upright posts, and it is covered over outwardly by willow boughs and a thick coating of earth; then comes the last covering of hard tough clay. The sun bakes this, and long use makes it solid. The outside of a Mandan lodge is almost as useful as the inside; for there the people sit, stand, walk, and take the air. These lodges are forty, fifty, or sixty feet wide.

_Brian._ The Mandan wigwam is the best of all.

_Hunter._ Wigwams, like those of the Mandans, which are always in the same place, and are not intended to be removed, are more substantial than such as may be erected and taken down at pleasure. Some of the wigwams of the Crow Indians, covered as they are with skins dressed almost white, and ornamented with paint, porcupine quills and scalp-locks, are very beautiful.

_Austin._ Yes; they must look even better than the Mandan lodges, and they can be taken down and carried away.

_Hunter._ It would surprise you to witness the manner in which an encampment of Crows or Sioux strike their tents or wigwams. I have seen several hundred lodges all standing; in two or three minutes after, all were flat upon the prairie.

_Austin._ Why, it must be like magic.

_Hunter._ The time has been fixed, preparations made, the signal given, and all at once the poles and skin coverings have been taken down.

_Brian._ How do they carry the wigwams away with them?

_Hunter._ The poles are dragged along by horses and by dogs; the smaller ends being fastened over their shoulders, while on the larger ends, dragging along the ground, are placed the coverings, rolled up together. The dogs pull along two poles, each with a load, while the horses are taxed according to their strength. Hundreds of horses and dogs, thus dragging their burdens, may be seen slowly moving over the prairie with attendant Indians on horseback, and women and girls on foot heavily laden.

_Brian._ What a sight! and to what length they must stretch out; such a number of them!

_Hunter._ Some of their villages are large, and fortified with two rows of high poles round them. A Pawnee Pict village on the Red River, with its five or six hundred beehive-like wigwams of poles, thatched with prairie grass, much pleased me. Round the village there were fields of maize, melons and pumpkins growing.

The Indians hunt, fish, and some of them raise corn for food; but the flesh of the buffalo is what they most depend upon.

_Austin._ How do the Indians cook their food?

_Hunter._ They broil or roast meat and fish, by laying it on the fire, or on sticks raised above the fire. They boil meat, also, making of it a sort of soup. I have often seated myself, squatting down on a robe spread for me, to a fine joint of buffalo ribs, admirably roasted; with, perhaps, a pudding-like paste of the prairie turnip, flavoured with buffalo berries.

_Austin._ That is a great deal like an English dinner--roast beef and a pudding.

_Hunter._ The Indians eat a great deal of green corn, pemican, and marrow fat. The pemican is buffalo meat, dried hard, and pounded in a wooden mortar. Marrow fat is what is boiled out of buffalo bones; it is usually kept in bladders. They eat, also, the flesh of the deer and other animals: that of the dog is reserved for feasts and especial occasions. They have, also, beans and peas, peaches, melons and strawberries, pears, pumpkins, chinkapins, walnuts and chestnuts. These things they can get when settled in their villages; but when wandering, or on their war parties, they take up with what they can find. They never eat salt with their food.

_Basil._ And what kind of clothes do they wear?

_Hunter._ Principally skins, unless they trade with the whites, in which case they buy clothes of different kinds. Some wear long hair, some cut their hair off and shave the head. Some dress themselves with very few ornaments, but others have very many. Shall I describe to you the full dress of _Mah-to-toh-pa_, "the four bears."

_Austin._ Oh, yes; every thing belonging to him.

_Hunter._ You must imagine, then, that he is standing up before you, while I describe him, and that he is not a little proud of his costly attire.

_Austin._ I fancy that I can see him now.

_Hunter._ His robe was the soft skin of a young buffalo bull. On one side was the fur; on the other, were pictured the victories he had won. His shirt, or tunic, was made of the skins of mountain sheep, ornamented with porcupine quills and paintings of his battles. From the edge of his shoulder-band hung the long black locks that he had taken with his own hand from his enemies. His head-dress was of war-eagle quills, falling down his back to his very feet; on the top of his head stood a pair of buffalo horns, shaven thin, and polished beautifully.

