The Pilgrims of New England - Mrs. J. B. Webb
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Henrich did not reply; he had no comfort to offer. But they both gazed
towards the village, as if hoping to discover, through the impervious
wood that surrounded it, some indications of what was going on in those
'habitations of cruelty.'
Soon a dense cloud of smoke rose high in the still at; and flames shot
up above the intervening trees. And then burst forth a mingled din of
wild unearthly sounds, that told of sated vengeance, and malignant joy,
and demoniac worship. Fiercely the war cry of the Crees rang in the
air, while above it rose the shrill sound of clashing spears and
tomahawks; and Oriana knew that the savages were dancing round a death-
fire, and calling on Mahneto to accept their bloody offering.
But now the threatening storm broke suddenly on that dark place of the
earth; and it seemed to Oriana's troubled spirit that the wrath of
heaven was poured upon her benighted race. Peal after peal resounded in
quick succession, and reverberated from the distant kills; while
flashes of forked lightning followed one another rapidly, and
dispelled, for a moment, the unnatural darkness. The young Indian clung
trembling and terrified to her companion, and hid her face on his
shoulder, to shut out the fearful scene, while Henrich spoke to her
words of comfort and encouragement, and at length succeeded in calming
her agitation. The rain poured down in torrents but so dense was the
foliage that hung over Oriana and her companion that it could not
penetrate their place of refuge; and they remained awaiting its
cessation, and watching the curling smoke, that seemed to die away as
the falling torrent extinguished the fire. But as it disappeared,
another cloud arose near the same spot; and wider and fiercer flames
sprang up, that defied the rain, and continued to burn with more and
more strength. Whence could they arise? Surely the wigwams were on
fire!
Henrich communicated this fear to Oriana, and they arose and hurried
together towards the village, where an appalling scene met their eyes.
In front of Terah's dwelling were the smoldering remains of the
sacrificial fire, on which--still upheld by the stake to which he had
been bound--the burnt and, blackened form of a man was visible; while
close by the ashes lay a woman, so motionless that she seemed as
totally deprived of life as the wretched victim himself, and a child
was reclining on her shoulder, whose faint wailing cry showed that it
yet lived and suffered.
None heeded the melancholy group; for the warriors, whose wild songs
and frantic dances had been interrupted by the sudden violence of the
storm, were all now engaged in fruitless efforts to extinguish the
flames that were rapidly consuming the lodge of Terah. The lightning
had struck it, and ignited its roof of reeds; and so rapidly had the
whole dwelling become a prey to the dreadful element, that even the
removal of the dying sage had been despaired of. But Jyanough, who had
been a silent spectator of all the previous scene of cruelty, was not
to be daunted by the smoke and flame that burst through the entrance,
and drove from the chamber of death all the attendants of the sufferer.
Boldly he rushed into Terah's dwelling; and, just as Henrich and Oriana
entered the open space in front of it, they beheld him issuing forth,
blackened with smoke and scorched with fire, and bending beneath the
weight of his uncle's corpse.
Yes; Terah was already a corpse! All the charms and incantations of
the Powows bad failed to banish the disease that was sent to summon him
away. All the treasure that had been destroyed, and the precious life-
blood that had been spilled to propitiate false deities, could not for
one moment arrest the fiat of the true 'Master of life,' or detain the
spirit which was recalled by 'Him who gave it' That spirit had passed
away amidst the noise of the tempest; and when Henrich sprang forward,
and assisted his friend to lay the body gently on the earth, they saw
that the spark of life had fled!
All further attempts at extinguishing the fire were now abandoned; and
the Crees gathered round their departed friend to condole with
Jyanough, who was his nearest relative, and to commence that dismal
howling by which they express their grief on such occasions. All the
property of the dead man was already consumed; but the best mats and
skins that Jyanough's wigwam contained were brought to wrap the corpse
in; and when the site of his former dwelling could be cleared of ashes
and rubbish, a grave was speedily dug in the center of it, and the,
body laid by the simple sepulchre, around which the friends of the
venerated Pince seated themselves, and howled, and wept, and detailed
the virtues and the wisdom of the dead.
