The American Indians Part 46

To satisfie the curious eye of women-readers, who otherwise might thinke their s.e.x forgotten, or not worthy a record, let them peruse these few lines, wherein they may see their owne happinesse, if weighed in the womans ballance of these ruder _Indians_, who scorne the tuterings of their wives, or to admit them as their equals, though their qualities and industrious deservings may justly claime the preheminence, and command better usage and more conjugall esteeme, their persons and features being every way correspondent, their qualifications more excellent, being more loving, pittifull, and modest, milde, provident, and laborious than their lazie husbands. Their employments be many: First their building of houses, whose frames are formed like our garden-arbours, something more round, very strong and handsome, covered with close-wrought mats of their owne weaving, which deny entrance to any drop of raine, though it come both fierce and long, neither can the piercing North winde, finde a crannie, through which he can conveigh his cooling breath, they be warmer than our _English_ houses; at the top is a square hole for the smoakes evacuation, which in rainy weather is covered with a pluver these bee such smoakie dwellings, that when there is good fires, they are not able to stand upright, but lie all along under the smoake, never using any stooles or chaires, it being as rare to see an _Indian_ sit on a stoole at home, as it is strange to see an _English_ man sit on his heels abroad. Their houses are smaller in the Summer, when their families be dispersed, by reason of heate and occasions. In Winter they make some fiftie or thereescore foote long, fortie or fiftie men being inmates under one roofe; and as is their husbands occasion these poore tectonists are often troubled like snailes, to carrie their houses on their backs sometimes to fis.h.i.+ng-places, other times to hunting places, after that to a planting-place, where it abides the longest: an other work is their planting of corne, wherein they exceede our _English_ husband-men, keeping it so cleare with their Clamme sh.e.l.l-hooes, as if it were a garden rather than a corne-field, not suffering a choaking weede to advance his audacious head above their infant corne, or an undermining worme to spoile his spurnes. Their corne being ripe, they gather it, and drying it hard in the Sunne, conveigh it to their barnes, which be great holes digged in the ground in forme of a bra.s.se pot, seeled with rinds of trees, wherein they put their corne, covering it from the inquisitive search of their gurmandizing husbands, who would eate up both their allowed portion, and reserved seede, if they knew where to finde it. But our hogges having found a way to unhindge their barne doores, and robbe their garners, they are glad to implore their husbands helpe to roule the bodies of trees over their holes, to prevent those pioners, whose theeverie they as much hate as their flesh. An other of their employments is their Summer processions to get Lobsters for their husbands, wherewith they baite their hookes when they goe a fis.h.i.+ng for Ba.s.se or Codfish. This is an every dayes walke, be the weather cold or hot, the waters rough or calme, they must dive sometimes over head and eares for a Lobster, which often shakes them by their hands with a churlish nippe, and bids them adiew. The tide being spent, they trudge home two or three miles, with a hundred weight of Lobsters at their backs, and if none, a hundred scoules meete them at home, and a hungry belly for two days after. Their husbands having caught any fish, they bring it in their boates as farre as they can by water, and there leave it; as it was their care to catch it, so it must be their wives paines to fetch it home, or fast: which done, they must dresse it and cooke it, dish it, and present it, see it eaten over their shoulders; and their loggers.h.i.+ps having filled their paunches, their sweete lullabies scramble for their sc.r.a.ppes. In the Summer these _Indian_ women when Lobsters be in their plenty and prime, they drie them to keepe for Winter, erecting scaffolds in the hot sun-s.h.i.+ne, making fires likewise underneath them, by whose smoake the flies are expelled, till the substance remains hard and drie. In this manner they drie Ba.s.se and other fishes without salt, cutting them very thinne to dry suddainely, before the flies spoile them, or the raine moist them, having a speciall care to hang them in their smoakie houses, in the night and dankish weather.

In Summer they gather flagges, of which they make Matts for houses, and Hempe and rushes, with dying stuffe of which they make curious baskets with intermixed colours and portractures of antique Imagerie: these baskets be of all sizes from a quart to a quarter, in which they carry their luggage. In winter time they are their husbunds Caterers, trudging to the Clamm bankes for their belly timber, and their Porters to lugge home their Venison which their lazinesse exposes to the Woolves till they impose it upon their wives shoulders. They likewise sew their husbands shooes, and weave coates of Turkie feathers, besides all their ordinary household drudgerie which daily lies upon them.

[Of the treatment of babes the writer says]: The young Infant being greased and sooted, wrapt in a beaver skin, bound to his good behaviour with his feete upon a board two foote long and one foote broade, his face exposed to all nipping weather; this little _Pappouse_ travells about with his bare footed mother to paddle in the ice Clammbanks after three or foure dayes of age have sealed his pa.s.seboard and his mothers recoverie. For their carriage it is very civill, smiles being the greatest grace of their mirth; their musick is lullabies to quiet their children, who generally are as quiet as if they had neither spleene or lungs. To hear one of these _Indians_ unseene, a good eare might easily mistake their untaught voyce for the warbling of a well tuned instrument. Such command have they of their voices.