_Brian._ What a figure he must have made!

_Hunter._ His leggings were tight, decorated with porcupine quills and scalp-locks: they were made of the finest deer skins, and fastened to a belt round the waist. His mocassins, or shoes, were buckskin, embroidered in the richest manner; and his necklace, the skin of an otter, having on it fifty huge claws, or rather talons, of the grizzly bear.

_Austin._ What a desperate fellow! Bold as a lion, I will be bound for it. Had he no weapons about him?

_Hunter._ Oh, yes! He held in his left hand a two-edged spear of polished steel, with a shaft of tough ash, and ornamented with tufts of war-eagle quills. His bow, beautifully white, was formed of bone, strengthened with the sinews of deer, drawn tight over the back of it; the bow-string was a three-fold twist of sinews. Seldom had its twang been heard, without an enemy or a buffalo falling to the earth; and rarely had that lance been urged home, without finding its way to some victim's heart.

_Austin._ Yes; I thought he was a bold fellow.

_Hunter._ He had a costly shield of the hide of a buffalo, stiffened with glue and fringed round with eagle quills and antelope hoofs; and a quiver of panther skin, well filled with deadly shafts. Some of their points were flint, and some were steel, and most of them were stained with blood. He carried a pipe, a tobacco sack, a belt, and a medicine bag; and in his right hand he held a war club like a sling, being made of a round stone wrapped up in a raw hide and fastened to a tough stick handle.

_Austin._ What sort of a pipe was it?

_Basil._ What was in his tobacco sack?

_Brian._ You did not say what his belt was made of.

_Hunter._ His pipe was made of red pipe-stone, and it had a stem of young ash, full three feet long, braided with porcupine quills in the shape of animals and men. It was also ornamented with the beaks of woodpeckers, and hairs from the tail of the white buffalo. One thing I ought not to omit; on the lower half of the pipe, which was painted red, were notched the snows, or years of his life. By this simple record of their lives, the red men of the forest and the prairie may be led to something like reflection.

_Basil._ What was in his tobacco sack?

_Hunter._ His flint and steel, for striking a light, and his tobacco, which was nothing more than the bark of the red willow. His medicine bag was beaver skin, adorned with ermine and hawks' bills; and his belt, in which he carried his tomahawk and scalping-knife, was formed of tough buckskin, firmly fastened round his loins.

_Austin._ Please to tell us about the scalping knife. It must be a fearful instrument.

_Hunter._ All instruments of cruelty, vengeance and destruction are fearful, whether in savage or civilized life. What are we, that wrath and revenge and covetousness should be fostered in our hearts! What is man, that he should shed the blood of his brother! Before the Indians had dealing with the whites, they made their own weapons: their bows were strung with the sinews of deer; their arrows were headed with flint; their knives were sharpened bone; their war-clubs were formed of wood, cut into different shapes, and armed with sharp stones; and their tomahawks, or hatchets, were of the same materials: but now, many of their weapons, such as hatchets, spear-heads, and knives, are made of iron, being procured from the whites, in exchange for the skins they obtain in the chase. A scalping-knife is oftentimes no more than a rudely formed butcher's knife, with one edge, and the Indians wear them in beautiful scabbards under their belts.

_Austin._ How does an Indian scalp his enemy?

_Hunter._ The hair on the crown of the head is seized with the left hand; the knife makes a circle round it through the skin, and then the hair and skin together, sometimes with the hand, and sometimes with the teeth, are forcibly torn off! The scalp may be, perhaps, as broad as my hand.

_Brian._ Terrible! Scalping would be sure to kill a man, I suppose.

_Hunter._ Not always. Scalps are war trophies, and are generally regarded as proofs of the death of an enemy; but an Indian, inflamed with hatred and rage, and excited by victory, will not always wait till his foe has expired before he scalps him. The hair, as well as the scalp, of a fallen foe is carried off by the victorious Indian, and with it his clothes are afterwards ornamented. It is said, that, during the old French war, an Indian slew a Frenchman who wore a wig. The warrior stooped down, and seized the hair for the purpose of securing the scalp. To his great astonishment, the wig came off, leaving the head bare. The Indian held it up, and examining it with great wonder, exclaimed, in broken English, "Dat one big lie."

