iiln 
 
 
 
 JOSEPH-A-GILFILLAN 
 
THE OJIBWAY 
 
THE OJIBWAY 
 
 A NOVEL OF INDIAN LIFE 
 
 of the Period of the Early Advance of 
 Civilization in the Great Northwest 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH A. GILFILLAN 
 
 NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON 
 
 THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 1904 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1904 
 BY JOSEPH A. GILFILLAN 
 
To the Sweetest of Wives 
 HARRIET WOODBRIDGE 
 
 Who, setting out from old Connecticut, for 
 twenty-three years among the Ojibways shed hap 
 piness around, this book is dedicated by 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 April 19, 1904. 
 
 A A * ft** * A 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. THE RETURN OF THE HUNTER 9 
 
 II. TROUBLE IN THE WIGWAM 16 
 
 III. TRYING TO GET RID OF THE TROUBLE . . .21 
 
 IV. FURTHER EFFORTS TO GET RID OF THE TROUBLE 33 
 V. THE SUPREME EFFORT TO GET RID OF THE 
 
 TROUBLE 38 
 
 VI. YELLOW THUNDER TAKES MEANS TO ASSUAGE 
 
 HIS GRIEF 49 
 
 VII. THE FORTUNES OF WAR 71 
 
 VIII. THE BLOW FALLS 85 
 
 IX. UNEXPECTED GOOD FORTUNE 98 
 
 X. A DELIRIUM OF JOY 107 
 
 XL WILL IT BE LIFE OR DEATH? 110 
 
 XII. A THIRST FOR GLORY SEIZES GULL LAKE VIL 
 LAGE 133 
 
 XIII. THE THIRST FOR GLORY STILL WORKS . . .146 
 
 XIV. SUMMER HAPPINESS 152 
 
 XV. MORE SUMMER HAPPINESS 163 
 
 XVI. COMING HOME TO ROOST 175 
 
 XVII. A STROKE OF GENIUS . .184 
 
 XVIII. UNEXPECTED RESULTS OF A NEW WAR PARTY . 197 
 
 XIX. WHAT CAME OF THE LUCIFER MATCH . . .246 
 
 XX. THE MEETING 271 
 
 XXL A NEW LIGHT IN THE VILLAGE . . . . .279 
 
 XXII. "!N THE MIDST OF LIFE WE ARE IN DEATH" . 298 
 
 XXIII. "HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER" . . 321 
 
 XXIV. SHA-BOSH-KUNK REACHES THE PINNACLE OF 
 
 GLORY 339 
 
 XXV. FAMINE, AND WHAT CAME OF IT . . . . 356 
 
 XXVI. THE CONTEST 388 
 
 XXVII. BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND You OUT . . 422 
 
 XXVIII. RETRIBUTION 449 
 
 XXIX. STILL WATERS AT LAST . .455 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE RETURN OF THE HUNTER. 
 
 When the shades of evening were beginning to 
 close in on a May day about the middle of the 
 century just ended, an Indian hunter on the 
 lonely shores of Gull Lake, in what is now the 
 State of Minnesota, was warned by the increas 
 ing gloom that it was time for him to turn his 
 steps homeward. He had been all day hunting 
 ducks to provide food for the loved ones, and a 
 well-filled bag which hung from his back sus 
 pended by a deer hide strap showed that his 
 efforts had not been in vain. His gun was on 
 his shoulder, and at his feet was his faithful 
 dog, who had so many times that day dashed 
 into the water and brought to land the mallards 
 which the sure aim of his master s gun had de 
 prived of life. He seemed to share his master s 
 opinion that it was about time to think of sup 
 per and a place to sleep, for when the master 
 ceased scanning the lake for ducks and took a 
 long look toward the place where his wigwam 
 should be, turning his steps toward it, the dog 
 gave a joyous bark and scampered ahead in 
 that direction. As he ran on he ever and anon 
 looked round with joyous face to his master, 
 his meaning being as plain as if he had spoken 
 it: "That s right, master; it is time to go to 
 home and supper. " 
 
10 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 The hush of evening was on, and stillness 
 brooded on all around, broken only when a dry 
 twig snapped under the elastic tread of the 
 hunter and the light pressure of his moccasined 
 foot. The lake, lying like something molten in 
 the hollow of a great depression, reflected all 
 the tints of the evening sky as in a looking- 
 glass, and the pine trees, which in some places 
 projected far over its waters, were faithfully 
 reproduced there. The evening star was to be 
 seen there, and the red tints of the western sky, 
 a few floating clouds, and the brooding pines: 
 there was a double world, one above one be 
 low. 
 
 The hunter was a man above middle size, and 
 carried himself with the beautiful poise, and 
 had the light, elastic tread of the Indian. His 
 ample chest was thrown forward, his head back ; 
 one arm bare to the shoulder, except where a 
 broad, thin silver band on the upper arm 
 encircled it, steadied his gun; the other 
 was hidden beneath the folds of the 
 blanket, which it kept in place around his body. 
 His small and well-shaped feet were encased in 
 deer-hide moccasins that fitted like a glove, and 
 on the upper part, over the high instep, were 
 worked some beautiful figures in bead-work!, 
 the character and design of which showed to 
 the experienced eye that he was an Ojibway. Evi 
 dently there was some female friend or relative 
 to whom he was dear, and the tale of whose af 
 fection the neat-fitting and carefully-worked 
 moccasin told. To the tops were sewed pieces of 
 deerskin wliich were wound round his legs and 
 
THE OJIBWAY 11 
 
 bound with deer-hide thongs, also sewed to the 
 top of his moccasins, and which were wrapped 
 several times around his limbs, thus holding the 
 deerskin tops firmly in place. 
 
 When he moved aside the blanket in walking, 
 it was seen that he also had on white cotton leg 
 gings, reaching above the knee, and which were 
 held in place by thongs fastened to the belt 
 around his waist. His thighs were bare, as was 
 his body, except for the breech-cloth; and over 
 all was the invaluable blanket; his covering by 
 day and his complete protection in the wildest 
 winter storms by night. 
 
 He and his faithful dog thus plodded on a 
 good many miles along the shore of the lake, 
 until he came to a birch-bark canoe drawn up on 
 the sand, out of reach of the waters of the lake 
 and out of danger of heing blown in by the wind. 
 When he came to it he turned into the woods 
 and searched for some seconds among a clump 
 of bushes, whence he brought out a paddle. The 
 paddle in the canoe would have been a tempta 
 tion to any one happening along to use it: 
 having hidden it where no one but himself could 
 find it he was reasonably sure of finding his 
 canoe. 
 
 In it he now embarked with his dog, and 
 giving it a shove as he jumped aboard sent 
 it far over the waters ; then taking his seat and 
 seizing his paddle, with skilful strokes sent it 
 skimming along. Soon its bow grated on the 
 sand on the farther shore, and springing out he 
 lifted it out of the water and carried it some 
 distance up on the land and inverted it there. 
 
12 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Then taking his gun and paddle in one hand 
 and slinging the bag of ducks over his back, 
 he walked swiftly in the direction of his wig 
 wam. 
 
 His road lay through a scattered Indian set 
 tlement of several hundred inhabitants; the 
 Gull Lake Indian village. There was no attempt 
 at anything like a street; the wigwams were 
 built here and there and everywhere in pictur 
 esque confusion. As he went along he saw an 
 endless number of columns of light, high up in 
 the sky, each resting on a black base a consider 
 able distance from the earth. These were the 
 columns of light from the open tops of the wig 
 wams streaming far upwards. 
 
 It was the evening hour; the labor of the day 
 was over, the families were all assembled, sit 
 ting in circles around the fire, which was kept 
 blazing high with the wood liberally thrown 
 upon it from the pile deposited at the out 
 side of each door. As our hunter passed 
 wigwam after wigwam he everywhere heard 
 the sounds of laughter and of mirth issuing 
 from each. The whole village seemed to 
 have given itself up to joy. Sometimes as 
 he passed the blanket door was thrown aside, 
 and looking in there was the happy group, 
 all bathed in light and warmth, reclining on 
 mats around the central fire. Jests and laugh 
 ter flew around, and every face was radijint. 
 There was the father sitting behind the fire, op 
 posite the opening for a door, in the seat of 
 honor, if the ground can be called a seat, hold 
 ing up on its little trembling, uncertain legs, his 
 
THE OJIBWAY 13 
 
 baby just beginning to walk. There was the 
 mother preparing the evening meal; there was 
 the steaming pot suspended from the crotch of a 
 sapling over the fire, whence a delicious savor 
 of cooking meat diffused itself. There were the 
 little brothers and sisters of all sizes and ages 
 disposed along the sides of the wigwam, their 
 white teeth shining and their sides shaking with 
 laughter at the mishaps of the little naked, stag 
 gering baby in its efforts to navigate over the 
 outstretched legs which encircled the fire. Such 
 were the happy scenes again and again repeated 
 in every wigwam, which the hunter noticed with 
 observant eye as he passed. 
 
 The glowing columns of light from the top of 
 each wigwam lit up also the rude framework in 
 front of nearly every one, on which were hung 
 countless strips of venison, of moose meat, and 
 the flesh of other animals suspended there to 
 dry. It was evident there was plenty in the vil 
 lage ; abundance of food, and of the best. Every 
 where there was innocent revelry and the happy 
 enjoyment of families. Throughout the whole 
 length of the village which he traversed there 
 was no trace of care or sorrow. Old and young 
 alike were happy. 
 
 And now at last Ozawa-animiki *( Yellow 
 Thunder), for such was the hunter s name, 
 reached his own home, and lifting aside the skin 
 kept spread out by two small sticks which cov 
 ered the opening in the birch bark which served 
 for a door, he stepped in. It was an ordinary 
 wigw-am, about sixteen feet across and twelve 
 
 *As written in this book, "a" is pronounced as "a" in father; 
 "e" as in they ; "i" as in machine. 
 
11 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 feet to the top, made of poles coming together 
 at the top, but spread out at the bottom, whare 
 they were thrust into the ground some distance. 
 Around these poles on the outside there 
 were loosely laid on large strips of birch 
 bark, sometimes overlapping each other 
 a little and sometimes leaving considerable 
 chinks between. These were laid on diagonally, 
 and extended from the ground nearly to the top. 
 The top was open for the escape of the smoke. 
 There were no beds, tables, nor chairs, but all 
 around the sides of the wigwam mats made 
 by the good woman of the house from the rushes 
 which grew in the lake. On these mats the fam 
 ily reclined by day and slept by night. Round 
 the sides of the wigwam were neatly stowed the 
 scant bed coverings of the inmates, their few 
 pots and kettles when not in use, their birch-bark 
 dishes and plates, and their few other earthly 
 possessions. The fire was guarded by four green 
 sticks about as large as a man s arm, laid about 
 it in a square and about two feet from it, and it 
 was a matter of etiquette that no one should put 
 his feet beyond those sticks, no matter how cold 
 his feet might be. 
 
 Somehow the fire did not seem to burn as 
 brightly that night in his wigwam as in the oth 
 ers he had passed, and he noticed that his wife s 
 face was clouded and anxious. Still he made 
 no inquiry, but flung down his bag of ducks, be 
 stowed his gun and paddle in the sides of the 
 wigwam, thrusting them between the birch bark 
 and the poles, where they were firmly held, and 
 then took his accustomed seat on the mat oppo- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 15 
 
 site the door. He felt tired, and the rest was 
 good. Soon his wife placed on the clean mat 
 beside him a birch bark dish of delicious steam 
 ing duck, another birch bark dish of cooked wild 
 rice, and a bark cup of hot duck broth. 
 Here was a feast fit for a tired hunter, and he did 
 the ample justice to it which a man should who 
 had tramped all day, and tasted nothing since 
 the morning. At last he put the empty dishes 
 away from him with a gesture of satisfaction, 
 and getting out the mixture of the dried inner 
 bark of the red willow mixed with a little tobac 
 co, which he was accustomed to smoke, and his 
 long-stemmed wooden pipe, proceeded further 
 to make himself comfortable. 
 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ! 
 
 TROUBLE IN THE WIGWAM. 
 
 His wife now began to speak. She was a 
 comely Indian woman of about forty, about the 
 same age as himself. She was dressed in a 
 short garment made of well-tanned deerskin, 
 which covered her body, but left her arms, and 
 legs from the knees, bare. The materials for 
 civilized costume were not very plenty at that 
 remote place in those days, and she conformed 
 to the general custom. Her feet were encased 
 in the usual moccasins. Her abundant black 
 hair was parted in the middle, oiled with some 
 kind of grease, and, plaited in two braids, hung 
 down her back almost to her waist. 
 
 "Indeed," she said, "I am very much afraid 
 about our daughter, and though it was on my 
 mind I didn t want to speak to you about it be 
 fore you had had your supper. I knew you were 
 tired tramping all day, and I thought to myself, 
 Met him have his supper in peace before I begin 
 to say anything ; for I know if I tell him what I 
 have to tell him he will not be able to eat. But 
 this day I became really alarmed about our 
 daughter, who is lying there. Here she pointed 
 to a figure, enveloped in a blanket, which lay 
 upon the mat at one of the sides of the wigwam, 
 and of which not even the face was visible, the 
 blanket being drawn over the head in the usual 
 
THE OJIBWAY 17 
 
 manner of Indians when sleeping. The figure 
 had not moved since the hunter came in. 
 
 This day, for the first time, while you were 
 gone, I really became alarmed about her. She 
 coughs so much, and she raises so much cough 
 ing, and look here," she said, with increasing 
 agitation, "what bad stuff she spits out," taking 
 a bark cup and showing the contents to her hus 
 band. "And I notice she is getting thinner and 
 thinner, and she cannot eat. To-day, though, I 
 set to work and cooked her the nicest things I 
 could find, yet she could not eat them. But what 
 alarmed me most of all to-day was that once she 
 almost fainted, and it looks to me as if I might 
 lose my daughter ; and if I lose her what shall I 
 do?" Here she began to cry in a low, heart 
 broken way, for she would not make much noisq 
 lest she" should wake her sleeping child. "I 
 would not say this before her," she continued, 
 "for it would make her feel badly, and might 
 make her worse; but I tell it to you when she 
 does not hear me, that you may consider what is 
 to be done. Oh! I have lost so many children 
 that I am almost heart-broken, and now if I lose 
 this last one of all, oh, what shall 1 do?" 
 
 Here, though she restrained her voice from 
 loud weeping, violent sobs shook her. "Oh, my 
 daughter, my daughter!" she moaned; "what 
 shall I do if you leave me?" 
 
 The hunter was deeply saddened by what his 
 wife told him. He did not weep like her, but 
 his anxiety and distress were quite as great. 
 He laid aside his pipe and did not smoke. His 
 head sunk down in deep meditation and great 
 
18 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 sadness. He had not noticed these threatening 
 symptoms in his child so keenly as his wife had, 
 and her words went like daggers to his heart. 
 He was dependent on her about such things, and 
 his heart rose and fell with her. If she had 
 hope he felt the greatest elation; if she des 
 paired he wast cast into the depths of despair. 
 About hunting and the business of life he was 
 his own master, but when a sick child was in 
 question he watched her with the greatest 
 anxiety. 
 
 "Well," he said at length, speaking in a kind 
 of stony despair, " there is only one thing to be 
 done. There are medicine-men here who make 
 it their business to cure sickness. They have 
 been given power, it seems, to do such things. 
 The People* all rely on them, The Spirits 
 have given them power, and help them. To 
 morrow morning I shall go and bring one of 
 them here to doctor her. It is seldom that one 
 of them fails. Sometimes only, if some one is 
 destined for death, they fail; but if there is 
 such a thing as life to be had, they do not fail. 
 
 "I suppose/ said his wife in a low tone, so 
 as not to wake the sleeper, "that is the only 
 thing we can do, though I do hate to give away 
 our wealth to them. They charge very high for 
 their services. We shall have to give them 
 presents of the best we have, and nearly every 
 thing we have, to get them to undertake it. 
 There are those beautiful blankets of mine. I 
 worked hard many and many a day making wild 
 
 *The Ojibways call all Indians Anishinabeg from Anlsha (with 
 out cause or spontaneous) and Inabewsl (he appears) : so it 
 means spontaneous man or may b translated as here The People. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 19 
 
 rice last fall, and traded that rice to the traders 
 for those beautiful new blankets, and now they 
 must go. And only last month I came back 
 from the sugar camp from making maple sugar. 
 That is where our daughter took cold. How I 
 did toil and slave night and day, carrying sap 
 in birch-bark pails all day long in the deep, 
 melting snows, wet up to my waist all the time ; 
 and then sitting up all night boiling the sap, 
 hardly sleeping and hardly ever resting all dur 
 ing The Sap-boiling Moon (April) ! And now 
 that sugar will have to go; and not only that, 
 but our pots and kettles, and our food, and 
 pretty nearly everything we have to live on. 
 
 "Oh well," said he, "it is better to give all 
 that than to see our daughter die, the only child 
 we have left. It is true we shall have to give 
 away about all, and have only a frame of a wig 
 wam left, and our bodies. But there are ani 
 mals out on the prairie and in the woods, and 
 they have valuable furs on their backs ; and there 
 are traders living somewhere, three or four 
 days journey off, who are anxious to get those 
 furs, and who will give us in exchange blankets 
 for them as good as these, and pots and kettles 
 and sugar, too ; and I propose to go and get the 
 furs from the backs of those animals, even if I 
 have to follow them for days and days till I 
 drop. I would rather do that than lose my 
 daughter, and I know you would, too, when you 
 think of it. 
 
 "It is not certain, " the woman replied, "that 
 the Medicine-men can cure our daughter, even 
 if we do give them everything we have. When 
 
20 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 my other children were sick I had them doctor 
 them, and yet they died. And mayhe it will be 
 so again. But yet we can not stand by and see 
 our daughter die. We must do something, and 
 this seems the best thing we can do." 
 
 This consultation over, and sorrowful con 
 clusion arrived at, they each addressed them 
 selves to their several ways; she to her house 
 wifely duties and thinking, and he to his smok 
 ing and no less deep meditation. Then, without 
 making any noise that might awake her, she 
 gently spread over her sleeping child an addi 
 tional covering, that she might not take cold, 
 and soon they also stretched themselves out on 
 their mat, and silence and sorrow reigned in the 
 wigwam. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TRYING TO GET BID OF THE TROUBLE. 
 
 The next morning, after his hasty morning 
 meal, Yellow Thunder presented himself at the 
 wigwam of Men-we-we-gi-zhik (Good-Sound 
 ing-Sky. He was the acknowledged Head Grand 
 Medicine-man of the Ojibway nation, and 
 if -any one could cure the sick one, he 
 could. His reputation extended all over the 
 Ojibway country; and from villages five days 
 journey (one hundred miles) or more distant 
 the sick were carried by their friends and laid 
 before him for him to heal them. With them 
 were brought valuable presents; blankets, 
 guns, traps, maple sugar, beadwork; whatever 
 the Ojibway counted most valuable ; which were 
 laid down at his feet in payment for his services. 
 His deceased father had been Great Grand Med 
 icine-man before him; and he had taught him 
 all his art and skill; so it was in him both by 
 training and inheritance. On account of the 
 valuable presents he continually received for 
 doctoring the sick, his substance was greater 
 than that of any of the other Indians, even the 
 most successful hunters. His wigwam never 
 lacked venison, wild rice, and food of all kinds, 
 and he had also blankets, pots, and kettles more 
 than any other Indian. And all this although 
 he rarely went hunting, devoting himself par- 
 
22 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ticularly to the practice of his art. The others 
 hunted and endured the severe labor ; he stayed 
 at home, but reaped a share of the fruits of their 
 toil. From the style in which he lived and the 
 abundance of everything desirable that he had, 
 he was rather the nabob of the little village. 
 
 When our hunter drew near to the door of 
 his wigwam and raised the skin that covered 
 the opening, there sat Good-Sounding-Sky on a 
 mat behind the fire, in the usual seat of honor, 
 solacing himself by singing a chant, accompa 
 nied by the beating of his drum. This he held 
 aloft in one hand, while with the other he beat 
 it. His legs were folded under him as he sat, 
 his face directed upwards, his lips parted; 
 and there was a look of ecstasy on his 
 face, called forth by his musical efforts. The 
 effect of his singing was evidently very pleasing 
 to himself, and as it proceeded inspired him 
 more and more with a belief in his own powers. 
 His wife was going about her usual household 
 tasks, and the chanting seemed to please her, 
 and formed a sort of accompaniment to her 
 work. His little son, a dirty-faced, but bright, 
 black-eyed, pretty little boy, had stopped in his 
 play to listen to his father, and was looking at 
 him with undisguised admiration. 
 
 The chant was pitched beginning with a high, 
 clear note, and gradually falling, but with many 
 attempts at recovery, according to the usual way 
 of Indian singing, until it ended in a very low 
 note. Then the singer took it up again in its 
 pristine height and clearness, until once more 
 it gradually descended. So it kept on a long 
 
THE OJIBWAY 23 
 
 time. The general effect of the continual re 
 currence to the high, clear note with which it 
 started was to give one the feeling of being 
 roused and excited, as if there were continual 
 impacts of energy coming into one. The par 
 ticular chant which the singer happened then 
 to be singing was one on which he entered with 
 zest, for it was about himself. It was : 
 
 "Men-we-we-gi-zhik o-dibendan Kagiashkonskag 
 "Enendunk Jshiwebutini." 
 
 Two lines, of which the first Was 
 
 "Good-Sounding-Sky is the Lord of Gull Lake," 
 
 and the second, 
 
 "As he wills a thing to be, so it comes to pass." 
 
 He was exalting his own powers as a healer 
 of the sick and Grand Medicine-man, one who 
 was on intimate terms with the powers above. 
 He magnified his office and kept his courage up 
 for the more effectual discharge of his duties, 
 both for the effect upon himself, that, being in 
 a state of exaltation, his powers might work 
 more strongly, and also for the effect on others ; 
 both the sick and the well; who could only 
 be influenced, and the sick cured, by seeing that 
 he had unbounded confidence in himself. A, 
 halting, hesitating, or fearful way of proceeding 
 would pre-doom him to failure, but the undoubt- 
 ing assertion of his powers carried him success 
 fully along; and others, the sick and the well, 
 along with him. Therefore not merely to gratify 
 his vanity and self-love, but in order that he 
 might successfully accomplish what he wished 
 to do, and raise up the sick, he habitually held 
 himself high. 
 
24 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 When the visitor entered, Good-Sounding-Sky 
 took no notice of him for some time, but held 
 on in the same lofty strain, reiterating again and 
 again that "he was lord of Gull Lake, and that 
 whatever he destined came to pass," in order 
 to properly impress the man, and that he might 
 be sufficiently plastic to receive whatever stamp 
 he later should see fit to impress upon him. When 
 he judged that his visitor had been sufficiently 
 impressed he ceased, and gave hrm an opportu 
 nity to tell his errand. 
 
 Our hunter had meanwhile been deeply im 
 pressed with the confided assertion of supernat 
 ural powers so boldly and perseveringly claimed, 
 and which had been borne in upon him with the 
 divine force of music. He realized that he was 
 in the presence of a very great being. It w&s 
 therefore with much inward humbleness of mind 
 that he addressed him. Then his mind reverted 
 to the pale little figure in his wigwam, and hope 
 revived in his breast that here was the one who 
 could restore her to the flush of health. He 
 thought, too, of his sorrowful wife, and that here 
 also was the medicine for her woes. 
 
 "I see you have very great powers given 
 you, he meekly observed. 
 
 "Yes," said the medicine-man, "I can do al 
 most anything. I can cause a very great storm 
 to arise ; again, I can lay the winds at pleasure. 
 A few days ago a stranger came to our lake here 
 to go across. I went to him and asked him to 
 give me tribute. He laughed at me and asked 
 what he should give me tribute for. I told him 
 in order that he might have a fair passage across 
 
THE OJIBWAY 25 
 
 the lake. I told him that if he did not I would 
 begin to sing and chant, and would raise such 
 a storm upon him when was out in the middle 
 of the lake that very likely he would be drowned. 
 He laughed again, and told me to sing all I 
 wanted to ; that he had no fear of my being able 
 to do any such thing by my foolish singing. With 
 that he jumped into his canoe and started across. 
 When he was about half way over I began to 
 chant my medicine songs and beat my drum, and 
 sure enough ! a fearful storm of wind sprung up, 
 and soon I saw the poor man struggling for life 
 in the billows. Oh how he wished he had not 
 made light of me and my powers ! The waves 
 filled his canoe and there he was in the water 
 holding on to it trying to keep his chin above. 
 I never saw such a distressful night! At first 
 I thought I would let him drown as he deserved 
 to, then I began to feel pity for the poor devil ; 
 so I eased up on him. I stopped singing just 
 as he was about to drown, and as I did so the 
 wind ceased, so he was just barely able at last to 
 crawl ashore. Be he lost his canoe, his gun, his 
 traps, and all his property. He was a stranger 
 in this part of the country and did not know 
 who I was, or he never would have done such a 
 foolish thing. Had it not been that I took pity 
 on him just before the end came, he would have 
 lost his life." 
 
 "He was indeed a very foolish man to defy 
 you," said Yellow Thunder, "but he did not 
 know what powers you had. > 
 
 "Another time," said Good-Sounding-Sky, "I 
 was out in the woods hunting, when I spied a 
 
2G THE OJIBWAY 
 
 moose a long distance off. Instead of trying to 
 kill him I thought I would try the power of my 
 medicine over him. So I began to sing one of 
 my medicine songs, and do you know ! the power 
 of my singing was so great that that moose stood 
 stock still and listened ! Then I came toward 
 our village here, still singing, and do you know ! 
 I had made that moose so silly that he followed 
 me right here to my wigwam. I declare I almost 
 died with laughing at that moose! Never saw 
 anything look so silly in my life as he did." 
 Here he laughed again, most heartily, at the rec 
 ollection of it. 
 
 "Did you kill him?" inquired Yellow Thun 
 der. 
 
 "No," said Good-Sounding-Sky, "I was too 
 much overcome with the ridiculousness of the 
 way that moose looked to do anything but laugh. 
 By and by, when I ceased singing, because I was 
 laughing so hard I could not sing, his senses 
 came back to him ; and he just took one look at 
 the wigwams around him, and off he darted back 
 into the woods. 
 
 "Your medicine is certainly powerful," said 
 Yellow Thunder. 
 
 "Yes," said Good-Sounding-Sky, "there is 
 my little son, Na-me-gos (The Trout). I intend 
 to make him just as powerful a medicine-man as 
 I am myself. I have already begun to work 
 upon him, and to endue him with supernatural 
 powers. I have already put him through a 
 course, and I intend to make him immortal. Do 
 you wish to know how far I have progressed! 
 Well I will tell you. I lately put him under the 
 
THE OJIBWAY 27 
 
 w*ater for three days, and when I took him out 
 he was still living. You see him playing there ; 
 you see how healthy and well he is. Here is the 
 song that I sang, and by the power of it and by 
 the power of my medicine he was kept alive. 
 
 With that he began to sing, accompanied as 
 before by the beating of his drum. 
 
 "Nesogwon gi-agwindjing, Kawin botch gl-nibosi." 
 
 "Three days he was under the water, and yet he did not die." 
 
 " Do. you see that lake/ he went on to say, 
 pointing to the sheet of water on which their 
 village was situated. It was perhaps seven 
 miles long, was narrow at the upper end, then 
 widened out very much, so as to be three miles 
 across, then narrowed again at the lower end 
 where the river ran out of it. There were also 
 some rocky islets in it. 
 
 "You see that lake?" said Good-Sounding- 
 Sky. "Well, that lake is I. I am the god that 
 is under it, and that lake is an outward repre 
 sentation of me. Do you see that upper part 
 where it is so narrow. That is my feet, and 
 that is why it is so narrow. Then you see where 
 it widens out in the middle and is so broad? 
 That is my body and shoulders. Then do you 
 see that narrow place at the lower end! That 
 is where my head is. And do you see those rocky 
 islets in the middle ? Those are the spines of my 
 backbone. I am the god under that lake, and 
 my body is partly visible in those spines. You 
 can see for yourself that I am a god." 
 
 Yellow Thunder was wonderfully encour 
 aged by this recital of supernatural powers and 
 
28 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 supernatural achievements. He had been think 
 ing of his little daughter all the time he had 
 been listening ; he had been estimating it all with 
 reference to her. Here was undoubted power, 
 adequate to all needs. His mind was filled with 
 hope, his heart with joy. Then he addressed 
 him. 
 
 "Our little daughter, " he said, "is not very 
 well. She is drooping for some reason, although 
 there is nothing much the matter with her," 
 this last he added as a sort of consolation to 
 himself, "and my wife and I wish you to come 
 over as soon as you can and bring your instru 
 ments with you, and doctor her. Such men as 
 you have power given to them," this he said 
 in sincere homage to what he had just heard, 
 4 and we wish you to save our daughter. Then, 
 after a pause, he added, "I wish to say that we 
 will try to do well by you out of what we have, 
 and we wish you to exert your powers to the very 
 utmost. We think everything of our child, the 
 last child we have, and we will not scruple at any 
 thing if you will only cure her. So saying he 
 laid down a present of a haunch of vension, some 
 wild rice, and a piece of red cloth got from the 
 trader in exchange for many skins, whose 
 bright color was just the thing to take an In 
 dian s eye. All this as a preliminary, a re 
 taining fee, as it were ; more might be expected 
 to follow. 
 
 The Medicine-man accepted the present, not 
 too eagerly, but with a proper reserve. Perhaps 
 graciously would be the proper word to use to 
 express the manner of his acceptance. A man 
 
THE OJIBWAY 29 
 
 with such, powers as he was entitled to the 
 tribute, and to kindly receive it was all that 
 could be asked. 
 
 "Well," he said, "I shall go and doctor your 
 daughter, and I shall be extremely glad that she 
 should get well. It is very seldom indeed that 
 my powers fail; only once in a great while if 
 a person is fairly destined to death, then in 
 deed I am unable to save them; but nearly 
 always, I might say always, I am able to save 
 the sick." 
 
 With this comfortable assurance Yellow Thun 
 der rose and with good hope in his heart went 
 back to his wigwam to tell his wife to prepare 
 for their distinguished visitor. 
 
 Soon, while they were sitting in silence ex 
 pecting him, having their daughter propped up 
 in an easy position, and with hope from the ex 
 pected visit of the one who was to cure her giv 
 ing a new life to her pallid face, the Medicine 
 man came. But before he entered the door he 
 struck up a chant, accompanying himself with 
 the beating of his drum ; and in this he continued 
 a long time before he deigned to enter at all. It 
 was a victorious, exultant outburst, in which he 
 recited and exulted in his powers, and rejoiced 
 in a victory already won. There was no doubt, 
 no hesitation in his proceedings. He was the 
 conscious victor and the hunter and his wife and 
 the sick girl, as they looked at him, felt the 
 contagion of his enthusiasm and they, too, re 
 joiced in an already assured cure. As he sang, 
 his face was ecstatically turned upward; the 
 drum held aloft with one hand, while with the 
 
30 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 other he beat it, and its every throb went to the 
 heart of the listeners. 
 
 His chant was one line repeated over and over. 
 
 "Ni Manidow, ta-hi-yo, tchibekunank ondji Manidowiyan, wiu- 
 jrushk." "I am a God : ta-hi-yo ; from the road of the dead coming, 
 a God, herbs make me so." 
 
 The "ta-hi-yo" is an exulting exclamation, 
 the words being without meaning. 
 
 Not only was he a "manido," but he came 
 from the underground world, the regions of the 
 dead ; therefore a very powerful one. 
 
 His whole appearance as he chanted these 
 words was that of exaltation, exhilaration, pow 
 er. Now the hunter and his wife placed before 
 him a dish of the best food they had, and also 
 the precious blankets, dear to the heart of the 
 woman. Good-Sounding-Sky saw them approv 
 ingly, but did not touch them, and now deigned 
 to come within the wigwam. He squatted down 
 on the ground beside the sick girl, and after 
 partaking of the food got down to business. He 
 had in his hand his Grand Medicine rattle, en 
 dued with mysterious powers, and this he shook 
 over her a thousand times, with many a "whe- 
 ho-ho-ho-o. " He used all sorts of incanta 
 tions to exorcise the evil spirit that was afflicting 
 her and recited endless formulas which he had 
 learned from his father and from the old Medi 
 cine-men before him. He called on great num 
 bers of gods to help him; gods who lived in 
 many different places. He made himself hoarse, 
 and he made himself tired, with his continued 
 exertions, and certainly tried faithfully and 
 with honesty of purpose to cure the girl. 
 He had a great natural sympathy for the father 
 
THE OJIBWAY 31 
 
 and mother, as well as for the sick girl, 
 and he was anxious for their sakes, as 
 a friend and neighbor, and not only for his own 
 credit, to succeed. He tried all ways and did 
 the best he could and the best he knew. Some 
 times he would fall to sucking with great ve 
 hemence at a particular place, as the child s arm, 
 and after a little with great effort would bring 
 out of his mouth a piece of bone or a nail or a 
 bug which he declared he had got out of her 
 body and which had been the cause of the trou 
 ble. This pious fraud he had become so used to 
 in his profession that he hardly knew it was a 
 fraud. 
 
 The girl at first was pleased at being the ob 
 ject of so much attention ; and hope buoyed her 
 up that she would soon get well, and be run 
 ning about playing as the other girls were. Was 
 not here the Great Medicine-man shaking his rat 
 tle over her, determined to make her well ? And 
 did he not have power? Yes, she was not aban 
 doned to be sick as she had been for the last few 
 days. Here was an effort made to get her well, 
 and she would get well. That was her high re 
 solve. So she fell in with the pullings and haul- 
 ings that he used upon her, and w>as receptive 
 and responsive to all his treatment. 
 
 But when night drew on and she could not 
 sleep for his shaking the rattle over her and 
 drumming and singing at her ear; and for his 
 pulling her head and her arms this way and that 
 way, and for his falling to and sucking at some 
 new part of her anatomy to get out some new 
 cause of her sickness; and when this was con- 
 
32 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 tinned night and day, almost without intermis 
 sion, for three days, except sometimes when for 
 a very short time he himself was borne down 
 with sleep she began to get very tired of it and 
 to long for rest, and it was very evident to her 
 parents that, whatever the ultimate result might 
 be, for the present at least her condition had 
 not improved. So at the end of three days and 
 nights, during which he had almost continuously 
 practiced his spells and done his best, certainly 
 exerted himself to the utmost, as they had been 
 witnesses, the Grand Medicine-man, with the 
 consent of all parties, gave it up and moved 
 away. Before he went he spread out one of the 
 blankets and put in it all the rest of the articles 
 which had been given him as his fee: furs, ma 
 ple sugar, wild rice, white cotton cloth, red cloth, 
 tanned deerskin, and other things, and making 
 a great pack of it all, took it off with him. And 
 in it went much of the wealth of the wigwam. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FUKTHER EFFORTS TO GET RID OF THE TROUBLE. 
 
 It had now become pretty well known in the 
 village that the daughter of Yellow Thunder was 
 sick, and as she was the only remaining child, 
 and the family was well liked, there was much 
 sympathy shown to them, which manifested itself 
 in many ways. 
 
 An old woman appeared in the wigwam, and 
 looking at the pale sufferer gave vent to her 
 long-drawn Indian woman s exclamation of sur 
 prise and grief. 
 
 "Ny-a-a-a my daughter; and are you sick 
 my daughter V And then going to her she kiss 
 ed her with a kiss, ending with a resounding 
 smack, in a way that certainly lacked nothing in 
 heartiness. l Cheer up, my daughter, she said 
 as she stood contemplating her. * There is noth 
 ing going to happen to you, my daughter. The 
 Indians would not do such a thing as that, as not 
 to take means to save you. They are powerful 
 when they all put their minds to a thing. And 
 they have the Grand Medicine to cure the sick; 
 that is what it was given to them for. And they 
 will assemble, all of them, and have the Grand 
 Medicine rites over you, my daughter. Every 
 one of them will put their strength into it, and 
 all the old men, who know exactly how to make 
 the Medicine right, will be there, and doing their 
 
34 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 best. And when all the people get together and 
 use the Grand Medicine for you you will cer 
 tainly get well. Don t think anything because 
 one Medicine-man failed, my daughter." Here 
 she kissed her affectionately again. That often 
 happens. One man alone may be weak at any 
 thing, but when they all get together about it 
 they will be powerful. There was my nephew. 
 He was far thinner than you are ; wasted away ; 
 nothing but skin and bones ; and we all thought 
 he was going to die ; but they made Grand Med 
 icine for him; three days; and from that very 
 time he began to get well, and now he is FAT. 
 That will be the case with you, my daughter, so 
 cheer up. And it is not only my nephew, but 
 all the Indians who are living: it is on account 
 of the Grand Medicine that they are living, for 
 there is hardly one of them who has not been 
 brought through some deadly sickness by having 
 had it made over him. 
 
 Here she turned her attention to the girl s 
 mother, and had equally good words of cheer 
 for her, calling her "my sister," kissing her, 
 and showing the most genuine spirit of love. No 
 one could have shown more real kindness and 
 given more real help; by her presence and by 
 her encouraging words than she did. She was 
 followed by many likeminded in the course of 
 the day; the stream of sympathy in the village 
 set in very strongly toward that wigwam and its 
 sufferer. By how many scores of women was the 
 girl kissed that day and subsequent days. 
 By many were she and her mother encouragingly 
 talked to! The visitors were mostly women, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 35 
 
 but the men s sympathies were almost equally 
 roused, though they did not show it in the same 
 way. Occasionally some of them pulled aside 
 the skin door and looked in and talked awhile, 
 but only the women kissed her. But outside the 
 men were discussing among themselves the pro 
 priety of having a great celebration of the Grand 
 Medicine rite over her. 
 
 They knew that Good-Sounding-Sky had sung 
 over her for three days with his rattle, and had 
 practiced his incantations; but they saw that 
 something more powerful than that was needed. 
 They saw too that it must be a putting forth of 
 the strength of the whole community directed to 
 a common object. The season was propitious, 
 for it was May, and so favorable for the suf 
 ferer to sit out the three days that the rites would 
 last. They began therefore to inquire among 
 themselves about the old men, who were in a 
 manner the High Priests of the rite; who knew 
 the ritual, the songs, and chants that should be 
 used, and the proper order that should be ob 
 served. And so it began to be rumored about the 
 village that in so many days there was to be 
 a grand celebration over Yellow Thunder s 
 daughter. 
 
 A little naked boy comes staggering along, 
 with his dirty face, his liquid black eyes directed 
 upwards among the trees, where ^ he is 
 anxiously looking for squirrels, his left 
 holding the bow directed upward, and his 
 right hand on the arrow just ready to 
 draw it as soon as he sees his little victim. 
 Behind him follows his sister, younger than 
 
36 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 he; following him with the admiration which 
 a younger sister has for her bigger brother. 
 Not looking where he is going, his eyes being 
 among the branches, and staggering sideways, 
 he runs against a wigwam. Recalled to earth 
 by the collision, he glances at it long enough to 
 recognize whose it is, then says to his sister: 
 " There is a girl sick in there. " "Is she going 
 to die?" asks his little admirer. "It seems 
 not, he answers ; The People are going to do 
 something. 
 
 The next minute he takes a sheer off to one 
 side to get a favorable position for a shot at the 
 squirrel, whose head he has espied looking down 
 at him from behind a limb, and has forgotten all 
 about the sick girl and everything else. 
 
 But it was not only kind words and kisses that 
 the sick girl and her mother received from so 
 many female friends. Here comes in an old 
 woman who says : l See here, my daughter, what 
 a nice thing I have brought you to eat ; this tastes 
 so nice, and it will make you strong. I cooked it 
 the very nicest that I knew; see what a rich 
 brown it is, and what an enticing smell it has." 
 With that she presents to her part of a delic- 
 iously cooked duck, wrapped in a piece of clean 
 birch bark. The invalid puts out her wasted 
 hand and takes it, and lays it on her bed. And 
 then not long after there comes in another 
 woman, and says: "See here what I have 
 brought you!" And with that she displays a 
 dainty little piece of new maple sugar, a cake of 
 fantastic shape run into a mould of her own 
 making. Soon the girl s bed is covered with 
 
THE OJIBWAY 37 
 
 dainties of all kinds, which anxious affection has 
 brought her. It seems as if the village thought 
 of her alone. 
 
 The older women were much more effusive in 
 their kissing and in their demonstrations of 
 affection than the younger. The latter came in 
 and looked, and their eyes and the expression of 
 their faces told what was in their hearts, but 
 they said little or nothing, and rarely kissed the 
 sufferer. Sometimes a girl of her own age would 
 sit down beside her and gently kiss her without 
 saying anything. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SUPREME EFFORT TO GET RID OF THE TROUBLE. 
 
 At last the day had come for a supreme effort. 
 A space had been cleared of all underbrush on 
 a level piece of land just outside the village and 
 overlooking the beautiful lake. Boughs had 
 been stuck in the ground enclosing an oblong 
 space, large enough to contain the entire popu 
 lation of the village. There were two entrances, 
 one on either end of the oblong space. There was 
 a rope of deer s hide high overhead extending 
 the length of the place, and upon it were hung 
 the presents which were given at this grand cele 
 bration of their great religious rite. There were 
 pieces of bright red cloth, greatly valued by 
 them, bought from distant traders at the cost of 
 many skins. There was white cotton cloth sus 
 pended, and there were blankets, tanned deer 
 skins, and dressed skins of all kinds. There was 
 a representation of the entire wealth of the com 
 munity, and a generous part of it. One of the 
 principal things hanging on the pole overhead 
 was tobacco, as that was thought to have mys 
 terious virtues. These were the presents for 
 the venerable men who were to conduct the 
 rite. 
 
 Inside the enclosure of boughs was the entire 
 community, some of the children only excepted. 
 The men and women each had their Medicine 
 
THE OJIBWAY 39 
 
 Bags, generally the skin of an animal, as the 
 otter, beaver, etc., handsomely trimmed with silk 
 ribbons bought at great cost. Inside of these 
 bags was the precious medicine, both bag and 
 medicine forming their most sacred possession. 
 Sometimes these medicine bags were made of 
 human skin ; and it was considered that the medi 
 cine in them was more powerful. About the cen-. 
 tre sat the oldest men, who had charge of the 
 proceedings, and who occasionally sang chants 
 and performed ceremonies in an archaic tongue 
 derived from former geneations of Indians long- 
 ago, many words of which were hardly under 
 standable by the people present. 
 
 Sometimes they were all in motion inside the 
 enclosure, men and women following each other, 
 holding their medicine bags in their hands, and 
 occasionally pointing them at each other with 
 a "pooh" in imitation of the report of a gun, on 
 which the person at whom the bag was presented 
 immediately fell down as if shot dead. This 
 was to show the strength of the medicine within. 
 Sometimes, again, they were all sitting quietly 
 on the ground, only the head men chanting and 
 continuing the exercises. Occupying a promi 
 nent position in the midst of all this was the 
 sick girl, reclining on the ground, and warmly 
 covered. Sometimes, after a season of compara 
 tive quiet, one of the old men would spring up, 
 and holding his rattle high above his head, ad 
 vance toward the isick girl. The others fol 
 lowed, each holding his rattle in like manner 
 and a ring was formed around her. Round and 
 round they went, round and round, faster and 
 
SONG OF THE MEDICINE LODGE. Ojibway. 
 
 Transcribed and harmonized 
 M. M. J = 160. by EDWIN S. TRACY. 
 
 . MM! Ill _ * ! kVj 
 
 
 
 CZ& -- c^_^_q : ___c _^_^_p_ 
 
 . i LU i m J 
 
THE OJIBWAY 41 
 
 yet faster, while the chant swelled louder and 
 the inspiring drum beats caused the very air to 
 throb. Then all at once the old men would pre 
 sent their medicine bags toward the girl, the 
 mouth and head of the animal from whose skin 
 the bag was made pointing directly at her with 
 grinning teeth, as they held the neck with one 
 hand, while with the other they grasped the 
 tail of the animal, and their rattle; there was a 
 moment of expectation, then a loud "pooh" as 
 they all at once shot. This was to shoot the 
 good medicine into her, and as it was discharged 
 into her in a regular volley from all around, it 
 was most powerful. If anything could cure a 
 sick person that would. 
 
 The Medicine-men called on endless names of 
 gods to help them; gods under the lakes, gods 
 under the rivers, gods of the bears, of all the 
 animals. One never understood till now how 
 peopled the earth was with spirits, in every 
 part of it. Many strange vows were made, many 
 wonderful invocations. 
 
 All this lasted three days and three nights, ex 
 cept when they went home before midnight for 
 rest. There was cooked food set out in wooden 
 and birch bark dishes, in the midst of the enclos 
 ure, and of this, they partook occasionally. 
 There was wild rice, vension, bear-meat and 
 many other kinds. 
 
 Thus for three days the entire community en 
 gaged in a contest with death; every man and 
 woman took part in it, and the utmost power 
 of them all, which seemed to be the whole hu 
 man race, was directed to rescuing that girl from 
 
42 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 death. It was partly sympathy, but there was 
 also in it self-interest. It was to see if they were 
 not stronger than death. Their own turn might 
 come next day to be sick and would they have to 
 succumb ? Had not the Great Spirit given them 
 the means to cure sickness! Had not the seven 
 spirits come out of the vasty deep, and lived with 
 their forefathers a long time, and given them the 
 Medewiwin (the Grand Medicine) from the 
 Great Spirit, by which they were to ward off 
 the ravages of disease and live to an extreme old 
 age? Here then was a case to apply it once for 
 all, and in gaining the victory for the sick girl 
 to gain it also for themselves. To demonstrate 
 by this striking test that the most precious thing 
 they had on earth, the Grand Medicine rite 
 was all, in efficacy, that they were told it was. 
 That the Great Spirit had not mocked them in 
 giving them that inestimable gift. 
 
 They were a little community, far from any 
 other human beings. Over two days journey 
 (about 60 miles) of wilderness separated them 
 from the Leech Lake Indians, their nearest 
 neighbors on the north, and a somewhat less dis 
 tance (about 50 miles) from the Mille Lacs, the 
 next nearest on the southeast. On the south 
 they were about six days journey (150 miles) 
 from the Sioux, while west it was perhaps two 
 days journey to the Otter Tail band of Chip- 
 pewas. They were therefore a little world of 
 themselves when they entered on this mighty 
 contest. It is true they had had celebrations 
 of the Grand Medicine before for the sick and 
 the sick had died. But they had never had one 
 
THE OJIBWAY 43 
 
 on which they had entered with such unanimity 
 and with such determination to succeed as in 
 the present case. It seemed to them that they 
 must and would succeed this time. And they had 
 a great many instances in mind where they had 
 succeeded ; yes, many of them there present were 
 living instances that they had succeeded, for was 
 it not the Grand Medicine that had raised them 
 from dangerous sicknesses? 
 
 At last the long rites were over, the supreme 
 effort made, and the " medewi-gan, " "the en 
 closure of the celebration of the Grand Medi 
 cine-rite, M was once more silent and deserted. 
 Those assisting were back in their wigwams, the 
 sick girl in hers. All things had resumed their 
 accustomed tenor, and all were watching to see 
 what the effect on the sick would be. They did 
 not have long to watch. The expected and dear 
 ly-longed for effect had not been produced. She 
 was evidently going down hill. Their supreme 
 effort had apparently been useless. There was 
 disappointment and dejection in the camp. 
 Things had not turned out as they had confi 
 dently expected. 
 
 Then it was that Good-Sounding-Sky, the Head 
 Medicine-man determined to bring the matter 
 to a decision one way or other. He was going to 
 find out for certain whether that girl was going 
 to live or to die. He was to be resolved on that 
 point from the unseen world. 
 
 To accomplish this he went out with many oth 
 ers, and selecting four small evergreen trees 
 growing close together, and of suitable size, they 
 were bent toward each other and tied at the top. 
 
44 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Underneath this top there was made with withes 
 and deerskin thongs, and the tough roots of the 
 tree out of which the Indians make ropes, a sort 
 of nest, large enough to contain a man. Along 
 the bottom and sides of it were blankets and 
 other cloths, screening the person who might be 
 within from observation. 
 