Jyanough was expected to act the part of chief mourner in these
ceremonies; and the real affection he had entertained for his uncle
induced him to comply, and to remain all that day, and all the
following night, at the grate. But he refused to cover his face with
soot--as is customary on such occasions of domestic sorrow--or to join
the Powows in their frantic cries and exorcisms, to drive off the
Weettakos from sucking the dead man's blood. The presence of Henrich
seemed to annoy and irritate these priests of Satan; and he was glad to
retire from a scene so repugnant to his better feelings, and to return
to Oriana, by whose care and direction the unhappy Mailah and her
infant had been promptly removed from the place of death and
desolation, and conveyed to her own apartment in Tisquantum's lodge.
Her kind efforts had restored the poor young widow to consciousness;
and she now sat on the floor, with her child on her knee, listening
with a calmness that almost seemed apathy, to the words of comfort that
were uttered by the gentle Squaw-Sachem.
Mailah was very young. Scarcely sixteen summers had passed over her
head; and yet--such is Indian life--she had already been a wife and a
mother; and now, alas! she was a widow. Her grief had been passionate
at the last, and had burst forth in that one wild cry that had startled
Oriana's ear in the forest. But that was over now, and she seemed
resigned to her hard fate, and willing to endure it. Perhaps this was
for her infant's sake; and, perhaps, her sensibilities were blunted by
the life she had led, in common with the rest of her race and sex--a
life in which the best feelings and sympathies of our nature are almost
unknown. It was not until Oriana led her to speak of her past life, and
the home of her youth--now desolate and in ruins--that tears of natural
grief flowed from her eyes. Then she seemed roused to a full sense of
all she had lost, end broke out into mournful lamentations for her
murdered Lincoya, whose noble qualities and high lineage she eloquently
extolled; while she sadly contrasted her present lonely and desolate
position with her happiness as the squaw of so distinguished a warrior,
and so successful a hunter.
Oriana said all she could to console her; and assured her of her
protection and friendship, and of a home in her lodge when they
returned to their own country, where she should live as her sister, and
bring up her little Lincoya to emulate his father's courage and
virtues: and, ere long, the simple young savage again grew calm, said
lifted up her soft black eyes, and smiled gratefully at her new friend
and benefactor. She said she bad no wish to return to her own tribe,
for all her family and friends had been destroyed in the recent
massacre; and the village where she had spent such happy days was
reduced to ashes. She, therefore, was well content to remain with the
youthful Squaw-Sachem, to whose intercession she knew she owed her own
life and that of her child, and in whose service she professed her
willingness to live and die.
Her manner and appearance greatly interested Henrich, for they were
marked by much greater refinement than he had seen in any of the Indian
females, except Oriana. This was to be accounted for by her noble
birth; for in those days the Indian chieftains prided themselves on the
purity and nobility of their lineage; and no member of a Sachem's
family was allowed to marry one of an inferior race. A certain air of
dignity generally distinguished the privileged class, even among the
females; although their lives were not exempt from much of hardship and
servitude, and they were regarded as altogether the inferiors of their
lords and masters.
To Oriana the arrival of the young mother and her playful child was a
source of much pleasure and comfort; for she had begun to feel the want
of female society, and the women who accompanied Tisquantum's party,
and assisted her in the domestic duties of the family, were no
companions to her. In Mailah she saw that she could find a friend; and
her kindness and sympathy soon attached the lonely young squaw to her,
and even restored her to cheerfulness and activity. It was only when
she visited the grave in which Henrich and Jyanough had laid the
murdered Lincoya, and decked it with flowers and green boughs, that the
widow seemed to feel the greatness of her affliction. Then she would
weep bitterly, and, with passionate gestures, lament her brave warrior.
But, at other times, she was fully occupied with the care of her little
Lincoya, or in assisting Oriana in the light household duties that
devolved upon her. And her sweet voice was often heard singing to the
child, which generally hung at her back, nestled in its soft bed of
moss.
CHAPTER X.
'The noble courser broke away.
And bounded o'er the plain?
The desert echoed to his tread,
As high he toss'd his graceful head,
And shook his flowing name.
King of the Western deserts! Thou
Art still untam'd and free!
Ne'er shall that crest he forced to bow
Beneath the yoke of drudgery low:
But still in freedom shalt thou roam
The boundless fields that form thy home
Thy native Prairie!' ANON.