_Brian._ How the Indian would stare!

_Basil._ He had never seen a wig before, I dare say.

_Hunter._ The arms of Indians, offensive and defensive, are, for the most part, those which I have mentioned--the club, the tomahawk, the bow and arrow, the spear, the shield and the scalping-knife. But the use of fire-arms is gradually extending among them. Some of their clubs are merely massy pieces of hard, heavy wood, nicely fitted to the hand, with, perhaps, a piece of hard bone stuck in the head part; others are curiously carved into fanciful and uncouth shapes; while, occasionally, may be seen a frightful war-club, knobbed all over with brass nails, with a steel blade at the end of it, a span long.

_Austin._ What a terrible weapon, when wielded by a savage!

_Brian._ I would not go among the Indians, with their clubs and tomahawks, for a thousand dollars.

_Basil._ Nor would I: they would be sure to kill me.

_Hunter._ The tomahawk is often carved in a strange manner; and some of the bows and arrows are admirable. The bow formed of bone and strong sinews is a deadly weapon; and some Indians have boasted of having sent an arrow from its strings right through the body of a buffalo.

_Austin._ What a strong arm that Indian must have had! Through a buffalo's body!

_Hunter._ The quiver is made of the skin of the panther, or the otter; and some of the arrows it contains are usually poisoned.

_Brian._ Why, then, an arrow is sure to kill a person, if it hits him.

_Hunter._ It is not likely that an enemy, badly wounded with a poisoned arrow, will survive; for the head is set on loosely, in order that, when the arrow is withdrawn, the poisoned barb may remain in the wound. How opposed are these cruel stratagems of war to the precepts of the gospel of peace, which are "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you!"

_Basil._ What will you do, Austin, if you go among the Indians, and they shoot you with a poisoned arrow?

_Austin._ Oh, I shall carry a shield. You heard that the Indians carry shields.

_Hunter._ The shields of the Crows and Blackfeet are made of the thick skin of the buffalo's neck: they are made as hard as possible, by smoking them, and by putting glue upon them obtained from the hoofs of animals; so that they will not only turn aside an arrow, but even a musket ball, if they are held a little obliquely.

_Austin._ There, Basil! You see that I shall be safe, after all; for I shall carry a large shield, and the very hardest I can get anywhere.

_Hunter._ Their spears have long, slender handles, with steel heads: the handles are a dozen feet long, or more, and very skilful are they in the use of them; and yet, such is the dread of the Indian when opposed to a white man, that, in spite of his war horse and his eagle plumes, his bow and well-filled quiver, his long lance, tomahawk and scalping-knife, his self-possession forsakes him. He has heard, if not seen, what the white man has done; and he thinks there is no standing before him. If he can surprise him, he will; but, generally, the red man fears to grapple with a pale face in the strife of war, for he considers him clothed with an unknown power.

_Austin._ I should have thought that an Indian would be more than a match for a white man.

_Hunter._ So long as he can crawl in the grass or brushwood, and steal silently upon him by surprise, or send a shaft from his bow from behind a tree, or a bullet from his rifle from the brow of a bluff, he has an advantage; but, when he comes face to face with the white man, he is superstitiously afraid of him. The power of the white man, in war, is that of bravery and skill; the power of the red man consists much in stratagem and surprise. Fifty white men, armed, on an open plain, would beat off a hundred red men.

_Brian._ Why is it that the red men are always fighting against one another? They are all brothers, and what is the use of their killing one another?

_Hunter._ Most of the battles, among the Indians, are brought about by the belief that they are bound to revenge an injury to their tribe. There can be no peace till revenge is taken; they are almost always retaliating one on another. Then, again, the red men have too often been tempted, bribed, and, in some cases, forced to fight for the white man.

_Brian._ That is very sad, though.

_Hunter._ It is sad; but when you say red men are brothers, are not white men brothers too? And have they not been instructed in the truths of Christianity, and the gospel of peace, which red men have not, and yet how ready they are to draw the sword! War springs from sinful passions; and until sin is subdued in the human heart, war will ever be congenial to it.

_Austin._ What do the Indians call the sun?