 Good-Sounding-Sky now requested that he be 
 firmly bound with ropes ; so firmly that he could 
 move neither hand nor foot, and that it seemed 
 utterly impossible for him to unloose him 
 self. In this helpless position he was hoisted up 
 into the nest, which, after some incantations on 
 his part, began to sway violently to and fro, al 
 though no one touched it, and he being wholly 
 inside could exert no force upon it to sway it, 
 to one side or other. Some of the bystanders, 
 powerful men, took hold of it to stop the sway 
 ing; but their arms were almost jerked out of 
 their sockets, and they felt that they would have 
 been had they not let go. In an incredibly short 
 space of time the ropes were flung out of the 
 top of the nest; the man was loose. While this 
 swaying was going on a heavy thud was heard 
 on the bottom of the nest, as of a body alighting. 
 "Have you come! 7 Good-Sounding-Sky in 
 quired. "Yes, I have come," was the answer. 
 Those outside heard the squeaking of a very 
 strange voice while this interchange of question 
 and answer took place, and saw sparks of fire 
 about the top of the nest. Then Good-Sounding- 
 Sky was told by his visitor to hand up his al 
 ready filled pipe, the one with a large stone 
 bowl, and with the long wooden stem about two 
 
THE OJIBWAY 45 
 
 feet long. He handed it up to the top of the nest, 
 and in an instant it was flung down upon the 
 floor, red-hot and smoked out. Good-Soundiug- 
 Sky now asked the crucial question; the one for 
 the sake of the answer to which all this had 
 been undertaken. That we may know the exact 
 words of this commerce between the seen and 
 the unseen world, we give it just as it was spoken, 
 on either side, with a translation : 
 
 "A-ya-ma-gut na izh-i-chi-ge-win?" 
 
 Is there anything to be done ? 
 
 That was the question. 
 
 The answer from the supernatural visitor 
 was: 
 
 Kawin gego izh-i-chi-ge-win. 
 
 l There is nothing to be done. 
 
 Soon the swaying ceased, the conference was 
 at an end, and the Medicine-man, getting out of 
 the nest told the assembled people that he had 
 been informed that there was nothing to be done, 
 that the girl would die.* 
 
 We are to remember also that the magicians 
 and sorcerers of Egypt l i did in like manner with 
 their enchantments, for they cast down every 
 man his rod and they became serpents ; that by 
 the same power turned the waters into blood, 
 and that they "did in like manner with their 
 enchantments and brought up frogs upon the 
 land of Egypt. " 
 
 After this interview of the Medicine-man with 
 
 *When questioned long years afterwards as to who it was that 
 came to him in the nest, Good-Sounding Sky said it was a god 
 or spirit, and affirmed the truth of all the particulars here given. 
 If there be any who are disposed to deny the truth of this, we 
 can only answer to them that there are more things in Heaven 
 and earth than are dreamed of in their philosophy, and that we 
 must believe the testimony of witnesses. 
 
46 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 the Spirit the people abandoned hope of the girl 
 living. An old scarred warrior comes into the 
 wigwam where she is, and sitting down by her 
 tenderly takes her wasted hand in his, and look 
 ing her steadfastly in the face begins a gentle 
 but audible crying. This he keeps up for some 
 time, expressing by it his deep sorrow over her 
 approaching death, and his inability, though so 
 willing, to prevent it. She looks calmly at him, 
 and accepts the homage he offers, for such 
 it is; homage to one who was about to die. 
 Then, after contemplating her for some time 
 in silence, he withdraws, without a word spoken 
 on either side, but with his deep sympathy so 
 plainly conveyed and so gently accepted. 
 
 One of the men of Gull Lake had not been 
 there during these events ; he had been on a visit 
 to the Leech Lake Indians. He was Ma-ing-ans 
 (The-Little-Wolf) a tall, magnificent specimen 
 of a man. When he returned to Gull Lake 
 he went to the wigwam of Yellow Thunder and 
 talked to him about his daughter. 
 
 "It is like this," he said: "Here is life," 
 holding up his long forefinger, "something 
 erect; it is now inclining down in your daughter 
 like this," here he allowed his finger to in 
 cline toward a horizontal position "and we 
 know, do we not, that if it falls down like this 
 putting his finger in a horizontal position 
 "that it is impossible ever to raise it up again, 
 the person is dead. Now what your daughter 
 needs to raise up life again, which is now inclin 
 ing down, is something lively. She will never 
 get well lying there, as you know; but life will 
 
THE OJIBWAY 47 
 
 incline lower and lower, and at last will lie 
 flat. Something lively is what she needs; 
 something that will raise up life again. Put 
 her on the back of a horse and ride her 
 around; that will raise up life, and she 
 will get well." He offered to lend his own 
 pony, and to show how it should be done. 
 Poor Yellow Thunder and his wife had been in 
 the depths of despair, seeing their daughter ever 
 lower and lower and evidently drawing near to 
 death, and Good-Sounding-Sky s report of his 
 conference with the Spirit, and that there was 
 "nothing to be done," had almost extinguished 
 the last ray of hope. But the hopefulness of this 
 man, and his confident assertion, and the plausi 
 ble illustration which he gave with his finger 
 about the falling down of life and how it could be 
 raised up again, wrought upon them. They are 
 seized with a sudden accession of hope. What if 
 this is the way; something lively. Yes, they 
 will do it. So the horse is brought, a blanket 
 fastened upon him, and the almost dying girl, 
 greatly against her will, seated upon him. The 
 Little Wolf holds her on to keep her from falling, 
 assisted by some others. The horse is whipped 
 up and made to gallop and jump, and thus she 
 is ridden round and round in a ring for some 
 time, till her distress and impending collapse 
 become so painfully apparent to all that even 
 The Little Wolf himself sees that she will die 
 there right among their hands if that course of 
 treatment is further persisted in. In an almost 
 fainting condition she is at last lifted off and 
 carried to her place in the wigwam. 
 
48 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 One scene more, the last. Her father had 
 taken his gun and gone off hunting, because he 
 could not bear to look upon her sufferings. Her 
 faithful mother alone was with her. She noticed 
 a change, and it seemed to her that her child 
 was going. She ran hastily to the door to look 
 for help, and happened to see a Medicine-man 
 who was passing. He realized that prompt 
 measures necessary or it would be too late, so 
 flinging down the pack he had on his back he 
 went in. The girl was lying on her back with her 
 head in her mother s lap. He first put a piece 
 of wood between her teeth to keep her mouth 
 from closing. Then he directed her mother to 
 keep pouring into her mouth, with a large spoon, 
 a black decoction of some herb, which, soon fill 
 ing the cavity of her mouth, kept overflowing 
 and running down her cheeks. Then he 
 raised up her body with his hands, and beginning 
 between her shoulders, kept, with frantic energy, 
 blowing blasts from his mouth into her; along 
 the median line of her body, up over the neck, 
 over the back, top, and front of the head, till at 
 last he arrived at her chest. It seemed as if each 
 blast was so strong that it would bore her 
 through. This was to blow the breath of life 
 back into her, which was in danger of leaving 
 her. Her eyes, meantime, were set, and she look 
 ed as if her soul was departing, which at last it 
 did in the midst of all these frantic efforts to 
 detain it. 
 
 "Death, at last was victor in the long contest 
 which had been waged against him. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 YELLOW THUNDER TAKES MEANS TO ASSUAGE HIS 
 GRIEF. 
 
 When death had thus drawn the veil, immedi 
 ate preparations were made for the burial. The 
 neighboring women came in, hastily wrapped 
 the body in a blanket, then in many folds of 
 birch bark, which they had in large sheets sewed 
 together with coarse twine from the tough root 
 of a tree. This rendered it impervious to rain. 
 With the body they put a flint and steel, the us 
 ual means of Indians making fire at that time; 
 a woman s ax, packing strap, or portage collar; 
 and all the other implements required by a wom 
 an in her daily tasks. The deceased would need 
 all these things, in her new sphere, the same as in 
 life ; and would be as grievously crippled want 
 ing them in the spirit world as she would in the 
 flesh. And although they see that these things 
 are not bodily carried away by the deceased 
 to the realm of souls, yet she has the spiritual 
 use of them there. 
 
 Yellow Thunder took no part in these hasty 
 precautions, but walked moodily about outside. 
 His wife assisted, but left it mostly to the women, 
 But she combed her daughter s long hair for the 
 last time. "Never more shall I do this, my 
 daughter, she said, and she tenderly kissed the 
 cold face. 
 
50 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 When the body was ready to be carried to the 
 place of burial, which it was in less than an 
 hour after death, Yellow Thunder came in. He 
 tenderly kissed his daughter s remains. my 
 daughter, my daughter, " he said as he did so, 
 and then cut off and carefully put away a lock 
 of her hair. Then as they were just ready to 
 carry her out he addressed the cold corpse in 
 a harangue of considerable length, in which he 
 gave vent to his feelings of love and grief. 
 " Your feet are now on the road of souls, my 
 daughter/ he said as he stood off a little ways 
 looking at the body. "You are going home. I 
 have loved you, my daughter, in life. Now that 
 you have left me I shall render you proper hon 
 or. Yes, I shall do to you, my daughter, that 
 which honor to you, and duty, require." With 
 these words of mysterious import he bade her 
 good-by. 
 
 Then the mournful procession went to a high 
 knoll near by, overlooking the lake, and there 
 on a rude scaffold, formed by a growing tree and 
 some large stakes driven into the ground a little 
 distance from it, with cross pieces laid between, 
 the body was laid. Wrapped in so many pieces 
 of birch bark, which were firmly tied around it 
 with withes, all moisture was kept from it, and 
 in the same way it was defended from the at 
 tacks of birds or any flying creatures. Being 
 raised on high, it was out of the reach of land 
 animals, and there were no worms or hideous 
 crawling things as there would have been had it 
 been buried in the ground. It seemed to them al- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 51 
 
 together the most seemly, reverent, and proper 
 mode of sepulture. 
 
 While this was going on the wigwam was 
 being torn down, the goods in it removed, and 
 everything set up in a new place. This was in 
 accordance with the ideas of the Indians, who 
 never live in a house or wigwam where a death 
 has taken place, but immediately tear it down. 
 Soon the spot where the wigwam had stood was 
 bare and deserted, the killed grass and a slight 
 hole where the fire had been alone showing by a 
 bare circle that a human habitation had been 
 there. But when night came there was a cheerful 
 fire of wood burning there, which was kept re 
 plenished till near midnight by three women who 
 sat around it. This was that the dead girl might 
 have a fire where she then was on her way to 
 the world of spirits. The three women talked 
 about her, saying that she was then doubt 
 less making her camp, and that by their good 
 offices she had a bright and cheerful fire at 
 which to warm and refresh herself after her 
 day s journey. But for them, how cold and 
 cheerless her state! All alone in the gloom of 
 night! A stranger in a strange place, and on a 
 journey! She would have suffered from actual 
 cold, too, for it was still May, the ice not very 
 long gone out of the lakes, and the nights were 
 sometimes even frosty. So the women talked 
 of the gossip of the village, and of the grief of 
 the stricken father and mother. They inter 
 spersed remarks occasionally about the deceased ; 
 how she was probably getting along, what time 
 she would arrive at the Abode of Souls, and 
 
52 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 what a reception she would have from friends 
 already there. 
 
 "How thankful she will be," said Kinebigon- 
 sique (The-little -snake-woman), "for this splen 
 did fire to warm herself at, and how cheerful it 
 will be. We are certainly doing a good thing for 
 her." 
 
 "Yes," answered Makonsique ( The-bear-cub- 
 woman) , and, poor thing, she is all alone. She 
 would feel very lonesome but for this." 
 
 "And," said Bebamigijigoque (The-woman- 
 who - belongs-in-the-sky - that-moves-all - about) 
 "we put some food with her, and we will renew 
 the supply every day till she gets there, so she 
 will have plenty to eat." 
 
 "She will need it," said Little-snake-woman. 
 "It is a long, tiresome journey for three days, 
 day after day. And we put a cup with her also, 
 so she will be able to drink. 
 
 "Yes," said The-Bear-Cub-woman, "she has 
 not only food and a cup, but she has her packing- 
 strap with her, so she will be able to pack all the 
 wood she wants. And though her road lies 
 mostly through a prairie country, where there 
 is not much wood, yet I doubt not that she can 
 pick up a good deal here and there on the 
 prairie. And not only her packing-strap, but 
 she has her woman s ax to cut it if any of the 
 pieces are larger than she can carry. Yet all 
 that would have been useless to her, for although 
 she has a flint and steel with her, they say that 
 she would never be able to start a fire if we had 
 not made this one for her here. 
 
 "Yes," said Sky-go ing-about, "there was that 
 
THE OJIBWAY 53 
 
 wretched old Big Bear. All the people hated 
 him because he was such a miserable old scoun 
 drel, and when he died none of them would make 
 a fire for him ; even his old woman, she was the 
 only one of the family left, he had lost all his 
 children because he was so bad, even she said, 
 Why should I make a fire for that wretched old 
 fellow ? I have been making fires for him all my 
 life, packing wood on my back till it is almost 
 broken, and all the thanks I got for it Was to hit 
 me over the head with an ax-helve, till he cut me 
 through the scalp. That he did many a year 
 and day; now let him make fire for himself or 
 go without. That is what they say she said. I 
 did not hear her myself, but those who heard her 
 told it to me; and they say that what that old 
 man suffered, three nights without a fire on his 
 wny to the villages of the dead, and in the very 
 coldest of the winter, and in deep snow, was be 
 yond everything! Some of the Indians, it 
 seems, went there afterwards in dreams, and saw 
 the old man there, and heard all about it from 
 him and the others, and they say it was just 
 awful! But served him just right, " she contin 
 ued, raising her voice; "nothing could be too 
 bad for him, he was so mean. Once he stole my 
 fish net full of fish, and I came on him just as 
 he was pulling the last of it out of the water 
 and packing it away in his canoe, and I 
 said to him, I wonder what has become of 
 my net. I set a net here last night, but 
 now I don t see anything of the floats. And 
 he said, as gruff as could be, I don t have 
 any nets, and I don t have anything to do with 
 
54 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 nets. Do you take me for an old woman, that 
 you speak to me about nets I But for all that I 
 saw the corner of that net tucked away in his 
 canoe, and they say that Four-Sky saw that 
 identical net afterwards with his old woman. 
 
 So the talk went on among the watchers, the 
 flames fitfully lighting up the near-by trees, 
 sometimes dying down, and then again showers 
 of sparks rising as they threw on a fresh supply 
 of wood, till, nearly at midnight, they went to 
 their respective wigwams, putting on before they 
 left, however, some good solid logs, which they 
 calculated would last till morning and keep the 
 dead girl warm all night. This they did every 
 night for three nights, when it was discontinued 
 because she had then arrived at the Villages of 
 the Dead. 
 
 During these days Yellow Thunder wandered 
 disconsolately and somewhat aimlessly around. 
 He endeavored to divert himself by hunting a 
 little; but he had no heart in it. He was evi 
 dently restless and unhappy. He avoided the 
 society of the other men, and their well-meant 
 efforts to rouse and cheer him fell flat. He was 
 invited by them to take part in the gambling in 
 which they were accustomed to spend much of 
 their time, but somehow he could not get up any 
 interest in the game. He was where they were 
 talking, but he did not seem to take in what they 
 said. There was something on his mind. In a 
 few days it took shape and showed itself. He 
 sent round to each wigwam by a messenger a 
 little tobacco (which was a letter), inviting them 
 
THE OJIBWAY 55 
 
 all to meet him on a certain day at the usual 
 place of assembly, the dance house. 
 
 It was now in the air that Yellow Thunder 
 had something to propose, and various were the 
 speculations as to what it could be. Some 
 thought one thing and some another, but all knew 
 that it was in some way connected with the death 
 of his only remaining child. There was an air 
 of expectancy in the village; even the children 
 knew that something was about to take place, 
 and the meeting was looked forward to with gen 
 eral interest. 
 
 When the appointed day and time came the 
 usual order of proceeding was observed. In 
 dians always approach a thing slowly and by 
 regular steps ; nothing is hastily blurted out, for 
 it would belittle it to treat it so ; but by giving a 
 dignified setting to the matter its importance is 
 enhanced. 
 
 First there was an inner circle of young men 
 singers and drummers, who sat with their faces 
 toward each other around the big drums. Out 
 side of these was a circle of chosen women sing 
 ers, whose shrill voices were allowed to come in, 
 in certain parts of the chant. They said of them 
 Sha-bo-we-wug " their voices pierce through." 
 Between the young men and. women chanters 
 and the next row outside, where nearly all the 
 men sat, there was a wide cleared space or ring, 
 and here it was that the dancers danced and the 
 orators spoke. Outside the men sat the rest of 
 the women, who, however, were not ajlpwed to 
 take part in the dance, nor in the discussion of 
 topics, but who were anxious to hear, and who, 
 
56 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 when the chant was once started, were allowed 
 to come in with their voices in aid. 
 
 First the drums gave an occasional sound, 
 then more and more frequently and loudly, their 
 throbbing causing an answering throb in every 
 heart. Then the young men around the drums 
 began a high-pitched chant, which gradually 
 descended to the lowest note. This was followed 
 by chants of a more and more rousing character ; 
 but still no one spoke or moved. There was a 
 short silence, then the drums began again witli 
 redoubled vigor, and the chanting was fast and 
 furious, and exacting. Here the women s high- 
 pitched voices came in. When the chanting and 
 drumming had reached their height, suddenly 
 all the men jumped up, and in the cleared space 
 between them and the singers began dancing. 
 They were dressed only in breech-cloths around 
 their loins; and wore feathers in their hair, and 
 their moccasins. They had provided themselves 
 with as many tinkling ornaments as they could 
 find, and these were tied to their legs, around 
 their waists, and various parts of their bodies. 
 These gave forth a tinkling sound as they moved 
 in the dance. They had also pieces of the skins 
 of animals tied around their legs above the calf, 
 some of them so long that they trailed on the 
 ground. Their faces and bodies were painted, 
 and their headgear of feathers the best they 
 could get up. Each carried in his hand a toma 
 hawk. The rapid motion and the music seemed 
 to excite their warlike passions for each was con 
 cerned with an enemy, whom he was spying or 
 pursuing, or killing. They further excited 
 
DANCE SONG. Ojibway. 
 
 M. M. = 96. 
 
 Transcribed and harmonized 
 by EDWIN S. TRACY. 
 
 3=iEEitt= P=! =E ^===^ :: 
 
 :fc_t__t=:p=- g-t=t_ f __t=^__ = z5z: 
 
 * ^ 9 ^~ ^" j " n" ~ I ^^~~^ ~i H r^ i i^^ 11 ^ 
 
 f f ^-^r~ ^ >-- " -4- g ^ g~ ^ y == i ==: 
 
 r ^tr fT^ 
 
 LLrr 1 1_ i L^_ 
 
 
58 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 themselves with rapid interjections and whoops 
 as they danced. 
 
 After perhaps ten minutes of this they all at 
 once ceased, the music stopped, and the dancers 
 sat down in their places. There was quiet for a 
 space for them to take breath, then the music 
 started up again. Again they sprang up, and 
 the same performance was gone through with. 
 Then after an interval a young man arose alone 
 and danced. He was beautifully formed as 
 Apollo, and he trod the earth with a sense 
 of conscious power, like a lord of creation. His 
 moccasined feet seemed scarcely to touch the 
 ground, so light and graceful w as his motion. 
 Soon he sighted an enemy, drew his knife, and 
 pursued him. He followed him in and out 
 through all his windings and dodgings, always 
 with an appearance of supreme and masterful 
 power and ease upon his face, at last caught 
 him, took hold of him, despatched him with his 
 knife, took off the scalp, and held it up, in tri 
 umph. Victor was written upon every line of 
 his face. 
 
 The time had now come for the matter about 
 which they had been called to be disclosed, and 
 Yellow Thunder stepped into the arena. 
 
 "My friends," he said, "you all know the 
 grief that has come to me in the loss of my 
 daughter. She was my only remaining child. 
 Now my wife and I are entirely stripped of 
 everything ; we have nothing left but our bodies. 
 You all know how I feel, for you have nearly all 
 lost children yourselves. It is as if some one 
 had struck me a heavy blow with a stick. I 
 
THE OJIBWAY 59 
 
 dearly loved my only child, and I did everything 
 I could to save her. A little while ago I had 
 considerable wealth. Now it is all gone, and 
 as I said we have nothing left but our bodies. 
 But I do not begrudge our wealth to the Medi 
 cine-men, and I am not blaming them, because 
 they did the best they could. The Great Spirit, 
 I suppose, has given them power to cure sick 
 ness, and they can nearly always do it, only 
 sometimes, when a person is fairly destined to 
 death, they cannot do it. And now, my friends, 
 I want to do something to divert myself from my 
 grief. I want to have a change. If I go into 
 our wigwam here, I see the little toys and things 
 that our child played with, and it brings my grief 
 back afresh. If I go out of doors it is the same ; 
 there are the places where she used to play. 
 80 I think if I could get off somewhere, and see 
 different scenes, it would divert my mind from 
 my grief, and that I would be able to live. And 
 you know, my friends, what our ancestors taught 
 us as to what was becoming to do for the dead, 
 and how we could show proper honor to them. 
 As for us, we know nothing; we have lived too 
 short a time upon the earth. But they fetched 
 their wisdom from afar; they had lived long, 
 and it had been handed down to them from gen 
 eration to generation of those who had lived 
 before them. You know what they told us, as 
 to how to properly honor the dead; to take 
 something belonging to the dead, a toy perhaps, 
 or some little thing, or best of all a lock of their 
 hair, and put it among the warm bowels of a 
 slain enemy. Now my heart feels bad ; I have lost 
 
GO THE OJIBWAY 
 
 my only child; it seems to me that if I do not 
 do something I cannot live. I wish I could kill 
 somebody* and then I think my heart would feel 
 good. And I wish to do proper honor to my 
 child, the last thing I can ever do for her. I 
 have got some of her hair and I wish to put it 
 where our, ancestors instructed us it is seemly to 
 put it. And that is why I have called you to 
 gether, my friends, to ask your permission to go, 
 and take with me one or two others. I do not 
 wish to lead a great war-party of a hundred, but 
 to go quietly, as it were, on a private scout of 
 my own. I wish to see different scenes, to get 
 away from here for a while, and to do the last 
 honors to my child. " 
 
 After this address the drums and the chanting 
 started up again, and the men sprang to their 
 feet and resumed the dance, and everything was 
 again in a whirl. Then after a time silence once 
 more supervened, and all again sat listening. 
 One of the chiefs now arose and told them they 
 had heard what Yellow Thunder had to say, and 
 what he wished to do, and that his heart and his 
 intention were evidently very good, wishing to 
 do what their wise ancestors had recommended 
 to be done for the dead, if it could be. That this 
 was a matter that concerned them all, and there 
 fore he wished those who could to speak their 
 minds upon it, that the matter being viewed in 
 all lights they might find the right thing to do. 
 
 Again the music and dancing were in full 
 
 * This may seem strange logic to white people, how killing some 
 one else could make Yellow Thunder s sad heart feel good. And 
 the connection between the two ideas may not seem at all plain to 
 us ; but Is strictly in accordance with Indian ideas, and is a 
 perfectly natural connection to them. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 61 
 
 blast, and again there was silence in the Council. 
 And now rose up Sha-bosh-kunk He-who-over- 
 comes-overy thing and addressed them. He 
 was a middle-sized, sharp-nosed man, with an 
 appearance of outspokenness and candor in 
 all he said. He was dressed in the usual moc 
 casins and breech-cloth, with a head-gear of 
 grandeur, and a skunk-skin tied round each leg 
 below the knee, the ends of which trailed in the 
 dust. As he was rather warm with the whoop 
 ing and jumping of the dance, he had laid aside 
 his tomahawk and taken a goose s wing, with 
 which he fanned himself. 
 
 "My friends/ he began, "my soul is just as 
 white as the whitest piece of cloth you ever saw 
 in your life." When he said this and made a 
 pause it set his auditors to thinking. They re 
 membered various things that he had acquired 
 from them at different times by curious arts; 
 how he had got the advantage of them very fre 
 quently by sharp practices, and had manifested 
 generally a selfish spirit, unscrupulously disre 
 garding the rights of others when it could safely 
 be carried out. They remembered many per 
 sons who had suffered from him in various ways. 
 They remembered also very queer things in his 
 past and present matrimonial arrangements ; and 
 though they had no certain rule or canon on mat 
 rimonial subjects, and therefore nothing by 
 which to condemn such actions, yet now when he 
 
 * It Is a very usual way with Indians, when beginning a speech, 
 to lay first a broad fundamental platform, and on that to erect 
 the superstructure : to establish a general principle, and from that 
 to deduce particulars. The particular principle which he aimed 
 to establish here was the goodness of his life, his worth as a man, 
 and, as a corollary from that, that his opinion should have weight 
 and should decide. 
 
62 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 professed such whiteness of soul it brought these 
 things to their mind. It is true that Indian po 
 liteness never allowed the least allusion to these 
 things, nor was he ever reminded of them by 
 word or look, and was received in society in all 
 respects as if these things had never been; yet 
 still they remembered them even though their 
 desire to make all things easy and pleasant in 
 intercourse with each other occasioned the prac 
 tical exclusion of them from consideration.* 
 
 Having thus laid down his platform Sha-bosh- 
 kunk proceeded to erect his superstructure : 
 
 " Indeed, my friends, we all know that what 
 Yellow Thunder has said is very good ; and that 
 what he quoted from our ancestors as to the 
 proper way of honoring the dead is very good, 
 when it is expedient to be done. And we know 
 that his heart is good in wishing to go and kill 
 an enemy to assuage his grief. We would all of 
 us feel so if we were in his case. But, my 
 friends, it is not expedient at this time, for it 
 may cause the destruction of all of us. Look 
 now, my friends. How many do we number 
 here in Gull Lake? Perhaps 400 or 500. How 
 many do the Sioux number, whom he proposes 
 to go and kill ? We have never been to their vil 
 lages, but from what we can learn they number 
 many thousands. We know their villages are 
 everywhere; at the mouth of Greenleaf River 
 (St. Paul) ; a great many villages at the head 
 waters of the Minnesota Elver ; a great many at 
 Chief Mountain. It is true there are also other 
 
 For It Is a rule of the Indian s life to make Intercourse wltb 
 each other pleasant, and In obedience to that no man ever loses 
 caste or Is ostracized, no matter what he does. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 63 
 
 villages of the jib ways, l>ut what good will that 
 do us? We are here two sleeps (2 days march) 
 from Leech Lake, Indian village ; and nearly as 
 far from Mille Lacs in the other direction; and 
 if we arouse the Sioux we shall all be killed be 
 fore they can hear of it, or come to our succour. 
 
 "And there is one thing I can tell you about 
 those Sioux; they have sharp eyes. And al 
 though a party may go down from here and kill 
 some of them, and think that those Sioux will 
 not know from what place the killers come, they 
 are mistaken. No matter how secretly they do 
 it, those Sioux will find out whence they came; 
 will track them home. They will find they came 
 from this village, and that will draw their fire 
 on us. If we would let the Sioux alone they 
 would let us alone. That is why they keep kill 
 ing us, because we keep killing them. Some say 
 it is best to keep killing them off; but I think 
 their numbers are so great that it will not be 
 possible for us ever seriously to reduce them; 
 and we, the smaller, will all be killed off before 
 half of them are. And there is Mesa-zibi (The- 
 everywhere-river) leading straight from them to 
 us; a highway, to our doors, and they have 
 plenty of canoes. 
 
 " So if Yellow Thunder and his party go down 
 there the result will be that they will ask, who 
 are these that come killing us ! And not two or 
 three, but some hundreds of them, will make us 
 a return visit, and then four or five days after 
 we have all been killed, perhaps the Leech Lake 
 or Mille Lac Ojibways will hear of it by some 
 survivor who has escaped from the slaughter, 
 
64 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and will come here to find our bodies, without 
 any heads, lying here and there about our vil 
 lage; for our heads the Sioux will have collected 
 in bags, and taken them to show to their relatives 
 about the Yellow Medicine country, or on the? 
 river which we hear exists, the river of the Great 
 White Clay Banks (the Missouri Eiver). And 
 here are these children playing about here. 
 Perhaps they are your children, or perhaps 
 mine. If we wish them to live, let us let those 
 Sioux alone. But if we wish to have their 
 brains knocked out on these trees and scattered 
 about, just let Yellow Thunder and his compan 
 ions go down there and stir up that hornet s 
 nest to come back at us. We know what death 
 ly terror falls on us sometimes if we find even a 
 Sioux moccasin in our vicinity. Then what will 
 it be if he go wantonly to provoke them, when 
 they are not molesting us?" 
 
 When Sha-bosh-kunk concluded, the drum 
 mers and chanters started up the music again, 
 and soon all the men, springing up, were leap 
 ing and dancing as before. When they had 
 danced awhile they suddenly ceased and sat 
 down, and perfect stillness reigned, inducing re 
 flection and affording an opportunity for further 
 light to be thrown on the subject under discus 
 sion. 
 
 The subject had thus been fairly put before 
 them in both aspects, by the two addresses which 
 had been made, and it was for them to decide; 
 and choose they must, one way or other. It 
 was a matter which concerned them all, and, as 
 they saw, might be productive of consequences 
 
THE OJIBWAY 65 
 
 to them all. And so every mind was working to 
 arrive at the proper decision, and the intent 
 faces, and eyes fixed on the earth, and winking 
 eyelids, showed how intently they were consider 
 ing it. Even the women, though the decision 
 did not rest with them, and though they were al 
 lowed no voice in the matter, were thinking very 
 hard over it. Indians never do anything but 
 with great deliberation and after Ions: consid 
 ering it in the best light they have. Here was 
 their little world endeavoring to find out if it 
 was advisable for Yellow Thunder and his com 
 panions to go, and, if possible, kill some Sioux. 
 
 With the Sioux they had been at war for un 
 known generations, and it was always death to 
 one or the other whenever they met. The name 
 by which they call the Sioux contains a world of 
 meaning, and history. Thev are the A-bwa- 
 nug, or Bwa-nug, Roasters, from their habit of 
 roasting Ojibway captives, when they did not kill 
 them outright. These Ojibways lived about five 
 days march from their enemies, so they rarelv 
 met, except when they sought each other; though 
 sometimes they both went to hunt on the border 
 land of their respective territories, and then they 
 met, and death held a revel. 
 
 So they thought and thought, and wrestled 
 with the subject according to the best light they 
 had. There were many speeches about it, each 
 preceded and followed by a dance; and while a 
 few were of Sha-bosh-kunk s mind, the great 
 majority thought Yellow Thunder s proposition 
 right and good. They finally came to the con 
 clusion that the custom of their ancestors was 
 
66 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 most laudable; that Yellow Thunder should be 
 allowed to show proper respect to his dead child, 
 and that his heart being now hot and inflamed 
 with grief, he had a right to cool it if he could 
 with the blood of their enemies. 
 
 Formal permission was therefore given. And 
 now arose the question as to his two companions. 
 That was soon settled. Up rose an elderly man, 
 Ogema the Chief with a set, determined coun 
 tenance, who had often been on war parties, and 
 announced that he would go. He had often, he 
 said, looked the foreign Indians in the face, and 
 heard their war whoops, and felt their bullets 
 and their arrows whizzing about him, and he 
 was anxious to hear them again. He was an 
 approved warrior, and was allowed to go. 
 
 To the surprise of all there arose for the third 
 party, Good-Sounding-Sky, the Great Grand 
 Medicine-Man, and declared that he would go. 
 He was usually so much occupied with his drum 
 ming and chanting and calling on the spirits, 
 and shaking his rattle over the sick, and with the 
 other functions of his profession, that he rarely 
 went even hunting, and had never yet gone to 
 war. An exclamation of surprise went round 
 the group when he rose. " Good-Sounding- 
 Sky I 19 they said; but he was accepted and the 
 party was complete. 
 
 When the council had broken up and dis 
 persed to their homes, a friend of Sha-bosh- 
 kunk s asked him, with much interest, why he 
 had opposed Yellow Thunder s going, something 
 that seemed inexplicable to him. 
 
 " Because, " said he, "I wish to go myself. I 
 
THE OJIBWAY 67 
 
 am not yet quite ready to go, but I intend to as 
 soon as I get ready, and I do not wish that man 
 to go down there before me and reap that honor 
 which I intend for myself. I do not like that man 
 very well, and I do not wish him to come back 
 here with a big reputation of having killed Sioux 
 and brought their scalps ; for that is an honor 
 which I intend for myself. So I opposed him." 
 
 Good-Sounding-Sky s wife had not been pres 
 ent at the council. She had been off with her 
 net fishing, a branch of industry which, like 
 many others, is reserved by the Ojibways exclu 
 sively for women. It was with great surprise 
 that she heard that her husband was going to 
 war, so she sought him. 
 
 "So you are going to war," she said, with 
 something of a half-scornful and half-compas 
 sionate laugh. "Well, I have compassion on you, 
 though you are a good-for-nothing old man, and 
 I dp not want you to go down there and be killed. 
 It is true you are good-for-nothing. Here she 
 turned around and gave a hunch with her elbow 
 to the woman who sat beside her, and made a 
 face at her. "All you are good for is drum, 
 drum, drumming on your mitigwakik (medicine 
 drum). You scare away all the game from the 
 vicinity, she said, raising her voice to a shout, 
 "by the noise you make, so that no deer or moose 
 can be found near this place. You are of no use 
 to me," here she made another face at the 
 woman next her, "you never bring any meat in 
 here, and I have to support you. And yet I don t 
 want you to go there, and the Sioux kill you, 
 poor old man." Here she put her hands on his 
 
68 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 shoulders and looked in his face, with an endear 
 ing look which was not feigned. 
 
 "Oh nonsense," said he; "the Sioux will 
 never kill me. 
 
 1 What do you wish to go down there for any 
 way ?" she asked. 
 
 "Well," he replied, "I wish to have a great 
 reputation, the same as all the others wish it. It 
 is true I am far the foremost in the Grand Med 
 icine, and they all look up to me in that; but I 
 have never been to war, and when all the men 
 meet in council, as we did today, a great many of 
 them have eagle s feathers in their hair, one for 
 each enemy they have killed, and I have none. 
 Iwant to be equal to them in that respect, and 
 then with my pre-eminence in the Grand Medi 
 cine I shall be the foremost man in all respects. 
 I long to be a great celebrity, and I am going on 
 this expedition to achieve it. 
 
 "But see now," said she, "very likely a Sioux 
 will get your head and tie it to his girdle. Very 
 likely he will mock your head, and flout at it. 
 Very likely that Sioux will spit at it, and al 
 though you are a poor, worthless old man," 
 here she turned round and made another face at 
 her woman companion, "I don t wish you any 
 thing so bad as that. Had you not better stay 
 here, and just drum on your drum, and keep 
 your head on?" 
 
 1 i Oh, there is no fear of any Sioux getting my 
 head, he said. * Look here, and I will tell you. 
 When I was a young man, just growing up, I 
 went away and fasted a long fast, as my parents 
 told me to do, that I might have a vision for the 
 direction of my future life. Well, I fasted 
 
THE OJIBWAY 69 
 
 and fasted. For five days and nights I did not 
 taste a mouthful of food; nothing but a little 
 water, and very little of that. And at last, when 
 I was almost swooning, I saw; a vision. The 
 Great Spirit appeared to me, and with Him He 
 had two sticks, crutches, and some white hair 
 like a white horse s hair, and He said to me : I 
 have seen your fasting and I have pity on you. 
 I give you these two sticks for crutches, and I 
 give you this white hair. I give you to live so 
 long that your hair will be as white as this and 
 that you will need these crutches to go when in 
 extreme old age. Now I am sure that no Sioux 
 can kill me, and that I shall live till my hair is as 
 white as snow, and till I shall hardly be able to 
 walk for feebleness. " 
 
 This conference over, the good woman ceased 
 to dissuade her "old man," as she called him, 
 though he was not over thirty years of age, and 
 preparations for the departure were begun. A 
 canoe was provided, together with three guns 
 
 * To understand this it is necessary to know that every young 
 man and woman, but especially the former, is incited by their 
 parents, when approaching manhood or womanhood, to enter on a 
 long fast in order to see some vision by which the whole course 
 of their future life shall very largely be ruled. The parent offers 
 the child in one hand charcoal, to black his face, and in the other 
 food, and when he chooses the former and rejects the latter, 
 commends him. The person then either makes a nest for himself 
 in a tree, or retirs to the top of a rock or mountain, or some 
 solitary place, and there enters on his fast. He is directed to 
 look very particularly for some vision, as of some animal, or 
 clouds, or something which will disclose to him his future life, 
 and what he must do. Some attain to five, six, or even ten days 
 of total fasting before the desired vision is seen. Very often It is 
 some animal, as the bear, buffalo, etc. And in that case the per 
 son is careful always to wear on his body a piece of the skin of 
 that animal : and he looks on it as his guardian spirit, who 
 will deliver him from danger, and lend him all its qualities, 
 as swiftness to escape from foes, cunning to outwit them, or 
 strength to oppose them in the hour of need. Hence every war 
 rior is found to wear a piece of some skin, as buffalo, connected 
 with his fasting dream or vision, and upon that he relies to 
 deliver him from danger. 
 
70 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and ammunition, and some wild rice; but flesh 
 they were expected to find for themselves by the 
 way. The whole village was now in a state of 
 some excitement about their departure. As a 
 necessary preliminary there was the "Minisino- 
 wikondiwin," the Warrior s Feast, for those 
 about to go to war. Eight were invited, al 
 ways an even number, and a whole roasted 
 animal, as the rule prescribed, was set before 
 them, which must all be eaten, as there would 
 have been grievous breach of rule should any 
 of it be left. Cups of bear s grease were, ac 
 cording to the rule, given for their drink, to 
 make them strong-hearted. Each guest must eat 
 all that was set before him on his birch-bark dish, 
 and if he found himself utterly unable to do so, 
 he was allowed to give an offering of tobacco to 
 the host to allow some one else to eat it for him. 
 Our three warriors did the best they could with 
 their portions, which were not small, but had to 
 implore their host to let them call someone else 
 to finish, saying that if that privilege were not 
 accorded them their war expedition would end 
 right there by bursting. However, the host 
 graciously accepted the tobacco, and the privi 
 lege was allowed. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FORTUNES OF WAK. 
 
 And now the day of embarkation came, and 
 the three whom the gliding water was to bear to 
 their destiny stood paddle in hand, ready to step 
 into their canoe. Old friends came running 
 down the bank, many of them bearing what 
 looked like images, or dolls, wrapped in clothing, 
 all but the head, and entreated them to take them 
 and dispose of them as honor to the dead re 
 quired.* Many women now came running down 
 with these in their arms, and tried to have the 
 voyagers take them. "Here, take this, of my 
 child, and give it the proper honor if you can. 
 See how light it is. It will be no incumbrance 
 to you. Put it in the bowels if you can; but if 
 you cannot, at least throw it away on the field of 
 battle. Now, will you do that for me? We are 
 old friends and neighbors; we have lived long 
 together. I beg you do that for me. Will you 
 now?" So they were entreated again and 
 again, and begged and coaxed. It was hard to 
 
 * When an Indian woman s child dies, she makes a muzin-lni, 
 or image of it, about the size of a small child, the face exposed, 
 the body wrapped round with many clothes and expensive bead 
 work ; and this she keeps for a year in the wigwam. It occupies 
 the place in the wigwam which the deceased child had, and it is 
 regularly offered food, the hair is combed, and it is treated with 
 the greatest affection and respect. It is her memorial of the dead 
 loved one. It is kept for a year, or until it can be thrown away 
 on the field of battle. 
 
?2 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 refuse; but oh, so many requests of that sort! 
 "I think I shall be made crazy by so many com 
 missions of this kind," said old Ogema. 
 
 At last the final preparations were made, and 
 the men, pushing against the bank with their pad 
 dles, shoved off and were afloat. And now the 
 last calls were borne to them across the water 
 from the assembled Indians. Ayangwamiziuk 
 was the word most often heard, which may be 
 translated "Take the greatest care"; "now 
 nerve yourselves"; "now be on your guard"; 
 for it means all these. There were many cries ; 
 all of encouragement, exhortation, warning. 
 "Now tighten your belts to the very last hole to 
 strain yourselves," shouted one old superannu 
 ated warrior. "To strain yourselves," that is, 
 to make a supreme effort. 
 
 Their paddles were now flashing in the sun, 
 and soon they entered the stream which drained 
 their lake, and behind a point of land were hid 
 den from sight. All of a sudden from the midst 
 of life, from an excited multitude, from discord 
 ant cries, from the haunts of men, they were in a 
 lonely wilderness. For days and days they 
 would see no human being, nor sign of human 
 life. They felt, as they drew down that silent 
 river, as if they had parted from life, as if they 
 had entered on a totally different existence. 
 The dangers and the toils of the enterprise on 
 which they had entered, for the first time came 
 home to them. 
 
 Ogema, a seasoned veteran, was the first to 
 recover himself. I wonder what we shall meet 
 before we again see Gull Lake Village, he said. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 73 
 
 He said it not in fear, but he knew that the 
 course of events would unfold surprises. 
 
 The stream down which they floated was about 
 two lengths of their canoe in width. The banks 
 were high and somewhat sloping, and in some 
 places overarching pines almost roofed it over. 
 Soon the stream brought them to the Mesa-zi-bi 
 (The Everywhere-river), here a sylvan stream, 
 and their canoe danced out on to its broad bos 
 om. It ran in great bends, so that they could not 
 see any great distance ahead. Round each bend 
 was a new scene spread out before them, ever 
 varying, ever beautiful. By this time the de 
 clining sun told them it was time to camp, so 
 drawing up their canoe on the bank they took 
 the ax, and soon its sound was a new feature in 
 that lonely wilderness. A fire was soon blazing, 
 their pots and kettles upon it, and supper was 
 cooking. Then followed supper, served in 
 birch-bark dishes on the ground. Then their 
 long-stemmed pipes were brought out, and filled 
 with the mixture of the inner bark of the red wil 
 low and a little tobacco, and there was sociability 
 and enjoyment. Yellow Thunder and Good- 
 Sounding-Sky had by this time recovered from 
 the temporary dampening of their spirits that 
 followed the parting from their friends, and all 
 were cheerful and happy. The former felt that 
 the load of his grief was already rolling from his 
 back, in the diversion of his thoughts to new 
 channels. They had no fear of enemies where 
 they were, so their camp-fire was a conspicuous 
 signal far up and down the river. They talked 
 of their village, of their friends, of hunting 
 
74 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 scrapes, and Ogema told episodes of his event 
 ful life when on war parties. They watched the 
 moon sailing overhead, and the river gently 
 gliding at their feet. By and by they slept, and 
 there were three forms that looked like mum 
 mies, head and feet all wrapped in blankets, 
 around the fire. 
 
 It is needless to detail the days during which 
 their canoe glided down the silent, beautiful 
 river. It was a sylvan stream of very trans 
 lucent water, flowing through gently-sloping 
 banks, covered with the richest verdure. Count 
 less wild flowers perfumed the air, for it was 
 now the end of May. In some places the banks 
 were timbered with pines and other trees, but on 
 the left bank it was mostly prairie. When they 
 drew up their canoe at noon they could look 
 from the high bank over a rolling sea of verdure 
 interspersed with beautiful groves. What a 
 lovely place for the hunter to live in. There 
 was the grove to shelter his wigwam and furnish 
 him with fuel; there was the green prairie for 
 his little children to play on; there were the ani 
 mals near by to furnish him with food; there 
 was the river whence his wife could bring the 
 gleaming fish; there was everything but an 
 owner. 
 
 Once Good-Sounding-Sky rose early in the 
 morning, about the rising of the sun, his two 
 companions still lying motionless as the dead, 
 and from the high bank where their camp was, 
 surveyed the scene. There was the peaceful 
 river flowing gently at his feet; there was the 
 prairie bathed in dew, glistening in the morning 
 
THE OJIBWAY 75 
 
 sun ; there were the deer and elk feeding, uncon 
 scious of man y s vicinity. The winds were hushed, 
 some birds were calling from the river, and 
 peace was upon all. There was neither sin nor 
 sorrow there, but everything fresh and beauti 
 ful. 
 
 The wilderness supplied them liberally with 
 food during the five days they were floating 
 along. Game of all kinds they had in abund 
 ance, and adding the wild rice they had brought 
 with them made delicious food. Once they heard 
 a deer snorting (or whatever the sound may be 
 called), and they saw him standing out plainly 
 as they went round a point. Good-Sounding-Sky 
 fired at him three times at close range, but he 
 kept his ground, still defiantly snorting. That 
 deer was a Manido, a god, something supernatu 
 ral about him, for bullets had no power over 
 him ; so they passed by and left him triumphant 
 ly snorting there still. Had they persisted in 
 trying to kill him against the manifest will of 
 the spirits, some mischief would have befallen 
 them. 
 
 For the first four days they took no precau 
 tions, having no fear of meeting enemies. But 
 on the fifth day there was an under-current of 
 watchfulness. When turning a bend of the river 
 conversation ceased, and all eyes were directed 
 to what that reach of the river would disclose. 
 Where they slept the night before, the canoe was 
 carried inland and hidden, and they made their 
 fire some distance from the bank and extin 
 guished it with water after they had cooked the 
 evening meal, that no curling snake might dis 
 close their presence. 
 
76 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 The following day there was a feeling of anx 
 iety, and when evening came Ogema, with the 
 caution of an old warrior, took means to ascer 
 tain the whereabouts of the enemy. Yellow 
 Thunder was sent ahead a little space from the 
 camp to prepare the Pushquacumiginagun, the- 
 cleared-piece-of -ground, " on which the Onza- 
 bunzichigun, l i the-divining-instrument-whence- 
 a-view-is-made, was to be. This he did by tak 
 ing up the turf from a piece of ground in the 
 form of a parallelogram, and then making the 
 earth soft, like a flower-bed in a garden. He 
 then fenced it about with brush that no one 
 might step on it. There was suspended over 
 the place of divination on a pole the offerings 
 which they had brought to sacrifice, some pieces 
 of bright red cloth, and other precious things, 
 also all the "muzininig," or images of the dead, 
 with which they had been entrusted. When he 
 had reported it prepared, Ogema came and took 
 his station upon it and commenced his divina 
 tion, singing and praying to the Great Spirit that 
 he would show him how to lead his men away 
 from danger, and to a successful accomplishment 
 of their enterprise. He was heard thus singing 
 and praying during a great part of the night by 
 his two companions in camp. Often they fell 
 into a fitful slumber, and each time they awoke 
 there was Ogenra still singing and praying. They 
 were anxious by this time, knowing that on the 
 accuracy of Ogema s divination depended their 
 lives, as they knew they were in the vicinity of 
 enemies, yet knew not just where they were. 
 
 In the middle of the night they heard his voice 
 loudly calling them to come, and they knew that 
 
THE OJIBWAY 77 
 
 he had made a discovery of some sort. He had 
 taken his seat at the beginning beside the part of 
 the parallelogram farthest from the enemy, but 
 facing them, and on the side of it farthest from 
 him he had placed two round, smooth stones. 
 These stones had now moved across to his side 
 without his volition, he said, and under the influ 
 ence of his medicine songs and prayers, leaving 
 two deep tracks across the soft earth. And it 
 was by the course of these tracks that the posi 
 tion of the enemy was to be ascertained. Good- 
 Sounding-Sky and Yellow Thunder looked care 
 fully at the tracks as desired, but were not clear 
 as to just what they indicated. Then it was that 
 Ogema announced the result. Said he : 
 
 "I see by this that to-morrow, if we keep on 
 down the river, a little before noon we shall be 
 in a reach of the river looking to the southeast, 
 with oak timber on the right-hand side as we go, 
 and prairie on the left, but with a piece of tim 
 ber coming down to the river about the middle 
 of the reach, through the midst of which timber 
 a creek flows into this river. In the mouth of 
 that creek we shall find a hunting party of Sioux 
 in four large wooden canoes, and if we pass by 
 it we shall all be killed. "* 
 
 A consultation was then held about this alarm 
 ing prediction, and it was determined to go cau 
 tiously down the river till near noon, then draw 
 
 * The above statement of Ogema predicting just where the enemy 
 would be seen may seem strange to the reader, nevertheless it is 
 true that the leader of a war party, called by them Ma-ya-o-say- 
 win-in-i, or the-one-who-walks-in-front, after using the means above 
 described, made some very wonderful predictions as to the hour 
 of the day when they would sight the enemy, their numbers, the 
 kind of p lace where it would be, as a grove, small prairie, etc., 
 which predictions turned out to be most wonderfully correct. 
 