The camp of the Indian hunters looked cheerful and picturesque, as
Oriana and Mailah approached it one evening on their return from a
ramble in the forest, where they had been to seek the wild fruits that
now abounded there, and paused at the skirt of the wood, to admire the
scene before them. The proposed hunting-ground had been reached the
preceding day, and already the temporary huts were completed, and the
tents of the Sachem pitched beneath a grove of lofty oaks and walnuts,
free from underwood, and on the border of a clear and rippling stream.
The Nausett and Pequodee hunters had purchased a considerable number of
horses from their Cree friends; and, therefore, the journey from
Chingook's village to the prairie, in which the encampment now stood,
had been performed with much ease and expedition; and the hardy animals
were so little fatigued by their march through the forest, that several
of the younger Indians had mounted again the morning after their
arrival, and gone off on a reconnoitering expedition, to discover what
prospect there was of finding much game in that neighborhood.
Henrich--proud and happy in the possession of a spirited horse, with
which Tisquantum had presented him--insisted on being one of the party;
end he was accompanied, also, by Jyanough, who had left his native
village, now rendered sad and gloomy in his eyes, to follow his white
friend, and share his society at least for a time. This arrangement
gave Henrich the greatest satisfaction for the young Cree was the only
Indian of his own sex in whom he had been able to find a companion, or
who had peculiarly attached himself to the stranger: and the more he
saw of Jyanough the more he found in him to win his esteem and
friendship.
Oriana and Mailah seated themselves on the luxuriant grass to rest; and
the young Indian mother removed her child from the strange cradle in
which she always carried it, and laid it on her knees; and then, after
gazing at it for a few moments, she began to sing a wild, sweet song,
to hush it to sleep. In a soft, monotonous cadence, she sang the sad
story of its little life--its birth--its captivity--and the death of
its murdered father, whom she exhorted it to imitate, and live to equal
in courage and in skill. And thus she sang:
'Child of the slain Lincoya, sleep In peace! Thy mother wakes to guard
thee. But where is he whose smile once fell on thee as sunshine--thy
father, Lincoya? He is gone to the far distant hunting-grounds and
there, again, he casts the spear; and there he draws the unerring bow;
and there he quaffs the cup of immortality, with the spirits of the
good and brave. O Lincoya! thy voice was to me as a sweet song, or as
the summer breeze among the tall cypress trees--why didst thou leave
me? Thy step was swift and graceful as the roe upon the mountains--why
didst thou leave me? But I will follow thee, my warrior, The death-bird
has called me, and I come to thee! Thy child shall live; for Mahneto
has given him friends and a home. He shall grow up like thee, and
Oriana shill be o mother to him when I am gone: and the blue-eyed
stranger, whom she loves as I loved thee, shall guide his hand in war,
and in the chase. Lincoya! I come to thee!'
Oriana listened to the mournful chant of the young widow with much
interest and sympathy; but when she spoke of her love for her white
brother, in terms so new and strange, she almost felt offended. She
did not, however, remark on her friend's allusion to herself, but
turned the discourse to Mailah's sad prophecy of her own early death,
which she knew could only be grounded on one of the wild superstitions
of her race.
'Why do you talk of dying, Mailah?' she asked. 'You are young and
strong; and you may again be happy. Why do you say you will leave your
child, and go to the land of spirits?'
'The death-bird[*] called to me last night, as I sat at the open door
of the hut, and looked at the moon, and thought how its soft light was
guiding my Lincoya on long, long, journey, to the everlasting hunting
fields of his fathers. Cheepai-Peethees called me twice from the tree
that hung over the lodge; but when I called to it again, and whistled
clearly, it made no answer. I heard it the day before the Crees
destroyed our village. It called my husband then, and would not answer
him; and in two days he was slain. The death-bird is never mistaken.'
[Footnote: A small owl called _Cheepai-Peethees,_ or the _death-bird,_
which the Indians attach the superstition here alluded to, and believe,
if it does not answer to their whistle, it denotes their speedy death.]
'O, Mailah!' replied the young Christian squaw, 'say not so. Surely it
is not thus that the great Mahneto calls His children to come to Him.
