CHAPTER XXVI

STRANGE SIGHTS

"DICK, he looks as if he was bringing us bad news!" exclaimed Roger, quickly. "Oh! I hope nothing has happened to Jasper Williams! What if he should be dead! All our long journey would be for nothing; and we would not be able to save the homestead property after all."

"Hold on," said Dick, laying a hand on his cousin's arm. "I hardly think it can be as bad as that. At the worst I think we'll learn that he has gone out again to scout around. They say he can't keep quiet for an hour; I guess he's built on the same plan as you are, Roger. But here's the captain."

"Too bad, my lads," observed Captain Lewis, as he came up to them; "but your patience will have to hold out a few more days, it seems."

"Jasper Williams--is he away, then?" asked Roger.

"Yes," answered the commander, "he did not expect us to get up here so soon, it seems; and, only three days ago, started out on another wide detour, to find what the hostile Sioux were doing; for we've had more or less trouble with them at times. He may not be back for a week or so."

"Of course we're disappointed," said Dick, bravely hiding his chagrin, "but I guess we'll have to stand it, and wait for him to come in."

"There may be some way of reaching him and letting him know that we are here in the Mandan village, where we have met with a warm welcome," the captain went on.

"In what way, may I ask, sir?" questioned Dick, eagerly.

"I understand that Williams left word with our friend, the Mandan chief here, that he would swing around in a few days to a certain salt-lick; and that, if the other wished to send him out any word, he could have a brave meet him there."

"Oh! perhaps we might go with that messenger!" exclaimed Roger, immediately.

"It might be so arranged, I suppose," the captain observed, smiling at the eagerness exhibited by the boy, which he could easily understand. These lads had quite won his heart in the days they had spent with the explorers.

"When would he be going out to find Jasper Williams?" asked Dick, himself just as anxious as Roger, to hasten the meeting with the man who held the fate of their homes in his hand.

"Some time to-morrow, the chief promised me," came the reply.

"And is this salt-lick far away from here?" continued Dick; not that he and his cousin were anxious to set eyes on it, except that it marked the meeting-place with the scout, for they knew what a salt-lick was like, and had often heard their fathers tell of the wild animals they used to shoot, far back in Kentucky and Ohio, when they came to partake of the much-prized salt to be found at one of these places. (Note 6.)

"Not more than a day's journey, I understand, so that you could easily get to it before night, if you started early," Captain Lewis went on. "We will in all probability remain where we are for a long time, perhaps throughout the winter, so that all these matters can be easily arranged; only I appreciate how anxious you must be to find Williams. Please yourselves, my lads; I am ready to do almost anything for you."

"And we can never forget that, sir," replied Roger, as he gave the other a look of affection; for, during the time they had been in the society of Captain Meriwether Lewis, they had come to admire him more than almost any man they had ever met.

While they continued to wander around the great Mandan village, and observe the many strange things to be seen there, they felt a sort of impatience for the morrow to come, in order that they might hunt for Jasper Williams.

The warriors had taken their cue from the friendly attitude of their chief, and were disposed to welcome the palefaces who had come from the far distant Land of the Rising Sun.

As for the squaws and younger element, they followed the boys around wherever they went, observing their guns, their clothes, and even their powder-horns, with the deepest interest, as though they had never before set eyes on such wonders.

Several of the boldest Indian lads were disposed to be friendly, and make advances, though they knew not a word of English; but then, signs can go a great way, especially among youngsters, and it was not long before both pioneer boys felt as if they had made good friends of these dark-faced Mandans. The bestowal of a few little trinkets, with which they had provided themselves, caused the most remarkable exhibition of interest. After that the crowds following them grew larger than ever.

Hearing that the wonderful medicine-man of the tribe had been chasing away the Evil Spirit that was making a fever come upon a sick man, the white boys expressed a desire to see him, and, when their new friends understood this, they led the way to his lodge, which was apart from all the others.

Here he came, after a bit, the queerest figure either of the white boys had ever seen in all their lives. (Note 7.)

He paused long enough to gravely extend a skinny hand to each of the boys, and utter the one word he knew of English, just as Indians of to-day repeat it:

"How?"

Then, as if not wishing to remain on exhibition longer, he shook himself so that the little shells, rattlesnake rattles, dried gourds filled with pebbles, and other articles attached to his person gave forth, every variety of quaint sound, and vanished within his teepee.

The boys could hardly keep from laughing aloud, the old magician looked so ridiculous in his make-up as a "doctor," who could chase away the spell cast about a sick person by the Evil Spirit, and by some "hocus-pocus," as Roger called it, such as lying on the invalid, breathing into his nostrils, droning a singsong tune like nothing ever heard before by the ears of white men, and many other silly practices.

As they came near the village the boys had noticed that in a wood on a little mound there were numerous strange bundles, done up in dried buffalo hides, and tied with leather thongs, reposing on elevated platforms, which they could not make out at all. Fields told them, however, that this was the burial-place of the tribe; and he even pointed to various earthen vessels that were filled with food of a certain kind, resembling succotash. This, he stated, the Mandans believed was necessary, when members of the tribe had recently died, because they would need some sort of nourishment while on their long journey to the Happy Hunting Grounds.

"During the night," Fields told them, "of course the hungry wild animals can creep up, and clean out these bowls. The Indians must know this, but they prefer to delude themselves with the idea that the spirit of the dead person has come in the night, and eaten the offering."