78 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 out and hide the canoe, carefully obliterating all 
 trace of its having been taken out ; then stealthily 
 go down among the woods on the opposite side 
 from the creek, if creek there were, till opposite 
 its mouth, and then see what was to be seen. 
 
 The next morning there was not much conver 
 sation in the canoe; a sense of danger produc 
 ing alertness and silence. Before noon the head 
 of a bend of the river, which seemed to answer 
 to the description, was reached. The canoe was 
 taken out and hidden, and the party proceeding 
 cautiously onward through the thick timber, saw 
 in the mouth of a creek on the opposite bank a 
 large party of the dreaded Sioux cooking their 
 noon-day meal. With fascinated eyes they 
 watched them from among the thick leaves ; saw 
 them, on the conclusion of their meal, throw 
 their utensils into their canoes and proceed up 
 the river. It was an anxious moment when they 
 passed the spot where the canoe had been taken 
 out, lest any bended grass or disturbed twigs 
 should betray the secret; but the marks had been 
 too carefully obliterated, and loudly talking 
 and laughing the Sioux passed on up the river. 
 The canoe journey was now resumed, with ex 
 treme caution. They were near, what they called 
 Kichi-kakabikang, At-the-Great-Fall, the Falls 
 of St Anthony ; and it was known that there was 
 a large village of Sioux west of there, and not 
 far off. 
 
 At last the vicinity of the Fall was reached, 
 and there the canoe was taken from the water 
 and hidden in the woods for good. Extreme cau 
 tion was now necessary, for they might run 
 
THE OJIBWAY 79 
 
 across enemies any moment. But Ogema, who 
 had been there before, piloted them under the 
 shadow of the deep woods, through dense under 
 brush at times, and partly by night, for a dis 
 tance of ten miles, until they peered through the 
 thick leaves at the teepees of Little Crow s Sioux 
 village, on the bank of the Mississippi, where 
 the city of St. Paul now stands. Ogema had 
 led them to the very central village of their 
 foes. 
 
 As they lay on their faces on the ground 
 among the dense undergrowth, they watched 
 with keenest interest the motions of their ene 
 mies. They were so near that they could hear 
 them talking, could even distinguish their fea 
 tures, could see them go in and out and observe 
 all they did. The little children were playing 
 about with their bows and arrows, and the 
 women were engaged in tanning hides, and in 
 their various avocations. 
 
 There was a large village, situated on a high 
 bluff, at the foot of which rolled the Mississippi, 
 here almost doubled in size by the emptying into 
 it of the Minnesota River (Green-leaf River, the 
 Ojibways call it) five miles above. There was 
 the path which ran down into the ravine, which 
 they followed to the river for water, because the 
 high bank on which their village Was situated 
 was so nearly perpendicular that no path lay 
 that way. The Ojibways noticed that the village 
 looked very different from theirs. Instead of 
 wigwams of birch bark, these teepees were of 
 buffalo hide. They noticed that the Sioux 
 Women s way of housekeeping was in many 
 
80 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ways different from theirs. The make of their 
 clothes was also different. Their voices had an 
 unfamiliar tone. There were a great many more 
 ponies tied everywhere about. There were quan 
 tities of buffalo hides everywhere being tanned, 
 the women working at dressing them. These 
 were buffalo Indians. 
 
 It was strange to them to be thus in the pres 
 ence of those in whose presence it was death to 
 be, and to be watching their every movement. 
 There was a strange fascination about it, and 
 they did not for a long time even wish to bring 
 the matter to a close by doing what they came 
 for, so interested were they in all they saw. 
 
 When they had thus spent a great part of the 
 day in observing, and considering the lay of 
 the land, and how they could best get a favora 
 ble opportunity for securing the much-coveted 
 scalps, they withdrew some distance into the 
 thickest recesses of the woods, in a place where 
 they were sure the Sioux never went, and dis 
 cussed what they were to do. They agreed that 
 it was hopeless to rush into the village and kill 
 by daylight. There were plenty of men there, 
 with guns all loaded, and they had no chance 
 to do that and get out alive. They also agreed 
 that to attack at daylight, the Indian s favorite 
 time, would be equally certain to bring destruc 
 tion. Their enemies would start from sleep at 
 the first alarm, and overpower them before they 
 could make their escape. Ogema, indeed, was 
 inclined to try it. He told them that he had 
 noticed in hunting that if he was camped in the 
 open prairie among the animals, that just at 
 
THE OJIBWAY 81 
 
 the spring of day all animals were unwilling to 
 move, and seemed rather to prefer to be killed 
 than to violently exert themselves to escape at 
 that time, and that it was just so with human 
 beings. That just at break of day there was the 
 deepest sleep, and the greatest unwillingness to 
 move; and that they might break in, kill, scalp, 
 and get away before they got their senses gath 
 ered. But the others would not hear of it, as too 
 dangerous, or rather certain death, as the village 
 was so large. But there was one thing that they 
 had observed. There was a path not far from 
 where they had secreted themselves which led 
 back into the country, and by which the Sioux 
 undoubtedly brought in their wood. Some of 
 them would soon go out for wood, for they no 
 ticed that it was all cut off directly around the 
 village. That would be their chance. 
 
 Having very cautiously, in a hollow, cooked 
 themselves some ducks and partridges which 
 they had brought with them, and eating these 
 and some wild rice, they lay down to sleep and 
 to wait for the events of the morning. 
 
 The next day they resumed their watch of the 
 Indian village, but found no good opportunity. 
 A party did pass out by the path before spoken 
 of, but they were hunters, well armed, and too 
 strong for them. They had to content them 
 selves, therefore, with lying all day long watch 
 ing. The supply of food they had brought be 
 gan to run low, and their spirits fell correspond 
 ingly, for there was no telling how many days 
 they might have to wait before a favorable op 
 portunity came. They were hungry, cold, and 
 
82 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 uncomfortable, for they could not make much 
 fire for fear of being discovered. Good-Sound 
 ing-Sky began to reflect on the advice his wife 
 had given him, to be content with his glory as a 
 medicine man, and thought it was not so bad 
 after all. 
 
 But Ogema encouraged them, so they held 
 fast. After their hasty evening meal that day, 
 they thought they would go back and view the 
 Indian village by night, and went to their accus 
 tomed place of observation and hiding. The 
 Sioux had made large fires outside their teepees, 
 which lit up everything as light as day. They 
 were all out around them, talking, laughing and 
 sporting. By and by the Ojibways heard a 
 strange sound down the river. It seemed like a 
 prolonged sighing, and recurred again and 
 again, and drew nearer and nearer, and became 
 louder. They noticed that the Sioux also 
 observed it, for they turned toward it from their 
 sporting around the fire. The Ojibways now 
 heard with increased amazement, In addition to 
 the heavy sighing, a beating motion; and the 
 whole thing, whatever it was, drew ever nearer 
 and nearer. Was it some dreadful spirit of the 
 river, or what was it? Ever that prolonged 
 sighing and that rapid beating in the dark. The 
 tension on their nerves was great. Was it an 
 unknown monster that was approaching! Was 
 it a monster of the deep or a cannibal giant of 
 the land ? And now as it came nearer the terrors 
 of sight were added to those of sound, for the 
 monster came into actual sight. It was in the 
 water, and was swiftly approaching against the 
 
THE OJIBWAY 83 
 
 current. Its sides gleamed fire, and occasionally 
 it vomited showers of sparks from the top. This 
 terrific sight, added to the mysterious and 
 alarming sound, coming in the darkness of the 
 night, froze their very blood with terror. They 
 would have fled, but there was no power to flee. 
 They were in a strange land, a hostile country, 
 and now this thing came at them. 
 
 There was just one thing upon which, up to 
 this time, they had steadied themselves, and 
 which had heretofore saved them from the ex 
 tremity of panic, and that was, strange to say, 
 the Sioux. In spite of their extreme terror, they 
 noticed that the Sioux did not flee ; that they did 
 not even seem greatly afraid. That, and their 
 inability to flee, had till now held them in their 
 place. But now occurred the horrible catas 
 trophe. When directly opposite them in the 
 river, the thing, whatever it was, vomiting 
 smoke and flame, showing fire from all its sides, 
 and beating, beating in the water like a living 
 thing, all of a sudden let out the most unearthly 
 screech or croak, soul fearing and penetrating 
 enough to rend soul and body asunder. Before 
 they knew it the three warriors were up and 
 madly fleeing, stumbling over fallen logs, 
 stumps and roots ; not knowing where they went ; 
 anywhere to get away from that soul-piercing 
 shriek, that terrible monster. Their guns left 
 behind, their blankets too; only their bodies 
 they took with them. 
 
 They had kept together in their race by 
 a blind instinct, and they now cowered together 
 
84 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 for mutual protection. Ogema was the first to 
 recover command of himself. 
 
 "See," he said, "look at those Sioux; they 
 are there yet. Stop ! With that he seized his 
 two panting, struggling companions, and forci 
 bly held them. "Well, I never," he cried, be 
 ginning to recover from his panic; "I have 
 been down and the Sioux over me, hacking at 
 me with their tomahawks, and I never was 
 scared, never till this night; but this time my 
 very blood was chilled with fear." 
 
 "It seemed to me," said Yellow Thunder, 
 "that the very bottom fell out of my stomach 
 when that thing let out that roar. I was scared 
 before, but that finished me. 
 
 "Well," said Good-Sounding-Sky, "I am 
 trembling yet. I don t know how I got started, 
 but I think if you had not taken hold of me, 
 Ogema, I would have run on to Gull Lake!" 
 
 They now held a consultation as to what to do, 
 and what it could have been, and finally they 
 remembered that they had heard a rumor about 
 some new kind of contrivance of the white peo 
 ple for bringing supplies up to the fort not far 
 off, and concluded that that must be it. The 
 Sioux, they knew, must have seen it when it 
 came up before, and that was why they did not 
 flee. They then considered how disgraceful it 
 would be to them as warriors to leave their guns 
 and blankets, so they picked up courage to go 
 stealthily back and get them, after which they 
 withdrew for the night to their temporary hid 
 ing-place in the recesses of the wood. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE BLOW FALLS. 
 
 The next morning dawned sweet and beauti 
 ful over the Sioux village and the lovely scenes 
 of river, hill, and dale by which it was sur 
 rounded. But it brought with it the three Ojib- 
 ways, and from their accustomed place of am 
 bush their eyes were fastened upon the village. 
 They had explored the trail or path before spoken 
 of to see where it led to, and whether it would 
 afford a favorable opportunity for their design. 
 They found that it led, as they had supposed, 
 to a place where the Sioux chopped wood; and 
 that it ran along the bottom of a little plateau, 
 on the top of which they were, running in a half 
 circle round the base, so that they by running 
 back a little ways could, by a shorter interior 
 line, command any persons walking upon it, and 
 themselves, hidden in the underbrush, have them 
 in plain sight in the open at very short range. 
 They all agreed that if any persons came out 
 from the village by that wood-road they would 
 be easy victims, and that that was the place for 
 them to make their strike. 
 
 A Sioux man came out of one of the teepees 
 that morning and stood some time admiring the 
 scene. There was the broad river at his feet, 
 sleeping calmly in the morning sun and breath 
 less air. There on the other side were the 
 
86 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 meadows, and farther back the line of bluffs, all 
 clothed in the deepest green of May. There 
 around him were the teepees of the Sioux, and 
 back of them the dark woods. He did not think 
 that out of them, unknown to him, the sinister 
 eyes of death were already fastened upon him. 
 Thoughts of many things passed through his 
 mind, called up by the scene before him, and he 
 soliloquized : 
 
 "I think," said he, "that this is the fairest 
 spot on earth where we have our village. I have 
 seen many places, I have been up many days 
 journey to the head of this Minnesota River, 
 to the Yellow Medicine country where our rela 
 tives live, and I have been down this great river 
 some distance, and I never saw a spot so fair as 
 this. The two great rivers converge here, the 
 Minnesota and this great river, and here is the 
 centre of the earth. Those living off in other 
 places, no matter how beautiful they may be, 
 seem to me to be living in outlandish places. 
 Here we have everything. That river is full of 
 fish, and the little lakes back of us are full of 
 them we can get all we want. And not very far 
 back from that line of bluffs across the river, 
 on the green prairies, and among the groves are 
 black masses of buffalo. We have to ride on our 
 ponies but a little ways, and we are right among 
 them. Is there anything better than the buffalo 
 meat we have abundance of, and pemmican? 
 We are never cold, for the skins of those buffa 
 loes clothe us so warmly that no cold can pene 
 trate to us. And we have soft couches of buf 
 falo skins under us to lie on. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 87 
 
 Here he happened to raise his eyes to an island 
 a few miles up the river, near where the Minne 
 sota came in, and it aroused a train of reflec 
 tions. "I remember when the first Frenchmen 
 came here a few years ago they camped for the 
 night on the bank of the river opposite that 
 island, and in the middle of the night the buffa 
 loes came trampling down there in such immense 
 numbers that they were almost trampled to 
 death, and only escaped by taking to their 
 canoes and going over to that island. How we 
 Sioux laughed about it! Their tent was tram 
 pled into the ground and most of their goods 
 destroyed by the buffaloes. What a wonderful 
 supply of food we have in them! And there 
 are so many of them that I think they will last 
 while the world lasts. We kill all we want, and 
 there are just as many." 
 
 Then he lifted his eyes to a high point of land, 
 the sharp angle in the junction between the 
 Minnesota and the Mississippi Elvers, where 
 there were some buildings visible, and a flag, 
 and it started another train of reflections : 
 
 1 Those people were cunning in choosing that 
 commanding spot for their fort, just between 
 the two rivers, at their junction, for it is impos 
 sible to scramble up those steep banks and attack 
 it from any side except the rear. Some people 
 think that those people will some day come to 
 us, and that they will even take our lands from 
 us and drive us away, but I do not think so. 
 do not think we shall ever have any more of 
 them than we have now, just the few soldiers 
 in the fort. And why I think so is, for one 
 
88 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 reason, that I have been awav down this river 
 many days journey, and did not see one of them 
 the whole way. Only at the end of my journey, 
 the River- with-the-bar-at-the-mouth, (the Wis 
 consin River), I saw a few, and they only sol 
 diers in a fort, just as here. For many years 
 now there have been just so many of them and 
 no more. They don t get more numerous, so 
 I think they will remain just as they are now. 
 And then they could never get here. In winter 
 the river is frozen over, and that might afford 
 them a road to be sure; but there are so many 
 open and weak places in the ice where the water 
 runs swift, that they would certainly break 
 through and be drowned. It is as much as we 
 can do, who know every weak place, to keep out 
 of them. And then if they left the river and 
 tried to come by land there is no road; there is 
 thick timber, and countless ravines, and deep 
 rivers to cross, and they would never get here. 
 To be sure, in summer some of them might come 
 by that strange thing that came last night, the 
 fire-canoe, but that has been coming here occa 
 sionally for some years, and it doesn t bring 
 anything ibult some supplies for the soldiers, 
 and some recruits, so I think we shall never see 
 anything more of those people than we do now. 
 "I remember how scared we were when the 
 first fire-canoe came up. We all fled to the woods 
 and hid, when it whistled. Here he laughed at 
 the recollection of it. "It whistled last night 
 when just opposite us, saluting us." Here he 
 laughed again. He looked at the distant fort 
 
THE OJIBWAY 89 
 
 once more, and a new train of thought arose in 
 his mind: 
 
 4 * Their firing that morning and evening gun 
 scares the buffalo and the other game away, so 
 we have to go farther to find them. But then 
 our drumming on our medicine drums scares 
 them away, too, but not so far, for the sound 
 doesn t reach so far. 
 
 "And those officers hunting kill a good deal 
 of our game." Here a shade of anger crossed 
 his face, but it passed off as he thought : "Well, 
 there is enough for all of us, and no matter how 
 much all of us kill, it makes no appreciable dif 
 ference in their numbers. It amuses us to watch 
 those people, their ways are so different from 
 ours. We rather enjoy having them here just 
 to watch them. By the by, the head man has 
 just promulgated an order that none of our 
 women are to be in that fort after dusk, but for 
 all that they are seen coming out from there in 
 the gray of the morning. And there are several 
 white-headed babies now in our village. The 
 officers are the most in that, for they have the 
 most money to give our women things. And 
 there is a curious thing, they think themselves 
 far superior to us in every way, and yet those 
 officers, when they are changed to some other 
 fort, go away and leave their children here, and 
 utterly abandon them never do a single thing 
 for them. We wouldn t do that!" Here he 
 became indignant. "Even a wolf on the prairie 
 would not do that to its offspring ! And yet they 
 hold themselves as little gods compared with 
 
90 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 us!" He laughed with scorn as he thought 
 of it. 
 
 1 There is one man in there who is different 
 from the rest. Although he is employed by 
 fighting men, he is always preaching of peace. 
 I do not understand how that is." Here there 
 was a puzzled expression on his face. l He told 
 some of us that we should not kill the Ojibways ; 
 that we should love them! The strangest talk 
 I ever heard in my life! Have we not always 
 been killing them, and they us, whenever we 
 could get a chance? And he says we ought to 
 love them! Well, that beats me. Ha, ha, ha!" 
 Here he laughed. "And he told us, too, not to 
 gamble, and that we should not drink the fire 
 water which they bring us. It would be better 
 for him to talk to his own people, for they make 
 it. It seems to me he is trying to take all the 
 joy out of our lives. And on one day in every 
 seven he harangues them. I went in once to see 
 what they did in there, and there he was, sure 
 enough, dressed up with a big white robe all over 
 his clothes, and a black band down the length of 
 it on either side, and he read out of a book, and 
 prayed, and they sang. I know what praying 
 is, for we pray ourselves, and we sing, too, 
 though it sounds very different from theirs. 
 They had no drum. Then he talked and talked 
 to them. I guess he was exhorting them to be 
 good. When he had ended they nearly all left ; 
 but a few stayed, and I stayed, too, for I wanted 
 to see all they did to the very end. And then 
 he prayed again, and took something, I do not 
 know what it was, and gave It to each of them. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 91 
 
 I guess It was "WAR AN", (MYSTERIOUS- 
 HOLY). First he put into the hands of each a 
 piece of Bread, and then gave each a silver cup 
 to take a sip out of. It was not fire-water that 
 was in that cup, and It was not water. I do not 
 know what It was. Perhaps the juice of grapes. 
 There were not many of them received That be 
 sides him, and they were mostly women, the 
 wives of officers. The men mostly rose and went 
 out before That was administered. But the men 
 who remained and took It were the men I like 
 best of any in the garrison. I wonder what It 
 was." 
 
 The flag flying over the fort, now attracted 
 his attention for a moment. "I have seen En 
 glish flags," he said. " There were English 
 traders here not long ago till these people sent 
 soldiers and drove them out. I hear the English 
 used to rule over these people; that they had 
 them for their slaves, but they turned on them 
 and whipped them out of this country, and they 
 ran to their ships, got in, and sailed away." 
 
 His eye now wandered up the river. "We 
 do not any of us know where that river heads; 
 none of us have ever been there. A good rea 
 son" laughing "why we don t go, for our 
 enemies, the Dwellers-at-the-Falls* (the jib- 
 ways), live there. But I would like to go, for all 
 that, and explore that river, and see those coun 
 tries, and may be I would bring back a scalp or 
 two if I had good luck. 
 
 "There is one thing they have there that is 
 
 *This no doubt refers to the Sault Ste. Marie near the original 
 home of the Ojibways. 
 
92 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 superior to what we have, and that is wild rice. 
 They say there are great fields of it up there, 
 and here we have hardly a taste. I wish I had 
 some to eat with the ducks I kill." 
 
 "And are we not fortunate," he thought as 
 he looked toward the north and completed the 
 circuit of his vision, "that we have villages of 
 our people living between us and them, right 
 close here at the Falls, to protect us from them. 
 The mean wretches steal down on us in their 
 canoes." (As he thought of this, anger again 
 clouded his face), "and sneaking up, try to kill 
 us; but they first come upon our friends at the 
 Falls, and they have to take it, and we are shel 
 tered behind them in safety. That is one reason 
 why I think this place the most desirable in the 
 world, because it is so safe. I have been up 
 there at the villages about the Falls when they 
 were trembling, not knowing but some of the 
 mean wretches were stealing upon them; but 
 here in the centre we are always safe. Come to 
 think," he said, looking at the river, "it is some 
 time since I have made an offering to the spirit 
 under the river. I know some who were drowned 
 there, and some who had their children drowned. 
 I suppose they were pulled under by the river- 
 god, who was angry because they did not make 
 an offering. But no misfortune has ever be 
 fallen me, nor any of my children. They have 
 been playing in the water, and none of them has 
 ever been drowned, because I have been careful 
 every once in a while to make an offering to the 
 god. It is some time since I have done it, and 
 I will go and do it now, and then I will go up to 
 
THE OJIBWAY 93 
 
 the village near the Falls and see how the folks 
 are getting along there, and on the way I will 
 show my wife and her sister where to chop wood, 
 and bring some of it here, for we burned a good 
 deal last night. 
 
 With that he disappeared into his teepee, and 
 soon coming out, followed the path to the river s 
 brink, where he stood for a few minutes address 
 ing the deity underneath, then cast in a piece of 
 bright scarlet cloth, of considerable value, which 
 at the cost of much exertion he had got from the 
 traders in exchange for skins. He followed it 
 with his eye as it went floating down the stream, 
 a striking object, until it was out of sight. 
 
 His wife now appeared on the scene, a comely 
 woman of about thirty-five, and behind her came 
 her sister. She looked around a minute, then 
 called loudly to her eldest daughter, Winona, 
 to come out to her. 
 
 "Your aunt and I are going into the woods 
 to chop ; now see that you are a good little girl 
 till I return, and take good care of your little 
 brother there, " here she pointed to the little 
 toddler, who had followed his sister out of the 
 teepee, "and do not let him fall into the fire 
 or into the river. Now mind that you take good 
 care of him and be a good girl." As she said 
 these words she gave the little girl some good- 
 natured slaps with her open hand on the part 
 behind where correction is usually administered ; 
 not enough to hurt her, but enough to impress 
 upon her the words which she had just spoken. 
 
 With that, taking her woman s ax, and her 
 sister doing the same, they both started on the 
 
94 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 trail toward the woods ; her husband, who had 
 by this time come up from the river s brink, pre 
 ceding her. 
 
 The Ojibways saw the party starting from the 
 village; saw the axes and knew just what they 
 were going to do. They quickly started from 
 their place of concealment, and with long, swift 
 steps made for the knoll overlooking the path 
 which they had selected. Soon the three came 
 in sight, the man leading. All were unconscious 
 of danger. Nearer, nearer they drew, till they 
 were within easy range. They saw nothing of 
 the Ojibways hidden behind the thick-screen of 
 leaves. Ogema, as an old seasoned warrior, 
 and the leader of the party, claimed the man; 
 the others each selected a victim. Suddenly 
 three shots reverberated among the hills and a 
 deed of blood had been done. Some birds flew 
 away, startled and screaming, but the sun shone 
 on sweetly as before. The man was lying on 
 the ground with his thigh broken, but defiant 
 and angry. The younger woman was shot 
 through the body, and seemed fainting. The 
 older woman was uninjured, and wildly calling, 
 "My children, my children !" started to run to 
 the village. Ogema in an instant leaped upon 
 his man, who, drawing his knife, bravely de 
 fended himself, and it required considerable 
 effort on his part to reach him with his toma 
 hawk and dispatch him. The woman on the 
 ground was easily killed. While Ogema was 
 fighting hand-to-hand with the wounded man, 
 the one who had missed took after the screaming 
 woman, and, catching her by her long braids of 
 
THE OJIBWAY 95 
 
 hair, stabbed her repeatedly in the back with his 
 tomahawk. 
 
 In the brief period that this event had con 
 sumed a change had come over the feelings of 
 the warriors. Before it was the desire to ac 
 complish what they came for, that their labor 
 and pains should not be in vain. Now it was 
 the desire to escape and get back safe. They 
 knew that those shots would be heard at the 
 Sioux village, and that although no one consid 
 ered there was a possibility of any enemy being 
 near, yet some would be sent to investigate, and 
 that quick pursuit would be made. Therefore 
 what they had yet to do must be done quickly. 
 A knife was passed round each head of the 
 dead; the scalp pulled off and fastened 
 securely at the girdle of each. Next, Ogema 
 tore open the breast of the dead man, and 
 pulled out the reeking and yet almost palpitat 
 ing heart, drank some of the blood that plenti 
 fully flowed from it, and smeared it all over his 
 face. He gave the heart in turn to each of his 
 two companions, and told them to drink of it. 
 
 "That was a brave man," he said. "He 
 fought me to the last, and when he could no 
 longer move he scowled and tried to spit at me. 
 Here I drink his heart s blood that I may get 
 his courage ! If he had been a coward I would 
 not touch it ! And I will take a mouthful of his 
 heart," he said, suiting the action to the word, 
 "that his courage may more surely come into 
 me." Here he offered it to his younger Com 
 panions and told them to do the same quickly. 
 "Oh, I wish I could take his whole head, and 
 
96 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 carry it home, and not merely his scalp. It 
 would be such a thing to show to the people ! 
 
 Here his companions remonstrated with him. 
 "If you talk of such a foolish thing as trying 
 to carry that head," said one, "we will go off 
 alone and leave you to your fate. You know we 
 shall have to run now for our lives. And do 
 you think you can escape encumbered with that 
 heavy thing ?" 
 
 They now hastily performed the last rites for 
 time was precious. Yellow Thunder brought out 
 the lock of his child s hair and tenderly kissed 
 it. "0 my daughter, my daughter ! Here is the 
 last thing that your father can ever do for you, 
 my daughter. I have done you the last honor 
 I can, and now good-by." With this he put the 
 lock into the mangled body among the warm 
 bowels and turned away. The other memorials 
 of deceased children and friends with which they 
 had been entrusted by the parents were now 
 hastily bestowed in the same way, or thrown 
 away on the battle ground. The former they 
 did for very particular and dear friends; the 
 latter for those to whom they did not consider 
 themselves so indebted. But many images and 
 memorials which had been almost forced upon 
 them they did not bring to the place at all. 
 
 Then, as the last thing, they hastily, with their 
 large knives, dismembered the bodies so far 
 as they could; cut off and cast the pieces of 
 flesh around, not from any wanton cruelty, but 
 to duly impress their enemies with the power 
 and fury of the Ojibways. Last of all, they gave 
 forth their clear Sa-sa-kwe, war-whoop of tri- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 97 
 
 umph, victors upon the field, and fled from the 
 scene. 
 
 The Dakotas, on hearing the shots, thought it 
 was some of their friends from the villages back 
 of the Falls coming to visit them, shooting at 
 partridges, but yet sent out messengers to see. 
 These at a distance saw the Ojibways dismem 
 bering their victims, and quickly announced it in 
 the village. Then followed a wild commotion; 
 children crying, women in alarm, warriors 
 snatching guns and tomahawks and running 
 to the spot. The Ojibways had immediately 
 darted into the leafy underbrush, where it was 
 impossible to see them, and where it was very 
 difficult to track them. The Dakotas, burning 
 with wrath, tried to head them off, to surround 
 them. They, however, kept a steady course to 
 strike the river some miles above the fort, and 
 when they came to the brink they waded in it 
 some distance, so as to make it impossible to 
 track them; then carefully obliterating their 
 tracks where they left it, buried themselves in 
 the deepest recesses of the wood. Here they 
 remained till night-fall, when they arose and 
 pursued their way by the north star. In the 
 morning they felt themselves safe; to find 
 them in that vast leafy wilderness was impossi 
 ble except by chance. But to make assurance 
 doubly sure they again lay hid all day and trav 
 eled the following night. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 UNEXPECTED GOOD FORTUNE. 
 
 Our hunters were now in high spirits as, well 
 rested, they resumed their journey. They had 
 accomplished that for which they set out, and 
 that without the loss of a man or the touch of a 
 bullet. They had passed through a trying expe 
 rience successfully, and had surmounted danger. 
 Their minds were now free from care, and their 
 thoughts were of home and of the reception that 
 awaited them. They talked of the people whose 
 housekeeping they had secretly watched, and of 
 the incidents of their trip. The scalps they 
 treated with great respect. Every morning the 
 hair was carefully combed. They offered 
 them food before they partook themselves. The 
 party now had plenty to eat and of the best, for 
 the country was full of game. They traveled 
 on foot, avoiding the river, knowing that there 
 their enemies would be certain to look for them. 
 
 On the second day, as they were proceeding 
 leisurely along, laughing and talking, all of a 
 sudden something utterly unexpected occurred. 
 They heard the faint sound of an ax ! Stopping 
 short, their hearts beating quickly, they looked 
 at each other in amazement. "What is this?" 
 they fearfully asked each other. They thought 
 no human beings were nearer them than the 
 villages of the Sioux near the Falls, which they 
 
THE OJIBWAY 99 
 
 had left far behind, and their own villages in 
 front at Gull Lake, over four days journey 
 away. The next moment they were stealthily 
 but rapidly making their way in the direction 
 of that sound, which grew ever clearer and 
 clearer, till, peering through the leafy screen, 
 there stood before them the buffalo skin of a 
 Sioux teepee! There in front was the owner 
 of the lodge, a stalwart Sioux, plying the 
 ax. There was his wife skinning a deer which 
 he had evidently lately killed. There was a 
 young woman just grown up, evidently their 
 daughter, and four younger children, the 
 youngest not much more than a baby. Evidently 
 a Sioux family who had come out there tempo 
 rarily for a hunt. Away from the river, which 
 was the great high-road, and deep in the recesses 
 of the forest, they had no thought of seeing any 
 one, least of all the Ojibways, whose nearest 
 villages they knew were far, far away. In abso 
 lute safety, as they supposed, they were enjoying 
 themselves there in the wilderness. 
 
 The Ojibways surveyed them at very close 
 range for some time. They took in all the 
 differences between their outfit and manner of 
 living and their own; the skin lodge, the differ 
 ent kind of leggings the man wore, the strange 
 sound of the Sioux language. When they had 
 completed their survey they looked at each other 
 and Ogema said significantly: "Ki shawenda- 
 gosimin." The others nodded equally signifi 
 cantly, and reechoed his words: "Ki shawenda- 
 gosimin." This is a common expression among 
 Indians, when some piece of good fortune unex- 
 
100 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 pectedly befalls them, and means, "We are 
 blessed because we are worthy of blessing. 
 
 "Yes," answered Ogema, "we are holy; there 
 is no evil to be seen among us."* 
 
 "My heart is filled with gratitude," said 
 Good-Sounding-Sky, "for this grace, which is 
 so far beyond what we could have expected. 
 
 "Yes," answered Yellow Thunder, "we had 
 already received great blessing, got all that we 
 could have desired, and now to think of this on 
 top of all!" 
 
 "It is always so," returned Good-Sounding- 
 Sky. "Every once in a while the Indian is 
 blessed beyond what he could have expected. 
 Sometimes when a family is starving a bear 
 comes prowling about their lodge looking for 
 something to eat, and, as it were, puts his body 
 into their hands, and in an instant they have 
 plenty. 
 
 "Yes," said Yellow Thunder, "it is like as 
 with their wild rice ; they neither sow it nor put 
 a fence around it, nor take any care of it, and 
 yet when the season comes round there it is 
 ready at their hand to reap." 
 
 "The Indian is certainly watched over and 
 provided for in a wonderful way," said Good- 
 Sounding-Sky. 
 
 "Um-m-m," interposed Ogema. "That 
 man, so unconcerned there, does not know that I 
 
 It may seem unnatural that people who had just done a deed 
 such as they had should say "we are holy," and "there Is no evil 
 to be seen among us," but these are the very reflections that arose 
 in their minds, and these are the very words they said. Their 
 consciences did not reproach them in the least with what they had 
 done. Prom their standpoint, and according to their ideas, their 
 conduct had been free from blame, indeed positively meritorious 
 and praiseworthy. 
 
THE OJIBWAy 101 
 
 shall be wriggling my knife between his ribs 
 before this time tomorrow. " 
 
 "And those children who are playing so mer 
 rily do not know that their brains will be lying 
 scattered under those trees before very long," 
 answered Yellow Thunder. 
 
 "What had we better do?" asked Ogema. 
 "Rush on them at once and finish it up right 
 now 1 They are unarmed and have no suspicion 
 of danger. 
 
 "No," said Yellow Thunder, "that is not the 
 way. Although it seems so easy, yet if we at 
 tempt it now some of them will be sure to dart 
 into the brush and escape us. Better make a 
 sure thing of it. If any of them run in there it 
 will be utterly impossible for us ever to find 
 them. Just as impossible as it was for the Sioux 
 to find us, though you may be sure they tried 
 hard enough! They might die in there if they 
 were young and could not find food, but we 
 would never find them. 
 
 "Better for us," observed Ogema, "to keep 
 to the wise old ways that our forefathers taught 
 us. They always rushed upon those they killed 
 at the first break of day. They will be buried 
 in deepest sleep then." 
 
 "If we could only keep one of them alive," 
 said Yell ow Thunder, 1 1 and take him to our vil 
 lage, what a glorious exploit it would be." 
 
 "Yes," responded Good-Sounding-Sky, "we 
 ought to think of our women, and of the little 
 children. What a pleasure it would be to them 
 to see a live Roaster; to put their hand on one 
 
102* .. THE OJ1BWAY 
 
 and still live ! Although there is great joy over 
 a scalp, yet it would be as nothing compared 
 with the joy if we could deliver one of these peo 
 ple alive at Gull Lake." 
 
 "Although I have now no children of my 
 own, " said Yellow Thunder, a pang of grief 
 shooting through his heart at the recollection of 
 his dead child, "yet I think of the hundreds of 
 little children at Gull Lake, and would dearly 
 love to gratify them by placing a living Sioux in 
 their village. How they would hide behind their 
 mothers skirts, hardly daring to take a look of 
 fearful joy at the dreaded Boaster." 
 
 "Yes," said Good-Sounding-Sky," ever since 
 they can remember anything they can remember 
 how their mothers stilled them when they cried, 
 Be still ! there comes the Sioux to take you. " 
 
 "It can be done," said Ogema, "and if we 
 succeed in delivering a Sioux alive at Gull Lake 
 it will be one of the greatest exploits ever accom 
 plished, and the doers of it will have reputations 
 that will never be forgotten. We are now far 
 from the Sioux and beyond all pursuit. A cap 
 tive will encumber us, it is true, but we can take 
 our time, and need not travel any faster than we 
 wish. The joy will be unbounded when we get 
 there. The question is whom shall we take? It 
 will not do to try to take that man, for he would 
 be constantly trying to escape, and might suc 
 ceed in spite of all our vigilance ; and even if he 
 did not, he would be sure to be fighting angry, 
 should have to kill him before we got him there. 
 He would not be willing to go along, and we 
 could not make him. And then there is the 
 
THE OJIBWAY 103 
 
 woman. She would be so desperate over the loss 
 of her children that we never would get her there 
 alive if we attempted it. So it will not do to 
 think of that. And then as for taking any of 
 those half-grown children, they are too young 
 and could not march, and we cannot carry them. 
 Then we have deep rivers to cross, and it is out 
 of the question to take any of them. So it seems 
 to me that the one to take is that young woman. 
 She is strong and can march as well as any of 
 us. But the great point is, that she is young 
 and soft-hearted, and will readily obey us, she 
 will be so afraid. She will not be ugly nor des 
 perate, as both her father and her mother would 
 be." 
 
 "What on earth ever brought them out to 
 this lonesome place," said Yellow Thunder. 
 "What fools they were to leave the main body 
 and come away out here. 
 
 "Oh," replied Ogema, "they knew they 
 were away from the river and from every line 
 of travel, and it was only one chance in ten 
 thousand that we happened to hear that ax. It 
 was a very rare chance, too, that any of us hap 
 pened to come down this way and pass by just 
 here. The beavers must be all killed off in the 
 creeks near the Sioux villages, and this man no 
 doubt thought that he would come up here, where 
 they are plenty because nobody lives here, and 
 replenish his stock. The trader would have 
 given him scarlet cloth and beads for them, and 
 a little nice fire-water on top of all, just to make 
 him feel real happy. He didn t do a foolish 
 thing, and didn t run any risk in coining out 
 
104 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 here under ordinary circumstances. But now it 
 looks as if we were to get those beaver-skins, or 
 whatever he has, and not that Sioux trader. 
 
 * I wonder if his relatives will ever know what 
 has become of him," said Good-Sounding-Sky. 
 
 "If he has let them know what place he was 
 going to hunt, they will," said Ogema, "for 
 after awhile, when they don t return home, 
 scouts will be sent out here to look for them, and 
 they will find their rotting carcasses lying 
 around here and they will know what has hap 
 pened. But if they did not happen to tell where 
 they were going, or did not know themselves, 
 their relatives will never find them and never 
 know what has become of them. 
 
 Having thus decided upon what they would 
 do, they withdrew to a place beyond all danger 
 of being discovered, and where the smoke of 
 their fire could not be seen, and prepared to 
 be back before daylight on the morrow. They 
 made themselves beds of branches of cedar and 
 other evergreens, and reclining by the fire talked 
 of all the experiences they had gone through 
 since they left home, and of those that probably 
 still awaited them before they would see Gull 
 Lake. 
 
 The next morning, true to appointment, they 
 were in waiting in the vicinity of the lodge before 
 daylight, and with the first streak of dawn 
 raised their blood-curdling yell and rushed in 
 among the terrified inmates of the lodge. They 
 had daylight enough to see whom to kill and 
 whom to keep alive, and it required only a few 
 minutes wielding of the tomahawk, and the deed 
 
THE OJIBWAY 105 
 
 was done. What an hour before had been a hap 
 py home, was a reeking slaughter-house. The 
 daughter of the family, stunned by the terrible 
 and unexpected calamity, yielded in a dazed sort 
 of way and made no resistance. She was se 
 curely bound to a tree and a watch kept over her. 
 The scalps were then carefully taken and added 
 to the store they already had. The stores of the 
 family in the way of food, furs, and other things, 
 were then inspected, and selections made of such 
 things as were most valuable and which they 
 could carry along. The usual dismemberment 
 and mutilation of the bodies then took place. 
 The last thing of all was to affix upon a tree a 
 writing, a history of what had taken place. On 
 a smooth piece of birch-bark they drew a figure 
 of the teepee, the time being indicated by the 
 sun just casting his first rays upon the earth; 
 themselves designated by three rude figures of 
 men, with the totem to which each belonged 
 drawn beneath : a bear, a marten, and a catfish, 
 for to these three they respectively be 
 longed. The place from which they had come 
 was shown by a line leading up from the 
 south, terminating near a place where were 
 many figures with hats, the sign of the white 
 man, and guns in their hands, therefore a sol 
 dier s fort. The number of scalps they had 
 taken there was indicated by the three which 
 hung one at the belt of each, and the number 
 they had taken at the teepee, five; shown 
 by their holding them aloft in the hand. That 
 they were freshly taken was shown by the drops 
 of blood falling from them. The number of 
 
106 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 captives taken, one, a woman, was indicated by 
 her woman s clothes and driven before, bound 
 with a rope. The direction in which they were 
 going, the north, was shown by the line running 
 upward parallel with the great river. Having 
 affixed this record of their prowess to the near 
 est tree overlooking the scene, and made their 
 other preparations, they departed, now only anx 
 ious to reach their village. 
 
 The poor captive girl was driven before them, 
 a stout rope made of basswood bark tied around 
 her waist. What her feelings were in this ap 
 palling calamity of the sudden destruction of 
 her home, and of all she loved, or who had loved 
 her, as well as of the dreadful uncertainty that 
 hung over her future, may be imagined, but can 
 not be described. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A DELIRIUM OF JOY. 
 
 We may pass over the incidents of the journey 
 north; the days and nights spent in the wilder 
 ness ; the rivers they forded, and the tangled un 
 derbrush through which they sometimes forced 
 themselves. The girl was treated by her captors 
 as kindly as they could, and sufficient food was 
 given her. Until nearly the last of the journey 
 they avoided the vicinity of the river, knowing 
 that there of all places, their enemies would look 
 for them, and that being in the open they could 
 readily be seen. Their journey down the river 
 had been a pleasure trip, but coming back on 
 foot through the woods and underbrush, where 
 there was no road, they found hard enough. At 
 last they arrived in the vicinity of Gull Lake 
 village, and when discovered by its inhabitants 
 were received with a delirium of joy. At first 
 they did not enter the village, but camped just 
 outside it, in order to make a formal and impos 
 ing entry. In due time the preparations were 
 made. Each scalp was stretched on a frame 
 work, which was tied to the top of a tall pole, 
 where with its long flowing hair it would be a 
 conspicuous object that could be seen by all. 
 There was thus first the long procession of 
 scalps, preceded by those who had taken them, 
 whooping and dancing. After the scalps march- 
 
108 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ed the captive, the object which attracted all 
 eyes. Then came the entire population of the 
 village; men, women, and children. 
 
 Arrived at the place of dancing, the drummers 
 and chanters took their usual places in the centre 
 around the big drums, which made the air throb 
 with every beat, awakening a responsive throb 
 in the hearers hearts. Outside of the drum 
 mers was the usual cleared space for the danc 
 ing, then the men sitting, then, outside of all, 
 the women and children. The scalps aloft on 
 the poles were waving over the assembly. After 
 a certain amount of drumming and singing the 
 men, as usual, jumped up and danced with might 
 and main, whooping and yelling and stamping, 
 pointing their knives and tomahawks in the di 
 rection of the Sioux country, and killing and 
 scalping many imaginary enemies. Then there 
 was silence, and one of the" heroes of the occas 
 ion got up and graphically described the killing. 
 When he mentioned a death the drums gave a 
 responsive tap as a life went out. When he 
 ceased the whole assembly began once more to 
 dance and the drums to sound, in a frenzy of 
 delight. Then another member of the expedi 
 tion was called on to relate what happened, then 
 another dance, until all had given their expe 
 rience. Then the judgment, the courage, and 
 the endurance of the conquering heroes were 
 lauded by all. Now the Sioux girl was led into 
 the ring for all to see. The little children were 
 encouraged by their mothers to touch her, which 
 they sometimes, after many attempts, fearfully 
 did, and then drew back to their mothers in a 
 
THE OJIBWAY 109 
 
 sudden access of terror. Here was one of the 
 Boasters, about whom they had heard all their 
 liyes; a live one, and they actually touched her 
 and yet lived! A call was now made for her 
 to dance ; but with the scalps of her father and 
 mother and all her family before her, she had no 
 mind to dance. Oh how unutterably sad she 
 looked ! But dance she must, and slapping her 
 across the face with her father s scalp she was 
 told to dance. She understood it was dance 
 or die. The love of life is strong, so she danced. 
 Such were the scenes repeated day after day, 
 while the village was in a tumult of joy. The 
 news spread north to Leech Lake and to Mille 
 Lacs, and crowds from those places came to 
 see. 
 
 There still remained a very important ques 
 tion to be decided. What was to be done with 
 the captive? It was evident that the present 
 arrangement was only temporary. She was 
 kindly treated, but was watched night and day to 
 see that she did not escape. They were think 
 ing about what was to be done with her, but only 
 a council could decide it. It was a matter the 
 responsibility for which rested upon all, for hav 
 ing become a captive she belonged to the whole 
 band. A day was therefore named for the coun 
 cil. It was named some time ahead, because 
 gravity and deliberateness characterize all their 
 decisions of a public character, and giving time 
 in advance allowed the matter to ripen in their 
 own minds. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 WILL IT BE LIFE OE DEATH? 
 
 When the appointed day came there was first 
 the usual drumming and chanting, but there was 
 along with it hard thinking. The drumming and 
 dancing seem to arouse and stimulate their 
 mental processes, for they invariably precede 
 and accompany the discussion and decision of 
 any important matter. First one old Chief ad 
 dressed them : 
 
 "My friends, you know what we have assem 
 bled here for. We are indeed very blessed in 
 having one of the Boasters a captive. Our boys 
 have done nobly in going down there right into 
 their village and killing a good many ; and what 
 is better, they have brought one alive. We are 
 indeed blessed. Now do not be backward, but say 
 what you think should be done with this Sioux 
 woman." Cries of assent followed from the 
 spectators, then another burst of drumming and 
 singing, followed by dancing. But no one rose 
 to speak; all were thinking intently. The old 
 man rose again. " You all seem backward about 
 speaking, my friends, though no doubt you all 
 think something about this matter. So I will 
 name one to speak. We hear that Shay-shay- 
 way-ge-zhik (Sky - that -keeps - rattling) has 
 thought of marrying this young woman, so I call 
 on him to tell us what he thinks. " 
 
THE OJIBWAY 111 
 
 The young man named arose, and as he was a 
 hunter and warrior, with no pretentious to being 
 a speaker, briefly told his mind. 
 
 Well, he said, I thought it would be amus 
 ing to marry this girl, because she does not 
 know a word of my language nor I of hers, and 
 I thought it would be funny. It would be a 
 new sensation: To court a girl who did not 
 understand a word I said nor I a word she said. 
 I suppose I could get an Ojibway girl if I 
 wanted, but this would be something out of the 
 usual course. Some think that she would soon 
 run away, and perhaps take my child with her, 
 but I do not think so. For one reason, her 
 whole family has been killed, so she has no 
 one to go to; but my principal reason is that 
 I think I could soon make her like me so that 
 she would not wish to go away. That is all I 
 have to say." 
 
 Again there was the usual outburst of drum 
 ming, singing, and dancing, and when it ceased 
 Sha-bosh-kunk got up to speak. 
 
 "Indeed, my friends, " he said, "this is a very 
 important thing we have met to consider. The 
 Great Spirit it seems smiles upon us and has 
 given this woman into our hands, and we are to 
 decide what to do with her. Sky-that-keeps-rat 
 tling has told us what he thinks. Well, I am a 
 generous man, and if it be your decision to dis 
 pose of her in that way I am willing to take her 
 into my wigwam and marry her; and I know I 
 am such a hunter that she would never lack any 
 thing with me." Here he stopped and looked 
 around with a bland smile upon the audience, 
 
112 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 first to reap the tribute of admiration he ex 
 pected to see in their faces to his generosity in 
 offering to provide for the poor orphan ; as well 
 as to his being such a good hunter; but princi 
 pally to test the effect of this proposition upon 
 them; but saw by their looks that it would not 
 be favorably received. They knew he already 
 had one wife, that his past matrimonial affairs 
 had been mixed ; and he read in their faces that 
 if that method of disposing of her was adopted, 
 Sky-that-keeps-rattling, who was a young man, 
 and much more popular than he, would be 
 given the preference. Seeing, therefore, that 
 there was no hope of getting the girl for him 
 self as he wished, he proceeded to develop the 
 plan which suited him next best "But my 
 friends, " he proceeded to say after this pause, 
 "I am a very merciful man, and wish that all 
 may share in this blessing that has come to us, 
 and get some benefit from it. If Sky-that- 
 keeps-rattling marries this girl, or if I do, 
 then we get the benefit and you get nothing. 
 Now I have a very kind feeling toward those 
 who are weak among us, and not able to get 
 things for themselves; toward the women and 
 children. As for us men, we are brave and pow 
 erful and can go to war and get things for our 
 selves, but the women and children cannot. Now 
 I have a very tender feeling toward the weak and 
 the lowly, toward our women and children, and 
 I propose that instead of one getting all of this 
 captive and the rest getting nothing, that we all 
 feel the benefit of her, and in what I say I plead 
 particularly for the women and children as their 
 
THE OJIBWAY 113 
 
 representative. I propose therefore that we do 
 as our fathers did, and do as they have done to 
 us that we boil and eat this captive, and then 
 we will all share in the benefit of her. Now, my 
 friends, I say this out of my compassion for 
 the women and children. We know our children 
 do not all live to grow up. We know that al 
 though our Medicine-men try to keep them alive, 
 yet that some of them die. And ought it not to 
 be so, 0, may it be so, that once at least in 
 their lives before they pass out of life they may 
 taste the flesh of our enemies, so that they will 
 be able to say they have done so, even though it 
 were but a bite! Now look at it in this way; 
 there may be ever so much wealth, and if we 
 merely look at wealth, what good does it do us? 
 It does us no good at all, my friends; not the 
 least. But if we take and use of some of the 
 wealth, then it does us good, and not till then. 
 So I say, my friends, and I speak particularly 
 for the women and children, who otherwise will 
 be deprived of all advantage I say let us 
 appoint a day, and let us have a big time ; and 
 let us put this captive in the pot and eat her, and 
 then we shall all have the benefit of her." 
 