Once I believed all these Indian stories; but now I know that they are
false and vain. I know that our lives, and all things that befall us,
are in the hands of the wise and good God--the Mahneto of the
Christians and of the red men too. And now I have no fear of any of
those strange sounds that used to make me sad, and terrify me with
thoughts of coming evil. I most teach you to believe as I do now: or,
rather, my _white brother_ shall teach you; for he knows the words of
Mahneto himself. See, Mailah! There my brother comes--let us go to meet
him.'
A flush of joy mounted to the clear olive cheek of Oriana as she said
these words, and she sprang to her feet with the lightness of a fawn.
Mailah rose more gently, and replacing her infant in the pouch, slung
it over her shoulder, and followed her friend, softly whispering in her
ear, 'The white stranger is your Lincoya.'
The Indian beauty smiled, and blushed more deeply: but she did not
bound across the glade to meet Henrich as she had purposed doing. She
drew her slender figure to its full height, and stood still; and as
Henrich galloped across the green meadow, and alighted, full of
animation, to tell her of his success in his first essay at hunting the
elk, he wondered why she greeted him so coldly.
The fact was that Oriana was beginning to find that the blue-eyed
stranger possessed even more interest in her eyes than she had ever
felt for her own dark brother, Tekon; and when Mailah had openly
alluded to this sentiment--which she thought unknown to all but
herself--her natural and instinctive delicacy was wounded. But the
feeling quickly wore away; and as Henrich and Jyanough detailed the
exciting sports of the day, she forgot all but the pleasure of
listening to his voice, and gazing at his fine countenance and bright
sweet smile. She was happy; and she though not of the future.
And Henrich was happy, too. He had now found companions whom he could
love; and the life of the Indian hunters was all that he had ever
pictured to himself of freedom and adventure. The beauty of the
scenery--the clearness of the sky--and the glow of health and
excitement that animated his whole frame when he joined in the chase
with his savage friends, were all so entirely different to the life he
had led in damp and foggy Holland, that it was no wonder he enjoyed it,
and that his youthful spirits enabled him to subdue the oft-recurring
grief that he felt at each remembrance of his family and his home. Hope
was strong in his breast; and he trusted once again to meet all whom he
loved so dearly: and the present was so bright and inspiring that he
could not desire to change it yet.
For many weeks the camp remained pitched in the same lovely situation;
and the time of the hunters was fully occupied in the discovery and
pursuit of the various wild animals that abounded in the uncultivated,
but richly verdant, prairie. Of these, the elk and the buffalo were the
most common victims to the spears and arrows of the Indians; and every
evening large quantities of meat were brought into the camp, and given
to the care of the squaws to dry and cure for winter consumption. These
larger animals were too heavy to be transported whole to the huts; end
therefore the hunters always skinned them and cut off the flesh where
they fell, and left the carcasses to the wolves and the birds of prey
that were ever ready at hand. But the smaller animals, and the wild
turkeys and other birds, that were killed in great numbers, were
brought in and thrown down by the blazing camp fires, that lighted up
the glade every night, and were speedily prepared and cooked for the
supper of the hungry hunters.
As the leader of the expedition, Tisquantum was always presented with
the choicest of the game; and it was Oriana's task to superintend the
curing of the elk and buffalo meat, and the cooking that was required
for her father's lodge. In all these household cares she was greatly
assisted by Mailah, who was both active and skilful in all the duties
of an Indian squaw: and eager also to evince her gratitude for the
kindness and protection that were afforded to herself and her child by
the Nausett Chief, by doing all that she could to lighten Oriana's
labors. Time and occupation did not fail to have their usual effect on
one so young, and naturally so light-hearted as Mailah; and animated
cheerfulness took the place of the mournful expression that had
hitherto so frequently sat on her countenance. She did not forget
Lincoya; but she forgot the call of the death-bird: and when she sang
her child to sleep, it was no longer with the same sad cadence as at
first. Sorrow could not strike very deep, or abide very long in the
heart of a being so gay, and with a mind and feelings so utterly
uncultivated as those of the young Stone Indian. Neither could she live
so much in the society of the white stranger, and his two chosen
companions, without imbibing something of their intelligence, and
becoming sensible of their superiority of mind to all others with whom
she had ever associated: and she grew more and more attached to them,
and learnt to regret less the friends and companions among whom her
youth had been spent.