Commendable is their milde carriage and obedience to their husbands, notwithstanding all this their customarie churlishnesse and salvage inhumanitie, not seeming to delight in frownes or offering to word it with their lords, not presuming to proclaime their female superiority to the usurping of the least t.i.tle of their husbands charter, but rest themselves content under their helplesse condition, counting it the womans portion: since the _English_ arrivall comparison hath made them miserable, for seeing the kind usage of the _English_ to their wives, they doe as much condemne their husbands for unkindnesse, and commend the _English_ for their love. As their husbands commending themselves for their wit in keeping their wives industrious, doe condemne the _English_ for their folly in spoyling good working creatures. These women resort often to the _English_ houses, where _pares c.u.m paribus congregatae_[52], in s.e.x I meane, they do somewhat ease their miserie by complaining and seldome part without a releefe: If her husband come to seeke for his _Squaw_ and beginne to bl.u.s.ter, the _English_ woman betakes her to her armes which are the warlike Ladle, and the scalding liquors, threatening blistering to the naked runnaway, who is soon expelled by such liquid comminations. In a word to conclude this womans historie, their love to the _English_ hath deserved no small esteeme, ever presenting them some thing that is either rare or desired, as Strawberries, Hurtleberries, Rasberries, Gooseberries, Cherries, Plummes, Fish, and other such gifts as their poore treasury yeelds them.

But now it may be, that this relation of the churlish and inhumane behaviour of these ruder _Indians_ towards their patient wives, may confirme some in the beliefe of an aspersion, which I have often heard men cast upon the _English_ there, as if they should learne of the _Indians_ to use their wives in the like manner, and to bring them to the same subjection, as to sit on the lower hand, and to carrie water and the like drudgerie: but if my own experience may out-ballance an ill-grounded scandalous rumour, I doe a.s.sure you, upon my credit and reputation, that there is no such matter, but the women finde there as much love, respect, and ease, as here in old _England_. I will not deny, but that some poore people may carrie their owne water, and doe not the poorer sort in _England_ doe the same; witnesse your _London_ Tankard-bearers, and your countrie-cottagers? But this may well be knowne to be nothing, but the rancorous venome of some that beare no good will to the plantation. For what neede they carrie water, seeing every one hath a Spring at his doore, or the Sea by his house? Thus much for the satisfaction of women, touching this entrenchment upon their prerogative, as also concerning the relation of these _Indians_ Squawes.

[52] Equals a.s.sembled with equals.

p.a.w.nEE BARBARITY.

That the tribes west of the Missouri, and beyond the pale of the ordinary influence of civilization, should retain some shocking customs, which, if ever prevalent among the more favoured tribes east of the Mississippi and the Alleghenies, have long disappeared, may be readily conceived. Wild, erratic bands, who rove over immense plains on horseback, with bow and lance, who plunge their knives and arrows daily into the carca.s.ses of the buffalo, the elk and the deer, and who are accustomed to sights of blood and carnage, cannot escape the mental influence of these sanguinary habits, and must be, more or less, blunted in their conceptions and feelings. Where brute life is so recklessly taken, there cannot be the same nice feeling and sense of justice, which some of the more favoured tribes possess, with respect to taking away human life. Yet, it could hardly have been antic.i.p.ated, that such deeds as we are now called upon to notice, would have their place even in the outskirts of the farther "Far West," and among a people so sunk and degraded in their moral propensities, as the p.a.w.nees. But the facts are well attested.

In the fierce predatory war carried on between the p.a.w.nees and Sioux, acts of blood and retaliation, exercised on their prisoners, are of frequent occurrence. In the month of February, 1838, the p.a.w.nees captured a Sioux girl only fourteen years of age. They carried her to their camp on the west of the Missouri, and deliberated what should be done with her. It is not customary to put female captives to death, but to make slaves of them. She, however, was doomed to a harder fate, but it was carefully concealed from her, for the s.p.a.ce of some sixty or seventy days. During all this time she was treated well, and had comfortable lodgings and food, the same as the rest enjoyed. On the 22nd of April, the chiefs held a general council, and when it broke up, it was announced that her doom was fixed, but this was still carefully concealed from her. This doom was an extraordinary one, and so far as the object can be deduced, from the circ.u.mstances and ceremonies, the national hatred to their enemies was indulged, by making the innocent non-combatant, a sacrifice to the spirit of corn, or perhaps, of vegetable fecundity.

When the deliberations of the council were terminated, on that day, she was brought out, attended by the whole council, and accompanied on a visit from lodge to lodge, until she had gone round the whole circle.

When this round was finished, they placed in her hands a small billet of wood and some paints. The warriors and chiefs then seated themselves in a circle. To the first person of distinction she then handed this billet of wood and paint; he contributed to this offering, or sort of sacrificial charity some wood and paint, then handed it to the next, who did likewise, and he pa.s.sed it to the next, until it had gone the entire rounds, and each one had contributed some wood and some paint.