 A roll of the drums and an outburst of sing 
 ing followed this speech, precluding for the pres 
 ent the possibility of knowing just how it would 
 be received. There were then some desultory re 
 marks made by some old men, on both proposi 
 tions, but nothing very decided was elicited, 
 when something new and very unexpected oc 
 curred. A woman, Misquabunoque (Red-Sky- 
 of-the-Morning), the daughter of the principal 
 
114 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 chief, arose and asked that the captive be given 
 to her. At this there was very general surprise 
 expressed. The old men could not remember 
 any such request ever having been made by a 
 woman. It was without precedent, and therefore 
 perhaps should be ignored. Still, curiosity im 
 pelled them to wish to know the grounds upon 
 which such an unusual request was preferred, 
 and as they had nothing else very pressing to 
 do, and were willing to be amused, and were also 
 desirous of having light from any quarter to 
 help them to a proper decision, the majority 
 thought it was better to hear from her the rea 
 sons which induced her to make such an unpre 
 cedented request. Having thus been given per 
 mission to state her reasons, she proceeded to ad 
 dress them : 
 
 1 1 Since you give me permission, my chiefs, to 
 tell you my reasons for asking that this captive 
 be given to me, I shall do so. I ask, as a repre 
 sentative of all the women, that this captive, a 
 woman, be given to me. Probably you think 
 this very strange. But consider this : We wom 
 en do a very great deal of hard work for you 
 men, and if we make a small request, is it to be 
 denied us? Is that then all that we are for in 
 this world ; hard drudging and to be beaten, and 
 when we ask anything for it to be denied us! 
 Now consider this : Last fall I was out at the 
 rice-gathering lake with all of you, where we 
 make the rice which is a considerable part of our 
 living. What did I see there? I saw all our 
 women in the canoes beating off the wild rice 
 and working hard all day long. And did I see 
 
THE OJIBWAY 115 
 
 any men helping them? No; the men were all 
 lying on the grass on the bank of the lake en 
 gaged in gambling, so much absorbed in the 
 game that they complained they were hungry. 
 Although the ducks were flying thickly over their 
 heads they could not tear themselves from the 
 game long enough to rise and shoot them. Now I 
 am not saying anything against gambling. There 
 has always been gambling and I suppose there 
 always will be. I suppose if it were not right 
 that there should be gambling there would 
 not be any. But I say this: i Gambling 
 does not put any clothes on the children s 
 backs, nor does it provide the food we cannot live 
 without. Who is it that made that wild rice that 
 is in your wigwam and that you find very good 1 
 Women, every bit of it. And very likely there 
 are some corn and potatoes in your wigwam. 
 Who raised them! Women, all of them. Who 
 ever saw a man hoeing corn or potatoes? I nev 
 er did. And there is another thing that is a 
 principal part of our living; fish. Who gets up 
 in the morning and takes the paddle, gets into 
 the canoe and draws the nets, no matter how 
 stormy it is, and even though the water be 
 ice cold, and brings back the food for the family! 
 Did any one ever hear of a man having anything 
 to do with nets ? I never did. So it seems that 
 the one who is looked down upon, and the one 
 who is weak, and who is generally beaten and 
 abused, is the one who makes the living, nearly 
 all of it, for the men and for the children. 
 
 "I sometimes think that you men M here she 
 raised her voice, gaining confidence as she pro- 
 
116 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ceeded "would starve if it were not for us 
 women, as I am sure the children would. You 
 have a good time, gambling much of the time, 
 and singing and dancing, and going off and 
 visiting other bands of jib ways, but I no 
 tice that the women are always at work. 
 Always doing something to make a living for the 
 family. The only thing that you men do toward 
 making a living for the family, that I can see, is 
 to take your guns sometimes and kill an animal, 
 and then you do not carry it home; you walk 
 home with your gun, and the woman has to be 
 sent with her packing strap to pack that meat 
 home a long distance, till her back is almost 
 broken. So it appears that the poor woman is 
 made a slave of from beginning to end. You 
 think you do a great deal because you shoot the 
 animals down. But I think that is play rather 
 than work, and I am sure our women could do 
 it just as well if they were given the opportunity. 
 I know some of them can hunt ducks just as suc 
 cessfully as you men. 
 
 1 i And there you can see us women, every aft 
 ernoon, going out into the woods and chopping 
 wood, and packing it home on our backs, to keep 
 you men warm, sitting cozy in there, doing noth 
 ing. And we have all the care of the children 
 and the labor of the wigwam. If any of the chil 
 dren are sick in the night, who is it but the 
 woman, who is broken of her rest, caring for it! 
 And for all that she does, all her packing wood 
 on her back, and all her hard work making 
 maple sugar carrying birch-bark sap buckets, 
 wet up to her knees, night and day for weeks, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 117 
 
 and hardly sleeping, while the men are off some 
 where having a good time her reward for all 
 that, and for supporting the family as she does, 
 is that when there is a dispute, take a stick of 
 wood or the ax-helve and strike her over the 
 skull and cut her to the bone, till the blood runs 
 over her face. That is what the man generally 
 does as you all know ; and that is the reward she 
 gets. And now when a woman makes a small 
 request, as I do, that this captive girl be given 
 to me, a woman, a representative of the women, 
 we shall see what answer will be given and what 
 thanks the woman gets. 
 
 This speech created quite a sensation among 
 the company, men as well as women. Some of 
 the former it rather angered, while the latter 
 it pleased as being a true presentation of their 
 case. The men conferred among themselves a 
 little while, then one of them arose and asked 
 to be informed what Eed-sky-of-the-morning in 
 tended to do with the captive if she should be 
 granted to her. He said it would make a differ 
 ence in their decision whether she intended to 
 let her go or intended to do something else to 
 her. To this Red-sky-of-the-morning replied 
 that She did not think it necessary to say what 
 she would do with her ; that she had stated the 
 reasons for her request as well as she could, and 
 had no promises to make. If the woman was 
 given to her, she was given to her. 
 
 There was now long consultation among the 
 men as to which of the three things proposed 
 should be done, or whether something different 
 from all should be done. They all agreed 
 
118 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 that to give her to the young brave would bene 
 fit him alone, and they did not feel like giving 
 her to Sha-bosh-kunk for an additional wife, and 
 they were not quite ready to put her into the pot. 
 Red-sky-of-the-morning was the daughter of a 
 chief, something must be conceded to that. Her 
 proposal, though startling, had the charm of 
 novelty. They felt that the women, who they 
 realized did so much for them and received so 
 little, had a claim. They resolved, therefore, to 
 give the woman to Red-sky-of-the-morning and 
 see what would come of it. 
 
 Red-sky-of-the-morning was formally called, 
 the decision of the assembly announced to her, 
 and the Sioux girl turned over to her. She 
 thanked them briefly for what they had done, 
 then led the trembling girl to her own lodge. 
 There she prepared a good meal, set it before 
 her, and told her to eat, observing to her that 
 "it was probably the last time she would ever 
 eat in this world. * 
 
 After the meal was over she delayed for some 
 little time, as if half reluctant to begin some 
 thing, or as if she had not fully made up her 
 mind. Then at last she took her by the hand 
 and led her out into a lonely place in the forest. 
 
 There was quite a contrast in the personal ap 
 pearance of these two. Red-sky-of-the-morning 
 was tall and of a commanding and intellectual 
 presence. Her long, black, straight hair was di 
 vided in the middle and hung down her back in 
 two long braids nearly to her waist. Her eyes 
 were large and black, her complexion sallow, 
 and her face angular. Thought and intellect, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 119 
 
 \ 
 
 rather than beauty, were stamped there. Her 
 figure also was angular and thin. The Sioux 
 girl, on the contrary, was short in stature, and 
 small, but symmetrical in her proportions and in 
 all the lines of her face. She was comely rather 
 than beautiful. Her complexion was a rich olive, 
 with a tinge of red in the cheeks. Her abundant 
 black hair came down somewhat near her eye 
 brows, displaying a low though wide forehead. 
 Her face was short and oval, her nose straight 
 and classical, and came down somewhat far but 
 not too far over her short upper lip. Her 
 cheeks full and rounded. Her eyes were neither 
 large nor small. Her short face corresponded to 
 her somewhat short but plump body, and its out 
 lines were rounded and soft, as was her figure. 
 She had the appearance of innocence, natural 
 ness, and sweetness, rather than of intellectu 
 ality. She looked a fresh sweet prairie flower of 
 nature; not like the woman who led her, of ex 
 ceptional or striking powers. Meekness and sub- 
 missiveness seemed natural to her. As she did 
 not understand the language of her captors she 
 did not know what had been decreed about her, 
 and could only dimly guess from actions. How 
 ever, she knew enough of the customs of the peo 
 ple to make out that her fate hovered between 
 death and matrimony; death in one of many 
 forms, or being led unasked to the wigwam of 
 some hunter. She knew of roasting of prison 
 ers ; she knew of making them run the gauntlet ; 
 she knew of various ways of disposing of them. 
 With apprehension, therefore, she followed, not 
 knowing what was going to be done with her. 
 
120 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Her owner preceded her with a moody, unhap 
 py expression upon her face, leading her along 
 until they came to a deep recess of the wood, 
 where a rock protruded from the soil. When 
 they reached this point she stopped, looked at 
 her captive for some time in silence, then taking 
 out her large knife began whetting it upon the 
 rock. It was a large, broad-bladed, single-edged 
 knife, such as both men and women usually car 
 ried to aid them in their daily tasks, as for cut 
 ting down saplings, skinning animals, and per 
 forming many such acts. At the sight of that 
 cruel knife and its contact with the rock, some 
 thing like an electric shock passed through the 
 frame of the poor captive girl. It seemed to 
 start in the median line of her body and thence 
 tingled to all her extremities. Her eyes seemed 
 to see stars, and then for an instant she saw 
 again her happy home, and saw distinctly her 
 little brothers and sisters playing around; her 
 mother and father, and the furnishing of the 
 teepee, inside and outside everything as it had 
 been. It all rose before her in a flash, and it was 
 a distinct and clear vision. Then it faded, and 
 she was alone with the woman whetting her 
 knife upon the rock. Before she had time to 
 think, she had instinctively turned to her, and 
 putting her hands upon her two arms and look 
 ing her eagerly in the eyes, said in an appalling 
 tone, l My sister let me go ! " 
 
 The words were in Dakota and so were not un 
 derstood by the Ojibway, but there was np mis 
 taking that appealing glance, that eager look 
 toward the south where her happy home used to 
 
THE OJIBWAY 121 
 
 be. It was perfectly understood by the woman, 
 for that girl s eager soul seemed to pass into 
 hers. It made her stop her whetting and look 
 up; it made her think what she was going to do, 
 or not to do; it brought matters to a crisis 
 in her own mind for though before the captive 
 was decreed to her she had not had a shade of 
 doubt as to what to do, yet with the sole respon 
 sibility had come a doubt, a reluctance to begin, 
 a half -shrinking from the deed. Her agitation 
 surprised even herself, and partly to put the de 
 cision off a while, till her mind was clearer on 
 the subject, and partly that she might make the 
 right thing to be done more clear to herself by 
 stating it in words, and by marshaling the rea 
 sons pro and con, on the one side and on the 
 other, find out which scale weighed down, and 
 consequently which ought to be done, she an 
 swered in words the appeal her sister had made 
 to her. 
 
 "You ask me, you poor thing, to let you go 
 back to your people. You point to the south 
 where they live. Now why should I do that, and 
 why should I not do what I led you out here for? 
 I came out here, and brought you out, to use my 
 right over you as mine, given to me; and now 
 you ask me to let you go. You ask me to throw 
 away the great privilege I have gained by my 
 appeal to the chiefs. I, who am a chief s daugh 
 ter, and to whom alone of all the women this 
 great privilege has been given. To throw away 
 and let escape from my hands the fruits of my 
 effort, which I made with all the powers of my 
 soul. I, who had the boldness to do that which is 
 
122 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 very rarely done, which perhaps we have seldom 
 heard of being done a woman to stand up in 
 council and demand of the men the most precious 
 thing they had a captive, gained, too, by men. 
 The prize gained by their toil ; their efforts ; their 
 long, weary marches ; their putting their lives in 
 jeopardy. 
 
 "And so you ask me to let you go. Well, sup 
 posing I do, what then! You could find your 
 way back, I suppose, to where your wigwam 
 stood, although there is no road, no path just 
 through the dense forest. But I know you could 
 find your way there, the very way you came, be 
 cause you are an Indian, and an Indian never 
 forgets the way he has been over once. We have 
 heard of our French traders doing that and get 
 ting lost, but never of an Indian, nor would you. 
 It is a great many days travel there, as you 
 know, and you all alone. Poor little thing, how 
 lonesome you would be, making your camp all 
 alone every night and traveling alone all day. 
 And then you know the thorny brush you would 
 have to force your way through you found that 
 out coming here. And your clothes would all be 
 torn off you, as they were when you came here ; 
 and your skin would be torn and bloody. You 
 know we had to give you clothes when you came 
 here, because you were nearly naked; but who 
 will give you clothes where you are going? You 
 will not meet a soul for ever so many days, not 
 till you get to your people. Oh, you poor girl, 
 I feel sorry for you whichever destiny is yours, 
 for I see you are going to have such a hard 
 time! That is a part of our father s 
 
THE OJIBWAY 123 
 
 instructions or preaching to us. I don t 
 know if you Sioux have the same thing, but in 
 in the instructions they give to all young people, 
 before entering in earnest on life they say, of 
 this life, Sassagang kid ija gaye kawin-ki da- 
 wimashkanzin. You are going into the thick 
 thorny brush, and you cannot get around it. 
 You poor little thing; you are going into the 
 thick thorny brush, whichever way you take; 
 whether I let you go as you ask, or whether I 
 kill you here ! You had almost better die any 
 way, than go through all that is before you if I 
 let you go." 
 
 "And then how would you find food? The 
 men fed you when you were coming here, for 
 they had guns and shot game; but you have 
 none. So you would be starving. You would 
 be trying to find the pods of last year s roses on 
 the rose bushes, for that is what the Indians try 
 to keep themselves alive with when they are 
 starving. But you would find them becoming 
 clogged on your stomach and you would be 
 greatly distressed just when you would have to 
 walk the very best to get to those Sioux! Per 
 haps, being young and inexperienced, you would 
 not be able to find those rose-pods, or not enough 
 of them, and would starve to death, or you would 
 be so distressed with your stomach that you 
 would sicken and die alone there in the woods, 
 and your body never be found ! You would just 
 rot away there on the moss where you had lain 
 down, or the wolves would come and eat you ! 
 
 "Oh you poor, unhappy young girl, what a 
 position you are in ! Then how many rivers do 
 
124 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 you have to cross and get into the cold water, 
 still cold from the ice, and swim to the other 
 side, then start on and walk, wringing wet all 
 over. Then, unless I should give you a flint and 
 steel, you would not have any fire, night or day, 
 till you got there. Think of your sleeping in 
 your wet clothes without a fire ! 
 
 "Now, first of all you would come to your 
 own wigwam, where the men found you, and 
 what a sight! There lie the bodies of your 
 father and mother, all gashed and cut to pieces 
 as the men left them; half-rotten and decaying 
 by this time, if the wolves have not eaten them. 
 Perhaps you would see only hones gnawed clean. 
 Oh, your brain would reel, and you would be 
 come a wild, mad woman of the woods in the 
 dreadful lonesomeness of that place and the 
 sights you would see there ! And there are your 
 little brothers and sisters, whom you used to 
 play with a few days ago their brains are lying 
 scattered about under the trees! I heard 
 Ogema telling that he took them by the feet and 
 swung them around his head, and dashed out 
 their brains against the trees! Alas, you poor 
 girl! You have no father nor mother to weep 
 over you nor lament for you. I must be your 
 mother, and weep over you whether you live or 
 die." 
 
 Here Eed-Sky-of-the-Morning enfolded her 
 young sister in her arms and kissed her again 
 and again, covering her with kisses ; then lifted 
 up her voice and wept over her, still holding her 
 in her arms; weeping over her loudly and bit 
 terly. Her tears really fell in streams upon the 
 
THE OJIBWAY 125 
 
 Sioux girl s head, and ran down over her cheeks. 
 In feeling, she had indeed entered into the place 
 of the poor girl s mother, and that mother could 
 not have had a more vivid realization of her 
 daughter s sad condition than she had. It was 
 a custom with the Sioux in the early days to 
 weep loudly and bitterly over captives, and be 
 moan them, entering in thought and feeling into 
 their unhappy situation. 
 
 Red-Sky-of-the-Morning kept this up for some 
 time, until she had performed this pious duty, 
 and lightened the grief of her own heart by this 
 copious effusion; and the receptacles within 
 were less strained when they had overflowed in 
 this vent of tears. Then she resumed her medi 
 tation, exploring by her words the course of 
 events if either way were taken. 
 
 "Supposing then," she said, "that you should 
 at last surmount all these dangers and live 
 through the lonesomeness of the great forest, 
 and the sights you must see, and arrive at the 
 Indians of your village. "What then? No 
 home for you to go to, for you have a home 
 no longer on earth! There will be but one 
 thing then for you to do; some man will take 
 you into his wigwam, for you have no 
 father nor mother. Perhaps he has one wife 
 already, perhaps two. What then will your life 
 be? Oh, I know the ways of those Sioux; their 
 ways are all hard and cruel ! Our Ojibway men 
 have cruel ways, but yours are more so. I know 
 it, for our men have watched and seen just how 
 they do, when they have been lying in wait at 
 some Sioux village waiting to kill some of them ; 
 
126 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and they have seen their housekeeping and all 
 their ways, and have come back here and told 
 us all about it. You will be sent out to pack 
 meat that the men have killed but which they will 
 not carry home; and there you will be with a 
 packing-strap around your forehead and a 
 weight of meat upon your back enough to crush 
 you. And when you sink under the weight ex 
 hausted, the man who calls himself your husband 
 will come up and grievously beat you, and tell 
 you to get up and go on. And he will not think 
 it any harm to beat you and even to kill you, 
 because you are only a woman, and you belong 
 to him. And you won t have any one to fake 
 your part, for you are only a poor orphan. Only 
 some poor woman as badly off as yourself will 
 sympathize with you, and what can she do to 
 help you, because she is as badly off herself. 
 And very likely the women into whose wigwam 
 you go will hate you, and abuse you, and look on 
 you as an intruder who has come to take from 
 them their husband. Oh, when that day comes 
 you will wish your life had been ended here ! 
 
 "And there comes in the thing that I can not 
 bear to think of, and that is that if that course is 
 taken I have lost you for time and for eternity. 
 You will be no more to me then nor I to you than 
 any other Sioux woman, in this world or in the 
 next. I had you once and I let you go out of my 
 hand, and I have no further claim on you. But 
 if I kill you here, as I came out to do, then you 
 belong to no one else, but are mine throughout 
 eternity. Is not that what our men go to war 
 for, among other things, and endure every hard- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 127 
 
 ship starvation, fatigue, cold; marching for 
 days and weeks with sometimes hardly anything 
 to eat, and oftentimes lay down their lives, and 
 what for? Because they believe that the souls 
 of those they slay in battle, or take captive in 
 war and put to death at home, will be their slaves 
 in the next life, to wait on them and do every 
 thing for them. So, I love you so my sister that 
 I cannot bear the thought of an eternal separa 
 tion, and that in the next world you should be 
 nothing to me ! That I should look at you, the 
 second or third wife of some Sioux man, but 
 nothing to me ! Once I had you, but I lost you ! 
 Lost you by my own default. 
 
 I feel two souls struggling within me, one of 
 which says let her go home to her people; but 
 when I feel inclined to do that, then comes the 
 other thought. Do you not love her and wish to 
 be with her in the next life? And if you let her 
 go you have nothing more to do with her here or 
 hereafter. Oh, I love you too well for that; so 
 hear what I think had best be done. I shall kill 
 you that I may not lose you ; but while I do it, I 
 love you. I shall not haggle your pretty cheeks, 
 I shall not mangle you as the Indians do, for I 
 love you. I love your beauty, your softness, 
 your rounded form and face, and I shall not mar 
 them. This is what I shall do. I shall cut in 
 over your heart, but gently, gently. I shall not 
 gash you, but gently press the edge in, in one 
 line parallel with another. I shall see your 
 beating heart, and shall watch your fading eye, 
 but will love you as a sister. It will only be a 
 
128 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 short separation, and then we shall be together 
 forever. Shall we not, darling? " 
 
 Here she enfolded the girl once more in her 
 arms, and affectionately kissed her again and 
 again. "We shall love each other. I shall not 
 treat you as my slave, but as my dear sister. You 
 will be glad then that you do not belong to some 
 cruel Sioux man, but to me. I am not one of 
 those shilly-shallying women, soft and weak, 
 who keep changing their minds, who think one 
 thing to-day and another to-morrow. When I 
 have come to a determination about a thing, I 
 owe it to myself not to change. It is necessary 
 to my self-respect not to change. Before I 
 asked you of the chiefs I made up my mind that 
 if they granted you to me you would be mine, 
 and I cannot change. I will not change. When 
 I feel inclined to change, the thought comes into 
 my heart, you have already settled that and you 
 must not change ! 
 
 "I know very well in my inmost heart that 
 notwithstanding all the mingled motives that 
 have weight with me, sometimes inclining me to 
 let you go ; and although I fully appreciate your 
 situation and put myself in your place, and feel 
 pity for you, yet I know that in the end I shall 
 kill you, for although I might relent and let you 
 go for the moment out of pity for you, yet the 
 next instant I would be seized with regret that I 
 had let the prize escape out of my hands. You 
 would not have gone three steps, till I would be 
 running after you to seize you! I would be 
 filled with regret, once I had let my great priv 
 ilege go. I would say to myself, why have you 
 
THE OJIBWAY 129 
 
 been so foolish V The highest privilege a per 
 son can have to put to death a captive! Our 
 men do it, and think it the greatest thing ! And 
 it was in my hands and I let you go ! Therefore 
 I know that I might as well stop talking about it 
 and kill you, for it will come to that in the end. 
 "Therefore hear, my sister, some directions 
 that I shall crive you. When your soul can no 
 longer remain in the body because of the open 
 ing made in it, you will hover some time over 
 your body, unwilling to launch away, wishing to 
 come back again into your house. But do not 
 do so, for it is no longer a place for you. Your 
 house will have been broken into, and you can 
 no longer inhabit it. Your road will lie west 
 ward for three days, and mostly over a prairie 
 country, to the Villages of the Dead. Although 
 it is prairie, you will find wood enough to make 
 fire in the evening, and you can gather it. T 
 will see that your packing-strap is buried with 
 you; your woman s ax, your fire-steel, and your 
 woman s a,wl, so you shall lack nothing. And 
 when evening comes I and my sisters will make a 
 fire for you, so you can have a fire every evening 
 for three evenings ; and we will sit there and talk 
 of you. Do not feel lonesome, for we shall be 
 watching with you. When you get near the 
 Abodes of the Dead you will see the big straw 
 berry by the side of the road, as big as a rock; 
 and you will see a spoon by it for you to dig 
 out all you want of it. Eat and refresh your 
 self, for it has been placed there that you may 
 do so. At the end of the third day you will 
 come in sight of the Villages of the Dead, on 
 
130 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 the other side of a rapid river crossed by a 
 single log the gog-gog-azh-o-gun, the dreadful 
 1 rolling and sinking bridge that the Indians 
 are so afraid of. And you will be much dis 
 mayed by the big dog, as big as a buffalo, and 
 fierce, placed there to guard it and prevent you 
 from going on it. But do not be dismayed at 
 him; go right on to the log, for he cannot hurt 
 you, but tries to frighten you away. And do not 
 be afraid of the rolling and sinking bridge. 
 Venture fearlessly on it and you will surely get 
 across. It will dip in the water and roll under 
 your feet; but never mind; you are good and 
 will get across. When you have gotten over, 
 and look back, you will see it writhing and twist 
 ing behind you like a great serpent. Below you, 
 down the river you will see the water dashing 
 at lightning speed over the rapids among the 
 rocks and stones, and the souls of those who 
 are very wicked fall off the gog-gog-azh-o-gun, 
 and are carried down among those rocks, and 
 beaten and destroyed there, and they never get 
 across. Their souls are lost, but you who are 
 good and innocent will surely get over. All the 
 Indians expect to get over safely, though many 
 of them are wicked ; much more then will you. 
 
 "When you have gotten across you will find 
 your father and mother and all your little broth 
 ers and sisters there, and wait there for me. 
 They say the Villages of the Dead are very nice. 
 Many of our people have been there, and have 
 come back and told us all about it, and about 
 those they saw there. They have told us also 
 about the dreadful river and the swinging log. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 131 
 
 They fell into a sort of a trance in their wigwam. 
 Their bodies lay there, but their souls had left 
 them temporarily. Their souls were in the 
 Abodes of the Dead then, but by and by they 
 came back and entered into their bodies, and then 
 they told us all about it. They are always feast 
 ing there, and have plenty to eat. It is a beauti 
 ful prairie country, interspersed with clear run 
 ning rivers fringed with timber, and filled with 
 all kinds of game ; deer, moose, and elk ; which 
 they pursue incessantly, and easily overcome. 
 And even on this earth we can all see them danc 
 ing. We don t need to fall into a trance and have 
 our souls leave our bodies and go there to see 
 that. On cold evenings in winter we see the rays 
 of mysterious light shooting up from the north 
 into the sky, silently, beautifully, delicately; 
 and we say Che-bai-yug-ni-mi-i-di-wug the 
 ghosts are dancing with each other. When I see 
 one of those rays, the most beautiful and delicate 
 of them all, I shall think to myself that it is my 
 Sioux girl ! 
 
 And do not think that we will forget you on 
 earth. We shall put your body up on a scaffold, 
 where no animals can molest it, nor any worms 
 of earth defile it; and we shall wrap it in many 
 folds of birch-bark, so that neither the rain can 
 wet it nor any birds attack it. And there, on 
 summer evenings, the little children will dance 
 around it and bewail the Sioux girl. For long, 
 long, your grave will be pointed out as that of 
 the poor Sioux girl." 
 
 Here again she affectionately kissed her, and 
 then proceeded to do according to her resolu- 
 
132 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 tion. She brought out a great roll of the inner 
 bark of the basswood tree, which the Indians use 
 for rope, and tied the unresisting girl to a 
 tree. Then she wept over her for the last time, 
 and kissed her. Then she brought out her knife, 
 and over the beating heart, as she had said,- 
 she proceeded to incise. Slowly, gently, but 
 deeper went the edge, in toward the fluttering 
 heart, pressed there by her steady hand. At last 
 the edge had gone too deep for the soul further 
 to inhabit that body. They both knew now 
 that whatever they might think or determine, 
 there was but one end. Red-sky-of-the-morning 
 might repent now and change her mind, but it 
 was too late. She looked in the eyes- of the dy 
 ing girl when she knew the dividing line had 
 been passed, and with her eyes inquiringly 
 asked, " Shall I go deeper?" and the poor girl 
 nodded to her, yes, to go deeper. She felt that 
 things had gone so far that death was now the 
 only end, and she was anxious to have it come. 
 Strange to say, also, she rather relied on the 
 only one of humankind who was with her, even 
 though she w^as the one who killed her. She 
 sought human sympathy, and she found it in 
 that woman s look and face, though her hand 
 that guided the cmel knife told a different tale. 
 At the last it was easier for the poor Sioux girl 
 to die there, with her slayer, than had she been 
 all alone in the wilderness. 
 
 Red-Sky-of-the-Morning came away and again 
 took her place in life. Again she moved in and 
 out of her wigwam, again plied her housewifely 
 tasks, again moved about among her neighbors 
 of the village. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A THIRST FOR GLORY SEIZES GULL LAKE VILLAGE. 
 
 The expedition of Ogema and his compan 
 ions to the Sioux country had been so successful, 
 accomplished as it was without the loss of a man, 
 and even without the touch of a bullet; they had 
 brought home so many scalps, and a live captive, 
 and had achieved such a reputation for success 
 ful daring, for wisdom and for courage, that it 
 naturally set the other men to thinking if they, 
 too, could not win such laurels. 
 
 In their assemblies and in the dances the three 
 who had gone were now marked men. They 
 were accorded higher honors than the others, 
 and when they spoke their words had a peculiar 
 weight, as coming from men who had dared and 
 gained such things. And they had the coveted 
 distinction of wearing in their head-dress one 
 eagle s feather for each victim they had killed. 
 Their distinction was thus visibly proclaimed 
 wherever they went. Those who had no right to 
 wear such a feather naturally felt themselves in 
 ferior. It was natural, therefore, that there 
 should be many searchings of heart among the 
 young braves to see if they could not achieve 
 what others had. And while they were gaining 
 personal distinction they were, as they thought, 
 defending their country and reducing the num 
 ber of their enemies. 
 
134 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 There was a young man in the village, a half- 
 Sioux, who, like all the others, was thinking of 
 these things ; and it gradually came to him that 
 from peculiar circumstances he was in a position 
 to do a good stroke of work and to become a 
 famous man. He revolved it some time in his 
 mind, and the plan gradually became clear. 
 His mother had been taken captive in one of the 
 raids of the Sioux upon the Ojibways, and being 
 carried to the Sioux country was married, with 
 out her consent, to a Sioux brave. Her son was 
 therefore half Sioux and half Ojibway. There 
 she and the boy lived for some years, but the 
 love of her own land and people was strong 
 upon her, and finding an opportunity to escape, 
 she fled, taking her son with her, and succeeded 
 in reaching her native village. There the boy 
 grew up, and became a thorough Ojibway in 
 feeling, espousing their quarrel against the 
 Sioux, as he was of a very tender age when he 
 came among them. He grew up tall and strong, 
 with even more of energy, ambition, and strength 
 in his nature than the Ojibways around him, de 
 rived probably from the mixture of the two 
 bloods, which so often seems to produce that ef 
 fect. He was a good hunter, and was strong and 
 determined in everything he undertook. Al 
 though brought where he never heard a word of 
 Sioux except when talking it with his mother, 
 who had learned considerable of it during her 
 enforced stay, he yet retained some knowledge 
 of the language, the echoes of what had been his 
 tongue in infancy remaining with him. He was 
 
THE OJIBWAY 135 
 
 called by the Indians, Bwan (the Sioux or Roast 
 er), from his Sioux blood. 
 
 Bwan now resolved to start for his native vil 
 lage and as no one had the peculiar facilities for 
 success which he had, to go alone. As he did 
 not have to ask for any companions, and as he 
 knew that permission for himself would readily 
 be granted, he did not think necessary to ask any 
 formal permission of the band, and being of a 
 hold and independent disposition, he did not feel 
 like doing so in any case. He knew that success 
 would justify him if he came back, and if he 
 never came back it was all the same whether he 
 had asked permission or not. He therefore 
 kissed his babies, bade good-by to his Ojibway 
 wife and his old mother, and taking his gun, his 
 tomahawk, his food bag, and his knife, started 
 alone. His point of destination was an entirely 
 different one from that of the last party, who 
 had gone south. His was the Sioux village 
 called Chief Mountain, in the present state of 
 South Dakota. His road therefore lay south- 
 westwardly across the now state of Minnesota. 
 The distance was about eight sleeps (180 miles). 
 
 For the first two days his spirits were high, 
 because in front of him, at the distance of about 
 2 days march (60 miles) was the Otter-tail band 
 of Ojibway s, his own people, many of them per 
 sonally known to him. It was pleasant to look 
 forward to seeing them, and to spending a few 
 days in their lodges, and that for the present 
 shut out the view of what was beyond. He sang 
 loud and clear as he walked along through 
 the woods all day, and camped all alone at night. 
 
136 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 It did not seem lonesome, making his bed all by 
 himself in the depths of the great forest, for the 
 next evening would find him with the Ojibways. 
 Nor did it seem lonesome the next day, when the 
 forest gradually thinned out and allowed more 
 extensive views, for every step was bringing him 
 nearer to friends. In the evening he reached 
 the Ojibway lodges, and was warmly received. 
 These Otter-Tail Indians were a sort of outpost 
 of the Ojibways against the Sioux, being thrust 
 out on the prairie the farthest toward them. 
 There he learned all the news of that band, and 
 in return gave them all that had happened at 
 Gull Lake and the news of the world generally. 
 After having sufficiently rested he left them, 
 and resumed his lonely way over the prairies to 
 ward the southwest. Here the gravity of his 
 position first became borne in upon him. He 
 had left the human race behind when he parted 
 from the last of the Otter-Tail Ojibways; and 
 was going, a lonely man, across a vast expanse 
 of prairie, seeing no human being, to discover 
 a new race, and what a reception awaited him 
 there he could only dimly discern. But he 
 felt that the risk was terrible, and that 
 he was perhaps deliberately walking into the 
 jaws of death. The solitude of the great 
 prairies, the absence of human companionship 
 day after day, oppressed him. He felt that the 
 expedition of Ojibway and his companions was 
 a pleasure-trip compared to what he had under 
 taken, for they had companionship. Danger 
 faced in company was nothing; it roused, it 
 stimulated, there was even a pleasing ex- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 137 
 
 citement about it; but danger faced all 
 alone, in cold blood, was a liard undertaking. 
 To be sure the country through which he passed 
 was most beautiful, and it was at the most beau 
 tiful time of the year. The prairies were clothed 
 with the deepest green, gently undulating in long 
 swells of land, and interspersed with beautiful 
 groves, where birds of many different kinds 
 sang. There were many rivers and streams, 
 fringed with timber, winding their way through 
 the lovely landscape, and there were countless 
 prairie lakes, wherever he went; some of them 
 only a few acres in extent, some miles in circum 
 ference ; but all, like so many mirrors, reflecting 
 heaven in their depths. Sometimes, when the 
 sun was about setting, it lit them all up at once, 
 and standing on some eminence he could see 
 them flashing in apparently endless succession 
 far, far away, as far as the eye could reach. A 
 great rain had fallen and collected in countless 
 pools amidst the verdure, and remained there. 
 Everything was fresh and beautiful, and sweet 
 and cool, and freshly washed with plentiful rain 
 from the sky. The whole earth was singing and 
 rejoicing. When he arose in the morning from 
 sleep the air was filled with a chorus from birds 
 of all kinds. Some calling out from little lakes, 
 some singing in the groves, some from the 
 prairie grass. One mingled hymn of praise 
 went up from all nature, each creature striving 
 in a different, but blended, harmonious way to 
 express the common joy. The storms and the 
 cold of winter were forgotten in the loveliness, 
 the abundance, and the deep joy of the present. 
 
138 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 "The Sioux " felt the charm; the spell, and he 
 felt also that the mission on which he was going 
 was out of harmony with it all. He was a lonely 
 man, who had left home and wife and child far 
 behind him, and before him was what? Home 
 sickness, loneliness, a certainty of impending 
 danger, all oppressed him. His thoughts contin 
 ually reverted to his wigwam, to his little chil 
 dren playing around it. He could see them all, 
 and oh ! what would he not have given to be with 
 them! But pride, determination not to turn 
 back from what he had once resolved on, was 
 strong. It was, however, a continual struggle 
 with himself not to give up. 
 
 There was no trail of any kind, but he had 
 often heard the Indians who had gone on large 
 war parties of two or three hundred against that 
 Sioux village describe the landmarks one after 
 the other, and as he came to one the next opened 
 to his view. Perhaps also there lurked dimly in 
 his brain some idea of the route he had passed 
 over when his mother fled with him. And it is 
 also true that some Indians can, by some sense 
 unknown to the white man, go directly toward 
 any spot where they have ever been in the course 
 of their lives, from whatever place they happen 
 then to be. 
 
 So day after day he walked, and night after 
 night he made his lonely camp. His trusty gun 
 brought him all the game he needed, and with 
 some wild rice which he carried with him it 
 made him most excellent food. Every evening 
 he kindled his fire, put on his little pot and 
 cooked his game, mixed the wild rice with it, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 139 
 
 drank the hot broth and had a good meal. Then 
 he sat and thought and smoked till bedtime; 
 then, wrapping himself in his blanket, he slept. 
 In the morning he again made his fire and 
 cooked his meal. For many days and nights he 
 had seen no human being. The world seemed to 
 be empty, and he the only man in it. 
 
 And here a new experience came to him ; some 
 thing he had never felt in his life before. As he 
 went on day after day he gradually became 
 aware of a Presence ; and it grew more and more 
 clear to him that it was the Presence of God. 
 He had not felt it while going out and in among 
 the groves and prairies about Gull Lake, for he 
 was then among the haunts of men, and though 
 he was alone during the day, the evening brought 
 him to human beings. There was not time 
 enough then for the impression to be borne in 
 upon him. But now, not hearing a human voice, 
 nor seeing a trace of man s existence for so 
 many days, all impediments that otherwise occu 
 pied the avenues to his soul were removed; and 
 that soul was laid bare in an extraordinarily 
 sensitive state to receive impressions. So this 
 consciousness of a Presence deepened as the days 
 wore on. It grew more haunting, for it was the 
 only thing with him. It was a Presence which 
 he could not see; nor hear, nor detect by any 
 of his senses; but it was something that was 
 felt, and which he could not deny. He would 
 not have been very much surprised if It had 
 spoken to him by name. In the state of mind in 
 which he was it was a Presence which filled him 
 with distrust and with fear. He longed to escape 
 
140 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 from It. He was glad when the time came to 
 sleep ; to be rid of It ; but when he awoke in the 
 morning and turned his thought to It, there It 
 was still. The singing of the birds; the sweet 
 shining of the sun, the deep repose and joy that 
 filled all things were all in harmony with It; 
 he only, he felt, was a dissonant note. It made 
 him angry, and he longed to be once more with 
 the distractions of human beings, even with foes, 
 to be rid of It. 
 
 And now at last he arrived at the tents of the 
 Sioux, far spread, for it was a large village; 
 and the critical moment was come. Behind him 
 were wife and children, and he was still undis 
 covered and could go back if he wished, and live 
 and enjoy all that life had to give. But if he 
 discovered himself he was no longer his own 
 master, his fate was taken out of his own hands 
 and put into the hands of others. He felt the 
 seriousness of it. 
 
 At this time he was lying hidden in the willow 
 bushes by the bank of the stream which flowed 
 along by their village, and from which they got 
 their supply of water. Their skin lodges were 
 widespread before him, and hundreds of smokes 
 were rising. Ponies were tied about every 
 where. The little children raised their shrill 
 voices in play, and the women came down to the 
 stream for water. His heart was now beating 
 wildly. Once more he went all over it, and had 
 to decide anew what he thought he had long ago 
 decided. He remembered that he had not told 
 anyone what he had intended to do, so that if he 
 now gave it up and went home his reputation 
 
THE OJIBWAY 141 
 
 would not suffer. No one would know where he 
 had been nor what he had gone for. He could 
 lie in those willows till dark perfectly secure, 
 then, unseen and his presence unsuspected, go 
 home. Life is sweet. The simple joy of living 
 in his Gull Lake village never seemed to him so 
 great as now. There was something pulling at 
 his heart strongly tempting him to give it up. 
 The thought of giving himself into the hands of 
 those swarming multitudes, unable to defend 
 himself, unable to do anything to help himself, 
 was well-nigh insupportable. He found that 
 he had almost to exert violence upon himself to 
 do it. It would have been easy to rush upon 
 them and die fighting; but to have to suffer 
 passively, to be unable to take his mind from his 
 sufferings by action, that was hard. To be in 
 the midst of angry, encircling faces a helpless 
 captive, perhaps to be pulled to pieces, perhaps 
 to be roasted ! He could not bear to think of it. 
 And all for what? For fame, for glory. And 
 could he not live without the fame and the glory ? 
 All these thoughts passed through his mind and 
 almost unnerved him. Then he remembered 
 that he had once made up his mind, and his pride 
 would not allow him to change. Though it were 
 manifest destruction, he could not bear to give 
 up what he had once entered on. So the hour of 
 weakness passed. He rose up, stood out in the 
 open and hailed them. 
 
 Instantly there was a commotion in the vil 
 lage. Something about his dress or appearance 
 told them he was a strange Indian. A hush fell 
 upon the camp; the cries of the children at play 
 
142 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ceased. The men grasped bows and arrows, 
 guns and tomahawks, and ran to him. The 
 women seized their children and hurried into 
 their teepees. He was soon the center of a cir 
 cle, with guns pointed at him, and bows full 
 drawn upon him from every side, while angry 
 faces were bent upon him. None of them had 
 ever seen him before. Had he dropped from 
 the clouds? It did not seem possible that one of 
 their enemies, the Ojibways, had dared to come 
 against them all alone. Should they kill him at 
 once, or would they wait and see where he came 
 from and what he wanted 1 
 
 He now furnished the key out of this perplex 
 ity by calling out loudly in Sioux the names of 
 his uncles, which he knew, for his mother had 
 told him. He called them again and again, and 
 they knew he wanted to see them. It would 
 not do to kill him when he was calling out in 
 Sioux that Mazakootemane and such and such 
 men were his uncles. Besides, they could kill him 
 at leisure any time after they knew what this 
 sudden apparition meant. So they held him cap 
 tive, while runners were despatched for the un 
 cles whom he named, and who lived off at a little 
 distance from the village. These soon came run 
 ning, and he quickly satisfied them by the few 
 words of Sioux he could speak, and by showing 
 them some trinkets of theirs which his mother 
 and he had borne away with them when they 
 fled, and by the family likeness, which they 
 quickly recognized, that he was indeed their 
 long-lost nephew. They received him with affec 
 tion, and installed him in one of their lodges. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 143 
 
 He had successfully passed the crisis ; his life 
 was preserved. 
 
 It is painful to have to relate what followed. 
 For the honor of human nature it would be well 
 if it could be covered ; but we are telling of life 
 as it then was among the Sioux and Ojibways. 
 The poet long ago sang of the accursed thirst for 
 gold, and what it forced mortal hearts to do; 
 there has been an accursed thirst for fame 
 as well. His uncles made a great feast for their 
 new-found relative. They assembled in the 
 lodge of one of them, and ate, sang and danced 
 for joy. When at last, wearied with their exer 
 tions and their feasting, they were all buried in 
 profound slumber, he, sleepless, arose and 
 drove his knife through the breasts of 
 every one of them and killed all that were in the 
 lodge. It would not do to shoot; the report 
 would raise the Sioux, who were off a little 
 ways; but the deadly knife did the work with 
 out noise. Then the scalps were taken from 
 each, preparations made for a hasty depar 
 ture, and out into the night went l The Sioux. 
 By morning s light he was far away, on the road 
 toward his own country, and lying hidden in a 
 grove, he watched his enemies scouring the 
 prairie on their ponies for him. When dark 
 ness fell he again started, traveling by the stars ; 
 and after a few nights was beyond all pursuit. 
 
 When he arrived at his own village the people 
 were again delirious with joy over so many 
 scalps. They danced over them for days and 
 weeks, and "The Sioux V name was on every 
 lip. Ogema, Yellow Thunder, and their com- 
 
144 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 panion had done well, had done wonders; but 
 was there ever such a thing heard of as that 
 which " The Sioux had done ? To go in openly 
 into a numerous camp of enemies and give him 
 self up to them and come out again alive, and 
 with such a rich lading! "The Sioux" in sub 
 tlety, in daring, in courage, in results had sur 
 passed them all. Never had a braver nor a more 
 successful deed been done in the history of the 
 Ojibways. Henceforth "The Sioux " was one 
 whom the people turned to look after when he 
 passed. 
 
 Having got a taste of such things, this was 
 not the end. He was out with his wife and 
 two young men hunting near the debatable 
 ground between the Sioux and Ojibways. This 
 was a border region, midway between their re 
 spective villages, which all but the boldest hunt 
 ers avoided, for though game was more plentiful 
 there than anywhere else, owing to the region 
 not being so much hunted over, yet on account 
 of the great danger that attended it, people pre 
 ferred to be content with lesser gains elsewhere, 
 and safety. 
 
 While out there "The Sioux" discovered that 
 a Sioux family was also hunting there. This 
 party consisted of an old man, his daughter and 
 children, her husband, and another young man. 
 Again "The Sioux" made use of what he knew 
 of his old language. He opened negotiations 
 with the old man, established peace, and pro 
 posed to pass the night with the family in their 
 teepee as their guests. The old man was per 
 haps a little afraid, but considered it less danger 
 
THE OJIBWAY 145 
 
 to run the risk of entertaining such guests than 
 by refusal to invite instant battle. All the party 
 was therefore taken in and hospitably enter 
 tained. After supper, while "The Sioux " was 
 conversing with the old man, he told his wife, 
 who was sitting behind him, to cock his gun and 
 place it behind him ready to his hand, speaking 
 to her in a low tone in Ojibway, and so not un 
 derstood by his hosts. She did so without mak 
 ing any clicking. Then while yet conversing 
 with the old man he put his hand behind him, 
 and still looking him calmly in the eye poured 
 the contents into his breast. 
 
 That shot immediately startled every one in 
 the lodge into wildest activity. The husband 
 of the woman, and the other Sioux young man, 
 immediately dived under the bottom of the skin 
 lodge, out into the darkness, and into the under 
 brush and escaped. The young woman might 
 perhaps have done so, but mother-love was too 
 strong for her, for she stopped to pick up her 
 two children, snatching one with each arm, be 
 fore she ran. That gave the two Ojibway young 
 men time to seize their tomahawks, which they 
 did the moment the shot made known to them the 
 altered condition of affairs, and they quickly 
 despatched her and the babes. Again a harvest 
 of scalps was reaped, and again "The Sioux " 
 demonstrated his ability to overcome the dread 
 ed Sioux under all circumstances. Once more 
 there was great rejoicing in the Ojibway village, 
 and "The Sioux " was acclaimed the man above 
 all others. 
 
CHATER XIII. 
 
 THE THIRST FOR GLORY STILL WORKS. 
 
 The work was now going bravely on. Many 
 reputations had been gained, great glory had 
 been won. The name of Ojibway had become 
 more renowned than ever through the late 
 exploits of the Ogema and Yellow Thunder 
 party, and "The Sioux. " And all had been 
 accomplished without the loss of a man. It 
 was fun to one side and death only to the other. 
 The Chippewas* danced and sang, and only the 
 Sioux wailed and lamented. There were no 
 empty wigwams, and no empty places in Ojib 
 way households. This uniform success stimu 
 lated many. Some had made great reputations, 
 why might not others f 
 
 An Ojibway named Ga-nunda-winzo (The- 
 Berry-Picker) was out hunting in winter with his 
 nephew, using a train of dogs and a sled. Com 
 ing to a large Sioux village near the termination 
 of his hunt, he proposed to his nephew to go to 
 it with offers of peace. They did so, were ac 
 cepted, and entertained, being assigned to a cer 
 tain family living in the outskirts of the village 
 a little ways off from the others. The Sioux 
 had no suspicion that they would attempt any 
 thing among such overpowering numbers. 
 
 It may seem strange, in view of what has been 
 
 *Chlppewa is our English corruption of Ojibway. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 147 
 
 said about the relations of the Sioux and Ojib- 
 way, that any offers of peace could have been 
 made or accepted; but it arose from the fact 
 that the commanding officer of the fort before 
 spoken of near what is now the city of St. Paul, 
 had before this brought Sioux and Chippewas 
 together in a conference, with a view of making 
 a permanent peace ; and that the chaplain before 
 mentioned had been exerting himself to the same 
 end. These peace ideas were now working in 
 the minds of the Sioux and made the reception 
 of The-Berry-Picker and his nephew, with their 
 white flag, possible. The Sioux saw plainly 
 enough from how many miseries peace with the 
 Ojibways would deliver them. 
 