Being deeply interested, the two boys made a close inspection of the place. In the open center of the burial-place were many skulls formed in a circle, all facing inward.

"What can they do that for?" asked Roger, who was hardly able to repress a shudder at the grim sight.

"I asked Fields, and he told me that, after the platforms break down, the skulls of the dead persons are preserved, and placed here. Although in life, perhaps, the brave has beaten his squaw many times, after he is gone she can be found here every day, talking to this poor old reminder of his presence on earth. Yes, he said she would caress it, even if, when the brave was alive, he had nothing but blows for her."

"Well, they are a queer lot," Roger confessed, "and I suppose whites never could understand them. Ugh! let's get away from here, Dick. We ought to find something more cheerful to look at than this graveyard of mummies." (Note 8.)

"I'm wondering why they have so many yellow dogs around," Dick remarked; "but then, all Indians like baked dog; and Fields says they serve them up on any special occasion when they give a great feast. You know they have no regular time for eating, like white people, but wait till they're real hungry, and then just fill up till they look as if they would burst."

"Why, yes," Roger went on to say, "Pat O'Mara used to tell about Indians who would go hungry for three days, just to get their appetite good and gnawing, and then start in and eat for two hours. I don't think that would suit me."

Tiring at length of peering around among the painted lodges, and seeing the queer sights with which the Indian village seemed to be filled--queer to their eyes, although perfectly natural to the dusky natives who knew no other way of living--the boys finally rejoined the rest of the party.

Captain Lewis was only making a temporary camp as yet, and sticking by his boats. He believed that the Mandans meant to be the best of friends to his little force; still, many of the frontiersmen had but a poor opinion of all redmen, and made him not trust any one with Indian blood in his veins. When he came to know the old chief better, and they could feel perfectly safe, then it would be time to locate a permanent camp for the winter. And, yet, they would never cease to keep themselves in constant readiness, so that a surprise and a massacre might not come about.

Of course, having made up their minds to go forth on the following morning, when a messenger was to start for the distant salt-lick, Dick and his cousin could think of little else. Again and again that evening they would turn away from the conversation that was general around one of the fires to talk it over, and agree as to what they should carry with them.

"Captain Lewis said that the warrior would start an hour after daylight; so we must be up early, and get our breakfast," Dick remarked.

"Shall we carry our blankets, and some food, besides our guns?" asked Roger.

"I don't think that necessary, as we expect to spend only one night, or a couple at most, at the lick," Dick replied. "Perhaps it would be only proper if we carried some pemmican along. And, should the chance come, we might shoot an antelope, or a buffalo, and get plenty of fresh meat. The brave will be only too glad to show us where one can be found, if only to hear the thunder of the 'talking-sticks.'"

"How can we sleep when all this noise is going on?" asked Roger, referring to the shouting of brown-faced pappooses, barking of dogs, and loud voices of the squaws as they jabbered among themselves, not being allowed to join in with the warriors, who were mingling freely with the soldiers and hunters of the expedition.

"Oh! it'll quiet down after a while," Dick replied, laughingly. "They cannot keep it up much longer. And by the time you're ready to turn in, I promise you it'll all be as silent as a church between meeting-days."

And somehow Dick turned out to be a good prophet, for an hour later it seemed as though even the yellow curs that went slinking about the village had been warned that the time for making a racket was passed; for they seldom gave tongue, except to bay the moon occasionally; and then some brave was apt to slip out of a lodge, and hurl a stone at the offender.

"Listen!" said Dick, as he and his cousin were getting ready to crawl under their blankets, tired, and ready for sleep.

"I hear what you mean, Dick, and it is a sure enough wolf, too. I've listened to too many of them not to know the sound."

"And it is over in the direction of that place where all the platforms are standing, or tumbling down, you know, Roger," pursued the other.

"Yes, showing that the wolves, coyotes, and foxes must find a regular treat out there every night, in the bowls meant for the spirits of the dead braves. How silly it all seems, Dick!"

"To us, yes; but it's all right for these Indians. And, Roger, if some of them went to the towns and cities of the palefaces, don't you think they'd look on lots of things the white people do, and believe them just as foolish? It depends on which way you've been brought up. Father says that what's food for one man is poison to another."

"I guess that's right," Roger replied; and that finished the talk, for with the far-away, mournful howl of that gray wolf still sounding in their ears at intervals, the two lads fell asleep.

They were up before daylight, and got some breakfast ready, because word had been received from the Mandan chief the night before that the brave, who was to be Captain Lewis's messenger, would be ready to start at exactly an hour after dawn, while the sun was still peeping above the horizon; and they did not wish to delay his departure if they could help it.

Captain Lewis even arose before there was any necessity for his appearance, just to shake the boys by the hand, and wish them the best of good luck.

"Here is the brave who is going to take you to the salt-lick," he remarked, as a Mandan warrior came up, carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows, as well as a small pouch made of fine otter skin, in which he kept his paints and other essentials that went with the office of a messenger brave. "I have given him to understand that he will be held accountable for your safety; and, when you both come back unharmed, he is to receive several handsome presents. His name stands for the Wolf That Howls in the Night; but you can just know him as the Wolf. And now, good-by to you both. We shall be glad when you come back with Williams."

The valiant explorer shook them warmly by the hand; then, as the Indian glided silently away, the boys followed in his wake, filled with fresh hopes that both sincerely trusted might not be doomed to disappointment.