She was then conducted to the place of execution. For this purpose they had chosen an open gra.s.sy glade, near a cornfield, where there were a few trees. The spot selected was between two of these trees, standing about five feet apart, in the centre of which a small fire was kindled, with the wood thus ceremoniously contributed. Three bars had been tied across, from tree to tree, above this fire, at such a graded height, that the points of the blaze, when at its maximum, might just reach to her feet. Upon this scaffold she was compelled to mount, when a warrior at each side of her held fire under her arm pits. When this had been continued as long as they supposed she could endure the torture, without extinguis.h.i.+ng life, at a given signal, a band of armed bow-men let fly their darts, and her body, at almost the same instant, was pierced with a thousand arrows. These were immediately withdrawn, and her flesh then cut with knives, from her thighs, arms and body, in pieces not longer than half a dollar, and put into little baskets. All this was done before life was quite extinct.

The field of newly planted corn reached near to this spot. This corn had been dropped in the hill, but not covered with earth. The princ.i.p.al chief then took of the flesh, and going to a hill of corn, squeezed a drop of blood upon the grains. This was done by each one, until all the grains put into the ground, had received this extraordinary kind of sprinkling.

This horrible cruelty took place in the vicinity of Council Bluffs.

Offers to redeem the life of the prisoner had been made by the traders, in a full council of eighty chiefs and warriors, but they were rejected.

The original narrator was an eye witness. He concludes his description by adding, that his wife's brother, a p.a.w.nee, had been taken prisoner by the Sioux, in the month of June following, and treated in the same manner. Truly, it may be said that the precincts of the wild roving Red man, are "full of the abodes of cruelty."

Hunting and war are arts which require to be taught. The Indian youth, if they were not furnished with bows and arrows, would never learn to kill. The same time spent to teach them war and hunting, if devoted to teach them letters, would make them readers and writers. Education is all of a piece.

Example is more persuasive than precept in teaching an Indian. Tell him that he should never touch alcohol, and he may not see clearly why; but show him, by your invariable practice, that you never do, and he may be led to confide in your admonitions.

"THE LOON UPON THE LAKE."

BY E.F. HOFFMAN.

[From the Chippewa.[53]]

[53] Nenemoshain nindenaindum Meengoweugish abowauG.o.da Anewahwas monG.o.duga, &c., &c.

I LOOKED across the water, I bent o'er it and listened, I thought it was my lover, My true lover's paddle glistened.

Joyous thus his light canoe would the silver ripples wake.-- But no!--it is the Loon alone--the loon upon the lake.

Ah me! it is the loon alone--the loon upon the lake.

I see the fallen maple Where he stood, his red scarf waving, Though waters nearly bury Boughs they then were newly laving.

I hear his last farewell, as it echoed from the brake.-- But no, it is the loon alone--the loon upon the lake, Ah me! it is the loon alone--the loon upon the lake.

TO A BIRD, SEEN UNDER MY WINDOW IN THE GARDEN.

By the late Mrs. H.R. SCHOOLCRAFT, who was a grand daughter of the war chief WABOJEEG.

Sweet little bird, thy notes prolong, And ease my lonely pensive hours; I love to list thy cheerful song, And hear thee chirp beneath the flowers.

The time allowed for pleasures sweet, To thee is short as it is bright, Then sing! rejoice! before it fleet, And cheer me ere you take your flight.

ODJIBWA SONG.

The following song, taken from the oral traditions of the north, is connected with a historical incident, of note, in the Indian wars of Canada. In 1759, great exertions were made by the French Indian department, under Gen. Montcalm, to bring a body of Indians into the valley of the lower St. Lawrence, and invitations, for this purpose reached the utmost sh.o.r.es of Lake Superior. In one of the canoes from that quarter, which was left on their way down, at the lake of Two Mountains, near the mouth of the Utawas, while the warriors proceeded farther, was a Chippewa girl called Paig-wain-e-osh-e, or the White Eagle, driven by the wind. While the party awaited there, the result of events at Quebec, she formed an attachment for a young Algonquin belonging to the French mission of the Two Mountains. This attachment was mutual, and gave origin to the song, of which the original words, with a literal prose translation, are subjoined:

I.

Ia indenaindum Ia indenaindum Ma kow we yah Nin denaindum we.

Ah me! when I think of him--when I think of him--my sweetheart, my Algonquin.

II.

Pah bo je aun Ne be nau be koning Wabi megwissun Nene mooshain we Odishquagumee.

As I embarked to return, he put the white wampum around my neck--a pledge of truth, my sweetheart, my Algonquin.

III.

Keguh wejewin Ain dah nuk ke yun Ningee egobun Nene mooshain we Odishquagumee.

I shall go with you, he said, to your native country--I shall go with you, my sweetheart--my Algonquin.

IV.