 The evening meal is over, and the moccasins 
 of the guests hung up to dry, a pledge of their 
 inability to move. At last the camp is buried 
 in sleep. All but the two Ojibway braves; no 
 sleep for them. They are holding a whispered 
 conference under the blanket which envelops 
 them, head and all, as they lie. Now the fatal 
 moment has come. Assent has been given on 
 both sides to try it, desperate though it be. The 
 words "I am ready " have been passed, and as 
 the nephew says "haw," which means "ready, 
 now is the time, both spring upon the sleeping 
 members of the lodge, with the fury of tigers, 
 their knives ready drawn in their hands. There 
 is knifing of one to the heart, and then another. 
 Murder is holding a revel. But a young 
 woman of the family springs out of her sleep, 
 and clutches with each of her hands a wrist of 
 The-Berry-Picker, raises his hands high above 
 
148 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 his head, seeking to avoid from herself the reek 
 ing and dripping knife; and with desperate 
 strength and seemingly superhuman energy 
 bears him backward and downward. She is tall 
 and strong, and infuriated. "A woman over 
 comes me," he despairingly cries, giving him 
 self up for lost under the overbearing assault 
 of the enraged and desperate woman, when he 
 hears the ponderous thud of his nephew s 
 hatchet crushing her skull. She sinks down, a 
 limp mass, upon the floor, and the silence of 
 death succeeds the late wild commotion in the 
 lodge. 
 
 But now the Sioux camp begins to awake from 
 its sleep. This thing had been intended to be 
 done secretly, but nevertheless sounds of murder 
 have reached the main Sioux camp, which was 
 at a little distance. The Sioux are hastily put 
 ting on moccasins, they reach for arms, they 
 will soon be here. Hasty preparations therefore 
 for flight ; get the dogs out, get them fastened to 
 the sled, jump on it and be off! Now for life! 
 The Sioux are just coming. 
 
 There were an endless number of paths lead 
 ing from the village, all diverging from one 
 main road. Some led to where wood was 
 chopped, some to where their ponies were, some 
 to watering-holes chopped in the ice, some 
 to other Sioux villages. Paths, paths branching 
 off everywhere, to the right hand and to the 
 left; and only one path that leads away and to 
 safety. The men know not which it is, the dogs 
 must choose. Will they find it? It is one chance 
 in a thousand, or in ten thousand, if they do. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 149 
 
 The Sioux are pressing, yelling close behind. If 
 they choose any one but the right one it will 
 quickly come to an end at some wood-chopping 
 place or at some watering-hole, or it will come 
 to nothing on the prairie, and the enemy will be 
 upon them. Will the dogs find it! In the dark 
 ness of the night, amidst such a multiplicity of 
 trails, man s acuteness, even the acuteness of the 
 Indian, is of no avail. Will the dogs, on the keen 
 run in the dark, know the only path amidst a 
 hundred others, which leads to the village where 
 they have been reared? No time for them to 
 stop and deliberate, for The-Berry-Picker and 
 his nephew are lashing them, and exciting them 
 with yells to their utmost speed. In their ears 
 are the Sioux yells, and in the gloom behind their 
 forms can be dimly seen, more cruel, more piti 
 less than a pack of pursuing wolves. 
 
 Yes, wonderful to relate, the dogs have taken 
 the only right path, the sled bounds along on 
 it, made hard by the tramping of so many 
 moccasined feet, as if it were on ice. The 
 pursuers are left far behind, and the heroes 
 of the exploit remark to each other that they 
 are "going to live." The clamor behind dies 
 down : they are borne far away, and to safety. 
 
 The fame attained by The-Berry-Picker by 
 this exploit was great. He had taken most des 
 perate chances, and yet lived. No one could 
 have thought that he would go into the midst 
 of a Sioux camp and bring out scalps, and still 
 live ; yet he had done it. 
 
 As may be imagined, this did not end his 
 career. The desire to kill but grew with what 
 
150 THE OJIBWA^ 
 
 he had done. Continual, almost innumerable, 
 bloody deeds followed, from all of which he 
 came out alive and unharmed. He now thought 
 only on how he could add to his already tower 
 ing fame. All his other deeds we may pass over 
 and relate only one, the last. In the course of 
 his ranging about everywhere for hundreds of 
 miles on the Sioux frontier, he learned that at 
 the Hudson Bay Company s post, then called 
 Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, there were two half- 
 breed Sioux old women, the daughters of former 
 employes of the Company, who had separated 
 themselves from the Indians and lived after the 
 manner of the whites, making a hard living by 
 washing the floors of the Company s stores and 
 the dwellings of their clerks. Thither therefore 
 he hied; m the night attacked them as they 
 were asleep in their little shanty, not dreaming 
 of danger, and, bursting in upon them, killed 
 them without resistance, and scalped them. In 
 the morning the factors of the English Company 
 and their white employes assembled where he 
 and his men were, burning with indignation 
 that he should invade their country -and murder 
 two aged women who were harmless, living as 
 do the whites, half white, and under their pro 
 tection. Their looks were threatening, and it 
 was doubtful if he would escape them. He 
 endeavored to explain to his angry interlocutors 
 that those women had Sioux blood, and so were 
 his enemies. The plea was rejected, and more 
 wrathful looks bent upon him. Then, as he 
 expressed it, "he felt his manhood rise." Tak 
 ing his gun, he faced his encircling enemies, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 151 
 
 pointing it at the feet of each in succession, the 
 hammer raised and his finger on the trigger. 
 They hopped up from the ground one after the 
 other, each man lifting the foot at which that 
 gun pointed, each trying to escape the threat 
 ened bullet. Thus he swept them, and having 
 cowed them turned and strode away. He had 
 two daughters at home, his only children, and 
 the Indians remarked that soon after the killing 
 of those two old women, the girls faded away 
 and died. There seemed to be nothing the 
 matter with them, but somehow they just faded 
 away and he was left childless. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SUMMER HAPPINESS. 
 
 It was by this time high summer at Gull Lake, 
 and the Indians were fairly reveling in beauty 
 and in plenty. There were thousands of rose 
 bushes everywhere, all in full bloom, and filling 
 the air with the most delicious perfume. The 
 prairies and openings were carpeted with count 
 less flowers of infinite variety and every beau 
 tiful hue. The sky was of a deep steel blue ; and 
 thunderstorms, mostly at night, and heavy sum 
 mer plumps, kept the air sweet and fresh, and 
 everything on the earth washed with abundant 
 rain fresh from the sky. The lake lay like a 
 gem in its beautiful setting of pine-clad hills 
 and little prairies, and on its flashing bosom 
 crept the birch-bark canoes of the Indians, as 
 graceful and beautiful and as much in keeping 
 with the scene as though nature herself had 
 made them. The blueberries, thought by them 
 to be the most delicious of all fruits, were now 
 in the greatest abundance; in some spots the 
 ground was black with them; and in these, as 
 well as in an abundance of venison, moose-meat, 
 bear-meat, and fish, they revelled. There was no 
 sickness anywhere, and amidst such happy sur 
 roundings, such beautiful scenes, and such an 
 abundance of everything that was good and 
 
THE OJIBWAY 153 
 
 desirable in the earth they fairly gave them 
 selves to universal joy. 
 
 Their expeditions against the Sioux had been 
 uniformly successful and they had not lost a 
 single man. They had acquired great additional 
 glory and reputation to their village, and had 
 gained a large number of scalps, which were to 
 them an unfailing source of joy. Is it any 
 wonder then that the soul-stirring drum was so 
 often beating, calling to the entrancing delirium 
 of dancing round those scalps? Any wonder 
 that the exulting war-whoops of the men were 
 so often heard, and the shrill voices of the 
 women, carrying the chants? Any one to have 
 looked in on them and watched them day by day 
 would have said that they were the happiest 
 people; that their sky was clear blue, without 
 a speck of cloud in it; and that if there were 
 beings living a life of unclouded happiness any 
 where here on earth, these were they. 
 
 Love-making went on, and the sound of the 
 young men s flutes was heard in some part of 
 their village every night, and congenial souls 
 experienced the rapture of finding each other. 
 There was not one jarring note, not one cry of 
 sickness or of sorrow in the whole village. 
 Their life in the open air night and day, as well 
 as abundance and the greatest variety of the 
 finest food, kept them in the best physical condi 
 tion, which the champagne quality of the air, the 
 pure water, and the close contact with mother- 
 earth, upon which they lay by day and slept 
 by night, at the very season when she was put 
 ting forth her loveliest effects in flower and 
 
154 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 fruit and perfume, added to. The physical uni 
 verse at that season and in that place reveled in 
 an exuberance of joy, and their hearts and 
 spirits, and even their bodily frames felt the 
 influence of it and were attuned to the same note. 
 
 They no longer took their daily repasts 
 inside their wigwams, but outside where they 
 could enjoy the wealth of summer around them. 
 A fire was usually kindled in front of each wig 
 wam, and there the cooking was done; and the 
 savory steam of meat, mingling with the curling 
 smoke, contended for supremacy with the deli 
 cate perfume of roses which every breath blew 
 in upon them as they lay upon the green sward. 
 When at the morning meal they raised their 
 eyes their magnificent dining-hall was carpeted 
 with the greenest grass and dotted with innu 
 merable clumps of rose bushes, the greenness 
 of which was almost obscured by the wealth of 
 roses covering each like a closely-fitting 
 crown; all overlaid with innumerable drops of 
 dew, which sparkled like so many diamonds in 
 the rays of the morning sun. The delicious 
 strawberries and blueberries of their morning 
 repast still had the fresh dews upon them. 
 
 In a banqueting hall most lovely, which 
 Nature had put forth her best efforts to make 
 beautiful and delicate and entrancing, she served 
 them with the choicest and most delicate fruits, 
 which she had upheaved from her bosom in her 
 secret alchemy of beauty, and which in shape, 
 coloring, and perfume she had exhausted her 
 utmost efforts to make the perfection of dainti 
 ness. She seemed to be laboring to so nourish 
 
THE OJIBWAY 155 
 
 the children who reclined all day and all night 
 on her bosom that they would be refined from 
 all things carnal and gross; and be as delicate, 
 pure, and dainty as the dew-washed straw 
 berries, midst dew-washed rose-bushes on which 
 she fed them. Her own dear children, literally 
 in closest touch with her, reclining ever upon 
 her bosom, and drinking in by contact her sweet 
 secret spirit, drawing from her breast in fruit 
 and flower the very essence of her life surely 
 they would be of her own sweet, delicate nature 
 and spirit, as much as her tender flowers or her 
 stainless dew. 
 
 One evening, about this time, two middle- 
 aged women happened to meet in the village, 
 and began to talk. One, Sebiskogunun (Tough 
 Bones), Sha-bosh-kunk s mother-in-law, was 
 very large and heavy, as Indian women of that 
 age are apt to be. She was without any sem 
 blance of a waist, or any pretension to beauty. 
 The other, Debusigizhick, or Low Sky (Sky- 
 close-to-her) , was shorter in stature and smaller 
 every way. Although they called each other 
 sister, there was a latent hostility between them 
 that made it very easy for a quarrel to arise. 
 Besides, they were both well fed; there was 
 plenty of flesh of all kinds, as well as of wild 
 rice, in the village, not to speak of strawberries, 
 blueberries, and all delicious summer fruits; 
 and living of the best, were in fine fettle. When 
 they met in the path they stopped, and Tough 
 Bones said to the other: " Indeed, my sister, 
 I did not think that of you. I hear that you have 
 been talking about me in one of the wigwams/ 
 
156 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 "Talking about you, have I?" replied Low 
 Sky. "Indeed, I have been doing nothing of 
 the sort. I hope I shall have something better 
 to talk about than you, when I do talk. I had 
 my fishing nets to attend to and I think that is 
 more profitable than talking about you. 
 
 "Well, my sister, 7 answered Tough Bones, 
 with rising internal wrath, but forcibly keeping 
 down her voice to low tones, "you have been 
 talking about me, for Shaking-flame-of-fire- 
 woman heard you, and she told me. My sister, 
 you ought not to do such a thing and then deny 
 it. You should own it, and say you feel sorry 
 for it." 
 
 "Sorry for it?" said Low Sky, also with 
 rising wrath; "what should I be sorry about 
 what any one said about a big mass of flesh like 
 you?" 
 
 "My sister," said Tough Bones, her voice 
 now trembling with passion, "you did talk about 
 me, for you now confess it, though you denied 
 it at first. You should not lie, my sister. And 
 I heard besides that the other day when you 
 went out to draw your net, and I was not there, 
 that because you did not find as many fish in 
 your net as you expected you secretly drew mine, 
 and took some fish out of it and put them in your 
 basket, and then put my net back into the water 
 again. So it appears that you are not only a 
 liar, but a thief, my sister ! 
 
 " It is not so, said Low Sky. * 1 1 am not such 
 a good-for-nothing one that I have to go stealing 
 fish from any one; I can get all the fish I want 
 for myself." 
 
THE OJIBWAY 157 
 
 "Yes, you know you did, my sister, " replied 
 Tough Bones. Kichi-ique (Great Woman) saw 
 you and told me about it. She was behind a 
 bush coming down to draw her net, and you did 
 not see her. You looked all about, it seems, 
 before you stole, to see if anybody was watch 
 ing; and then when you thought nobody was 
 there you did it. I always knew you were a thief, 
 but you ought to make more sure that nobody is 
 watching you when you do it, my sister. 
 
 "It is a lie!" shouted Low Sky, "and don t 
 you sister me. Now I 11 tell you what the people 
 all say about you. They say they are afraid to 
 have you come into their wigwam and make a 
 visit, for there is sure to be something missing 
 when you go out. 
 
 "They never said such a thing, and you are 
 making it up yourself," replied Tough Bones. 
 
 "Well, I will tell you the very words they 
 said, replied Low Sky, l and then you will see 
 that they did say it, for I could not make it up of 
 myself. They say you are such a great hulk of 
 flesh that when you flop down when you come in 
 you cover half the side of the wigwam, and 
 whatever little thing is under you goes with you 
 when you go out. That that is the way you take 
 you gather up things in your clothes and hide 
 them till you go out. A good many have lost 
 a good deal by you, and they are afraid to see 
 you come in. I will tell you just what they say ; 
 they say, I wish that old mountain of flesh 
 would keep out of here. 
 
 "It is no such thing," said Tough Bones; 
 "you are making that up." 
 
158 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 * * Well, I am not telling you what I say, it is 
 what all the people in the village say about 
 you/ 
 
 "Well, I would rather be big," returned 
 Tough Bones, "and be good for something, 
 than be a good-for-nothing body like you. Now 
 I will tell you what the people say about you." 
 
 * What do they say ! inquired Low Sky, her 
 curiosity to know what was thought of her get 
 ting the better of her. 
 
 "They point at you when you are passing; 
 through the town, and say there is the good-for- 
 nothing woman who can hardly keep herself and 
 her husband from starving. When all the other 
 women in the town gathered at least ten sacks 
 of rice apiece you had hardly two, and it is just 
 so in everything; so that now you have become 
 a sort of proverb in the town, and if any one 
 is only able to make a little taste of something 
 they say to them, you are almost as good-for- 
 nothing as Low Sky." 
 
 "It is a lie," said Low Sky. "I was sick at 
 rice-making time; that is why I made only two 
 sacks; but I am one of the best women in this 
 town." 
 
 " One of the best women in this town/ " 
 scornfully laughed Tough Bones; "just hear 
 her. The good-for-nothing one says Pm one 
 of the best women in this town. Ha, ha, ha!" 
 
 "Yes, and I am, too," said Low Sky, "even 
 if I am not such a big mountain of flesh as you." 
 
 "Well, now, I will tell you something you 
 do not know," said Tough Bones; "but you 
 ought to know it, and I will tell you it because 
 
THE OJIBWAY 159 
 
 I feel sorry for you. The people do not usually 
 call you Low Sky ; but when they see you pass 
 ing they say, there goes the good-for-nothing 
 
 one. 
 
 You lie!" said Low Sky; "they do not call 
 me any such thing." 
 
 "Yes they do," said the other, "only some of 
 them call you the two-sack-of -rice woman. 
 When they see you passing along the road they 
 nudge each other and one says to the other 
 secretly, here comes the two-sack-of -rice wo 
 man. But I call you the-woman-that-stole-my- 
 fish. They are all laughing at you, my sister, 
 in the town. 
 
 "It is no such thing," shouted the other; 
 you are making that all up yourself. 
 
 "Well, see those men standing over there 
 laughing and looking this way? It is you they 
 are laughing at, so you can see for yourself that 
 what I tell you is true. They are laughing at 
 the good-for-nothing woman ; the two-sack of- 
 rice woman ; but I call you the-woman-that-stole- 
 my-fish. When I go somewhere and want to find 
 you I ask the people, have you seen the-woman- 
 who-stole-my-fishr 
 
 "Well, now, I ll tell you what they say about 
 you," retorted Low Sky, "and you may ask 
 those men who are laughing over there if it is 
 not so." 
 
 "And what is it they said?" said Tough 
 Bones, her anxiety to know what was said of 
 her excited in turn. 
 
 "They say you are so ugly that you can not 
 get anybody to live with you," said Low Sky, 
 
160 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 "and that is why you do not have any husband 
 now. They say the way that lower lip of yours 
 turns over and hangs down makes you too 
 ugly." 
 
 There is nothing of what you say ! roared 
 Tough Bones; "they all know I am a splendid 
 woman. 
 
 " * Splendid woman I " laughed Low Sky; 
 * that is good. Splendid woman ! Ha, ha, ha ! 
 You can see for yourself that what I say is true, 
 for all the other women in this town have hus 
 bands. You are the only woman who has not, 
 because you are too ugly/ 
 
 "It is not so!" screamed Tough Bones, shak 
 ing with anger. "I had my first husband as 
 soon as I was grown, and I have never lacked 
 a husband since, for they are all anxious 
 to get me if there is a vacancy, because they 
 know I am a first-class woman." 
 
 " First-class woman; ha, ha, ha!" laughed 
 Low Sky, "and that lip!" 
 
 This repeated exasperating allusion to her 
 personal defects was too much for Tough Bones 
 to endure any longer, and at this stage the mat 
 ter reached its inevitable conclusion, for unable 
 any longer to contain herself she rushed upon 
 Low Sky, and the two came together with a 
 violent shock. Each seized the other with one 
 arm round the neck, while the disengaged hand 
 was buried in the other s hair. By the hair the 
 head of each was pulled back, almost to breaking 
 off at the neck, as it seemed ; and plentiful hand- 
 fulls of it were torn out and scattered in the 
 wind. Their embrace of each other s neck was 
 
THE OJIBWAY 161 
 
 close and choking, so that they almost shut off 
 each other s breath. They turned round and 
 round, and trampled the rose-clumps in the 
 midst of which they fought, until they made 
 a smooth and even ring, crushing the delicate 
 roses under their spurning and stamping feet, 
 ejaculating "eigh-gh!" so far as their wind was 
 not shut off. Their eyes were starting from 
 their heads, and every muscle and nerve was 
 strained to its utmost tension. 
 
 In the meantime the people had all gathered 
 outside their wigwams, and were standing 
 laughing at what was a sort of entertainment. 
 The men were calling out, "The little one is 
 going to win;" "The big one is going to beat;" 
 "Heigh, there was a big handful of hair pulled 
 out;" "See that! what a yank she gave her that 
 time." Others again brought out small articles 
 of portable property which they offered to bet 
 that the little or the big one would win. 
 
 Finally these volcanic fires of action burned 
 themselves out, and the two combatants, panting 
 and exhausted, and unable to move any more, 
 stood off from each other a little ways, and with 
 their breath and their eyes gave a few parting 
 shots at each other; though their breath came 
 in such gasps that what they said was indistin 
 guishable. At last, with mien black and threat 
 ening like two thunder clouds, and very dishev 
 eled, and very battered and torn, they drew 
 farther and farther apart, still facing each other, 
 until they disappeared in their respective wig 
 wams. But there was no malice left rankling; 
 they had both been spoiling for a fight and they 
 
162 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 had had it. When they met after a day or two 
 there was no hatred on either part, hut rather 
 increased respect for each other s powers, if 
 not increased affection. 
 
 When they had finally disappeared, the men 
 who had been spectators began to talk about it. 
 
 1 i That was a heavy fight, " observed Ogema; 
 l the biggest I have seen for some days. 
 
 "I don t think so," answered Good-Sounding- 
 Sky. "I think the fight evening before last 
 was better. One pulled out most of the other 
 woman s hair." 
 
 " We have plenty of fun now," said Wabijesh 
 (The Marten). "We have such an entertain 
 ment as this nearly every night. 
 
 "It does keep us amused," replied Yellow 
 Thunder. " Something to make us laugh; it 
 helps to pass the time away very pleasantly. 
 
 "Oh there s no harm in it," said Ogema; 
 "they will be just as friendly with each other 
 the next time they meet. It is only because they 
 are so full of moose-meat and venison and high 
 living that they have to work off their surplus 
 energy in that way. They each wanted a fight 
 badly and they got it. 
 
 "It is something like a colt," said Wabijesh. 
 * When he is full of the nice fresh grass in June 
 he is bound to run and kick and bite because he 
 feels so well." 
 
 "It has been a good thing for us, any way," 
 remarked Ogema in conclusion, "for that was 
 a right lively exhibition they gave us just now." 
 And with this they dispersed to their homes. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MORE SUMMER HAPPINESS. 
 
 While dew-besprinkled strawberries, served 
 amidst dew-besprinkled roses, had the effect 
 related in the last chapter, they seemed to excite 
 different sensations elsewhere. There sat in a 
 wigwam one summer s afternoon about this time 
 a young man who, judging from his words and 
 actions, had an attack of the tender passion, 
 and had it very severely. He was Nigani-gizhick 
 (The-First-Heavens; that is a number of heav 
 ens following each other in procession one after 
 the other he was the first heavens of all). He 
 was a fine, manly young hunter, handsome and 
 gallant looking. Dressed in his deerskin hunt 
 ing shirt, breecheloth, and moccasins, he sat on 
 his mat with his feet tucked in under him, sing 
 ing, and accompanying himself with the beating 
 of his drum. His face was turned upward with 
 an ecstatic expression upon it; his mouth, partly 
 open, gave vent to the sweet sounds, while his 
 body shook in little rises and falls as his song 
 proceeded. Evidently his song pleased him very 
 much. He had called in, besides, the divine art 
 of drawing to give expression to his feelings, 
 for on a piece of birch-bark he had drawn a 
 rude figure (himself) with two arms, much 
 longer than the body, reaching to another figure 
 lying down at a considerable distance from him. 
 
164 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 The words he exultingly sang explained the pic 
 ture : * Wasawekumig nebagwen, whe ah ; whe 
 he ah agaming nebagwen" " Though she sleeps 
 a great distance off, whe-ah, whe-he-ah; though 
 she sleeps on the other side of the lake. 
 
 This was boasting of his success with the fair 
 sex, that even if his lady-love slept ever 
 so far off, even though she slept on the 
 other side of a lake, his arm was long 
 enough to reach her, and even there she 
 would hear his voice. The recumbent figure 
 was his lady-love. His voice was represented 
 in the picture by a quavering line coming 
 out of his mouth and reaching to her ; his arms, 
 by two straight lines starting from his shoulders 
 and also reaching to her. This chant he sang 
 over and over again with great exultation, his 
 face still directed upwards, and a joyous expres 
 sion upon it. He evidently was under the influ 
 ence of a violent attack of love. After a long 
 time thus spent in reiterating for the thousandth 
 time that though she slept ever so far away, or 
 even on the other side of the lake, his arm could 
 reach her, bringing in between the two stanzas 
 his whe-ah, whe-he-ah, which syllables do not 
 have any meaning but were simply an exulting 
 burst of confidence, he changed both the tune 
 and words, and took another, still more expres 
 sive of his power over the affections of females 
 and his anticipated success. This new chant was : 
 "Minising ebigwen ni giwanadjia che bimada- 
 gad minising ebigwen "" Even though she 
 were on an island I make her crazy to 
 swim over to me; even though she were on an 
 
THE OJIBWAY 165 
 
 island. " This chant seemed to delight him even 
 more than the other, and he sang it a thousand 
 times, recurring to it with ever-increasing exul 
 tation. His mother was in the wigwam, busy 
 with her household duties, also his sister, just 
 younger than himself and other little brothers 
 and sisters ranging down. These last were very 
 much impressed with the music, for they stopper 
 their play and listened intently, as in a high 
 tenor voice, which could be heard a long dis 
 tance, he thus proceeded to reiterate his power 
 over the inclinations of the fair sex. But his 
 mother remained entirely cold and unsympa 
 thetic. 
 
 i i Just listen to the crazy man, she broke in, 
 still going unconcernedly about her work; "just 
 listen to him saying he can make her crazy 
 enough to jump into the water to swim over to 
 him. She would be crazy indeed to swim over 
 to such a poor stick. It would be one crazy per 
 son, going to another crazy person. " His little 
 brothers and sisters now broke out into a te-he- 
 he at this sally, elevating their little dirty faces 
 upwards, and opening their mouths, full of 
 pearly white teeth. They thought it was great 
 fun. His grown sister looked at him and smiled. 
 He scorned to notice this interruption, though 
 he heard it, and answered by a fresh outburst 
 of vehement assertion in song that he could 
 make her crazy to swim over to him. 
 
 "To swim to a worthless coot who hasn t got 
 a meal of meat to give her she would be crazy 
 indeed," resumed the mother, still busy with 
 her work. Again a chorus of te-he-he s from 
 
166 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 the little ones, following in succession down from 
 the biggest, who set the example, to the smallest, 
 who did not understand what he was laugh 
 ing at. 
 
 " Every poor fellow now-a-days," persisted 
 the mother, "who can not do so much as get him 
 self a meal of victuals, but has to be fed by his 
 parents like a child with a spoon, has got it into 
 his fool head that he can make the girls crazy 
 after him. It would be better/ she went on, 
 raising her voice, if you would go out and hoe 
 a while in that potato patch, instead of your fool 
 singing here about girls crazy after you." 
 Again the interruption was calmly ignored, and 
 there was a renewed burst about swimming over 
 from the island. 
 
 "You will be coming to me next winter, when 
 you are starving," said the mother, "asking me 
 for a cold potato ; and then all this fool nonsense 
 will be out of you. It is only because you are 
 filled with mose-meat and deer-meat now that 
 you have such fool thoughts about girls crazy 
 after you. By and by, when that stuffing gets 
 out of you, you will be as limp as a rag." Still 
 the music went on in lofty disdain. 
 
 "And it was your father hunted it for you," 
 she persisted, "for you are too lazy to hunt for 
 yourself. In the pot is the only place where you 
 hunt. The lazier a fellow is the more certain 
 he is to have fool thoughts come into his head 
 about making girls crazy." Here came in an 
 other titter from the children. 
 
 U I think I will tell your father not to feed you 
 any more, but just let you hunt for yourself, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 167 
 
 and then you will not have time to deafen me 
 with your singing. If he continues to feed you 
 as high as he does it is I that will be crazy listen 
 ing to you, and not the girls. " 
 
 Thus the running fire on the one hand and 
 the chanting on the other went on. The young 
 hunter felt the shots, but appeared to answer 
 them only by a calm disdain. When his mother 
 had said her mind out, there was silence on her 
 part, and he, as if to show that he had not been 
 wounded, still kept on with his song. At last, 
 however, when evening approached, he laid 
 aside his drum, and, getting a small looking 
 glass, about as large as one s hand something 
 that was very precious in those days proceeded 
 to inspect himself. Then he got out some paint 
 and proceeded to paint his face very carefully. 
 There was evidently something on his mind. 
 
 When night fell he went out, taking with him 
 a rustic flute, made by himself, and directed his 
 steps toward a certain wigwam in the other part 
 of the village; that of Ogema. In that there 
 dwelt a comely young woman, with her father, 
 and younger brothers and sisters. Soon, from a 
 distance, there came into the wigwam the sound 
 of a flute; a few low but pleasing notes. The 
 young woman seemed to know from whom those 
 notes came, for she looked interested. Then the 
 music ceased, but by and by sprang up from an 
 other quarter. There seemed to be some one 
 hovering around that wigwam playing on the 
 flute. At first the music was far off, but it kept 
 drawing nearer, though in circles. The circles 
 
LOVE SONG Ojibway. 
 
 Very tlow and free. 
 
 t^:-C3 I 
 
 ^^=fc=rf 
 
 Transcribed and harmonized 
 by EDWIN S. TKACY. 
 
 &^&iji&= 
 
 L~tZ & f P-^ 
 
 to - night will come, sis - ter, to - night ; 
 
 3J- f 
 
 ^~ ^^|7 .. 
 
 
 - - 
 
 S-4 1 f=^-\ I 3-p^ ^ .i . :_, 
 
 ^== -^= =f = .t=i=^^~^=^^ 
 ^ =*j=.<^ f.-.EI.-d^r:-:- 
 
 I to-night will come, sweetheart, to - night. What will my 
 
 I I. I 
 
 sis-ter think of me? My sister think of me ? I will come to-night, 
 
 r T 
 
 While it yet is light, I will see my sweetheart to - night. 
 
 /?> 
 
 _P"" I 
 
 KS"? i* * (^ *" ^TH 
 
 * m -75 r"^ i i" ~LC.S"I~ nil 
 
 Ej 
 
 ^ * 
 
 *- ! 
 
THE OJIBWAY 169 
 
 were converging toward that wigwam. There 
 was not only music, but at intervals a song. The 
 words were these : 
 
 "Nln ga bl-dagulshln oshki tlblkuk ; nln ga-gaguedjlma nindanguc 
 oshki tiblkuk ; nin ga bl daguishin nongom che oshki tibikuk ; 
 namundj win ged-inendumogwen nindangue ; ni wi wabuma 
 nlnimoshe nongom che oshki tibikudinig." 
 
 "I shall come in the early night ; I shall ask my sister a question 
 In the early light ; I shall come to-day in the beginning of 
 the night ; I wonder what my sister will think about it ; I 
 Intend to see my sweetheart this day in the early part of her 
 night." 
 
 The father occasionally talked with some of 
 the younger children, and so did not hear all of 
 it, for he was not paying much attention. Still 
 it came to the notice of all in the wigwam that 
 there was a song somewhere, and a singer. 
 Finally the skin covering of the wigwam 
 entrance was pulled aside, and a stalwart young 
 hunter appeared. 
 
 Had Ogema been very glad to see him he 
 would have said when the hunter appeared in 
 the door, "Nind ubimin nind ubimin" ("We are 
 at home, we are at home"), a welcome equiva 
 lent to "Come in, come in," but he said nothing. 
 However, as very frequently nothing is said 
 when a guest comes in, who yet is welcome, the 
 hunter, taking no notice of the silence on the 
 father s part, took a hasty glance around the 
 wigwam, then stepped quickly in and went and 
 reclined on the mat by the side of his lady 
 love. 
 
 There was now a period of perfect silence. 
 The father looked musingly in the fire. By and 
 by the younger children went to sleep one by 
 one, covering up their heads in their blankets, 
 
170 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and lying stretched out with their feet towards 
 the heat like so many little mummies. The 
 young hunter and the girl were also perfectly 
 silent, awaiting the time when the father also 
 should have covered himself in his blanket, head 
 and all, and gone to sleep. The fire was by this 
 time burning very low, creating a darkness in 
 the wigwam which was very favorable and 
 desirable, and all that was needed was that the 
 father should lie down and become oblivious. 
 To the disgust of both, however, just as they 
 thought he was about to do so he seized a fresh 
 stick of dry wood and thrust it into the fire. 
 Immediately the flame leaped up, making every 
 thing in that wagwam as light as day, and ren 
 dering utterly impossible the tender love passes 
 which ought then to have been exchanged be 
 tween the hunter and his dear one. The young 
 man thought, "This is certainly bad enough, 
 that that old fellow should make it so light in 
 the wigwam just when everything else is favora 
 ble ; but this is a small stick and will soon burn 
 out, and then surely he will lie down." So he 
 waited very patiently, and the old man did 
 indeed lav back, and he thought that everything 
 was going to go well at last. 
 
 When, however, the stick had burned out, and 
 it was once more becoming dark, the old man 
 raised himself to a sitting posture, and taking 
 a fresh stick gave it a wicked thrust into the 
 fire. As a shower of sparks rose and a blaze 
 flooded the wigwam with light, he gave a vicious 
 look at his visitor, as much as to say, "What 
 do you think of that?" This was discouraging 
 
THE OJIBWAY 171 
 
 to an ardent lover, to be sure; one just on the 
 threshold of golden opportunity. But he was 
 resolved not to be balked. He was resolved 
 that his patience should gain the victory. There 
 fore he remained in enforced silence, waiting 
 for the fire once more to die down and the old 
 man to go to sleep. He was just listening for 
 some gentle snores, or some deep breathings that 
 would tell him that now at last all was well, and 
 was congratulating himself that it was getting 
 sufficiently dark, when suddenly once more sat 
 up that wretched old man, and once more thrust 
 a stick into the fire, and once again the wigwam 
 was as light as day. No chance for any courting 
 in such a light as that. And the look the old 
 man once more gave him, as he thrust in the 
 stick and the light streamed up, plainly said 
 again, "Now, what do you think of that?" Was 
 there ever a young man so vilely used ! 
 
 With a look of unutterable disgust on his face 
 he lay there thinking of what to do. The young 
 woman was evidently very responsive. He had 
 spent much time painting himself, and had spent 
 the whole day thinking about this meeting, hence 
 he was very loath to give it up. In fact it seemed 
 to him he could not bear to rise and go away, 
 and nothing pass between him and his beloved. 
 He felt mad enough to rise and murder that old 
 man who spoiled everything. He lay there, one 
 minute looking at the girl, then at the pile of 
 wood, to see how many sticks were left, and how 
 long it could hold out; then at the author of his 
 woes. Then suddenly starting up at last with 
 a bound, as he realized by a hasty mental calcu- 
 
172 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 lation that there were enough sticks of wood 
 there to keep that wigwam light till morning, 
 and that the old man was mean enough to sit 
 up all night to do it, he flounced out of the place, 
 and as he went out with a bound like a tiger, the 
 word "Akiwenzish!" " miserable, wretched 
 old man ! was hissed from between his set 
 te-eth. He told his young companions after 
 wards that he had got everything perfectly fa 
 vorable, but that he had been ruined by excess 
 of light! 
 
 About this time there arrived in the village 
 an object of great interest in the shape of a boy 
 of twelve years. He came from the village of 
 Leech Lake, distant two days journey. 
 Thoughts of triumph swelled his little breast as 
 he came. As he traveled the lonely path through 
 the great pines he kept thinking what a sensa 
 tion he would make; and when he was resting 
 in his little camp at night, after the day s travel, 
 his thoughts were still of the same. Indeed, he 
 had undertaken that long journey just on pur 
 pose to reap a triumph. Nor was he disap 
 pointed. In every wigwam he entered he was 
 hailed with a shout of mingled curiosity and 
 approval as soon as he was seen, and every eye, 
 from the father s and mother s to the smallest 
 toddler, was instantly directed to him. They 
 crowded around him to see and to touch with 
 their hands the object of their admiration; and 
 many a commendation was bestowed on him as 
 the wearer of it. "Is not that splendid?" said 
 the mother, stroking it lovingly with her hands ; 
 "and is not he a splendid little man?" "Who 
 
THE OJIBWAY 173 
 
 made it for you?" was the next question; and 
 the object of all this admiration proudly ans 
 wered that it was his mother. "Oh, you are 
 already greater than a chief," said the father 
 to the proud little man, whose breast was just 
 swelling; "none of them have such a thing. 
 You are almost equal to a white man, for they 
 wear such things." 
 
 Here the little naked children, by this time 
 growing bolder, came forward to stroke the 
 coveted article with their chubby fingers, and 
 some of them to give it a gentle pluck. When 
 the boy had reaped the full chorus of admiration 
 in that wigwam he went into the next, from 
 which, at his entrance, the same shout of delight 
 would arise. No modern belle, in her beauti 
 fully-made clothes, reaped such a harvest of 
 admiration, or excited so much admiring in 
 terest. 
 
 It was a shirt that he wore. There he was, in 
 his moccasins, his bare legs and thighs and his 
 bare head, but wearing a shirt of white calico, 
 the first that any Indian child had been seen to 
 wear. His mother had got the material from 
 a trader and made him a shirt. He felt so proud 
 of it that after exhausting the admiration of the 
 children and grown-up people in his own village, 
 he sighed for new worlds to conquer ; and volun 
 tarily undertook the long journey, all by him 
 self, to distant Gull Lake, to be a conquering 
 hero there. He did not need to proclaim his 
 dignity to show himself anywhere was enough. 
 
 One of the men asked him, And what is your 
 father s name, little boy!" He proudly ans- 
 
174 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 wered that Kichi-nodin (Big Wind), of Leech 
 Lake, was his father. He went home fairly 
 filled with praise and admiration. He had made 
 an appearance such as no child had since the 
 beginning of the world. Other children at the 
 most had the blanket or a shirt of tanned deer 
 skin; but a real calico shirt till now, never! 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 COMING HOME TO BOOST. 
 
 One day, in the height of all this, a young 
 girl burst hastily into Ogema s wigwam, sud 
 denly removing the leather flap. 
 
 "Look, now," said she in a tone of alarm, 
 "what I have found, " holding up something, 
 which on examination appeared to be only a 
 piece of an old worn-out moccasin. "I was 
 going down to the water to fill my jar, and, look 
 ing under a bush a little ways off I saw this. 
 Now what is it?" Instantly Ogema and all 
 in the wigwam dropped their several employ 
 ments and scrutinized that old moccasin with 
 the utmost intensity of every faculty. 
 
 "No Ojibway ever made that beadwork on the 
 top of that moccasin," said an old woman, the 
 first to speak. "I have made thousands of them, 
 and I ought to know." Then, as the full truth 
 flashed upon her, "That is a Sioux moccasin!" 
 she screamed "Mamiqueg" Sioux women 
 "certainly made that moccasin. Look," she 
 said, "that turn to the beadwork is different 
 from ours; and there again that kind of orna 
 mentation," pointing to that on the flap that 
 went round the ankle "we never make. Roas 
 ters!" she screamed again; "there are Roasters 
 about! alas, alas!" 
 
 Here the elder women darted out of the wig- 
 
176 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 warn as if they were possessed, and rushed into 
 those of their nearest relatives to tell them the 
 fearful news. "Bebamash" -The-one-who- 
 sails-all-aronnd "was going down to the lake 
 for water this morning, " they screamed, "and 
 she found a Sioux moccasin on the edge of our 
 village, and we have all examined it and we are 
 sure it is Sioux. They are certainly around us 
 and spying us out, and there is no telling when 
 they will make an attack. " 
 
 Almost instantly the chill of death fell upon 
 that village. The drums ceased, the people ran 
 hurriedly together, mothers darted out into the 
 edge of the village and caught up their children 
 who were playing there, and shudderingly press 
 ing them to their bosoms ran to their homes. 
 There they seated themselves by the fire, pond 
 ering it with an expression of deep anxiety upon 
 their faces, Now see that you do not leave this 
 wigwam, " they said to the older children. 
 "There are Sioux about, and you will certainly 
 be scalped; see that you keep within; now mind 
 what I have told you." It required no second 
 warning, for the terror of death had fallen even 
 upon the children. Even those who were too 
 young, as it seemed, to comprehend, hushed their 
 wailing, and with their little hands clung con 
 vulsively to their mother s breasts, as if in some 
 way the contagion of terror had made itself 
 manifest to them. Over the whole village, but 
 a moment before so careless and happy, terror 
 hung like a pall. 
 
 By this time the elders, the men especially, in 
 stinctively crowded together in the centre of 
 
THE OJIBWAY 177 
 
 their village to consult over this alarming news 
 and to consider what was to be done. They had 
 no fear of instant attack, knowing that their 
 enemies were too prudent to choose the broad 
 daylight for that; but it was more appaling to 
 think that it must fall in the darkness and terror 
 of the night, or at day-break. 
 
 "The finding of the Sioux moccasin just con 
 firms a thing that I saw, said a young hunter. 
 * I was out looking for deer yesterday at a cer 
 tain place, when I saw, some distance off, an In 
 dian. I looked at him a while, and it seemed to 
 me I did not know him. So I halloed to him, 
 and he turned and looked at me, but instead of 
 coming toward me or returning my halloo, he 
 dodged into the brush. I thought it strange at 
 the time, but now it appears he was one of those 
 Sioux. " 
 
 "Yes," said Yellow Thunder, "when I was 
 walking through the woods half a day s journey 
 from here a few days ago I knew that I was in 
 a place where none of our people had been lately, 
 for I knew all the parties who had gone hunting, 
 and none of them had gone in that direction to 
 my surprise I came on a blackened spot of earth 
 where a fire had been made within a few days. 
 There were some of the ends of the sticks lying 
 there unburnt. I wondered then who could have 
 been there, but now it is plain. And the ground 
 around the fire looked as if men had slept there, 
 for the tall weeds and grass were still somewhat 
 flattened." 
 
 While they were still in consultation, a hunter 
 who had been gone over night arrived and 
 
178 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 . i. 
 
 joined them. "Be on your guard, " he said, 
 "there are Sioux about. This morning I had 
 forded the stream over there, pointing in a 
 southerly direction, and was sitting in the long 
 grass drying my feet and putting on my moc 
 casins, when looking up I saw eight men crossing 
 the stream some distance down below. I looked 
 at them some time, and thought to myself, who 
 on earth can these be? for I did not think any 
 hunters were out in that direction, when sud 
 denly it came over me that they were Sioux. I 
 instantly threw my body flat on my legs as I sat, 
 and they never saw me, for I was hidden by the 
 grass. If they had, I would not be here now to 
 tell it. I lay perfectly still till they took up their 
 march in single file through the meadow by the 
 side of the river, where they disappeared into 
 the woods. So be sure, men, that you will have 
 a visit from those fellows before long. 
 
 They now consulted together as to what was 
 to be done. What they wished to do was to go 
 and find them and meet them openly, man to 
 man. But this they knew was the very thing 
 that their enemies would not allow them to do. 
 They knew they had come to take them at a dis 
 advantage ; to strike a sudden blow in an unpro 
 tected quarter; to choose their own time and 
 place ; to kill as many of them as possible by a 
 sudden rush, and then withdraw before the Ojib 
 ways had time to assemble to repel them, suffer 
 ing no loss themselves. In a word, they had 
 come to practice against the Ojibways the very 
 same tactics which the Ojibways had so lately 
 successfully employed against them. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 179 
 
 They could hover round the village; appear 
 now on this side, now on that; while they them 
 selves, hidden by the leafy screen of the woods, 
 could not even be seen. And even if moment 
 arily seen by the Ojibways, they could instantly 
 dive into the thick underbrush and become in 
 visible. Thus they held over the heads of the 
 helpless Ojibways a sword suspended as long as 
 they pleased ; to fall whenever they desired. 
 
 The Ojibways were sensible that they were thus 
 placed at the mercy of their enemies; helpless, 
 unable to ward off the impending blow ; and it 
 aroused reflections in their minds. It gave Sha- 
 bosh-kunk an opportunity to exult himself, and 
 to depress Yellow Thunder, upon whom he 
 looked with no friendly eyes. 
 
 "My friends/ he said, "you ought to have 
 listened to me when I told you that Yellow Thun 
 der s expedition would bring a return visit of 
 the Sioux. Here we are now, afraid, and in a 
 bad fix. We can not find these Sioux, for no 
 one can find them in the leafy underbrush where 
 they hide. They can strike us whenever they 
 please, and not till they please ; and we can not 
 prepare to meet it, for we do not know where 
 they will strike. We can not go hunting, for the 
 hunters may suddenly come on those fellows and 
 be killed ; and besides, we want to stay at home 
 and defend our families. So we shall soon be 
 hungry. The flesh we have got in this village 
 will not last very long. And the scalps of some 
 of our children will be dangling at those fellows 
 girdles, it seems likely, before they reach home, 
 for they are not the sort of men to come up all 
 
180 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 this distance and go back for nothing. So it 
 seems to me we are in a bad fix about to suffer 
 and yet placed in such a position that we cannot 
 avert it, and it all grows out of Yellow Thun 
 der s war-party. If you had listened to me, 
 men, we would still be as joyful as we were an 
 hour ago. And our children would be safe, in 
 stead of being, as they now are, at the mercy of 
 those devils. 
 
 Here Yellow Thunder interposed. "You need 
 not blame me, men, for this, and there is nothing 
 in what Sha-bosh-kunk has now said to you. I 
 am not the only one who has been killing Sioux 
 this summer. The Sioux has been killing 
 them, and The-Berry-Picker and others. Even 
 if I had not gone, would not these war parties 
 have drawn them on us just the same? I went 
 to perform the last rites of honor to my dead 
 child, and it was a good motive ; and would not 
 any of you have done just the same! Any of 
 you that are men would. Why does Sha-bosh- 
 kunk single me out as the cause of the fix we are 
 in now! My friends, have not we always been 
 killing Sioux, as far back as any of us can re 
 member; and farther than any of our fathers 
 even can remember! And for my part I believe 
 that if no Ojibway had killed a Sioux this year 
 the Sioux would come against us just the same ; 
 for it has become an ingrained habit with them 
 to go looking for us in summer, and to take our 
 scalps if they can, just as it is an ingrained habit 
 in us to go looking for them, and take their 
 scalps. Therefore I do not think it is right for 
 
THE OJIBWAY 181 
 
 a man to hold me up to odium for this thing, as 
 has been done. 
 
 Runners were now hastily sent to warn stray 
 hunters who might be out, and to bring into the 
 village individual families who had pitched their 
 lodges at some distance. Guns were cleaned 
 and put in order, and knives sharpened. The 
 children were warned to play in the centre of the 
 village, and by no means to go beyond its verge. 
 So everything that prudence could dictate was 
 done, to get ready for the impending blow. 
 
 A feeling of deep anxiety and dread now took 
 possession of the village. Joy was banished. 
 The singing of the women, the shouts of the chil 
 dren at play, were no more to be heard. It 
 seemed as if the sun no longer shone as it did be 
 fore, and that even the very birds had ceased to 
 sing. Nature herself seemed to be affected with 
 the dumb terror which possessed them, and to be 
 waiting for the dreadful war-whoop to burst 
 forth. When the women went to the lake shore 
 for water, they cast uneasy, nervous glances all 
 around ; prepared to run screaming any instant. 
 But night was the worst. They did not know 
 but their enemies might be peeping into their 
 wigwams from the darkness outside. They did 
 not know when the bullets might rain in where 
 they sat. Every man sat with his gun in his 
 hand, and when nature overcame him, and he 
 snatched fitful sleep, it was with his gun still en 
 folded in his arms. The children were for the 
 most part put far out in the lake in canoes to 
 sleep, that if their parents fell a sacrifice they at 
 least might be out of reach. 
 
182 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 But at daybreak, and just before, was the 
 time when the suspense was the most terrible. 
 Every morning before that time they were all 
 awake and expecting the attack. Then when the 
 sun got high it was a relief to know that the dan 
 ger was over for that time, though not removed, 
 and the tired warriors dropped off to sleep. 
 
 So the days dragged on; but the long-contin 
 ued suspense was wearing and terrible. Often 
 they said, Oh, I wish they would rush in upon 
 us and do whatever they are going to do and be 
 done with it! I would rather they would kill 
 half of us and be off, and have it over, than have 
 it hanging over our heads in this way. Any 
 thing rather than this dreadful suspense. 9 
 
 During the daytime scouting parties of armed 
 men were sent around the village into the woods 
 to see if they could discover anything of them. 
 To add to their sufferings, hunger now invaded 
 them, as the supply of meat began to be ex 
 hausted. The rude scaffolds in front of each 
 door, which had hung so thick with strips of 
 meat of all kinds drying in the air, were bare. 
 The little children could be heard crying from 
 hunger in nearly every wigwam. The hunters 
 were afraid to go in search of meat, for they 
 knew that if they went their enemies were watch 
 ing every movement and would very likely cut 
 them off. The abundance of Summer ceased, 
 even though they were in the midst of abun 
 dance, and men and women began to have a hun 
 gry and pinched look. The little children were 
 so puny that they no longer had spirit to play. 
 The community was now reduced to fish alone, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 183 
 
 and when the women went to draw and set their 
 nets in the lake, an armed guard of men had to 
 go with them. 
 