She was a high-spirited and courageous creature: she would have
followed her husband unhesitatingly to death, had she been called on to
do so; or she would have died to save him, if her life could have
availed to purchase his. But now that he was gone, and she could not
even weep over his grave, and deck it with flowers and gifts, her
lively spirit rose again, and led her to seek amusement and occupation
in everything within her reach.
The accounts which Henrich and Jyanough continually gave to her and
Oriana of their exciting adventures in the prairie, had aroused in both
of them a strong desire to be spectators of the sport; and they sought
and obtained Tisquantum's permission to accompany the hunters one
morning to the buffalo ground that lay nearest to the camp, and there
to witness the pursuit and capture of some of those magnificent
animals.
A short ride through the forest brought the party out upon a vast and
glorious prairie, on which the rich autumnal sun was shining in all his
strength. On a rising ground that partially overlooked the plain,
Oriana and her companion took up their position, beneath the shade of a
grove of pines; and they watched the hunters as they examined the foot-
prints on the dewy turf, or followed the tracks of the elks and
buffaloes through the long prairie-grass, in order to make their
arrangements for enclosing the game and driving the animals into an
open and central situation.
In the course of this examination, the recent tracks of a number of
wild horses were discovered, and fresh excitement was felt by the whole
party, for all were desirous to attempt the capture of these most
valuable animals; and they resolved, on this occasion, to make them the
chief objects of their pursuit. A ring was, therefore, formed by the
numerous company of horsemen, enclosing a very large space of the
beautiful park-like ground, which was studded with trees, either single
or in groups; while underneath them, in the distance, could be seen
many buffaloes lying down or grazing. The scene had the appearance of
a wide extent of finely-cultivated pasture, ornamented with timber of
every kind; end it forcibly recalled to Henrich's memory the fields and
the cattle that had surrounded his European home. But the size of the
trees, the extent of the natural meadow, and, above all, the wild
aspect of the red hunters with their spears, and bows, and tomahawks,
soon destroyed the fancied resemblance; while the eagerness and
excitement of the novel sport banished all the sad recollections to
which it had given rise. A desire also to distinguish himself in the
presence of Oriana, and show her that a pale-face could equal her own
dark race in courage and dexterity, inspired him with peculiar ardor;
and he galloped to the station appointed him by Tisquantum, with a
heart that bounded with pride and pleasure.
The hunters were each provided with a long coil of grass rope, with a
noose at the end--now called a _lariat_ or _lasso_--used by the Indians
for casting over the horns of the elks and buffaloes, or the necks of
the wild horses, that they desired to capture. These they carried in
such a manner as to be ready to throw them off in an instant to their
whole length, if necessary; but much practice is required to do this
with precision, and Henrich did not yet hope for success in the
difficult art. His only chance of capturing a wild courser lay in his
skill in casting the spear, which might enable him to pierce the animal
through the upper part of the neck, and thus produce a temporary
insensibility, during which time he might be secured without any
permanent injury. This also requires great precision and address; but
Henrich had become an adept in the use of the light lance, and he felt
sanguine of success if the opportunity should he afforded him.
The string of horsemen slowly and warily drew in towards the open spot
that was intended to be the scene of their operations, and of which
Oriana and Mailah had a good view from their safe and elevated
position; and soon a troop of wild horses were disturbed by one of the
hunters, and burst forth from a thick grove of trees that had
previously concealed them. They rushed madly over the plain, mingling
with the affrighted buffaloes and American deer, that had not hitherto
perceived the stealthy approach of their foes. At every point where
they attempted to escape from the enclosure they were met by a mounted
huntsman, and were driven back, with shouts and cries, towards the
center. All other game was now forgotten; and each hunter singled out,
for his own object of pursuit, the steed that pleased him best, and of
which he thought he could most easily gain possession. But one there
was--the leader of the troop--on which many eyes were fixed with eager
desire. He was a noble creature, of perfect form and proportions; and
as he pranced before his companions, with neck erect, and throwing his
head from side to side, as if to reconnoiter his assailants--while his
mane and tail floated in the breeze, and his glossy coal-black skin
gave back the rays of the morning sun--he looked like the King of the
Prairie, going forth in the pride of perfect freedom.