_Hunter._ The different tribes speak different languages, and therefore you must tell me which of them you mean.

_Austin._ Oh! I forgot that. Tell me what any two or three of the tribes call it.

_Hunter._ A Sioux calls it _wee_; a Mandan, _menahka_; a Tuscarora, _hiday_; and a Blackfoot, _cristeque ahtose_.

_Austin._ The Blackfoot is the hardest to remember. I should not like to learn that language.

_Brian._ But you must learn it, if you go among them; or else you will not understand a word they say.

_Austin._ Well! I shall manage it somehow or other. Perhaps some of them may know English; or we may make motions one to another. What do they call the moon?

_Hunter._ A Blackfoot calls it _coque ahtose_; a Sioux, _on wee_; a Riccaree, _wetah_; a Mandan, _esto menahka_; and a Tuscarora, _autsunyehaw_.

_Brian._ I wish you joy of the languages you have to learn, Austin, if you become a wood-ranger, or a trapper. Remember, you must learn them all; and you will have quite enough to do, I warrant you.

_Austin._ Oh! I shall learn a little at a time. We cannot do every thing at once. What do the red men call a buffalo?

_Hunter._ In Riccaree, it is _watash_; in Mandan, _ptemday_; in Tuscarora, _hohats_; in Blackfoot, _eneuh_.

_Basil._ What different names they give them!

_Hunter._ Yes. In some instances they are alike, but generally they differ. If you were to say "How do you do?" as is the custom with us; you must say among the Indians, _How ke che wa?_ _Chee na e num?_ _Dati youthay its?_ or, _Tush hah thah mah kah hush?_ according to the language in which you spoke. I hardly think these languages would suit you so well as your own.

_Brian._ They would never suit me; but Austin must learn every word of them.

_Austin._ Please to tell us how to count ten, and then we will ask you no more about languages. Let it be in the language of the Riccarees.

_Hunter._ Very well. _Asco, pitco, tow wit, tchee tish, tchee hoo, tcha pis, to tcha pis, to tcha pis won, nah e ne won, nah en._ I will just add, that _weetah_, is twenty; _nahen tchee hoo_, is fifty; _nah en te tcha pis won_, is eighty; _shok tan_, is a hundred; and _sho tan tera hoo_, is a thousand.

_Austin._ Can the Indians write?

_Hunter._ Oh no; they have no use for pen and ink, excepting some of the tribes near the whites. In many of the different treaties which have been made between the white and the red man, the latter has put, instead of his name, a rough drawing of the animal or thing after which he had been called. If the Indian chief was named "War hatchet," he made a rough outline of a tomahawk. If his name was "The great buffalo" then the outline of a buffalo was his signature.

_Basil._ How curious!

_Hunter._ The _Big turtle_, the _Fish_, the _Scalp_, the _Arrow_, and the _Big canoe_, all draw the form represented by their names in the same manner. If you were to see these signatures, you would not think these Indian chiefs had ever taken lessons in drawing.

_Brian._ I dare say their fish, and arrows, and hatchets, and turtles, and buffaloes, are comical figures enough.

_Hunter._ Yes: but the hands that make these feeble scrawls are strong, when they wield the bow or the tomahawk. A white man in the Indian country, according to a story that is told, met a Shawnese riding a horse, which he recognised as his own, and claimed it as his property. The Indian calmly answered: "Friend, after a little while I will call on you at your house, when we will talk this matter over." A few days afterwards, the Indian came to the white man's house, who insisted on having his horse restored to him. The other then told him: "Friend, the horse which you claim belonged to my uncle, who lately died; according to the Indian custom, I have become heir to all his property." The white man not being satisfied, and renewing his demand, the Indian immediately took a coal from the fire-place, and made two striking figures on the door of the house; the one representing the white man taking the horse, and the other himself in the act of scalping him: then he coolly asked the trembling claimant whether he could read this Indian writing. The matter was thus settled at once, and the Indian rode off.

_Austin._ Ay; the white man knew that he had better give up the horse than be scalped.

After the hunter had told Austin and his brothers that he should be sure to have something new to tell them on their next visit, they took their departure, having quite enough to occupy their minds till they reached home.