 Thus the dreadful days passed, till at last, 
 when they were wearied out with the long-con 
 tinued watching, at daybreak one morning the 
 blow fell. The war-whoop resounded through 
 their village, the sound of guns reverberated 
 among the hills in the still morning air, and the 
 birds flew away scared. A rain of bullets fell 
 among the nodding inmates of one wigwam, and 
 almost as soon as the bullets, there were the 
 fierce Sioux warriors, knife and tomahawk in 
 hand, among them, stabbing, killing, scalping. 
 Quickly the reeking scalps were torn off, and 
 before the warriors from the other parts of the 
 village could grasp their arms and hurry to the 
 spot, they were back in the bush and had escaped. 
 They were sought, of course, but in vain, for 
 lying under the thick canopy of leaves by day 
 and traveling by the stars by night, they were 
 soon out of danger in the boundless forest. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A STROKE OP GENIUS. 
 
 After this startling episode in its history, the 
 village of Gull Lake gradually settled down to its 
 normal life, and things went on very much as 
 they had done before. The hunters again went 
 wherever they wished, without fear ; the women 
 and children went berrying the shade was 
 lifted and security returned. The scalped dead 
 were buried, their relatives wailed for them for 
 a time, then they were forgotten. There was a 
 feeling of hot anger and resentment against the 
 Sioux. But was it not a most blessed thing to 
 be rid of them? To have that accursed night 
 mare of their presence, which had hung over 
 them so long, removed! To be able to lie down 
 and sleep in sweet security when night came, 
 with no apprehension of beings with the energy 
 of demons bursting in on them at the dawn? 
 To have no necessity of sleeping with arms, the 
 weapon always ready to grasp? To have no 
 constant necessity of watchfulness whenever 
 they took a step abroad? To have their little 
 children peacefully sleeping with them, instead 
 of moored out in the lake in canoes ? Oh this 
 change was unspeakably blessed ! Even as one 
 of themselves, who had been long racked with 
 pain and been sick nigh unto death, felt the calm 
 bliss of returning health, and enjoyed a rapture 
 
THE OJIBWAY 185 
 
 that he who had never been sick could not know, 
 so it was with them. The song of the fearless 
 hunter was once more heard from afar, as with 
 firm step he went in and out among the green 
 openings. 
 
 About this time the first lucifer matches that 
 had ever been seen were brought to their village 
 from a distant French trader, and were an oc 
 casion of unbounded wonderment to them. 
 Matches were high in those days, a small box 
 costing in that place fifty cents. They could not 
 therefore be very reckless in the expenditure of 
 them. Occasionally one would be scratched 
 among a group, especially in the dark, and held 
 forth for a marvel. Until that time they had, 
 like the whites, made fire by the flint and steel ; 
 or by their own older method of friction by rap 
 idly rubbing two sticks together. 
 
 Among others who saw this wonderful phe 
 nomenon of fire spontaneously as it seemed 
 produced was Sha-bosh-kunk. It created in 
 him, as in all the others, first astonishment, al 
 most incredulity that such a thing could be, de 
 spite the evidence of his senses. Then, as he 
 long pondered it, he seemed to have caught a 
 great idea. What that was he did not tell, but it 
 was evidently something that pleased him might 
 ily. He became hilarious, and sometimes he 
 would burst out in a joyous, high-pitched chant, 
 as if the pleasantness of the idea within needed 
 a vent in that way. Even at night, when turning 
 over on his mat, he would let out war-whoops. 
 Something evidently tickled him immensely, and 
 he occasionally even talked about it to himself 
 
186 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 in an incoherent way. "Oh these are dull 
 clods, " he would say, surveying his fellow-In 
 dians; "they know nothing, and they have no 
 genius. They seem to have minds and souls, but 
 in reality they have not any. They are able to 
 walk about, it is true, pretending that they are 
 alive, but really there is no life in them. There 
 is no spark of genius such as I feel in myself, 
 and they never would conceive nor carry out 
 what my genius readily enables me to do. They 
 are to be pitied, for the are poor, and will al 
 ways remain poor.* They are groveling; noth 
 ing soaring, mounting, in them, such as I feel 
 stirring in me. They are dull clay, but I feel the 
 touch of the spirit. 
 
 Having finished this soliloquy, and let out a 
 war-whoop to close it up, he went in search of 
 two young men of his band, The First Heavens 
 and Wedjanimigijigweshkunk (He-who-hurry- 
 ing - and-with-the-putting - f orth-of-his - utmost- 
 powers-travels-the-sky), for he was a minor 
 chief, and of certain large and stout old women 
 whom he knew to be good packers, able each of 
 them to pack two hundred pounds for miles and 
 miles. He told them to get ready to go with him 
 on the morrow to the next Indian village to the 
 north, Leech Lake, and to prepare plenty of 
 empty canoes for the journey was to be made 
 partly over the lakes to bring back what he 
 would load them with. Each man and woman 
 was to be provided with a strong packing strap, 
 to pack their very best, for their endurance 
 would be put to the test by the loads he would 
 
 *To apply the epithet "poor" in this way to anyone is a term of 
 great reproach. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 187 
 
 provide for them. He also instructed some of 
 them to lead some ponies around the lakes, and 
 have them ready on the portages between, to 
 assist in packing the stuff, which would be too 
 great for unaided human strength. 
 
 These orders excited much astonishment 
 among his young men. "Why, here is a won 
 derful thing, " they said to him, "you are evi 
 dently preparing to bring back quantities of 
 stuff from Leech Lake, for you are providing 
 empty canoes to load it in, and packers and 
 packing-straps, and, men and women, and even 
 horses, and yet you have nothing prepared to 
 barter with those Indians. 
 
 "I see no bead-work, no guns, cloth, or any 
 thing; no whisky, brandy; or even food; and we 
 who know your circumstances well know that 
 you have none of these things. How then do 
 you expect to get anything from them 1 The In 
 dian is not a fool, he is a keen trader ; and for 
 you to expect to get something, or a great deal, 
 from them for nothing, apears to us as if you 
 were mad. Many times we have been employed 
 by the French traders on trading expeditions, 
 but then we had the brandy and whiskey and 
 the cloths with us, and then it was plain what we 
 were to do; but this going empty-handed seems 
 as if you had taken leave of your senses. 
 
 To these remonstrances of his young men Sha- 
 bosh-kunk replied: "Do you see those canoes! 
 empty, now, as you say. Well, I will go to 
 those Indians and I shall take no goods nor any 
 thing in my hand, yet I shall bring those canoes 
 back loaded with the goods of those Indians. 
 
188 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Such is the force of my genius. I grant that 
 you poor clods could not do it, but I can and 
 shall. You yourselves will see poor widows com 
 ing out of their wigwams and begging me to take 
 their last and only pair of blankets, which they 
 ought to sleep in next winter to keep them from 
 freezing to death, and begging me to put them in 
 my packs and carry them away. And you will 
 see them bringing out the last birch-bark box of 
 maple sugar they have, which they made with 
 pain and difficulty last Spring, and begging me 
 to take it away. And yet I go to them, as you 
 see, with nothing. 
 
 Leaving his young men in this state of amaze 
 ment, gazing after him, doubting if he were not 
 really mad, Sha-bosh-kunk went into the under 
 brush and dug up a quantity of common roots 
 of various kinds, such as the Indians use to make 
 medicine of by decoctions; roots of herbs and 
 roots of plants; and then cut off in lengths 
 pieces from many different shrubs and trees. 
 They were all of common, well-known trees and 
 herbs, which grew everywhere, with whose sim 
 ple medicinal properties, or supposed medicinal 
 properties, when made into decoctions by boil 
 ing, the Indians were well acquainted from con 
 stant use. These pieces were cut of the same 
 length, about six inches, and were afterwards 
 neatly tied in small bundles with pieces of string 
 made of the tough inner bark of a tree. Alto 
 gether there was quite a large pile when it was 
 finished. But before thus robbing her of her 
 bounties, Sha-bosh-kunk, with characteristic 
 piety, was careful to make an offering to Miza- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 189 
 
 kumig-aki The-Great- All-Mother-Earth by 
 putting some tobacco into the hole out of 
 which he had dug something, and carefully 
 covering it up again with earth. This was 
 done that he might not displease The-Great- 
 All-Mother-Earth by despoiling her of her 
 treasures without compensation. These me 
 dicinal herbs and plants had been granted 
 as a great favor by the Great Spirit to We- 
 nabozho, a demi-god, who made this world; 
 the universal nephew of the Indians, who 
 in turn had committed them to the care of 
 Mizakumig-aki The-Great-Everywhere-Earth 
 for the benefit of his uncles and aunts, the 
 Ojibways, to cure them of sickness, to make their 
 bodies strong, and to prolong their lives to ex 
 treme old age. Sha-bosh-kunk felt that he was a 
 very pious man, and had fulfilled all obligations 
 when he made this offering of tobacco to i i The- 
 All-Mother-Earth" in return for her treasures 
 which he had taken, and he piously breathed a 
 prayer to her. 
 
 The remainder of that day was spent in ar 
 ranging his bundles of cuttings and roots and in 
 getting ready, and on the next they commenced 
 the journey. On the third day, arrived at Leech 
 Lake, the inhabitants were very anxious to see 
 the new-comer, and to hear what tidings he 
 brought; and especially to know the object of 
 the visit of himself and party. Many were 
 their speculations as to what that could be- 
 some thought that he came to raise a war party ; 
 others that he had come to invite them to Gull 
 Lake to a dance ; others that he was the bearer of 
 
190 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 a proposition from the Gull Lake Indians about 
 their political affairs. Sha-bosh-kunk, how 
 ever, put them off, which only whetted their cur 
 iosity the more, and finally told them that at 
 dusk he would meet them all assembled in their 
 Council-House. 
 
 When evening came almost the whole village 
 was there, the men squatting in circles round the 
 central cleared space, in which Sha-bosh-kunk 
 was seated, and where he was to declare the ob 
 ject of his visit. The men were mostly smoking, 
 being engaged in hard thinking. 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk then rose and made them a 
 little speech. He said, smiling blandly upon 
 them: 
 
 My friends, I and my young men have come 
 a long distance to see you. You may be sure we 
 have not come for nothing. I have something 
 very important to tell you. My friends, I am 
 endued with very great, with supernatural pow 
 ers. I shall show you, my friends, what powers 
 the spirits have given me such powers as 
 neither you nor your fathers fathers ever saw. 
 I shall demonstrate that power to you here in 
 your presence; and being a medicine-man of 
 such power as I shall show you I am, you know 
 that my medicine, any medicine that I shall give, 
 must have unlimited power for life. It must be 
 powerful to heal all sickness, for it will partake 
 of my power which I shall show you. It will 
 surely prolong life to extremest old age, or 
 make the user immortal. Here his mind took 
 a vast leap to the full conception of his great 
 ness. l My friends, I think that I am God and I 
 
THE OJIBWAY 191 
 
 shall now give you a demonstration of it, and 
 with it, of the power of my medicine. My friends, 
 you see I have nothing in my hand, " here he 
 held up his open palm for their inspection, 
 "now see this!" With that he made a rapid 
 sweep of his hand behind his back upon his 
 breech-cloth, which was made of an old blanket ; 
 then holding up his hand in front of them, there, 
 wonder of wonders, burned between his fingers 
 a bright blaze of fire ! 
 
 The breath of the audience seemed to stop 
 while this amazing exhibition was given. Every 
 eye was concentrated upon that flame, seen more 
 distinctly in the gathering dusk. 
 
 The functions of life were suspended while 
 that thing was burning. People forgot to 
 breathe. Their whole soul was in their gaze, 
 and it was not till the flame went out that a deep 
 sigh went over the assembly as they once more 
 took breath. 
 
 "My friends, " continued Sha-bosh-kunk, "I 
 have not only done it once, I shall do it again. 
 I can do it as often as I wish." Here he again 
 made the same rapid sweep behind with his 
 hand, upon his breech-cloth, and once more the 
 flaming marvel stood forth. At last the pent-up 
 astonishment of the audience burst forth, and 
 they turned one to another, saying : * The like 
 has never been seen since the world began. 
 Neither we nor our fathers have ever heard of 
 such a thing; Sha-bosh-kunk has taken fire out 
 of his body. Did you see him reach his hand 
 behind him and draw it out? Sha-bosh-kunk 
 
192 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 has fire in his body. He is indeed God, as he 
 said." 
 
 The next step was that he had medicine, which 
 he would part with, and which he said partook 
 of the same supernatural strength as his own 
 body, out of which he had taken fire.* He made 
 them a little speech, standing up in the midst of 
 them and surveying them with one of his open 
 smiles: "My relatives," he called them by 
 that endearing name, "I am not selfish." 
 This he said with an engaging tone of voice. 
 "I love all people, and the wish of my heart is 
 that all people should be blessed even as I my 
 self am blessed. If I have a good thing I do not 
 wish to hide it and keep it to myself selfishly to 
 enjoy; to enjoy it myself while some poor fellow- 
 Indian may be suffering yes, perhaps dying 
 for the want of that very thing. No ! I am not 
 that sort of a man. It would be torture to me to 
 have my fellow-being suffering for that which I 
 might have imparted to him, and yet did not. 
 My relatives, you have seen what I took out of 
 my body and you may guess what is the strength 
 of my medicine. I think I am immortal. I 
 think I shall never die. It may be that when 
 I am extremely old and the Birds of Thunder 
 fly over some time that I shall rise and fly 
 away with them, for I am a god, it may be 
 that that will be the case ; but my own opinion 
 
 *This was in strict accordance with the ideas of the Indians, 
 who believed that the power and virtue of any medicine were lu 
 exact proportion to the power and virtue of the person from whom 
 the medicine came. If he gave them cuttings of twigs or roots, 
 and they boiled them and made decoctions of them, as they were 
 In the habit of doing, then the decoction would have all his super 
 natural powers imparted to it, and through it to the users. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 193 
 
 is that I shall live forever on this earth! 
 My medicine will enable me to do so. Not even 
 with the Birds of Thunder shall I fly away. 
 Now, my relatives, the same virtue that T have 
 imparted to myself by my medicine, I can im 
 part to you also by my medicine. It will make 
 your bodies strong and sound, and, as I believe, 
 immortal. I wish you to live long and be happy 
 on this earth, even as I wish myself to live long 
 and be happy on it. I have the medicine here at 
 hand, for I wish yon to share in the benefit of it." 
 Here he produced the bundles of cuttings of 
 branches and twigs, and of roots and herbs, 
 which he had placed conveniently at hand. 
 
 He now addressed them further: "My 
 friends, we are not all equally rich in this life. 
 It has been so destined that some of us have a 
 wealth of goods blankets, and maple sugar, and 
 wild rice, and otter skins, and beaver and mink. 
 Some of us are strong and vigorous and able to 
 get all things for ourselves; some again are 
 weak, and have to content themselves with very 
 little. Now I have a very tender feeling toward 
 those who are lowly; toward those who have not 
 been strong enough to seize their full share of 
 the goods of this life. I do not wish them to 
 suffer because they are poor, nor to be deprived 
 of blessing. No, those are the very ones that I 
 have most regard for, the humble those who 
 are down. I think to myself, Oh that they 
 may share in the blessings of this medicine even 
 as I myself ! I do not much concern myself 
 with the strong with the vigorous hunters, who 
 are able to go out on the prairie and overcome 
 
194 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 the animals and make themselves packs of all 
 kinds of furs, as much as they wish. No, I do 
 not think upon them; for they are able to take 
 care of themselves. But I think upon the poor ; 
 the widows, those of small means. If, therefore, 
 they have not packs of furs, as they are not 
 able to go out and hunt for them, no matter; 
 they shall not be left without blessing. I shall 
 not allow them to mourn, seeing the rich and the 
 strong carry off the medicine. Let them give 
 me whatever little they have, even though it be 
 far inferior in value to what I give them in re 
 turnlet them give me a blanket, or a little 
 maple sugar, or a tanned skin, or whatever they 
 have; and I, rather than see them go away in 
 grief, rather than see them mourning while the 
 rich are rejoicing, will accept it. My heart is 
 such that I do not wish to go away and leave any 
 one mourning in this village. To leave any one 
 with the feeling that he or she had been passed 
 over because they had the misfortune to be 
 poor." 
 
 A strong impulse now swept over the assem 
 bly, and no one was willing to have Sha-bosh^ 
 kunk, possessed of such miraculous powers, go 
 away without having obtained some of the 
 precious medicine from him. Blankets, food, 
 furs, if given away, could be replaced from some 
 other quarter there was a possibility of it. 
 But if this wonderful man and his medicine got 
 away, and he was going in the morning, 
 where could any more of it be got? And would 
 it not be better to freeze through the winter with 
 out blankets, than have them and not have the 
 
THE OJIBWAY 195 
 
 medicine, which was life itself? So when one, 
 eager to get the medicine, came bringing furs 
 for it, that excited his neighbor lest he should be 
 left out. And when another was begging Sha- 
 bosh-kunk to take a pack of beaver skins and 
 give him the medicine before he attended to the 
 request of the others, all this spread the compe 
 tition and the mania. And so it came to pass 
 even as Sha-bosh-kunk had predicted, that old, 
 crippled widows came hobbling out of their wig 
 wams and begged him to take their little all, yes 
 their last garment, but in any case to let them 
 have some of the precious medicine. 
 
 "See here," cried one, "how poor I am; have 
 pity on me because I am poor, and give me some 
 of the medicine. Do not go away and leave me 
 the only person in the village who has not got 
 any of it, as if I was a webini gun "something 
 rejected, a rejected person. "See, in return I 
 have brought you all I have. 
 
 So a lively traffic was kept red-hot, while the 
 roots and cuttings were being exchanged for the 
 goods of all kinds which were brought. Sha- 
 bosh-kunk personally conducted the trade, and 
 fanned the excitement by pretended repression 
 of it. He kept talking as he kept giving out the 
 medicine and taking in the goods. 
 
 "No," he said, straightening up for a moment 
 in the midst of his task, "do not ask me to give 
 you any more medicine than you need for your 
 self. I really cannot give it. I wish to give 
 only what you will need for yourself for there 
 will not be enough for all. Now do not ask me 
 for any more." The man had not asked him, but 
 
196 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 this pretended reluctance to give, and antici 
 pated scarcity, had its intended effect on the 
 eager buyers, and made them still more eager. 
 "No, really I cannot. Now do not ask me for 
 more. " Such were the words which he kept re 
 peating again and again as he turned first to one 
 and then another, taking in the goods. He al 
 lowed no quiet time, but kept their attention 
 fixed by his continual talking; always of scarcity 
 and refusal. 
 
 At last, after a long time, there was quiet. 
 The roots and cuttings were all gone; so were 
 the buyers. Now was the time for Sha-bosh-kunk 
 and his aids to be busy, making the goods into 
 packs and loading them on the ponies and pack 
 ers. As soon as that was finished, though it was 
 dark, Sha-bosh-kunk hurried them off, and they 
 took the road for Gull Lake. By the morning 
 light neither Sha-bosh-kunk nor the goods were 
 there. 
 
 He knew that it was very possible, indeed quite 
 probable, for the morning light to bring a Leech 
 Lake villager to his camp eager to re-exchange 
 a few cuttings of twigs, which did not look very 
 valuable in the sober light of morning, for the 
 pack of beaver skins or the blankets which he 
 had paid for them; and if one started that kind 
 of business there would be plenty that would fol 
 low. He had selected Leech Lake as the scene 
 of his operations because it was two days jour 
 ney farther in the wilderness than where he 
 lived and he was sure that no lucifer matches 
 had found their way there. Laden with plun 
 der, he arrived at his own village, having by 
 one stroke become a very rich man. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 UNEXPECTED RESULTS OF A NEW WAR PARTY. 
 
 The beautiful summer was now passing its 
 height, and its maturing suns brought an in 
 crease of blessings to the Indian village and a 
 greater variety to its bill of fare. First there 
 were delicious strawberries in great abundance 
 acres of them. In these they reveled. Then 
 there were the blueberries, thousands of bushels, 
 the fruit of all others most adapted to the In 
 dian s palate. Quantities of these the women 
 dried in the sun for winter use, a reminder in 
 stern winter of the beautiful summer, and a 
 pledge that it would come again. Then there 
 were luscious raspberries, acres and acres of 
 them, more than they could consume. The 
 earth was rich with her bounty, and yielded 
 them the choicest fruits in great abundance. 
 Nor did she forget to grace her banquet with the 
 choicest flowers. They reposed amidst millions 
 of roses which made the air sweet with perfume, 
 and when they walked abroad it was on beds of 
 flowers. Everything sweet and lovely bloomed 
 there, and in the utmost profusion. Nature was 
 prodigal in her efforts to put forth beauty. 
 There were the most graceful shapes, the most 
 delicate colors, the most exquisite perfumes. 
 Not only what was most gratifying to the palate 
 did she provide, but she garnished it with most 
 
198 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 delicate fruits and served it amidst beds of flow 
 ers. Every want of the bodily man and of the 
 esthetic sense was fully gratified. If human be 
 ings could be, surely they were in an earthly par 
 adise. 
 
 So the long summer days passed, each one a 
 joy. Yet there was not a monotony it was a 
 changing loveliness. The flowers of one day 
 were not those of the next; the sky and the 
 clouds of yesterday were not those of to-day. 
 Nature had an infinite variety in her moods, but 
 every one of them lovely, always changing, but 
 always wooing the admiration of the beholder 
 by the loveliness of each change. She first 
 evolved from her bosom flowers of one kind, and 
 then, as if eager to show that her resources of 
 beauty were inexhaustible, she replaced them by 
 another ; then she brought forth another and still 
 another. Always smiling, always gently labor 
 ing in birth of some new thing. If sometimes a 
 frown gathered across her face and for a mo 
 ment she scowled, while the black clouds wracked 
 across her, it was only to smile again more 
 sweetly when she looked out laughing after her 
 tears. "The clear shining after rain," when 
 all her flowers and plants were freshly washed 
 from the sky, was the most beautiful mood of all. 
 
 Soon after this, when the first days of Septem 
 ber began to promise a richer tint of autumnal 
 glories, the village moved a little ways to their 
 wild rice lake to commence their annual gather 
 ing of that important part of their living. Here 
 not earth only, but even the water, seemed labor 
 ing of its own accord to supply the wants of the 
 
THE OJIBWAY 199 
 
 children, for from its dark depths, by some mys 
 terious power, was put forth the nutritious grain 
 that they needed. They had ducks, they had 
 flesh of all kinds, but besides all this they needed 
 another food of a different kind, a cereal, the 
 complement of all the rest, that which was 
 needed to make all the rest really wholesome to 
 human kind, and lo! the water asked the priv 
 ilege of furnishing it! Nor had Nature to be 
 tickled with the plough, or tempted by previous 
 seeds thrown in, or guarded from danger by a 
 fence thrown around ; but laboring shyly in se 
 cret, her efforts were all unknown till the 
 ripened grain hung temptingly over the darkling 
 flood. All the elements, even those thought to 
 be the most insensate the earth, the sky, even 
 the dark water conspired to produce each its 
 quota for these children of the Great Spirit. 
 
 Soon the wigwams were erected on the bank 
 of the lake. The merry shouts of children filled 
 the air, the women were pushing the light and 
 graceful birch-bark canoes amongst the envel 
 oping wild-rice stalks, and encircling an armful 
 of them with one arm were holding them over 
 the canoe, while with the other they deftly 
 scutched off the grain with a paddle ; then bend 
 ing over to the other side, performed a similar 
 operation there; then gently shoving the canoe 
 forward a paddle s length they repeated the 
 process; so it went on till the canoe was filled. 
 Everywhere could be heard the scutch, scutch of 
 the paddle as it fell upon the rice. The watery 
 meadow for such it seemed to be, the luxur 
 iantly-growing plant almost hiding the liquid 
 
200 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 from view appeared to be alive with invisible 
 beings, for the tall and thick rice stalks gathered 
 over the canoes and enclosed them from sight. 
 Then a call from one of the canoes would reveal 
 where the workers were, or perhaps a canoe, al 
 ready filled with rice, would be pushed to the 
 shore to be unloaded ; then having been emptied 
 would once more be pushed back into the envel 
 oping rice. So the work went merrily on, day 
 after day. The women engaged in it as in a 
 frolic, for it w^as left to them to do. The men 
 were lying on the bank watching them, gossip- 
 ping, or most likely gambling; once in a while 
 rising from the game when ducks flew over, dis 
 turbed by the rice-gathering canoes in the lake, 
 to pick up their guns then the loud report, and 
 the mallard falling tumbling at their feet, later 
 to be cleaned and dressed by the women,and to 
 gether with the wild rice to form a most delicious 
 meal. Sometimes, however, the men complained 
 that they were really hungry ; for although the 
 ducks flew over them thickly disturbed by the 
 canoes, they were so much absorbed in the game, 
 that they could not tear themselves away from it 
 long enough to rise and shoot. 
 
 In the still mornings it was an interesting 
 sight ; so many smokes going straight up to the 
 sky, as outside the door of the wigwam, around 
 the fire built there, each family sat preparing 
 breakfast before beginning the day s rice-gath 
 ering. 
 
 After sufficient rice had been gathered by each 
 family, came the parching, the threshing to sep 
 arate the grain from the husk, then the winnow- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 201 
 
 ing and putting in sacks of their own making, to 
 be kept for use during the coming year. More 
 nutritious and sustaining, as well as of a more 
 delicate flavor than white rice, it was the very 
 element the Indian needed to make perfectly 
 wholesome his otherwise too-exclusively flesh 
 and fish diet. 
 
 When this rice gathering was nearly over, 
 and when the days began to be a little cold, 
 Sha-bosh-kunk began to meditate what he 
 ought to do. Others in the village had gained 
 great reputations since the summer began; he 
 had done nothing. Other s stars had risen ; his 
 had at least remained stationary. Others had 
 gone against the Sioux and displayed the highest 
 courage, endurance, sagacity, and every manly 
 and precious quality; he had nothing to show 
 except his expedition to Leech Lake. Yellow 
 Thunder and his companions had taken their 
 lives in their hands, gone right into the midst of 
 the Sioux village, and thence brought out scalps, 
 and still lived. "The Sioux" had done more 
 he had given himself up to them, gone right in 
 among them, yet he also lived; he could show 
 nothing of the sort. The others had so many 
 eagle s feathers when they danced, they bore 
 the record of their prowess upon their own per 
 sons ; but he had to prop up his rather tottering 
 reputation by fair speeches. The others did not 
 find it necessary to speak; their acts spoke for 
 themselves. He, if he did not speak and in that 
 way keep himself in the public eye, would sink 
 into insignificance. He, he felt, was founded on 
 speech ; they on their deeds. When they passed 
 
202 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 along men looked after them and spoke of them ; 
 there was nothing about him of which they could 
 speak. 
 
 He considered all this, and found that it was 
 necessary for him, if he would maintain his po 
 sition, to do something. Therefore he spoke to 
 his young men, and with them went hunting and 
 killed a quantity of meat. Then he sent round 
 some tobacco the Indian s letter and called 
 them to a feast. On the day appointed they 
 came, each with his dish and wooden spoon, and 
 the feast was served out. When repletion 
 came, there was the sound of the drum, and their 
 spirits were revived by the dance. 
 
 After there had been considerable drumming 
 and dancing, and the spirits of the assembly 
 had been sufficiently roused, the time had come 
 for him to disclose the object of the meeting. 
 Accordingly, in the lull that followed the dance, 
 he rose, and, holding his blanket in graceful 
 folds around his body, something like a Roman 
 toga, and delicately fanning himself with a 
 goose s wing held in the other hand, he ad 
 dressed them: 
 
 "My friends, it is true that I formerly op 
 posed parties going against the Sioux, as you 
 heard me. I spoke against Yollow Thunder 
 and his party going, as you remember. I said 
 I feared it would draw upon us return war 
 parties of the Sioux. It is true I did think so at 
 that time, but the late attack of those people 
 on our village has made me angry. Those 
 Sioux have provoked me by coming against us 
 here and killing us, when we were living quietly 
 
THE OJIBWAY 203 
 
 and doing no harm to any one. If they had 
 killed some of a war party that we had sent 
 against them, I would not have thought any 
 thing of it, for that is the fortune of war, that 
 some who go to fight will be killed. But to come 
 sneaking up here against quiet and peaceable 
 people who only asked to live in quiet, that is 
 too bad, and I say here that those Sioux have 
 provoked me beyond endurance." 
 
 He used the "me" here to enhance his own 
 importance, making himself out to be the repre 
 sentative of the whole village, as if all the village 
 was centred in his person. He thus succeeded 
 in making himself very prominent. 
 
 "My friends, I do indeed love my people; 
 you know that I do. Yes, I put my breast be 
 tween them and the bullets of our enemies" 
 here he pressed his extended palm upon his 
 breast "for those bullets to bury themselves 
 in my breast, and leave them unharmed. I have 
 the profoundest pity for the helpless women 
 and children, and I offer my life for them that 
 they may live in safety. It does not matter if 
 I am killed. I shall have the satisfaction of 
 knowing that I gave my life for my people. I 
 can die in no better cause than standing as a 
 rampart between the helpless women and the 
 innocent little children and those who are rush 
 ing to slay them. Is there anything sweeter in 
 life than our innocent, prattling, little babes? 
 Who would stand tamely by and see our ene 
 mies knives lodged in their throats! Who 
 could bear to see their innocent life-blood flow 
 ing? Not I, my friends. Therefore, I offer my 
 
204 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 body as a sacrifice for them. It is true I am a 
 very long-suffering man; and hard to provoke 
 to the boiling point. I suffer, and suffer, and 
 suffer; and people think that injuries do not 
 sink into me : that I am tame but, my friends, 
 when my wrath does explode it is terrible! 
 Those Sioux killed some of my people and I 
 said nothing. They killed yet others and still I 
 held my peace. But last summer they came 
 against me, right here in my village, and killed 
 some of my people before my eyes ; and although 
 I said nothing at the time, yet the ferment has 
 been working in my breast; and to-day I say 
 that I shall be avenged! To-day I say that I 
 raise the hatchet; I, who am naturally a kind 
 and peaceable man, with a kind feeling for every 
 living thing, even though it were as insignificant 
 as a worm; to-day I raise the hatchet, and I 
 shall not lay it down till I have avenged in their 
 blood the blood that they have shed here in my 
 village; and till I have caused it that there be 
 a good many less of those vipers left living upon 
 the earth to come again and molest us here. 
 
 i ; And I expect to strike such terror into them 
 by the manner of my attack, by the ferocity with 
 which I shall rush upon them, that they will give 
 up for good and all, coming here to provoke me 
 any more ; that their dread of me will be so great 
 that they will henceforth stay away from where 
 I am, and leave our little children to grow up 
 in peace. And so I wish to offer myself, my 
 friends, as a sacrifice for you all, and for your 
 women and children. If I fall, and never return 
 here again, that is nothing; all I ask of you is 
 
THE OJIBWAY 205 
 
 to remember that Sha-bosh-kunk loved you, and 
 voluntarily offered his life as a sacrifice for you 
 and for your little ones. So that is why, my 
 friends, I commanded my young men to go out 
 and kill the choicest elk and deer, and make this 
 feast, a parting meal and then for you to send 
 me and my young men forth, with your permis 
 sion, against those who would destroy you." 
 
 This speech was followed by shouts of ap 
 proval from every side, haw-haw-haw ; and then, 
 as the natural expression of their exultant and 
 jubilant feelings, they all jumped up, and every 
 one joined fast and furiously in the dance, their 
 drawn knives and their bent looks directed 
 toward the Sioux country, and their fervid war- 
 whoops showing the intensity of their feelings, 
 
 When this excitement had calmed down and 
 all were again seated quietly on the ground, one 
 of the old chiefs rose and commended the good 
 purpose of the one who had called them to the 
 feast ; gave him their permission to go, and their 
 best wishes for a successful issue of the under 
 taking. After an interval of dancing he was 
 followed by many others, who one and all spoke 
 in commendation of the good purpose of Sha- 
 bosh-kunk and his men ; and with many a charge 
 to them to "take the greatest care," to "bend 
 up every nerve, " to " do their very best, and to 
 bring home their numbers undiminished, gave 
 them their very best wishes for their undertak 
 ing. 
 
 The best part of the day had been spent in 
 considering this important matter, and now 
 toward evening the assembly broke up, and 
 
206 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 every one, well satisfied, went to his own place. 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk saw that he had had a splendid 
 send-off. He was going forth with a great flour 
 ish of trumpets. For the time being every one 
 was talking about him and the eyes of all were 
 directed toward him. He was going forth as 
 the champion of the village their defender, 
 their savior. It was his own statement thaFlie 
 was going to throw away his life for their sakes, 
 and they accepted it and looked on him with the 
 feelings which such sacrifice for them should 
 arouse. 
 
 The next morning he and his two young men, 
 one of whom was First-Heavens, the unsuccess 
 ful lover, and the other, Traveling-the-Heavens, 
 two was all he deemed it wise to take, as a 
 small party could more easily escape observa 
 tion than a large one, marched out of the 
 village, their faces toward their enemies. 
 The entire village was assembled, men, 
 women and children, to see them off; and 
 cries of encouragement, and good wishes 
 resounded from all sides. Over all other 
 cries the one that reached them oftenest was 
 what the Indians always say to a person goina: 
 on a dangerous errand, Ay-ang-wam-i-zi-yuk 
 " take the greatest care ; put forth your utmost 
 effort. Until they were out of sight these cries 
 of encouragement from loving friends followed 
 them, and the last look they took backwards, 
 before a turn of the road finally hid the village 
 from their sight, there was the entire popula 
 tion with arms stretched out towards them, and 
 
THE OJIBWAY 207 
 
 loving gestures encouraging them. Never had 
 a party gone forth in a greater blaze of glory. 
 
 They decided not to take the river route, but 
 to go all the way on foot ; for though it was easy 
 to float down in their canoes it was dangerous, 
 the water affording an unobstructed view of 
 them to their enemies, themselves hidden in the 
 forest. There had been a Sioux war party dur 
 ing the summer, and they knew that on the river 
 they were liable to run into them at any time. 
 Therefore they wisely chose the hardships of 
 land travel, and aimed for a new village about 
 six days march (150 miles) distant. 
 
 At first their spirits were high ; the earth and 
 sky were beautiful, the sun shining brightly, 
 and the woods were all aflame with the many 
 varied hues of the turning leaves. Therefore, 
 it was with a feeling of exhilaration that they 
 strode along, and every once in a while some 
 one of the young men made the woods resound 
 with his burst of song. As for Sha-bosh-kunk, 
 age had sobered him and he walked along 
 quietly. They were young and happy, and filled 
 with the joy of living. It was a joy to live in 
 such beautiful surroundings; to breathe that 
 exhilarating air, and to feel the flush of health 
 in ever limb. Simply to exist and breathe was a 
 joy. Danger was far away, and danger only 
 added a spice of interest. When they halted at 
 noon and made a fire and cooked their meals, 
 they ate it with the relish that only the child of 
 the wilderness knows. 
 
 Dinner over, they renewed their march with 
 bounding spirits. The sun now began to decline, 
 
208 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and the day with it became overcast. Toward 
 night all the signs indicated that a storm was 
 coming, and they must prepare to spend an 
 uncomfortable night. It was, therefore, with no 
 little satisfaction that amidst the falling rain 
 and now roaring wind they came on the hospita 
 ble wigwam of an Ojibway hunter. He had 
 come out there with his family, his wife, and 
 three children, two of them grown up several 
 days march from his village, allured by the 
 greater plentiness of game. He was not of their 
 village, but belonged to Leech Lake; but they 
 knew him well. As he had avoided the vicinity 
 of the river, which was the great highway of 
 both Sioux and Chippewas and kept a consid 
 erable distance inland in the forest, he was not 
 in any danger from enemies. He was hidden in 
 the forest, and was not anywhere near the 
 border debatable land where both parties some 
 times went to hunt. 
 
 It was, therefore, with feelings of great satis 
 faction that the dripping warriors drew aside 
 the skin door of his lodge, and with the tinkling 
 bells around their ankles stepped in beside the 
 comforting fire. This was a good deal better 
 than lying down in the rain. Here was warmth, 
 and dryness, and companionship, and a wel 
 come. The owner of the wigwam, whose name 
 was 0-kun-di-kun The Buoy, was equally glad 
 to see them, for it relieved the tedium of the 
 wilderness to have visitors come to his lodge, 
 and besides they brought him all the latest news 
 of all the Indians he knew, and about all things 
 in which he was interested. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 209 
 
 So you are going on a war party, he said 
 cheerily, when he had learned their business. 
 1 * Well, you are doing a good thing. And then 
 came the * Ay-ang-wam-i-zi-yuk - - Take the 
 greatest care. " " Look out that those Sioux do 
 not kill you. They are dreadful fellows, those 
 Sioux; and do not let them have your scalps 
 dangling at their belts. 
 
 Whereupon all laughed, and Sha-bosh-kunk 
 and his young men laughingly protested that 
 they did not intend that any Sioux should take 
 their scalps ; but that if they had good luck they 
 intended to be back that way pretty soon, and 
 a good many Sioux scalps with them. 
 
 The owner of the wigwam now began to ques 
 tion Sha-bosh-kunk about the Indians he knew 
 what each one was doing ; what particular place 
 each one was hunting; what projects of war 
 or of their own politics Avere on foot ; what par 
 ticular ones were striving for preeminence and 
 how they were succeeding. The opposition to 
 the several schemes afoot was discussed, and 
 what counter-schemes those otherwise minded 
 were endeavoring to raise.* 
 
 The owner of the wigwam was most inter 
 ested to learn the latest developments in this 
 never-ending struggle, and he and his visitor 
 discussed the principal actors and their subordi 
 nates, their motives and characters, from every 
 point of view. What a happy chance, that had 
 
 *In every Indian community there is a party in power, and 
 there is another party in opposition seeking to wrest the power 
 from them. The struggle between the two factions never ceases, 
 although not always the same in point of intensity ; and the minds 
 of the people are kept constantly on the alert, siding now with 
 one, now with the other. 
 
210 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 brought liim (Sha-bosh-kunk) and party, with 
 their fund of the very latest information and 
 new developments ! 
 
 As he was sojourning in a country abounding 
 in game, there was no difficulty in supplying 
 his visitors with food. While he was gossiping 
 and smoking his long-stemmed pipe, his comely 
 wife was busy over certain steaming pots and 
 kettles; and by and by they were regaled with 
 an excellent repast of hot broth, venison, and 
 wild rice. 
 
 Oh! it was so pleasant to sit there by the 
 bright fire, dry and warm, while the rising wind 
 and the driving rain were beating against the 
 birch-bark sides of the wigwam in the black and 
 cheerless night outside. 
 
 So the night wore on in jollity and comfort 
 till midnight sealed up their eyes, and they were 
 stretched side by side, each wrapped in his 
 blanket. The fire died down, leaving only a 
 heap of ashes in the centre, and silence reigned 
 except for the deep breathing of the sleepers 
 and the rain pattering on the wigwam. 
 
 The prospect the next morning was dark and 
 cheerless outside, and the sky was lowering and 
 still weeping. The ground was soaked with rain, 
 and every step must be made in a puddle. It 
 was altogether an uninviting day to commence 
 a six days tramp through the wilderness. Sha- 
 bosh-kunk and his men looked out at it dubi 
 ously through the open door. It was so dismal 
 outside and so inviting where they were. They 
 therefore gladly accepted the invitation of their 
 generous host to stay with him that day also, he 
 
THE OJIBWAY 
 
 assuring them that he had plenty of flesh and 
 wild rice ; that to-inorrow the storm would prob 
 ably have cleared away, and that then they 
 could resume their journey. 
 
 With lightened spirits, therefore, they pro 
 ceeded to make themselves comfortable that day 
 also, getting thoroughly rested, lying on the 
 mats by the genial fire. As before, the day was 
 spent in gossip, laughter, and jokes about their 
 acquaintance, and about various things that 
 were going on. Though 0-kun-di-kun lived at 
 Leech Lake, he kept a mental register about 
 every Indian of Gull Lake, though it was so 
 far from his home. He knew not only the his 
 tory of each man, but also his doings ; where he 
 was hunting just then ; how many packs of furs 
 he had accumulated, and so on. His world was 
 the three jib way villages of Leech Lake, Gull 
 Lake, and Mille Lacs in that world he knew 
 every person. Outside was a fringe of foreign 
 Sioux, who sometimes made a dash within his 
 world and then were lost to sight as a comet 
 sometimes comes in sight of this out of unknown 
 regions of space. The world to him was a com 
 paratively small region, and all the people in 
 it were numbered by only a few hundreds. A 
 human being then was a far more important 
 quantity with him than with us, for there were 
 only a few hundred human beings in the whole 
 world. 
 
 The next day, to the disgust of the warriors, 
 again dawned cheerless and dismal. It was 
 evident Sha-bosh-kunk had made a mistake 
 he had started too late ; the fall rains had set in. 
 
212 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 However, it would not mend the matter to 
 remain in that wigwam. It was evidently not 
 going to clear up for some time, and they must 
 go on unless they were going to give it up alto 
 gether. With some sinking of spirits, therefore, 
 after the morning meal was over they prepared 
 for the march, and with their moccasined feet, 
 which were instantly wet through, took the first 
 step in the soaked earth that extended between 
 them and the village of their foes. 
 
 The owner of the lodge stood in the door of 
 his wigwam and gave them a cheery parting 
 "ang-wam-i-zi-yuk" as they filed away, while 
 his wife and the young people looked out at them 
 from under his extended arm. 
 
 On they tramped, mile after mile, in moist 
 earth at each step. The trees showered down 
 water on them as they passed; their clothes be 
 came saturated; they were wet to the skin. 
 Everything was sticky, clammy, and disagreea 
 ble, and the worst of it was, there was no pros 
 pect of any end of it, for the sun resolutely 
 refused to peep forth, and the rain persistently 
 showered down. They had evidently fallen on 
 an evil time. Then they came to rivers. They 
 tried to make rafts to cross them, but the rafts 
 upset and they were thrown in. When evening 
 came they were a thoroughly uncomfortable 
 and a very much discouraged company. 
 
 However, they made themselves somewhat 
 comfortable by a camp fire, if they could be said 
 to be comfortable while the rain was still wet 
 ting them from above; and with rather dismal 
 feelings revolved their prospects. Their horizon 
 
THE OJIBWAY 213 
 
 had become very much darkened compared with 
 what it was on the joyous sunny day in 
 which they had started from their village. 
 Then they were full of joy and enthusiasm; 
 and nature, in her loveliest mood, seemed 
 to sympathize with them. Now the world 
 was dark, drear, and dismal. Before them 
 was an undiscovered country; but certain 
 danger, terrible foes, and perhaps death. 
 And there was exhaustion and suffering up to 
 the dread moment of the trial of arms; and 
 exhaustion and suffering they well knew after 
 it, if they lived. It was, therefore, no wonder 
 that that night they lay ruminating in silence 
 by the fire, whose fitful flashes disclosed only 
 the dripping trunks of the trees as for a moment 
 it lit up the gloomy recesses of the forest. Nor 
 is it to be wondered at that they wished them 
 selves safe back in the light and warmth of their 
 village, and that Sha-bosh-kunk had never 
 called them on such a disagreeable enterprise. 
 
 Their leader sat by the fire, silent like the 
 others; and like them he was deeply ruminating 
 on the situation. His eyes were bent upon the 
 flame, watching the sputtering rain falling upon 
 it, making a brief hissing as it was consumed. 
 Only occasionally did he cast a glance upward 
 when a gust stronger than usual shook the limb 
 of the tree above him, and for a moment it 
 showered upon him its overcharged moisture. 
 At last, after long looking at the fire in moody 
 silence, only occasionally exchanging monosyl 
 lables, and once in a while glancing into the 
 blackness of the forest if any unusual sound 
 
214 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 there attracted their attention, they all stretched 
 themselves out to obtain such sleep as water- 
 soaked men might. 
 
 When morning came they pulled the blankets 
 from off their faces, and, seeing that it was day, 
 one got up and tried to light a fire. This was 
 no easy task when everything was soaking wet; 
 but finally the fire-maker succeeded, and the 
 cheerful fire leaped up. More wood was piled 
 upon it, and soon there was a roaring blaze, 
 around which they stood drying their clothes. 
 The steam came out of them as they turned first 
 one side and then the other to the blaze. As 
 before, only monosyllables were interchanged 
 as the cooking proceeded. Those who were dry 
 ing themselves took a far look out into the waste. 
 Their meal was now over, and they were smok 
 ing after it; and soon a start somewhere must 
 be made. 
 
 < Well, boys," said Sha-bosh-kunk, "what do 
 you think of this?" 
 
 There was silence for some time, then The- 
 First-Heavens answered : 
 
 "This is pretty hard, and it is going to be so. 
 It seems that we are in for it. 
 
 "Yes," said Traveling-the-Heavens, "we 
 have had a long dry spell, and now that the fall 
 rains have set in they are likely to last a consid 
 erable time." 
 
 "Yes, this is tough," observed Sha-bosh-kunk. 
 "The ground is soaked with water, and will be 
 till we get back. It is like mire. And our feet 
 will be wet all the time, and the trees will shower 
 water upon us as we pass, and the underbrush 
 
THE OJIBWAY 215 
 
 will wet us wherever we touch it. So we shall 
 be wet all the time, night and day. 
 
 To this there was no reply, for none was 
 needed, all being unanimous in thinking that 
 they were in a bad fix. 
 
 A long pause now ensued, when Sha-bosh-kunk 
 said, "What do you think had best be done!" 
 Again there was a long silence, and finally they 
 gravely answered that they did not know. Again 
 a silence, when The-First-Heavens remarked, 
 "What do you think we ought to do? You are 
 the leader, and the one who brought us here, 
 and it lies upon you to say what we ought to do. 
 
 "Well," replied Sha-bosh-kunk, "since you 
 put it upon me I will tell you how it seems to 
 me. It will not do for us to go back empty- 
 handed to where we came from. You know the 
 Indians would laugh at us. We would never 
 hear the end of it as long as we lived. We made 
 a great feast and invited them to it, and we 
 danced and made speeches. And there was a 
 great ado when they all started us off from the 
 village three days ago and gave us a great send- 
 off, and then to turn back because there was a 
 little rain why, they would laugh at us so we 
 could not live there. So you see we can not go 
 back." 
 
 To this there was no reply on their part 
 their heads hung down. And while it was plain 
 that to go back was the very thing they wanted 
 to do, the ridicule they must encounter barred 
 the way.* It was one thing to go killing Sioux 
 when everybody was shouting to them and en- 
 
 *RldIcule Is the one thing an Indian cannot endure. 
 
216 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 couraging them on ; when the drum was beating 
 and the dance in full blast, and all knives point 
 ing to the Sioux country, and making motions 
 as if wriggling in a Sioux throat and a very 
 different thing to undertake it in cold blood in 
 the discouraging circumstances in which they 
 found themselves. 
 
 "Then," continued Sha-bosh-kunk, "since to 
 return is barred, let us see what outlet there is 
 in other directions. Suppose we go to the Sioux, 
 according to our original intention; let us see 
 how that will work. We shall have at least five 
 or six days journey through mire like this, wet 
 night and day, and tired to death ; and we have 
 deep rivers to cross, swollen with these rains; 
 and we shall have to make rafts or swim them, 
 and very likely get our powder all wet, and so 
 shall not be able to kill anything to eat; and we 
 shall almost starve to death. In that case we 
 shall have to live on the wild potato or wild tur 
 nip which we shall dig on the prairies, if we 
 cannot find any wild rose pods, and either of 
 them will be very hard living. Pretty food for 
 men to live on going to fight Sioux, or trying 
 to run away from them, just when they need to 
 be strongest! Then, even if we do live to get 
 to those cursed Sioux, very likely we shall not 
 find them; they will have moved their camp to 
 some other place, as often happens, and all we 
 shall see will be their lodge poles, and we shall 
 have had all this frightful exposure for nothing, 
 and go back empty-handed as we came proba 
 bly not be a bit better off after we have endured 
 
THE OJIBWAY 217 
 
 everything but death in going there, than we 
 are this minute. 
 
 "Then if we do find them there, you know 
 that the chances are that after we have made 
 our attack they will surround and capture us, 
 for it is on the prairie they live there is no 
 forest to hide us ; and very likely they will roast 
 us, like the Roasters they are. And in any case, 
 if we do succeed in eluding them, we have this 
 frightful march home over the prairie and 
 through this dripping forest, this bog, that this 
 cursed rain, coming on just at this time, has 
 made. So that to sum it all up, the prospect 
 for us to go against those Sioux a hundred 
 times as numerous as we are seems to me to 
 be either death at their hands or by the hard 
 ships of the journey, and it looks like anything 
 but a cheerful prospect to me. 
 
 The faces were indeed solemn and serious 
 that at the conclusion of this address of the 
 leader glanced instinctively for a moment upon 
 the opening in the forest which led in the direc 
 tion of the Sioux 
 
 There now ensued a long silence and deep 
 meditation. Then Traveling-the-Heavens looked 
 up and inquired : "Well, if you think it is impos 
 sible to return on account of the way they will 
 laugh at us, and impossible to go against the 
 Sioux on account of the hardness and desperate- 
 ness of it (and we all see that it must be hard 
 in the extreme) what else is there to do? I do 
 not see anything else to be done, but either to 
 give it up or go through with it. But perhaps 
 you know something else ; you are the leader. 
 
218 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 "Yes, I am the leader," said Sha-bosh-kunk ; 
 "I am the chief, and it is my part to say what 
 shall be done, and yours to obey. I have been 
 thinking during the past night, while you were 
 sleeping, how to extricate you out of this fix. 
 Yes, and to extricate myself; for I have talked 
 so much to the people about coming on this trip, 
 and made it so public, and the people expect so 
 much from me on account of what I have said, 
 that it would never do for me to go back, with 
 out doing something. I have found a way, then, 
 and it is the only way, to save our reputations ; 
 to make it so that the Indians will not laugh 
 at us, and I will tell you right out what it is." 
 
 Here he stopped for a time and looked at 
 them, taking his eyes from the forest, where 
 they had mostly been while he was revolving 
 the chances of their expedition. He was now 
 approaching the perilous edge, and he wanted 
 to see how the proposition he had to make would 
 be received. 
 
 "I will come right to the point, and as I said, 
 will tell you right out what it is. It is to go and 
 kill 0-kun-di-kun and his family and take their 
 scalps with us to Gull Lake, as if they were 
 Sioux scalps; and nobody will ever know the 
 difference." 
 
 Silence and astonishment fell on the listeners 
 as these words were pronounced. They first 
 looked on the speaker in blank amazement, and 
 then looked down in profound thought. Only 
 their eyelids, winking as they thought intently, 
 kept one from thinking that they were statues. 
 
 At last the silence was broken. "I for my 
 
THE OJIBWAY 219 
 
 part," said Traveling-the-Heavens, "have 
 never killed any of my fellow-Indians in my life, 
 and I think it a very hard thing to do. I am 
 ready enough to kill a Sioux, for they kill us; 
 but to kill one of my fellow jib ways is a differ 
 ent matter. And then that man entertained us 
 kindly; took us into his lodge, and I think it 
 hard to kill him. 
 
 "It is he that will kill himself," answered 
 Sha-bosh-kunk, "and not you or I. What is he 
 doing but killing himself, coming away here, 
 far from the main body of his people? Does 
 he not know that there are Sioux prowling 
 around here, and that he is almost certain to 
 be killed by them ? Is he not, as it were, present 
 ing his body to them to be killed? He has for 
 feited his life by coming away off here in such 
 a rash manner, and it is all the same whether 
 he is killed by the Sioux or by us. And if we 
 should go away and leave him here the chances 
 all are that he would be killed by the Sioux 
 before the season is over. So he may just as 
 well give his scalps to us, who have use for 
 them, as to the Sioux." 
 
 " There is one thing about it," said the other 
 brave, The-First-Heavens, "that I do not like 
 to do. I have pity on those young people that 
 we saw, and I think it hard that I should kill 
 any of them. The old folks, as our chief says, 
 are, as it were, giving up their bodies to the 
 Sioux by coming away off out here by them 
 selves in this exposed position ; but those young 
 people, it is hard to kill them. They are inno 
 cent, and not to blame. 
 
220 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Their father is the one who is to blame for 
 their losing their lives/ said Sha-bosh-kunk, 
 "and not we. He had no business bringing 
 them out here; and he is responsible for their 
 deaths. He has put them in a position where 
 they can hardly escape being killed by the Sioux, 
 and if they die he is the cause of it. 
 
 "But," said Traveling- the-Heavens, after a 
 long silence, "if we kill these people and go 
 home with their scalps we shall be found out. 
 Our people will know that we have not been out 
 a long enough time to go to the Sioux country 
 and back; and learning, as they will, that this 
 family has been killed, why it will be plain that 
 we have been the killers of them, for we shall 
 have been gone just about the proper time to 
 reach them, and we came in this direction. So 
 it will be perfectly plain what we have been 
 doing." 
 
 "I have thought over all of that and arranged 
 it all," answered Sha-bosh-kunk. "If we went 
 back now it would indeed be plain what we have 
 done; but I am not such a fool as that. We 
 shall camp here a certain number of days after 
 ward, and occupy their wigwam, where we shall 
 be dry and comfortable. It is all made, ready to 
 our hand. And then when there has been time 
 enough for us to have gone to the Sioux country 
 and back, we shall go quietly to Gull Lake vil 
 lage. No one will ever know anything about it 
 but ourselves we shall be perfectly safe. We 
 need not have any fear that any persons will 
 accidentally come out here from Gull Lake and 
 find us in that wigwam and those bodies lying 
 
THE OJIBWAY 221 
 
 around. No one of our people has any business 
 out this way, unless they are going to war, and 
 we know that none of them are thinking of going 
 to war now. We are the only ones, it seems, who 
 are foolish enough to go to war at such a cursed 
 time as this. No ; only their relatives at Leech 
 Lake will come down here to look for them, after 
 a long time, when they do not make their appear 
 ance, but not now. Did you not hear O-kun- 
 di-kun tell that he expected to stay out a month ! 
 It is true that after the expiration of the month 
 their relatives will come down here to look for 
 them and will find their mangled bodies; will 
 see that they were scalped, and will conclude, 
 as is natural, that Sioux have done it. Their 
 war parties are always prowling about, liable 
 to come any time except in winter, and it will 
 be the most natural thing in the world to lay 
 it to them. Besides, I have got the very thing 
 that will clinch that supposition and make it a 
 certainty here is a piece of Sioux bead-work 
 that I have had a long time. I thought it might 
 be useful to me at some time in some way. I 
 shall leave that lying near the bodies, and when 
 the relatives find it, as they immediately will, 
 why, there is the proof positive of the presence 
 of the Sioux, and that the deed was done by 
 them. And when they carry that bead-work 
 home to Leech Lake every one will immediately 
 recognize that no Ojibway made it. 
 
 "I have thought this thing all out," he con 
 tinued, and raising his voice, "while you fellows 
 were sleeping, as I said, for I know I am respon 
 sible for you, having brought you here, and I 
 
THE OJIBWAY 
 
 must save you, I have guarded the matter at 
 every point that by no possibility can suspicion 
 ever be directed to us, but that the knowledge 
 of this will remain with ourselves alone. I know 
 that I have more sense than you. I ought to 
 have, being older, while you are but young and 
 foolish; and it lies upon me as your chief to 
 lead you safely out of this scrape without harm 
 and without disgrace. Now I have told you the 
 way and I expect you to fall in with it. We 
 shall gain credit by bringing home these scalps 
 credit for our endurance in having made such 
 a journey there and back in such frightful 
 weather as this, and credit for our courage in 
 rushing right in upon them in their skin lodges 
 and scalping them, and bringing home the 
 scalps. Hereafter, when they dance, you young 
 men shall not have to hang back as if you were 
 ashamed of yourselves because you have nothing 
 to put in your hair, while other young fellows 
 not half as good as you press joyfully to the 
 front, their eagles feathers waving and nodding 
 as they dance. From this time on you will be 
 just as good as the best of them, for you will 
 have proved your manhood. " 
 
 Here another thought came into his mind, 
 derived from his past observation of the young 
 men, and of what he knew them to be thinking 
 about. So he proceeded to use it. 
 
 "And the girls you know how they give the 
 preference to those whose manhood has been 
 proved. You have often suffered from that 
 cause in the past. I know you have, for I have 
 seen you. I have seen the girls go off with others 
 
THE OJIBWAY 223 
 
 that were not as good looking, nor as good hunt 
 ers, nor as manly as you ; have seen them leave 
 you standing sheepishly alone. But it shall be 
 so no longer now is the opportunity to put 
 yourselves on an equality with the best of them. 
 Hereafter the best girls and the handsomest will 
 think themselves honored by going with you, 
 
 All this opened a flattering prospect to the 
 meditative young men, and an easy exit out of 
 what was a very disagreeable predicament. 
 All other sides of the question seemed to be 
 walled in by impossibilities; here only opened 
 a natural aperture of escape escape without 
 loss of credit and with great positive gain; 
 acquisition of the very things they wanted, and 
 for which they came. 
 
 All these things had their force with them. 
 But suddenly something occurred to The-First- 
 Heavens, and he spoke up: "But perhaps," 
 said he, l i the people will recognize that those are 
 not Sioux heads that we shall have brought 
 home; they have all seen 0-kun-di-kun and his 
 family, and perhaps they may recognize that the 
 heads are theirs ! There was a rising tone of 
 alarm in his voice as this thought came over 
 him. 
 
 "I have thought over all of that," said Sha^ 
 bosh-kunk, for indeed there is nothing relating 
 to it that I have not thought over, and we have 
 no reason to fear on that account. We shall not 
 take the features, of course, but only the hair ; 
 and it is all the same it is hair, whether it be 
 jib way hair or Sioux hair, and there is no dif 
 ference. We can all of us tell a Sioux moccasin 
 
224 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 from an Ojibway, and we can all tell a piece of 
 Sioux bead-work from Ojibway, or any part of 
 their garments from ours ; but who ever heard 
 of being able to tell Ojibway hair from Sioux? 
 No one can tell it, for there is no difference. 
 Perhaps we have now discussed this matter long 
 enough, he said, raising his voice. I am the 
 leader and I will take all the responsibility, and 
 all you have to do is to obey me. I bear the 
 blame, if blame there be, for I command you, 
 my young men, to do it, and it is your duty as 
 men and soldiers to obey your chief. If any one 
 ever says anything to you, just refer them to 
 me I ordered it. And it seems to me, he went 
 on, meditatively, "that this man was destined 
 to die at this very time and in this very place. 
 I do not believe he could get around it, for I 
 do not think any man can get around the day 
 and the place when he is to die. Let him try 
 ever so hard to live, yet in spite of himself he 
 will come to the very spot and to the very cir 
 cumstances and to the very means by which he 
 is to die. Whether it be by the upsetting of his 
 canoe, or by the accidental discharge of his gun, 
 or by a sickness he has taken, or by the hand of 
 his enemy, I believe he was destined to be killed 
 by that very man, and at that very time, and 
 that try as hard as he may he could not avoid 
 going there to meet the death that was waiting 
 for him. I believe that that was destined for 
 him, at that very time and place. 
 
 * See here now, this man we did not send for 
 him to come from Leech Lake here, to leave all 
 his own people and come four long days travel 
 
THE OJIBWAY 225 
 
 into the wilderness, and bring his family with 
 him ; we had no idea of finding him here when 
 we started out ; and we had no idea that we were 
 destined to kill him when we slept with him in 
 his wigwam. We passed on and left him, bade 
 good-by to him, and went away for good as we 
 thought. But no ! Circumstances stronger than 
 we, and that we had no hand in ordering; that 
 we did not even think of, this prolonged rain 
 storm, shutting us off from going where we 
 wanted, notwithstanding our utmost striving to 
 go there, these circumstances, not of our order 
 ing, but ordered by some one stronger than we, 
 who governs us, have forced us right up against 
 this man, and have, as it were, said to us in an 
 audible voice, l The time has come for this man 
 to die, and the place; and you are the destined 
 instruments of his death, now fulfill it ! 
 
 "It seems to me," he said, with a concluding 
 flourish, "that it is the will of God that this man 
 should die, and he has come out here to meet 
 it because he could not avoid it, and because it 
 was to be. 
 
 The two young men meditated in silence for 
 a considerable time on what they had heard. 
 They were standing with their backs to the fire, 
 warming themselves, their faces looking out to 
 the water-sodden forest around. At last The- 
 First-Heavens spoke: "Well," said he, "I do 
 not like this business ; it is something I never did 
 before in my life. I have never done any harm 
 to any of my fellow-0 jib ways. But if I am 
 ordered to do it by my chief, that alters the 
 case he tells me to do it; the responsibility is 
 
226 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 upon him ; and all I have to do is to obey. Now 
 you see that you bear the responsibility of this 
 thing," he said, turning to the chief. "I tell 
 you that I do not like to do it ; but if you order 
 me to do it, it is rny duty to obey, and I shall." 
 
 Hereupon, Sha-bosh-kunk reiterated that he 
 took the full responsibility upon himself, and 
 discharged them of all share in it only to obey. 
 The first having thus fallen into line, the other 
 took his place by him, saying that he did not 
 wish to do it, only he was ordered to do it by 
 one having lawful authority over him, so it was 
 his business, and he alone would have to answer 
 for it; they had nothing to do with it, only to 
 obey. 
 
 This matter having been settled it was an 
 agreeable change not to have to start out tramp 
 ing all day in the mud and water toward the 
 Sioux country, but to sit by the fire for awhile 
 and warm themselves, in indifference to the 
 drizzling rain that still descended. Having 
 decided that the deed should be done, they dis 
 cussed the best manner of doing it. Sha-bosh- 
 kunk was for going back to the wigwam and 
 sharing its owner s hospitality, and then, at a 
 certain time previously agreed upon, execute 
 their deed. But this did not find favor with the 
 young men who now asserted their own indi 
 viduality. 
 
 Said Traveling-the-Heavens : "I don t like 
 to go and lie down in peace and friendship with 
 Uiat man, land then rise up and kill him it 
 seems to me like deceit and treachery, and I am 
 not treacherous. Whatever I do, good or bad, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 227 
 
 I do openly and above-board. No, if we are 
 going to play Sioux, let us be Sioux let us go 
 and camp near him tonight, and at break of 
 day, the time the Sioux always select, let us rush 
 in upon him with the Sioux yell ; but let us not 
 be deceivers. " 
 
 This met with the fervent and somewhat de 
 monstrative approval of the other, which he 
 evinced very plainly, several times while Trav- 
 eling-the-Heavens was speaking, by calling out 
 "mi-gwa-yuk" "that is it," "that is correct." 
 And so Sha-bosh-kunk had to consent to be over 
 ruled on that point by his young men, the instru 
 ments of his execution being unanimously of 
 a contrary mind to him. It eased the consciences 
 of the young men very much to thus tempo 
 rarily transform themselves into Sioux to as 
 sume a character, act up to it, then, having done 
 so, once more transform themselves into their 
 proper selves, throwing off with the character 
 they had assumed, the actions that went with 
 it. 
 
 Everything having been thus apparently ar 
 ranged they again took up their march, but 
 this time with their faces toward home, and 
 at first boldly ; but when they came near the goal, 
 stealthily they marched through the forest. 
 
 The young men, however, were far from sat 
 isfied in reality, they were very uneasy in their 
 minds. They often looked at each other as they 
 went along, and unknown to their chief made it 
 known to each other that they wished a private 
 conference between themselves. They purposely 
 lagged behind, though afraid to excite his sus- 
 
228 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 picion; and when they were out of earshot be 
 gan to speak. 
 
 "What do you think of this!" asked The- 
 First-Heavens. 
 
 "This seems a doubtful matter to me," du 
 biously answered his companion. 
 
 "It seems a very doubtful matter to me," said 
 The-First-Heavens, decidedly. 
 
 "We are in a most terible predicament; and 
 my mind is very uneasy, returned his compan 
 ion. 
 
 "Are you satisfied to go on and do what is 
 proposed to us?" queried The-First-Heavens. 
 
 "I am far from satisfied. If there was any 
 other thing we could possibly do, I would be 
 overjoyed." 
 
 "And I. It hangs like a terrible nightmare 
 over me since we assented to it. 
 
 "This comes from our association with this 
 man," said Traveling- the-Heavens. "We went 
 to Leech Lake with him, and saw him get those 
 goods from those people for nothing; and now 
 again from being with him we are in this fix, 
 that we must either kill these people or be ru 
 ined." 
 
 "We did not help in any way what he did at 
 Leech Lake," returned The-First-Heavens. 
 "We were simply employed by him, and did 
 what he told us." 
 
 "Yes, and that has got us into this by keeping 
 on with him, said Traveling-the-Heavens. 
 
 "If we had not been employed by him at Leech 
 Lake, some others would, and it would have 
 
THE OJIBWAY 229 
 
 turned out just the same," his companion re 
 plied. 
 
 "Yes, but we have heard the old people, say, 
 and it was a part of their preaching to us, kego 
 inagaaken au kidj-anishinabe do not inflict 
 injury on your fellow-beings ; and we stood 
 there and saw old widows robbed of their goods, 
 and said nothing, although we knew they were 
 being robbed. We made up the packs and help 
 ed to carry them off. We knew all about that 
 lucifer match, for we had seen it at Gull Lake. 
 I would not care so much about the braves, for 
 they are strong and able to look out for them 
 selves, but the poor old widows ! Now this has 
 come upon us. 
 
 "We had better have said something, or we 
 had better have gone away and left them when 
 we saw what was going to be done," returned 
 The-First-Heavens. " But we did not. We were 
 taken by surprise. " 
 
 "And we helped to pack up and carry off 
 those goods, said Traveling-the-Heavens. i i So 
 we in a manner joined in it. Yet we only obeyed 
 our chief. But there is no use talking about it," 
 said he, raising his voice; "that is past. The 
 question is, What are you going to do about this 
 thing that is before us? " 
 
 * My mind is not clear what to do, said The- 
 First-Heavens. "We cannot go to the Sioux, 
 and we cannot go to our village. So we are 
 forced right up against this thing, and yet my 
 mind is not clear to do it. So I do not know 
 what to do. I feel most miserable." 
 
 "It is true our chief tells us to do it," ob- 
 
230 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 served Traveling-the-Heavens, "and I suppose 
 that ought to be warrant enough for us. That 
 was another part of the " preaching " of the old 
 Indians to us. Obey your chief. Submit your 
 self to him. He is responsible. 
 
 1 i Yes, that ought to cover our case, said The- 
 First-Heavens, "and that was what really made 
 us assent when we just now gave our consent to 
 Sha-bosh-kunk. And yet I feel very uneasy. 
 Notwithstanding that precept, I can not bear to 
 do it. There is something wrong. J 
 
 "Then what are you going to do about it?" 
 asked his companion. 
 
 "I must think over it more," said he. "My 
 mind is just on the balance. Sometimes I see it 
 quite clear that I ought to obey my chief, and 
 then my mind swings into the other groove, and 
 I see that I ought not to do this thing. 
 
 "And when will you have time to think and 
 decide?" asked Traveling-the-Heavens. 
 
 "While I am walking along here," replied 
 The-First-Heavens, "I will have time to make 
 up my mind one way or the other before we get 
 to camp. My mind will clear itself, and I shall 
 be sure. 
 
 "I have noticed," said his companion, "when 
 I have been traveling above a rapids or a 
 water-fall in my canoe, that when I am some 
 ways above it I can get out and not go over, 
 though the water runs swift; but that if I put off 
 too long, and go too near the verge I am bound 
 to go over the fall, let me struggle as I will 
 against it. You say you are thinking about what 
 you ought to do, but you keep going nearer and 
 
THE OJIBWAY 231 
 
 nearer to that man and his family; and it seems 
 to me that in the end you will do it whether you 
 like it or not, because you wil have to. You 
 are just like me in my canoe above the rapids. " 
 
 "But what can I do? I have not yet made 
 up my mind one way or the other, and I must 
 think about it. I cannot stop here and think. I 
 must go on with Sha-bosh-kunk to where we 
 will camp, and think there. I hope I can make 
 up my mind there. Now what are you going to 
 do about it ? " he asked. 
 
 * I am very much like you, answered Trav 
 eling- tihe-Haevens. "I do not know what to 
 think, nor how to get out of this. I am just 
 drifting along as circumstances carry me. What 
 will be the end I am sure I do not know. I wish 
 I did." 
 
 "If there was any other village we could go 
 to and live," said The-First-Heavens, "while 
 the Indians are laughing at us about turning 
 back, and then come back to our homes after it 
 had died out, but there is not. Even if we aban 
 doned our homes and our village forever, and 
 went to Mille Lacs or Leech Lake to live, or Ot 
 ter Tail, it would be just as bad there. They 
 will hear of it there just as soon as at Gull Lake, 
 and they will laugh at us just as much. 
 
 1 They will make fun of us wherever we go, 
 said Traveling-the-Iieavens despairingly. 
 
 "Yes, we seem to be shut out from the whole 
 world," returned The-First-Heavens. "There 
 is no other place in the whole world where we 
 can go and not be known unless we go to the 
 
232 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Sioux, and they, of course, would kill us at 
 sight. " 
 
 "It seems to me we shall either have to be 
 killed by them or kill ourselves to avoid this 
 disgrace, " said Traveling-the-Heavens. 
 
 It is not so bad as that yet, said The-First- 
 Heavens. "Let us think over it a while, and 
 we shall find some way out. 
 
 "Yes, you think, and think, and think," in 
 terrupted his companion, "but you keep going 
 toward 0-kun-di-kun. You may think all your 
 life, and you will not find any safe way out 
 of it." 
 
 "I hate very much to abandon our village and 
 our home forever, even if it were possible to 
 do that and be unknown," resumed The-First- 
 Heavens pensively. " It is like breaking off our 
 whole life. It is dreadful to think of. 
 
 "And have you any particular reason, more 
 than I, to dread it?" asked his companion. 
 
 "Yes, I have," said The-First-Heavens. "You 
 know the girl there that I like, old Ogema s 
 daughter. Oh, she is the finest girl in 
 Gull Lake village! She always puts me in 
 mind of a deer, the way she carries her 
 self, with her chest out and her head up, and 
 such perfect command of herself. She looks as 
 if she might jump like a deer any minute. And 
 when she has on a well-tanned coat of deer 
 skin, trimmed with blue and red ribbons, and 
 deer-skin leggings, is not she a pretty girl ! And 
 she has the richest blush of red on her cheek! 
 And she is not one of that kind of girls that go 
 with everybody, either, he said, with increasing 
 
THE OJIBWAY 233 
 
 interest. "That may be said about other girls 
 in our town, but it cannot be said about her. 
 No one can say but that she has always been and 
 is a perfectly straight girl. Well, she has show 
 ed me, although she has never said so in words, 
 that she looks with favor on me. I can tell it 
 sometimes by the way she looks at me. And I 
 would think myself the proudest man in Gull 
 Lake if I had her, for she is the finest girl 
 there. But she has given me to understand, 
 though she has never said that either, but by 
 her manner some way she has made me to know 
 that she expects me to distinguish myself h], 
 some way before she marries me. That she ex 
 pects the one whom she will marry to prove his 
 manhood ; to show in some way that he ib worthy 
 of her, and not a common stay-at-home lout. 
 She knows her own value perfectly well, and she 
 wishes the man whom she will choose for her 
 husband to be somewhat worthy of her. 
 
 "And it was to please her, partly, that you 
 joined this war-party?" asked Traveling-the- 
 Heavens. 
 
 "That was what most influenced me," said 
 The-First-Heavens ; l and on her account I think 
 it very hard to forever abandon our village as 
 we have been talking about doing. I would see 
 her no more, and I might as well take leave of 
 life itself as that. And I cannot bear to go back 
 to our village and see the look that she would 
 give me if I turned back on account of a little 
 rain!" 
 
 Here their colloquy was interrupted by Sha- 
 bosh-kunk. He did not think it safe to leave 
 
234 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 them too much alone by themselves, so he had 
 purposely waited for them. He knew that not 
 withstanding their assent given, they were 
 in a most irresolute and shaky condition of mind, 
 and that his stronger will could alone keep them 
 steady to the point. 
 
 Keep up, keep up, he said, l do not lag be 
 hind. We were late of starting and we have a 
 long distance to go. We shall hardly get there 
 before dark." He noticed that they had been 
 talking together as they came up, and he stuck 
 to them closely all the rest of the way till they 
 got to the place where they were to camp. 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk chose a place as near to the 
 wigwam of their quondam entertainer as he 
 deemed prudent near enough to be easily 
 reached, but not near enough for their presence 
 to be detected ; and there they made their camp. 
 While there they could hear the sound of 0-kun- 
 di-kun s wife s ax as she chopped wood for the 
 evening fire, and the barking of his dog. 
 
 Before they lay down to sleep the two young 
 men managed to slip off together to a quiet place 
 at one side of the camp, under pretence of gath 
 ering some wood for the fire, and have a brief 
 conference. 
 
 "What do you think now you are going to 
 do?" asked Traveling-the-Heavens of his com 
 panion. 
 
 "I have not been able to decide yet," de- 
 spondingly answered The-First-Heavens. "My 
 mind is not yet clear as to what is right to do. 
 Sometimes I think one way, and sometimes I 
 think the other. The fact is, that with Sha-bosh- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 235 
 
 kunk talking to us as we came along, I could not 
 concentrate my mind upon it so as to decide 
 just what we ought to do. But I mean, when we 
 have lain down, and when everything is quiet, 
 to think it all over, and decide what is to be 
 done and do it. When we have lain down will 
 be the most favorable opportunity. I haven t 
 really had a good opportunity yet. 
 
 "You may think, and think, and think about 
 it till you die, and you will never know any 
 more about it, nor be any nearer deciding than 
 you are now, answered his companion. 
 
 i l Yes, I will, said he. i i When everything is 
 perfectly quiet and I can reflect I shall see 
 clearly what to do. And what do you think of 
 doing?" he inquired. 
 
 "Oh, I am just drifting along," answered 
 Traveling-the-Heavens. i I can think of no way 
 out, nor anything to do. Circumstances too 
 strong for me bear me along where they will, 
 and I do not know what will become of me. I 
 only know that I am most miserable." 
 
 "You are not half so wretched as I," rejoined 
 The-First-Heavens. "If one grain of the misery 
 I feel this moment were mixed among all the 
 people of the world, they would die ; for it would 
 make their bodies so bitter they could not live! 
 
 "And I think if one drop of the blood in my 
 body were cast into Gull Lake, all the fish in it 
 would die, it would be so bitter," said his com 
 panion. "I have been a happy man all my life 
 till now. I have danced and sung through life 
 from very happiness. But I feel that I shall 
 never again know happiness. No matter how 
 
236 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 this thing turns out, I feel that since Sha-bosh- 
 kunk proposed this thing to us, my peace is for 
 ever gone. I shall be a sad man all my life." 
 
 Here again their conference was cut short by 
 Sha-bosh-kunk, who quickly missed them, and 
 suspecting that something was passing between 
 them, called them as loudly as he dared without 
 making his voice heard at Okun-di-kun s camp, 
 and sought them. 
 
 "Come, come," he said, "it is time to lie 
 down. Break off those cedar boughs quick and 
 spread them by the fire and make yourselves a 
 bed. Now don t waste any time about it, but 
 hurry. 
 
 There being no chance for any further con 
 ference, they mechanically complied made 
 their bed of boughs, and wrapping themselves 
 in their blankets lay down. Sha-bosh-kunk sat 
 up to tend the fire. 
 
 The-First-Heavens did indeed think long and 
 earnestly about it while lying there as he had 
 said; but he could come to no certain conclusion. 
 Sometimes he thought that the command of his 
 chief absolved him from all responsibility in the 
 matter, and then again he thought not. He was 
 most anxious to come out right, and not lose 
 the approval of his lady-love, and yet although 
 he so earnestly desired that, he was not willing 
 to do anything that was wrong. In the most 
 painful state of uncertainty he lay there revolv 
 ing the matter. He looked up at the blackness 
 above him; at the trunks of the trees dimly ap 
 pearing in the light ; at the fire, and at Sha-bosh- 
 kunk sitting there. He could come to no certain 
 
THE OJIBWAY 237 
 
 conclusion what to do, and only knew that he 
 was unspeakably wretched. Finally it occurred 
 to him to put off the time of decision still longer. 
 He said to himself, "My brain is all in 
 a whirl now; I have thought over this thing, 
 trying to see what is right to do, till I am 
 almost crazy; and I am not in a fit state to 
 come to any decision. The best thing I can do 
 is to go to sleep, and sleep will clear my mind ; 
 and in the morning when I wake my mind will 
 be clear, and I shall see clearly then what I ought 
 to do. The first view that I have of the subject 
 in the morning will be the right one, and that I 
 will take. With that he composed himself and 
 tried to sleep. It gave a temporary relief to his 
 mind thus to put off a little farther the evil day 
 of decision, and he slept. There is a sleep pro 
 duced by very wretchedness the sleep that the 
 condemned criminal has the night before his exe 
 cution. Such sleep was his as he lay there on 
 his bed of cedar boughs. His companion did not 
 worry so much. He had abandoned himself in a 
 kind of stony despair to what he thought was 
 the inevitable. Finding no way of escape from 
 the entaglement in which he was, he had ceased 
 to struggle. He did not delude himself as did 
 The-First-Heavens, by thinking that before the 
 time came he would be able to see clearly what 
 was right, and do it. He expected nothing bet 
 ter than what he was then, nor to see anything 
 more clearly than he did that minute. Finally, 
 after long lying there, the sleep of the wretched 
 came to him also, and for the time he was freed 
 from his misery. 
 
238 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Sha-bosk-kunk kept watch to rouse them at 
 the first peep of day. Thus the long night wore 
 away the solitary watcher sitting looking at 
 the fire, the sleepers beside him looking like dead 
 men. At last there was an almost imperceptible 
 lightening of the sky. Sha-bosh-kunk cast his 
 face upward once or twice to make sure that it 
 was really the dawn, then roused his compan 
 ions. There was a hurried flinging aside of 
 blankets from their faces and the young men 
 sat up. They had slept with their ordinary 
 clothes on, except their moccasins and these, in 
 obedience to the suggestion of Sha-bosh-kunk, 
 they now began tying on. 
 
 Their spirits were depressed by the cold, gray, 
 cheerless morning, and by being untimely roused 
 from their sleep, which had been short, because 
 revolving the matter they had lain awake late 
 into the night. The consciousness of what they 
 were expected to do now came full upon them, 
 and it looked even uglier to them than it had 
 done before. They were more than ever re 
 luctant to undertake it. They had moral 
 strength enough to ineffectually struggle against 
 their leader, but not enough to break away from 
 him. 
 
 Oh, I do most mortally hate this thing ! said 
 The-First-Heavens as he was tying the thongs. 
 "I have never done such a thing before, and I 
 abominate it. Mind you hear me say," he re 
 marked to his companion, "that I do not wish 
 to do it and that I only do it because I am driven 
 to it." 
 
 "And I," returned Traveling-the-Heavens, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 239 
 
 "do not like it any more than you do, and even 
 now if there were any way out I would gladly 
 take it. You hear me say that, and you hear me 
 say that I only do it because I am ordered by 
 my chief to do it. 
 
 "I wish I was dead, rather than feel so badly 
 as I do this minute !" said The-First-Heavens. 
 
 "I go farther than you," rejoined Travel- 
 ing-the-Heavens ; "I wish I had never been born 
 rather than have come to this day. 
 
 "I now see clearly that this is wrong," said 
 The-First-Heavens, l and yet I am going to do it 
 because I have come so far that there is no avoid 
 ing it. But oh, how I wish that there was some 
 way out of it! I would gladly turn back, even 
 now, if it were possible. Isn t there some way 
 of doing something else?" 
 
 "It is now too late to think or to talk anything 
 about it," replied Sha-bosh-kunk. "We settled 
 all of that yesterday, settled that it was to be 
 done, and that it was the only thing to do. It 
 is too late to unsettle it now. Hurry up. Tie 
 on your mocasins quickly. Don t you see the 
 dawn spreading? If we delay any longer, talk 
 ing folly, 0-kun-di-kun, and his family will have 
 waked, and we shall be too late. Hurry, take 
 your weapons at once and come. 
 
 With that the young men, sighing, and with 
 evident signs of deep distress and reluctance, 
 took their weapons and started after their lead 
 er. 
 
 After they left there was silence for a while, 
 more profound, if possible, than the silence of 
 the night. Then there uprose, all at once, a hor- 
 
240 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 rible clamor dreadful yells, the firing of guns, 
 the barking of a dog, agonizing cries of distress, 
 of mortal agony ; cries for help, cries of fear, a 
 dreadful pandemonium of sounds of horrible im 
 port, such as humanity in its direst need could 
 utter, as if hell had in some mysterious way 
 opened in that particular spot and was giving 
 vent, as through a funnel, to all the pent-up 
 anguish and wild despair that reigned within. 
 When these dread sounds had for a while dis 
 mayed the ear and sickened the heart, they were 
 succeeded by a calm as profound as before the 
 calm of death. Going to the place one saw the 
 bloody and disfigured bodies of the slain family, 
 and Sba-bosh-kunk and his men bending over 
 them, carefully, and Sha-bosh-kunk somewhat 
 artistically lifting the scalps, which were still hot 
 and smoking. There were the few simple dishes, 
 the larder, and the wardrobe of the slain family 
 promiscuously lying about. The blankets soaked 
 with blood, where the startled inmates had has 
 tily flung them aside from their faces on the en 
 trance of their visitors; upon which later they 
 had fallen when the ebbing life blood left them 
 so weak that they could no longer stand. There 
 was the long-stemmed pipe of the head of the 
 house and his medicine drum, upon which he 
 used .to accompany himself when singing, 
 tied up in a bag hanging from one of the 
 poles of the lodge. There was his gun; there 
 was the half -made-up pack of furs, for the sake 
 of which he had come out into that wilderness. 
 There was the half -finished moccasin that his 
 wife had been making the evening before, with 
 
THE OJIBWAY 241 
 
 the needle still sticking in it, and the thread of 
 deer sinew. There was her woman s ax, and her 
 packing-strap neatly coiled up that strap with 
 which in life she had packed many a heavy load 
 of meat that her lord had killed, and of wood 
 from the forest to keep the loved ones warm. 
 There was the deerskin stretched on the frame, 
 half -tanned ; that on which she was expending all 
 her skill that it might make soft and pliable moc 
 casins for those she loved. There was all her 
 little daily round of love and labor, now sud 
 denly broken off, never to be taken up more. 
 There was the whole simple world of the family, 
 come suddenly to an end amidst overpowering 
 terror and dismay. Now the animating princi 
 ple of all was gone, all things lay mute as if they 
 never could be moved again, any more than the 
 bleeding trunks that seemed to sink into the 
 ground. 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk and his companions now rose 
 from their work and looked around. They noted 
 all the simple household arrangements of the 
 family, of which so lately they had been for a 
 time members. By direction of their leader they 
 proceeded to mutilate the bodies in the way the 
 Sioux would have done; as he expressed it to 
 them, i l If you are going to play Sioux, be Sioux 
 to the end." This mutilation they naturally did 
 not like to perform, but they knew that it was 
 necessary, for those bodies would be inspected 
 and the absence of the usual marks would excite 
 suspicion. 
 
 This is a pretty pass we have come to, said 
 T raveling- the-Heavens, as he was engaged in 
 
THE OJIBWAY 
 
 the work. "Who would have thought that we 
 would have come to such work as this. 
 
 "We are in it now," said The-First-Heavens 
 mournfully, "and we must carry it out to the 
 end. There is nothing else for us to do." 
 
 This done, and the bodies left lying about as 
 they would naturally have fallen, the next ques 
 tion was, Where were they to spend the days 
 that must necessarily intervene before they could 
 go home! They must allow time to go to the 
 Sioux country and return that was absolutely 
 necessary to divert suspicion from them. Sha- 
 bosh-kusk was in favor of temporarily re 
 moving the bodies to one side, to be replaced 
 before they left, and going to housekeeping right 
 where they were. Everything was there, so con 
 venient, ready to their hand the wigwam where 
 they would be dry and comfortable amidst the 
 still driving rain; all the cooking utensils; the 
 food. His companions, however, again over 
 ruled him in this ; and declared that they would 
 rather put up with any inconvenience in a tem 
 porary wigwam of their own construction, than 
 live there. 
 
 The young men declared they could not swal 
 low their food where that bloody deed had been 
 done, even if the blood were temporarily covered 
 up. They said they could not use the dishes and 
 utensils of the slain family, and live just where 
 they had. So in a secluded part of the forest, 
 out of sight of the slain family s wigwam, where 
 they would not be discovered even if any persons 
 came into that vicinity, though it was very un 
 likely that any one would, they put up a tern- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 243 
 
 porary shelter with poles and brush, and there 
 installed themselves to wait the expiration of the 
 necessary time. 
 
 Here they passed several days, supplying 
 themselves with food from the stores of the mur 
 dered family, reinforced with fresh meat which 
 they killed for themselves. Sha-bosh-kunk 
 thought it was a pity to leave there the fine pack 
 of furs that 0-kun-di-kun had accumulated, so 
 he proposed to his young men to divide them 
 among them and temporarily secrete them some 
 where before they reached their village. They, 
 howver, absolutely refused them not because 
 they did not value the furs, but because they did 
 not wish to take anything of the dead man s; 
 for, as they said, they were no thieves. Sha- 
 bosh-kunk therefore, thinking it was a pity that 
 such fine furs should be lost, appropriated them 
 all to himself, knowing that he could easily hide 
 them for a time, and afterwards sell them to a 
 trader. 
 
 At last the necessary number of days had 
 passed just enough time to go to the Sioux 
 country and no more, and Sha-bosh-kunk gave 
 the order to march. Evening brought them to 
 Gull Lake village where they encamped, ready 
 to make their grand triumphal entry the next 
 day. 
 
 The next morning the entire village was gath 
 ered together men, women and childrento 
 welcome the returning warriors. Many were the 
 congratulations they received on their success; 
 and on all sides surprise was expressed that they 
 had been able to accomplish it in the very limited 
 
244 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 time they had taken and under the conditions 
 of most unfavorable weather. It was conceded 
 that they had displayed great endurance and 
 perseverance in keeping on in the face of great 
 natural obstacles ; and that was exceeded only by 
 their bravery in going right into their enemies 
 villages and slaying them where they lived. All 
 was crowned by their good fortune in coming 
 back without the loss of a single man. 
 
 These felicitations were expressed while they 
 were gathering outside the village and before the 
 march began. At last it started. First was borne 
 the scalps which Sha-bosh-kunk had taken, 
 carried high up on a pole with the long black 
 hair streaming down. He followed behind, ca 
 pering and dancing, a lively dancer, once in 
 a while letting out whoops. He, as the getter-up 
 and planner of the expedition, was the principal 
 figure. Behind came his men, each with his cap 
 tured scalp borne before him, and each with the 
 coveted eagle s feather in his hair. But the peo 
 ple remarked that somehow they did not dance 
 very lively ; that they let out no whoops of tri 
 umph, and that for scalp-takers they were some 
 how tame and depressed. Their leader was live 
 ly and frisky, but there was a pall over them. 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk received the felicitations and 
 praises heaped upon him with a beaming coun 
 tenance, but the demeanor of the others was sub 
 dued. Talking about it afterwards among them 
 selves secretly, one of them said to the other that 
 he loathed to dance after that scalp; that 
 instead of having any joy in it, it seemed 
 to him that the Devil was behind him 
 
THE OJIBWAY 245 
 
 mocking him as he forced him to dance. The 
 other said that he felt the Devil was there tri 
 umphing over him ; making him dance at his own 
 disgrace. When it was over the two warriors 
 slunk off to their own wigwams, secretly mourn 
 ing, and they were never known to boast in any 
 of the dances of the Chippewas about their ex 
 ploits in that expedition. 
 
 After the festivities of the day the village 
 gradually resumed its wonted ways, and at the 
 end of some months the scalps were, as is cus 
 tomary, buried. By and by the news came that 
 an Ojibway family from Leech Lake had been 
 massacred by Sioux about a day s march from 
 their village, and in the direction in which the 
 war-party had gone. A piece of Sioux bead- 
 work had been found near the mangled bodies, 
 which made it certain that it had been done by 
 them. It was noticed as a coincidence that the 
 scene of their murder had been in the same di 
 rection in which Sha-bosh-kumVs war-party had 
 gone. They, however, when questioned, said 
 they had not seen anything of the family, and 
 must have passed to one or the other side of 
 them; nor had they come across any traces of 
 the war-party of Sioux who must have done the 
 killing. It was noticed that the two young men 
 never gave any particulars of just how they 
 rushed into the Sioux encampment and killed 
 those people. They seemed somehow to be ret 
 icent on the subject and to avoid it. Sha-bosh- 
 kunk was voluble on the subject, but while he 
 said a great deal the hearers could not gain a 
 very clear conception of just what had hap 
 pened. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 WHAT CAME OF THE LUCIFER MATCH. 
 
 Some time had passed after the events nar 
 rated in the last chapter, some French 
 traders had taken to the Indian village of Leech 
 Lake, among other goods, lucifer matches, which 
 they sold at about fifty cents a box, and from 
 this time on they became common among the In 
 dians. They excited astonishment, of course, 
 for a time, and at first were used to experiment 
 with instead of for economic purposes. But 
 there was this incidental result they revealed 
 the scheme of Sha-bosh-kunk ; how he had tricked 
 and plundered them. They now mourned 
 their goods, and realized that the common roots 
 and cuttings of wood for which they had in many 
 instances given him their all, did not possess any 
 supernatural virtue, since they were not from a 
 god, as they had supposed, who took fire out of 
 his body, but only from a man, a very ordinary 
 man at that, who had cut or dug them in the 
 woods as any man might. 
 
 When one of them examined the new wonder, 
 and drawing it across his blanket breech-cloth 
 behind him held it up blazing in front of his face, 
 it brought to his mind how he had seen Sha- 
 bosh-kunk do the same thing, and then it recalled 
 to him that he had given away his blankets, his 
 furs, or whatever he most valued. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 247 
 
 There was therefore loud murmuring and dis 
 content over this thing, and the victims talked 
 to one another about how they had been hum 
 bugged and swindled. Filled with indignation, 
 they discussed also whether there were any way 
 of getting those goods back. To go and take 
 them by force would involve them in a battle 
 with the Gull Lake village, their own people, and 
 that they could not do. Nor if they went there 
 forcibly would they find them, for they had by 
 this time passed to many different owners. Sha- 
 bosh-kunk had traded the goods to many dif 
 ferent persons, for substantial value ; and those 
 persons now stood in the relation of innocent 
 purchasers, and they would strenuously resist 
 the forcible taking of their property from them. 
 Some of the goods he had traded off in the vil 
 lage of Mille Lacs and to get them from the own 
 ers there was obviously still more impossible. 
 After having canvassed the subject in every light 
 they at last settled down to the conclusion that 
 their goods were irrevocably, gone, and that they 
 must bear the loss as best they could. 
 
 Nevertheless, indignation burned. Indians 
 bear a great deal from their fellow-Indians in 
 silence and with patience far more than white 
 men do from their fellows ; for they have learned 
 by the enforced close association through so 
 centuries of many families in one wigwam, as 
 often happens, to bear with each other s frailties 
 and to keep the peace under nearly all circum 
 stances. They have learned by experience that 
 for the general good and for their own good they 
 must bear a great deal in silence. Therefore 
 
218 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 they will say nothing, ordinarily, when stolen 
 from by one of the same tribe, preferring to put 
 up with the loss rather than have the hard feel 
 ing which would be engendered by making com 
 plaint. The test by which they judge any per 
 son, or one of themselves, is amiability, and this 
 amiability is shown by passing over even very 
 deep injuries in silence. They realize that there 
 is magnanimity in this, and elevation of charac 
 ter, and that it makes for the general welfare. 
 They can rise above a little loss of property, 
 bear it, and treat the offender as if nothing had 
 happened. If they say anything about it, it is to 
 a few friends secretly, but brawling, or what we 
 would call making a fuss, or showing testiness or 
 ill-humor, they consider beneath them. They 
 realize that they approach nearer to the stand 
 ard of the gods by this course of conduct. There 
 fore, beyond a quiet assertion that "Sha-bosh- 
 kunk had tricked them," they prepared to accept 
 the loss in silence. 
 
 There was one of them, however Kichi-No- 
 din, or Big Wind, who was of a more outspoken 
 disposition. He was a bluff, manly hunter, and 
 generally prided himself on saying just what he 
 thought without fear of anybody. Therefore 
 when an Ojibway from Gull Lake arrived at the 
 village on a visit, as often happened, and in 
 course of time found his way to his wigwam, 
 the subject uppermost in his mind came out. 
 "Is that miserable old Sha-bosh-kunk still in 
 your village, " he inquired of his visitor. Being 
 assured that he was, he resumed : 1 1 Well, he had 
 better not come visiting here, for if he does I 
 
THE OJIBWAY 249 
 
 shall take my breech-cloth and nil) it all over his 
 nose and face; yes, I shall rub it hard into the 
 old scoundrel, and at the same time I shall kick 
 him hard at the other end of him. I think I shall 
 kick him out of this village and back to Gull 
 Lake. The idea of his coming here with his luci- 
 fer match and getting their property away from 
 honest people; yes, from poor widows, who were 
 almost starving ! Well, I guess I had better not 
 talk about it any more, for if I do I shall make 
 myself so angry at the old scoundrel that I will 
 not be able to restrain myself, but will take my 
 gun and go and visit him in his wigwam, and 
 then there will be bad doings." 
 
 Here he calmed his rising wrath for a time; 
 then another train of reflection struck him: "I 
 hear he went on a war-party lately and brought 
 home scalps. Now, I have such a mean opinion 
 of him and think him such a coward and liar, 
 that I do not think he ever saw the Sioux. I do 
 not think he had courage enough to go and see 
 them ; but as like as not it was he murdered our 
 townsman, 0-kun-di-kun and his family, who 
 were out in that direction, and brought home 
 their scalps for Sioux. It would be just like him 
 to do so." This meditation, for it was spoken 
 mostly to himself, was a random shot of his, 
 something he just happened to say, he hardly 
 knew why, for he had no facts to base it on. He 
 was cleaning his gun, having just returned from 
 a hunt, while he was thus easing his mind to 
 his visitor, and in the latter part of his speech 
 was giving forth his lucubrations to himself, and, 
 allowing his imagination and his tongue to run, 
 
250 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 almost oblivious of the presence of his visitor. 
 He could not have told himself why he made that 
 remark about the killing of 0-kun-di-kun. It 
 certainly had never come into his mind before. 
 
 When this speech of Big Wind was reported 
 to Sha-bosh-kunk as in due time it was, it threw 
 him into quite a state of perturbation a com 
 motion of mingled feelings was excited in his 
 breast. There was anger for the insult threat 
 ened to be inflicted on him ; injury to his dignity, 
 in that he could not go as a great man to visit at 
 Leech Lake, as he had formerly done ; injury to 
 his dignity at home, in that he was publicly 
 charged with unlawful methods in the acquisi 
 tion of what he had got ; and a fear of ridicule, 
 the weapon which of all others he most dreaded. 
 And there was the exposure of the deception 
 which he had practiced at Leech Lake. Above 
 all there was fear, excited by the random shot of 
 Big Wind as to the manner in which the mur 
 dered Ojibways had met their death. This last 
 remark set his mind on fire, and although he pre 
 served a calm exterior as he heard it he felt a 
 wave of something like fire coursing for a mo 
 ment along every vein of his body. Was his se 
 cret then disclosed? Was he standing on a vol 
 cano which might open and engulf him at any 
 moment? Was his deed known ? And would he 
 in a moment be dragged from his position of 
 chief, and of one of the men most of all looked 
 up to, to be an object of derision and execra 
 tion ? Yes, not only fame and dignity, but even 
 his very life, he saw trembling in the balance; 
 for could he hope to live if it were known that 
 
THE OJIBWAY 251 
 
 he was the murderer of that family. No wonder 
 then that something like molten lead coursed 
 through his veins as he listened, succeeded the 
 next moment by a chill as of death. 
 
 While bearing up outwardly calm, he was in 
 wardly moved to the very centre of his being. 
 He saw that something must be done if he was to 
 live not merely to enjoy dignity, but if he was 
 to live that mouth must be stopped ; that tongue 
 that verged on these dangerous disclosures must 
 be silenced ; that one who, though inadvertently, 
 had so nearly revealed his dangerous secret 
 must be put out of the way ; that hand that had 
 been laid almost upon his very life, must be cut 
 off. It was an absolute necessity, if he were to 
 live at all, that the other must be removed. 
 How to do it was the question. To go to the vil 
 lage himself and kill him was impossible. To 
 hire any one else to do it was still more impos 
 sible. If he attempted it the man would refuse, 
 and would tell of the proposition that had been 
 made to him, and things would be worse than 
 before. His wishing to kill Big Wind would be 
 connected with what Big Wind had said, and 
 people would be led on the trail of what he most 
 wished to hide. 
 
 While he was walking away from the visitor 
 to Leech Lake, outwardly unconcerned, but in 
 wardly stirred to the depths with many mingled 
 feelings, of which fear was the predominating 
 one, he was casting about in his mind what he 
 could do to avert this most terrible threatened 
 danger. Since he could not go and kill, nor hire 
 and kill, his mind reverted to secret methods that 
 
252 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 might be used. His people had always believed 
 they could kill a person, even though far distant, 
 by charms and spells, by secretly practicing 
 against the life. That would be his weapon! 
 Had he not all the lore of his ancestors? Had 
 he not been instructed in the use of their secret 
 medicines? He would put all in operation, and 
 his enemy, who had dared to speak such things 
 against him, would waste away and die ! This 
 very day he would begin it ! 
 
 He therefore proceeded to carve in wood a 
 rude image of a human being. He sang his most 
 powerful medicine songs while doing it songs 
 of most baleful import. After cutting and whit 
 tling a certain length of time, he would lay it 
 down before him, and taking up his medicine 
 drum, sing over it the chants that would blast 
 and kill. The Indians who were about under 
 stood that he was .practicing on the life of some 
 one, but whether near or far off, or who it was 
 they could not tell. Then he would lay down 
 the drum, take up the image and add some other 
 touch. He clothed it with moccasins, hunting 
 shirt, leggings, and put a bow in its hand. It 
 was evidently the image of a hunter. He got 
 human hair from somewhere and pasted it on 
 the head. The features were visible --the eyes, 
 the nose; it had arms and legs. All this was 
 accompanied by endless chants of powerful 
 efficacy, and beating on his drum and shaking of 
 his rattle, and occupied many days. He evi 
 dently put his whole soul into the work of blast 
 ing that man, whoever he was. As soon as he 
 awoke in the morning he began singing at it and 
 
THE OJIBWAY 253 
 
 chanting and drumming over it. This, with 
 many handlings, fixings, and turnings of it he 
 kept up all day, and late in the night he could 
 still be heard laboring at the image. He made 
 many passes over it with his hands, and breath 
 ings upon it with his mouth, accompanied by all 
 sorts of curious and uncanny sounds from his 
 throat. He had in a pot medicines of most dead 
 ly efficacy, and these from time to time he ap 
 plied with a stick to different parts of the image, 
 when it was expected the efficacy of the same 
 poison would sink into the person represented, 
 wherever he might be. This poison, presented 
 on the point of a stick held in his hand, hovered 
 a long time about the body of the image before 
 it touched it; was then suddenly withdrawn, 
 then again approached to the victim, till finally, 
 after many a feint and unsuccessful attempt, the 
 poison at last, with the triumphal burst of a 
 chant, touched the image. Great was the exul 
 tation of Sha-bosh-kunk when he had thus, after 
 many abortive attempts, made a junction of the 
 medicine to the person. He sang in triumph; 
 he leaped; he danced about with joy. He ex 
 pressed himself openly to the members of his 
 family that no human frame was strong enough 
 to resist the deadly virus which he had applied. 
 He told them that he looked on that man as soon 
 to be a dead man. He would certainly fall sick, 
 fade and die, under the influence of that myster 
 ious medicine. 
 
 Then he bethought him of something else. 
 With many whe-ho-ho-ho-ho s, and with a great 
 deal of time occupied in the doing of it, he grad- 
 
254 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ually painted all round the mouth of the image 
 with a white paint of his own manufacture. 
 This white-painted mouth signified that the per 
 son represented was starving to death. On ac 
 count of that white paint round the mouth the 
 animals would all flee from him he could not 
 get within range of them, and, if he did happen 
 to and fire, his gun would miss its aim. That 
 figure with the white-painted mouth was a 
 hunter dying from starvation. 
 
 While this practicing on the image was going 
 on and it lasted many weeks, Sha-bosh-kunk was 
 very careful to inquire from occasional visitors 
 from Leech Lake how Big Wind was; if his 
 health was good, and if he was thriving in body. 
 He inquired also very particularly about what 
 success he had in hunting, and whether the ani 
 mals waited his approach, and whether he had 
 any meat in his wigwam or was in a starving 
 condition. From the answers given him he ex 
 tracted the comfort that his medicines were hav 
 ing some effect, and he looked forward to final 
 success. He now thought of a new affliction he 
 could bring to bear upon his enemy. Holding 
 the image before him in one hand,after much 
 drumming and chanting, and shaking his rattle 
 over it, and making many passes, he advanced a 
 needle towards its joints with the other; and 
 after many false starts, and approaching the 
 needle very close and again withdrawing it, he 
 succeeded in pricking the joints with it. With 
 great exultation he went over one joint after 
 another, pricking into each, until it was a very 
 severely tortured image. He explained that the 
 
THE OJIBWAY 255 
 
 person represented would by this, be visited by 
 similar darting pains in the joints. Of those 
 coming from Leech Lake he inquired if Big 
 Wind had not lately suffered from excruciating 
 pains in the joints, and when told that he had for 
 some days been lying in his wigwam suffering 
 severely from rheumatism contracted from 
 sleeping out in a cold rain-storm while out hunt 
 ing, he saw at once that those darting pains were 
 the pricks of his needle, and he felt confident 
 that when he would advance that needle to the 
 heart a fatal result would ensue. So the weeks 
 wore on while he was slowly putting his victim 
 to death, until fortune presented him with a 
 more sure means of finishing it up. 
 
 In a wigwam adjoining, in the Gull Lake vil 
 lage lived a hunter, Kichi Osaiye (Big-Elder- 
 Brother), his wife and children. His wife was, 
 strange to say, of the same name as himself, 
 Kichi Osaiye (Big-Elder-Brother), and it was 
 the curious circumstance of both having the 
 same name which first attracted them to each 
 other. Finally they thought it would be a good 
 joke for two Big-Elder-Brothers to marry, and 
 marry they did. One of their children, a boy, 
 took a severe cold on account of some exposure, 
 which later changed into a slow decline. The 
 hearts of the parents were sorely grieved seeing 
 the failing condition of their child, and they had 
 many anxious conferences on the subject. The 
 neighbors also came in to sympathize and give 
 advice. They volunteered many different ex 
 planations of his illness. One said "o-tuqu- 
 umigon awia" ("he js bitten (or gnawed) by 
 
256 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 somebody"), which is their way of saying "he 
 has consumption. Therefore when the neigh 
 bors suggested, "perhaps he is bitten by some 
 body, 7 there was a consultation over that; but 
 it was finally decided that that was not the cause, 
 because he did not cough and he did not raise 
 anything. 
 
 They then suggested another cause that 
 somebody was making bad medicine at him. 
 This is considered one of the commonest of all 
 causes of sickness by the Indians, and it is the 
 one that involuntarily first suggests itself to 
 their minds. The person making this bad medi 
 cine may reside in the same village, or in any 
 distant village, distance having no effect in 
 weakening the power of the medicine. Any medi 
 cine-man, in a distant village even, can make a 
 figure of the person to be operated on a sort of 
 a rag-doll baby ; can practice spells upon it ; ap 
 ply bad medicine to it; drum and sing chants 
 over it ; and the person operated on will become 
 sick and pine away. Especially if the medicine 
 man gets any article of clothing belonging to the 
 person whom it is desired to kill, but particu 
 larly a hair of his head, he can by practicing 
 upon the article of clothing, or upon the hair, 
 practice upon the whole body. In such a case it 
 is sure death. Hence no Indian of any sense 
 
 *It is remarkable, in explanation of the above name for con 
 sumption, that they have always known that It is caused by the 
 gnawing of a microbe, hence they have called the disease, "being 
 bitten by somebody." White people always laughed at the Indians 
 for their ridiculous belief that it is caused by the gnawing of a 
 living organism, but now Dr. Koch proves that the Indians, who 
 were considered so ignorant, always knew that valuable scientific 
 truth of which the learned whites till within a very recent period 
 were ignorant. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 257 
 
 will on any consideration let any other person 
 have a single hair of his head ; for that can be 
 practiced upon by any evil-minded medicine 
 man to his death. 
 
 When, therefore, the neighbors suggested that 
 some one was making bad medicine against the 
 child, it met with acceptance by all as the true 
 solution ; for the child had no positive sickness, 
 but was just pining away. That theory, and 
 that only, fitted all the facts of the case, and so 
 must be true. 
 
 That much being settled, the next question 
 was, what was to be done? This was easily 
 answered employ a medicine-man to counter 
 act the effects of this bad medicine, and if pos 
 sible find out who it was that was making it, and 
 stop him. Sha-bosh-kunk was in good repute 
 as a skillful medicine-man, and he was called in. 
 
 After the usual preliminary talks with Big- 
 Elder-Brother, and after his having been paid 
 the usual fee to begin with, and offerings of food 
 and other things, he came in. He took a long 
 survey of the boy. "This will be a pretty hard 
 case to cure," he said ; "but my medicine is pow 
 erful." He was therefore installed as doctor, 
 and with drum, rattles, chanting, and all the 
 usual means employed by men of his profession, 
 he began his three days work. He kept up the 
 usual lively pulling and hauling of the sick child, 
 sucking to remove the injurious substances from 
 the body, and other things. 
 "Big-Elder-Brother, inspired with fresh hope 
 now that active efforts were being made to re 
 store his child, was out on the prairies hunting 
 
258 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 every day, being anxious that the medicine-man, 
 who was doing so much to restore his boy, 
 should have a plentiful supply of meat, both for 
 his own use and to carry home. When he re 
 turned home each evening he anxiously inquired 
 of his wife what progress was being made. 
 
 1 1 Sha-bosh-kunk says, she answered in a low, 
 confidential voice, "that he has positively found 
 out that there is some one making medicine 
 against the boy. He has found out that he is 
 opposed by a medicine-man somewhere, and he 
 hopes to overcome him. But that this sickness 
 is caused to our child by some one is now cer 
 tain. Sha-bosh-kunk says so ; he says he strikes 
 against that medicine-man and his powers; he 
 feels him at work, and he says the boy will not 
 get well till that man is stopped or gives it up. 
 As long as he keeps working on the boy he will 
 droop. We all knew as much as that before," 
 she said, raising her voice, "even before Sha- 
 bosh-kunk came. The neighbors all said so, and 
 it is plain ; for the boy has no positive sickness, 
 but just pines away, and that is plainly caused 
 by medicine. 
 
 "I wish I knew who that man is who is killing 
 my boy, said Big-Elder-Brother. Here I am 
 living a quiet, peaceable life, trying to support 
 my little family and doing no harm to anybody ; 
 and now, when I am enjoying peace and quiet, 
 here comes in this devil of a medicine-man, who 
 ever he is, and kills my boy. Does not kill him 
 with one stroke; but, like the devil he is, keeps 
 working at him day by day. Very likely he has 
 made a "muzinini" (an image) of him, and 
 
THE OJIBWAY 259 
 
 every day puts a little of the medicine on that ; 
 not enough to kill him yet, but just enough to 
 make him sick every day. 
 
 "That is the very thing Sha-bosh-kunk has 
 told me," said his wife, in a low, hushed tone, 
 and looking around in a sort of alarm lest some 
 one should hear her. He has told me that he 
 has seen in a vision that, that man has a "muzin- 
 ini of our boy ; and he asked me if any one had 
 got a hair of his head. And he told me that if 
 the man had a hair of the boy that he would 
 practice on that hair ; put it in the muzinini, and 
 then it would be just the same as if he had the 
 boy s body before him to practice on. I thought 
 it all over, and I told him that I couldn t remem 
 ber that any one had ever got a hair of our chil 
 dren, for that I have always been very careful 
 in that respect. " 
 
 i Where does he think this man lives ! asked 
 Big-Elder-Brother. 
 
 "He doesn t know just yet," she answered; 
 but he told me he thought it was at Leech Lake, 
 but he was not sure. He says he will try and 
 find out where he lives, and who he is. It isn t 
 anyone in our village, anyway," she added; "he 
 told me he had found that out." 
 
 "Well," said her husband, "get him to find 
 out if he can who this devil is and where he lives. 
 It seems to me," he added, with rising wrath, 
 "that I would travel to the end of the earth to 
 see him and to save my boy. I have always 
 been a good-living man ; I have never done any 
 harm to him, nor to any human being ; and that 
 
260 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 he should attack me and my family this way, is 
 hard to bear." 
 
 The next day Big-Elder-Brother went hunt 
 ing as usual, while Sha-bosh-kunk continued his 
 treatment. When he returned at night with a 
 deer he again drew his wife aside, and asked her 
 what else she had found out. 
 
 "The boy is not any better, " she answered, 
 1 1 and how can he be better as long as that man 
 keeps practicing against him. And that is what 
 Sha-bosh-kunk says, too. He told me, It is not 
 possible for that boy to get any better unless 
 that man leaves him alone. Those are the very 
 words he said* to me, and anybody knows that, 
 common sense will teach anybody that. How 
 could you be well if some person was always 
 working at you, and teasing you, and plucking 
 at you, and doing bad things to you, and would 
 never let you alone a single day. It would kill 
 anybody, no matter who. So the end is plain 
 that we shall lose our boy unless that man drops 
 this thing and lets him alone. " 
 
 "And where is the man," asked Big-Elder- 
 Brother, i and who is he ! " 
 
 He told me that he has found out for certain 
 that he lives in Leech Lake," answered his wife, 
 and he knows his name, too ; but he told me he 
 disliked very much to tell his name, lest you 
 should think hard of him, or get into any quar 
 rel with him. He says he wants to see peace and 
 wants no trouble of any kind ; that if he told you 
 his name the man would blame him, and more 
 than that the man and you might have trouble, 
 and that he wishes to prevent." 
 
THE OJIBWAY 261 
 
 "I want to see Sha-bosh-kunk myself about 
 this business," said Big-Elder-Brother, " since 
 you cannot or will not tell me any more," And 
 with that he went directly to him. "My wife 
 here tell me, he said, * that you have found out 
 the man who is injuring our son there, and 
 where he lives. For some time we have sus 
 pected that that was the cause of his sickness, 
 and now it seems our suspicions were correct. 
 Now I want you to tell me who that man is. My 
 wife here tells me that he lives at Leech Lake. 
 I have a right to know who it is that is killing 
 my child." 
 
 "Well," answered Sha-bosh-kunk, "I dislike 
 to make hard feelings between people, and I 
 would rather not tell who he is. I am for peace ; 
 peace is best." 
 
 "But I have a right to know," returned Big- 
 Elder-Brother. "I ought not to sit still here 
 while that man goes on killing my child. I 
 ought to stop him. Now I demand to know who 
 he is." 
 
 "Since, then," said Sha-bosh-kunk, "you in 
 sist on knowing, I suppose I must tell you. I 
 dislike to do it very much, but you compel me. 
 But although I know who it is I want to wait one 
 day more. I want to make perfectly sure, be 
 yond all doubt, before I tell you. To-morrow I 
 shall set up my che-suk-an (instrument of divin 
 ation) and go into it, and find out by that inde 
 pendent source who it is. Then if I am in 
 formed there by the * spirit of divination, Mitchi- 
 kans (The King of the Turtles) the same thing 
 that I have learned here from the other source, 
 
262 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 then there is no doubt about it and it is sure 
 truth. So wait till to-morrow, and after I have 
 come out of the che-suk-an I shall tell you. I 
 never do anything rashly. It is best to make 
 sure of the ground as one goes. 
 
 On the morrow, true to his promise, Sha-bosh- 
 kunk set up his instrument of divination, got 
 into it, practiced the usual incantations, had 
 communication with the King of the Turtles, the 
 deity presiding over that particular branch of 
 his art, and was then ready for his interrogator. 
 
 "Who is it," anxiously inquired Big-Elder- 
 Brother, when he visited him on returning from 
 his day s hunting. 
 
 "I will tell you," said Sha-bosh-kunk, "al 
 though I greatly dislike to do so. And I wish 
 you to bear patiently what I am going to tell 
 you, and to do nothing rash. By the power of 
 my medicine I forced the man who is doing that 
 to your son to come in to me into the che-suk-an, 
 although he struggled hard not to come ; and he 
 confessed to me that it is he who is making med 
 icine against your son, and that to make the 
 medicine more sure he had put it into a gun and 
 fired it at him. Here he stopped. 
 
 "What is his name!" demanded Big-Elder- 
 Brother. 
 
 "His name is Big Wind, of Leech Lake." 
 
 Soon after this Big-Elder-Brother was pre 
 paring his moccasins, and taking an extra pair, 
 and putting some wild rice into a food-bag, 
 which he slung across his shoulders, and making 
 other preparations which showed that he was 
 going on a journey. Then he took his trusty 
 
THE OJIBWAY 263 
 
 gun, filled his powder horn, took some bullets, 
 and put his large hunter s knife in his belt. His 
 wife divined where he was going, and she hardly 
 knew whether to forbid him or not. She dis 
 liked to see him go, fearing that something 
 might happen; and yet she was unwilling to 
 have things go on just as they were, feeling that 
 if something was not done she would lose her 
 child. Love for her husband and love for her 
 child contended within her. 
 
 "Where are you going!" she asked, although 
 she knew. 
 
 "To Leech Lake," he answered decisively. 
 
 "You are not going to do anything to that 
 man!" she asked in a tone of alarm. "I hope 
 you will not, for if you do you know that very 
 likely some of his friends will kill you. 
 
 "And what would you have me do ! " he asked, 
 in a snappish tone. "Sit still here like a cow 
 ard till that man kills my child!" 
 
 "No," she said, I do not wish this thing to 
 continue as it is any more than you do, I love my 
 child just as much as you do. But if there was 
 some way that you could go and speak quietly to 
 the man and tell him to leave off making that 
 medicine, that is what I would like. But you 
 are so hot-tempered, and so violent when you do 
 get worked up, that I am afraid something will 
 happen. If you would promise to me that you 
 would speak peaceably to him, as I have said, 
 and do nothing more, then I would be willing to 
 let you go." 
 
 "I do not know myself what I am going to do 
 or what I am going to say when I get there," he 
 
264 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 answered. 1 1 only feel that I must go ; that I 
 cannot stay here and see our child die. And 
 what will happen when I get there I am sure I 
 do not know. But go I must, and then I sup 
 pose what must happen will happen, and I have 
 no idea what it will be." 
 
 "Then," said she, "I suppose if you must go 
 you must, only I wish you merely to speak to 
 that man and tell him to leave that off, to stop 
 it but not to do anything to him." 
 
 Leaving matters in this unsatisfactory and 
 undecided state, she was fain to see him continue 
 his preparations for departure. 
 
 Soon Big-Elder-Brother had his food-bag 
 slung across his shoulder, also his powder horn ; 
 and taking his gun in his hand he was ready to 
 start. A moment he stood looking out of the 
 open door of the wigwam as if just about to step 
 out; then with a sudden impulse turned back, 
 and going to the place where his sick son was 
 lying on the mat, tenderly bent over him. t i Oh 
 my son, my son," he cried, and propping him 
 self with one hand leaning on his gun, bent over 
 him and tenderly kissed him. "Good-by, my 
 son," he said, "good-by," and again he tenderly 
 kissed him. Then after a lingering pause he 
 tore himself away with a start, as if some mys 
 terious feeling was holding him there and he 
 had to exert violence upon himself to get himself 
 away. He got outside the door with a jump, 
 then he remembered something that made him 
 look back once more. It was to bid good-by to 
 his wife, whose anxious figure loomed up in the 
 
THE OJIBWAY 265 
 
 gloom just inside the lodge, looking intently 
 after him. 
 
 "Take good care of our son while I am 
 away," he said to her. It was his way of bid 
 ding her farewell. Then he turned his back on 
 his home, on all that earth held that was dear to 
 him, and setting his face toward the dark woods 
 walked rapidly away. 
 
 "And do you mind what I say," called his 
 wife, pursuing with her rising voice the retreat 
 ing figure, and advancing a step out of the door ; 
 "and do not do anything to that man just 
 quietly speak to him, and nothing more. 
 
 He did not again look back, and seemed not to 
 have heard her. And she stood there watching 
 him until the woods enveloped him from her 
 sight. For some time after he disappeared she 
 still stood, looking the way he had gone; then 
 slowly turned and entered the wigwam and took 
 her position beside her son. 
 
 Her duty was there, but her heart was with 
 the figure that had entered into the dark woods. 
 She knew not what might befall him. She was 
 aware that he was going on a dangerous errand ; 
 an errand on which she could not go with him, 
 nor afford him any assistance. As she stood 
 there silent for a moment, the road to Leech 
 Lake slowly unfolded itself before her mental 
 vision, and she recognized every bend of it 
 every hill and swale, as she had often seen them ; 
 and every lake that the trail ran along, till the 
 wigwams of Leech Lake village rose before her. 
 And there she saw a figure enter it the figure 
 of a hunter with his gun, the figure that she had 
 
266 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 just watched entering the woods. She saw no 
 more; the vision ceased; and the well-known 
 figure that she had seen enter was lost there. 
 She waited a moment; there was silence, but no 
 vision a veil had fallen upon the rest. A faint 
 cry of her child asking for a drink of water re 
 called her from her reverie to the world she had 
 left, and as she turned around, a bitter pang shot 
 through her heart, that she had seen the last of 
 the husband of her youth. Her lips were work 
 ing with a convulsive cry, and a heart-broken 
 sigh issued from her over-burdened breast, with 
 the feeling that for her it was all over ; that joy 
 was forever gone ; and that henceforth there re 
 mained for her only the bitter dregs of life. A 
 heart-broken woman, she returned to the duties 
 of life. 
 
 Meanwhile, the hunter, as he strode on 
 through the forest, did not feel the depression 
 upon him so deadly as when he was trying to 
 tear himself away from his family and home. 
 The pure air, the bright- shining sun, and the 
 blue sky overhead exhilarated him. The great 
 pine trees waving their green tuffs against the 
 blue sky were like friends. All nature was full 
 of joy and it reacted upon him. He cast his eye 
 with delight over the many beautiful lakelets 
 with which the green forest was everywhere be 
 gemmed. They reflected the sky and the wav 
 ing pines which grew on their banks, and openeci 
 out and relieved what would otherwise have been 
 the gloominess of the woods, and converted it 
 into gladsomeness ; and the sight of them seemed 
 to make an opening in his lately gloomy breast, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 267 
 
 and to let in there the bright sunshine of hope, 
 and even of joy. Yes, he would go and see that 
 man; what would happen when he saw him he 
 could not divine, but he would talk with him, 
 and if possible get him to cease his mischievous* 
 practices, and his little boy would yet be well, 
 He would be once more romping about the wig 
 wam door, as memory so faithfully recalled him, 
 the glow of health in his liquid black eyes, and 
 on his sunny face ; once more he would be peer 
 ing up into the trees, his bow and arrow held 
 high above his head, aiming at the chattering 
 squirrels far up on the boughs. Yes, this was 
 the way of safety, and the way of health to go 
 openly to this man, and get him to stop the insid 
 ious poison that was sapping the life of his son. 
 He felt that he was even prepared to make great 
 concessions; to give this man large gifts, if it 
 were necessary, to make him leave off his nefar 
 ious practices. When he had first been told the 
 truth by Sha-bosh-kunk he had felt a burst of 
 devouring indignation; he desired nothing but 
 to be set in reach of that man to wipe out the in 
 jury with his blood. But now sorrow had come 
 to be the predominant feeling sorrow, rather 
 than anger. If the man would only let his son 
 alone he would be content. He reasoned that 
 medicine-men would do such things as practice 
 against other people s lives; that they had al 
 ways done it; that it had come down to them as a 
 long inheritance from the past; and that there 
 fore it must someway be borne with. Yes, that 
 it must in some way even be right in a sense, al 
 though it seemed so hard in his own case. So, 
 
268 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 as he thought of it he walked with a more cheer 
 ful step towards the place where he was to camp. 
 His spirits rose ; he felt that he was on the right 
 track ; going candidly to the man to reason with 
 him, and that all would yet be well. The birds 
 were singing joyously in the trees, laboring to 
 express with audible voice the joy, otherwise 
 mute, that seemed to fill meadow and lake, and 
 even tree, as he passed, and he, too, sang aloud, 
 in harmony with nature at last. 
 
 He had traveled all day without seeing a soul, 
 or any sign of a human being s work, as indeed 
 he had not expected to, and now that the sun was 
 beginning to decline to the horizon it was time 
 for him to make his camp. He therefore select 
 ed a grassy spot on the shore of a lake, that 
 would furnish him with water for his evening 
 meal; with his large knife he cut some dry 
 limbs, broke others, and piled them, and soon a 
 smoke curling upward told far and near where 
 the hunter was to make his bed. He had carried 
 his little kettle with him, and in it he cooked 
 some ducks that he had shot on the way. Into 
 the broth he poured some of the wild rice from 
 his food bag, and soon he had a good meal. 
 Then he replenished the fire, placed a stock of 
 wood by it for the morning, and lighting his long- 
 pipe he smoked and meditated on many things. 
 The dark night had by this time fallen. Some 
 times the cry of a wild animal broke off the train 
 of his reflections, until he had settled in his mind 
 just from what that cry proceeded, and where 
 
THE OJIBWAY 269 
 
 the creature was, when he again took up the 
 thread where he had left it. Sometimes the 
 first thought on hearing a cry was that it was 
 from a human being. That startled him a little, 
 and made him sudenly turn his head in that 
 direction and listen intently, not a muscle of his 
 body moving, and for the time ceasing to 
 breathe; then, having satisfactorily disposed of 
 it in his own mind, and labeled it, he turned once 
 more to his smoking and to his reflections. 
 Sometimes he glanced up at the starlit sky above 
 him; and then at the trees behind him, their 
 trunks showing with a fitful red from the re 
 flected light of his fire. Then he glanced into the 
 black depths of the forest behind, where nothing 
 could be seen but blackness and mystery. He 
 thought of his wigwam, of his faithful and loving 
 wife and of the sick boy. He thought also of 
 Sha-bosh-kunk and of what he had told him ; he 
 thought of Big Wind, he thought of everything. 
 All his world of life and feeling was present in 
 his thoughts as he sat there by his fire in the 
 heart of the great wilderness. At last he 
 glanced up once or twice to the sky to see what 
 positions the great constellations had assumed 
 with reference to the pole-star, and this, his 
 great clock, having told him, a.s well as a feeling 
 of sleepiness, that it was time to go to bed, he 
 stretched himself on the bed of fragrant balsam 
 boughs that he had previously arranged on the 
 ground, and covering himself, head and all, with 
 his blanket was soon oblivious to all his sorrows 
 as well as his joys. His twenty-five-mile walk 
 
270 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 had agreeably tired him, and soon only a faint 
 ly-burning fire and a blanket gently rising and 
 falling with the heavy breathing of a mummy- 
 like figure told where the son of the wilderness 
 slept. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE MEETING. 
 
 While Big-Elder-Brother was thus approach 
 ing Leech Lake from one direction, and was oc 
 cupying his lonely camp, another figure was ap 
 proaching it from the opposite, and he, too, had 
 made his camp all alone. He was the very man 
 Big-Elder-Brother was going to see, Big Wind. 
 Unknown to each other, they were approaching 
 with equal pace, to meet. Big Wind had gone 
 out hunting, and having been carried so far in 
 pursuit of an animal he was unable to make his 
 wigwam, and camped. He, too, had his reflec 
 tions, as he sat by his night-fire of his wigwam, 
 his children, his wife, his friends. But he had 
 none of Big-Elder-Brother, who was thinking 
 so intently of him. As he sat and smoked ha 
 thought of narrow escapes he had had in hunt 
 ing; of the time the seams of his birch-bark 
 canoe had opened and left him struggling in the 
 lake, and drowning. He thought of his life 
 when he was a boy. Again he saw his little 
 playmates, armed with their bows and arrows; 
 some of them were dead now. The past seemed 
 to revive to him tonight. He thought of the 
 games they used to play he could almost hear 
 their voices. He thought of the starving times 
 tried to keep him alive; they were gone now. 
 
272 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Then he thought of his village of the different 
 people, of their struggles. At last he had medi 
 tated enough, and having replenished his fire, 
 he, too, wrapped himself in his blanket and 
 stretched himself on the ground. 
 
 How long he slept he did not know, hut with a 
 feeling of a great horror upon him he awoke. 
 He heard a low, blood-curdling cry in the air 
 overhead, approaching him : and he dashed the 
 blanket from off his face and sat up. The sweat 
 stood all over his face in great drops, and some 
 thing like a wave of horror slowly passed over 
 his scalp, and his hair rose up. He was chilled 
 with terror. Soon he saw the flapping of an im 
 mense pair of horrible wings, like the wings of a 
 gigantic bat, just clearing the tops of the low, 
 bushy pines in the opening where he had made 
 his camp, and coming directly toward him. 
 Again that horrible cry the cry of a human 
 voice, this time nearer and more soul-fearing. 
 He endeavored to withdraw his eyes from the 
 horrible object, but he could not they were 
 fascinated there. He had to look, and in the 
 bright light of the moon, which had risen while 
 he slept, he saw looking down upon him what 
 seemed to be the face of a corpse the face of a 
 young man in the last stages of starvation, and 
 emaciation. He saw the teeth horribly grinning 
 from between the fleshless lips ; where the wasted 
 cheeks had been there was nothing but skin left, 
 the flesh was all gone. He saw the eyes peer 
 ing out from the bottom of the deep-sunken pits ; 
 he heard the horrible insane laugh issuing from 
 between the rows of teeth. This living deaths- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 273 
 
 head was joined to the skeleton of a human body, 
 which followed close behind, and was propelled 
 by the repulsive, bat-like wings. As it passed 
 close over his head with an awful screech he 
 could hear the rattling of the bones of the skel 
 eton as they struck together; he could see the 
 moonbeams shining through between the ribs. 
 It slowly passed over above his head, and dis 
 appeared beyond with that dreadful cry. He 
 had seen the Pa-guk!* 
 
 When Big Wind had recovered his composure 
 somewhat after this dreadful visit of his noc 
 turnal visitor he found himself trembling and in 
 a cold sweat, strong hunter though he was. To 
 think of sleep was impossible, and he sat the rest 
 of the night by his fire. He felt sure that the 
 death, either of himself or of some member of 
 his family, was portended. Had he been able he 
 would immediately have started for his village, 
 but in the night it was impossible to find the 
 trail. He therefore spent his time in watching, 
 and finally, to make himself sufficiently strong, 
 
 *ThIs omen of death and disaster, so much dreaded by the In 
 dians, Is a young man who long ago entered on the usual fast of 
 approaching maturity observed by all the Indians in order to 
 obtain visions sent by the Deity, and directions as to the future 
 conduct of life, by which visions and directions all the future life 
 is to be regulated. Being very ardent, he prolonged the fast be 
 yond the usual time, exceeded even the ten days without food and 
 with only a very little water which others had found the farthest 
 attainable limit, so that he became extremely thin, and so light 
 that finally, having exceeded all bounds, he involuntarily rose in 
 the air, there being not enough flesh left on him to keep him to the 
 earth. Since that time he has been flying in mid-heaven, a living 
 skeleton, having no abiding place either above or below. He utters 
 his dreadful cry for his want of a home, for his deplorable fate, 
 for his ceaseless seeking for some place to go to. He cannot alight 
 on this earth, for he is too light, and instantly bounds upward 
 from it if he attempts it. He is never visible but in the night, 
 and never appears but as the harbinger of death. 
 
274 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 put on his kettle, cooked breakfast, and ate it^ 
 though he had no appetite for it. With the first 
 break of day he resumed his journey, and soon 
 arrived at his wigwam, where he at once made 
 anxious inquiry of his, wife if any of their chil 
 dren were dead. Being assured by her that 
 they were all safe, he related to her and his 
 friends the dreadful experience of the night. 
 They endeavored to cheer him up, telling him 
 that it was nothing ; that people camping in the 
 wilderness had many strange experiences; that 
 nothing had happened, and nothing would. Ke- 
 assured by their words and confident manner 
 and surrounded by all the usual sights and 
 sounds of his home, Big Wind shook off the de 
 pression, took heart, and resumed his occupa 
 tion in his usual affairs, to the exclusion in a 
 great measure of the memory of what had hap 
 pened to him. 
 
 Big-Elder-Brother, in the meanwhile, had 
 passed the night without incident, had cooked 
 his morning meal, and started for Leech Lake. 
 As he had a day s journey (about 25 miles) to 
 go, he arrived there long after Big Wind had 
 reached his wigwam, not having met a human 
 being on the way. He proceeded directly to the 
 lodge of the man he was seeking, inquiring in 
 the village where it was. Putting aside the skin 
 that covered the opening for a door, he looked 
 in, and there beheld the man he came to see sit 
 ting in the usual place of the master of the lodge, 
 on a mat behind the fire and directly opposite 
 the door. He was greeted with the usual friend 
 ly greeting by the master, "Nind ubimin; nind 
 
THE OJIBWAY 275 
 
 ubimin" ("We are at home; we are at home"), 
 the equivalent for "come in; come in" a 
 hearty welcome. As he said these words, Big 
 Wind moved over from the seat of honor, which 
 he had been occupying, to another place; and 
 still sitting, smoothed off with his hands the 
 crumbs which had fallen upon the mat, making 
 it perfectly clean for his visitor. The two men 
 knew each other by sight, having often met ; for 
 although their villages were two days journey 
 apart, the sparse population enabled them to 
 know all. 
 
 When Big-Elder-Brother was thus courteous 
 ly invited by the master of the lodge to enter and 
 take the seat of honor, it occurred to him that 
 they ought to settle on what footing they stood 
 before he accepted the invitation. He had not, 
 in coming, formed any plan in his mind as to 
 what he should do, but left himself to be guided 
 by circumstances. Therefore, in answer to 
 the polite invitation to enter, he still stood out 
 side, saying: 
 
 "I think you and I ought to understand each 
 other before I go in. Then, with wrath rising 
 from the sight of the author of all his woes be 
 fore him, he added, "What do you mean by 
 making bad medicine against my little son!" 
 
 "I never made medicine against your little 
 son," answered Big- Wind, indignant at the un 
 just accusation. "I never made bad medicine 
 against any one in my life. Some of the In 
 dians do it, I know ; but I never have. I am a 
 plain, honest man, and attend to my own busi- 
 
276 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ness and injure nobody. Who says that I did?" 
 he asked. 
 
 "Did not you confess to Sha-bosh-kunk that 
 you were practicing against my son s life? 
 Have you not made a muzinini (an image) of 
 him, and do you not keep putting bad medicine 
 to it? You will not deny that, will you?" 
 shouted Big-Elder-Brother. 
 
 "Oh, that old Sha-bosh-kunk," said Big- 
 Wind; "I suppose he is the biggest old liar in 
 this country. Did he not come up here and rob 
 us of our goods with his lucifer match?" 
 
 "Did you not confess to him, when lie forced 
 you into his che-suk-an (divining-instrument), 
 that you made that medicine against my son? 
 And did you not confess to him that to make it 
 more deadly you had put it into your gun, and 
 shot it at his muzinini out of your gun? And 
 there, I suppose, is the very gun you did it 
 with," he said, pointing to the one that Big 
 Wind had just been cleaning after his hunt. 
 That is the gun you killed my little son with, 
 but I will make you so that you will never kill 
 any one else, nor my son either, you bad medi 
 cine dog!" 
 
 And with these words the infuriated father 
 raised his gun and poured the contents into Big 
 Wind s breast, tearing a hole deep and wide. 
 He leaned back against the wall of his wigwam, 
 his head fell forward upon his breast, and he 
 was dead. 
 
 A loud lamentation now arose from his wife 
 and children the little children terrified, his 
 
THE OJIBWAY 277 
 
 wife beside herself. Big-Elder-Brother sur 
 veyed the scene for a moment, and then calmly 
 turned round and, shouldering his gun, started 
 on his way back to Gull Lake. But soon the 
 shot, the noise, and the cries brought the neigh 
 bors, who crowded the wigwam and looked at 
 the dead man. "Who did this?" was the first 
 inquiry, and "Where has he gone!" was the 
 next. Soon some of the men hastily ran back to 
 their wigwams, snatched up their guns, and were 
 off in pursuit. 
 
 They had not far to go. A little ways out of 
 the village they overtook Big-Elder-Brother. 
 He had placed his gun against a tree and stood 
 calmly by it, filling his pipe. "Stop there!" 
 cried the pursuers; but there was no need to 
 cry stop. "What is this you have done, killing 
 our friend?" they shouted indignantly. 
 
 "What do I care about the old bad medicine 
 dog, whether I killed him or not," was the un 
 concerned reply. 
 
 "We are going to kill you," they answered. 
 
 "What care I whether you kill or not," he 
 returned defiantly. 
 
 Here a boy in the company, recognizing in the 
 hunted man his uncle, and perceiving that a gun 
 was leveled at him and about to be discharged, 
 instinctively cried out: "Uncle, stoop down; 
 you are going to be shot," warning him to stoop 
 to avoid the bullet. But instead of stooping, 
 he quietly took his unloaded gun from the 
 tree, and holding it beside him, something in the 
 attitude of a soldier at the attention, looked 
 
278 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 calmly into the gun barrel that was pointed to 
 ward him. Soon the flame leaped out to his 
 unflinching gaze, and Big-Elder-Brother lay 
 dying on the ground. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A NEW LIGHT IN THE VILLAGE. 
 
 Some time after the events recorded in the last 
 chapter a large group of Indians were one day 
 sitting together in the open air in the Gull Lake 
 village, when two unusual figures were seen 
 slowly approaching them. The first was a 
 white man, and judging by his garments, was a 
 clergyman, for he was clad in the long black 
 coat of a Priest of the Church, and round his 
 neck wore the white bands of the clergyman of 
 that day. The first things that struck one were 
 his height, for he was six feet, four inches ; and 
 the erectness of his figure, for he was as straight 
 as an arrow. His head was domelike, rising 
 very high; but only so high as ought to have 
 surmounted a body of such height. His chest 
 was round and full, and thrown forward. His 
 hair, worn long after the fashion of those days, 
 reached down somewhat over the neck. When 
 he came nearer the impression of his very dis 
 tinguished figure was confirmed and increased. 
 One realized that very rarely in his life had he 
 seen a figure at once so noble and so sweet. His 
 complexion was very fair and pure; his hair 
 dark brown; his eyes steel gray. His face was 
 smoothly shaven, except for a trace of whiskers. 
 The impression that he gave was not so much of 
 great strength, bodily or mental, but of bar- 
 
280 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 mony, of loftiness, and above all of sweetness. 
 Sweetness and purity were on the whole the 
 two predominating qualities that most im 
 pressed those who that day saw him for the first 
 time. 
 
 His companion was an Indian, some years 
 older than he; likewise a tall, muscular, well- 
 built man. He was the interpreter. When he 
 spoke in Ojibway one noticed a strong foreign 
 accent. He talked the jib way of eastern Can 
 ada, where he was born; which, although per 
 fectly intelligible, sounded very strange and 
 curious to the Ojibways of Minnesota about as 
 strange as the roughest of the broad Scotch of 
 Burns would sound to one who talked the soft 
 dialect of London. In fact it took all the In 
 dians natural politeness to keep them from 
 guffaws of laughter when listening to him; his 
 jib way sounded so very droll. 
 
 He was the large, good-looking Indian who 
 now stood behind the Missionary James Lloyd 
 Breck. They were both a little doubtful about 
 coming there on their particular errand, suspect 
 ing that what they had to say and what they had 
 to offer were not at all agreeable to those to 
 whom they came. The Indians knew a little of 
 the subject, and it was diametrically opposed to 
 all their tastes, feelings and habits. It required 
 them to give up things which they dearly loved, 
 and which they had received from their ances 
 tors from time immemorial. It required the sac 
 rifice of what was to them all their joy, and it 
 required them to enter on a course of life in the 
 highest degree distasteful to them. No wonder 
 
THE OJIBWAY 281 
 
 then that it was with somewhat scowling faces 
 that they watched the tall missionary slowly ap 
 proaching, followed by his dark-skinned inter 
 preter. 
 
 There was a dead silence on their part as 
 he came close. This embarrassing silence 
 the missionary broke by observing with as much 
 cheerfulness as he could muster, endeavoring 
 thereby to light up the somewhat scowling land 
 scape, that it was a fine day. This remark, 
 being translated to them, met with the chilly re 
 ception of a dead silence, one of them finally 
 saying that he "did not see anything the matter 
 with the day." Again a silence deeper and 
 more embarrassing than before. They knew 
 what he had come there to say and they were 
 going to make it as difficult as possible for him to 
 say it. So they sat there in silence. 
 
 The missionary now saw what he suspected 
 before that he was not welcome; that his sub 
 ject was a distasteful one to them ; and that he 
 could not, by throwing any gleams of good 
 nature athwart the scene, excite good nature in 
 them, and so make the statement of the matter 
 more easy. He saw he must do it in cold blood, 
 and against the wishes of his hearers. But he 
 was the faithful servant of His Master; he be 
 lieved that that Master sent him to deliver a mes 
 sage from Him, and he was not going to be a 
 coward, turn tail and run. So, in that chilly 
 atmosphere, he began. It is needless to tell all 
 he said, nor how he said it, but some of it was 
 that we had one Father in Heaven the maker 
 and preserver of all ; that He was Love ; that we 
 
282 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 were all His children, and must be holy, as He 
 is holy, that we may live forever with Him in a 
 better world hereafter in heaven ; that to make 
 sure of our salvation He had sent His Beloved 
 Son Jesus into this world to be our brother, and 
 to show us how we ought to live; that He had 
 loved us and died for us, and was now pleading 
 for us; that we must receive His Spirit in our 
 hearts and live as the children of God ; that we 
 must cast off everything evil and put on every 
 thing good ; that we must enter by baptism the 
 canoe He had provided to carry us over the 
 waves of this troublesome world, His Holy 
 Church ; and must love Him, pray to Him, and 
 serve Him every day. 
 
 All this slowly interpreted, was received in 
 dead silence and with no show of appreciation. 
 A long silence followed the ending of this dis 
 course. Apparently he might as well have 
 spoken to a heap of stones or so many trees. 
 
 Finally, in order to draw out some expression 
 of opinion, the missionary was constrained to 
 ask what they thought of what he had been say 
 ing. This remark opened the flood-gates, and it 
 appeared that they were flood-gates of wrath. 
 
 1 Have you not got tea in your house?" 
 screamed an old woman, Mudji-mozoque (The- 
 wicked-moose-woman ; that is, a moose that 
 turns and fights, and such by her looks she ap 
 peared to be). "Have you not got tea in your 
 house?" she asked, instinctively bawling very 
 loud, as one does to a deaf person, he being the 
 deaf person, and not understanding except 
 through an interpreter. He acknowledged that 
 
THE OJIBWAY 283 
 
 he had. "Then why do not you bring it here 
 and give it to me?" she screamed. "I have no 
 tea. I am starving to death for tea. And you 
 say you have it in your house and do not give me 
 any. It is not true what you say about having 
 pity on the Indians." (He had not said that at 
 all. ) If you had pity on them you would bring 
 tea and give it to them. You just said that for 
 nothing. There is no truth in it. If I had tea 
 and saw a poor person with none, I would give 
 them some. All you give is talk and wind, and 
 that is no good. And I have no tobacco," she 
 continued, raising her voice louder than before. 
 "I have nothing to smoke. Why do you not 
 bring me tobacco ! she said, shaking her fist in 
 his face. 
 
 The poor man attempted to pacify her by 
 mildly explaining that he did not come there to 
 give away tea and tobacco ; that even if he gave 
 away ever so much, that would soon all be 
 spent that he came to give something infinitely 
 better, that they would never be able to spend, 
 even throughout eternity. 
 
 This induced the inquiry from another wo 
 man, Ai-e-daw-i-gi-shig-o-que ( The-woman- 
 who-is-on-either-side-of-the-world ; that is, she is 
 sitting astride of it on top of it, one leg on the 
 one side of it and the other on the other, and so 
 the woman on either side of the world), when 
 this great good thing was to be given, and the 
 missionary said that the full giving of it would 
 be in the other world, after death: "He comes 
 here promising to give us good things after we 
 are dead," laughed the woman; "he will do a 
 
284 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 great deal for us after ive are dead!" And this 
 seemed so supremely ridiculous to her that she 
 slapped her thighs, threw herself back, and 
 roared with laughter. "Nothing while we live, 
 but all after we are dead!" And she laughed 
 louder than before at the fun of it. Her laugh 
 ter was infectious, and they all began laughing. 
 Even the little children, who hardly knew what 
 the laughing was about, set up their little noses 
 and te-he-heed at the ridiculousness of giving 
 things to persons after they were dead. The 
 missionary saw that somehow they placed him 
 at a disadvantage, and by some ingenuity made 
 what he said to appear in a ridiculous light. 
 
 Here one of the men, Beshunun (Arranging- 
 his-feathers, The dude), broke in on him. "You 
 say that people ought not to gamble," he said. 
 The missionary had been careful not to say any 
 thing about gambling, wishing to state the fund 
 amentals, and careful not unnecessarily to 
 arouse opposition at first. The man had heard 
 from other sources that the Christian religion 
 did not allow gambling. "You say that people 
 ought not to gamble. Now there is a fine new 
 blanket. That blanket will keep me warm all 
 next winter ; that blanket is, as it were, my life, 
 for it will preserve my life next winter; that 
 blanket is worth a good deal of money. Now, 
 I won that blanket day before yesterday, gam 
 bling; that is how I make most of my living, 
 gambling. Now if I had done what you say and 
 been a Christian, I would not have gambled, and 
 I would not have that blanket now ; so I would 
 be poor. So it appears that your religion is a 
 
THE OJIBWAY 285 
 
 religion that makes people poor and miserable; 
 so it appears that my religion is a good deal bet 
 ter than yours, for it has given me that blanket. 
 I think I would be a long time of your religion 
 before it ever would give me anything/ 
 
 "Yes," chimed in Gagwedukumig (The-man- 
 who-tries-the-ground, by stamping on it with his 
 foot to see if it is sound, so he will not fall in, as 
 he walks), "and when the Indians dance in their 
 religion they give presents to one another in the 
 dance, and get rich. I was sitting in the ring the 
 other evening in the dance, and a man was cap 
 ering round within the ring, with a little stick in 
 his hand ; all of a sudden he stopped and thrust 
 that stick into the ground before me. That was 
 a pledge that he made me a present of a pony; 
 and all the Indians knew it to be so. Yes, and 
 I got the pony, and I have him now ; and the In 
 dians give clothing in the same way in the dance ; 
 they give everything. Now, if you wish to make 
 the Indians Christians, why do you not bring 
 plenty of clothing here, and give it to them, the 
 same as the Indians do in their religion; then 
 perhaps they would listen to you and become 
 Christians; but if you give them nothing but 
 words and wind, Kawessa (it is utterly impos 
 sible). Words and wind will not clothe a per 
 son when he is cold, nor fill him when he is hun 
 gry ; they are no good at all. 
 
 Here another, Shi-a-go-si-kunk (Prevails-as- 
 he-pushes-his-body-against it), jumped on to the 
 unfortunate missionary. "Look here, said he, 
 "how is it about the sick. When any one is sick 
 among us we have the Grand Medicine to make 
 
286 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 them well. The medicine-man gets his rattle, 
 and he works over them, and he sings over them, 
 and he makes an effort and does everything to 
 make the person well. And if that does not do, 
 we get the whole community out, and have a 
 great celebration of the Grand Medicine rife 
 over them. We know that the Great Spirit, 
 whom you talk about, gave us the Grand Medi 
 cine to prolong our lives till extreme old age, 
 and to ward off sickness and death. And we 
 know that it does do that, for there is hardly a 
 man here present that is not a living witness to 
 the efficacy of it, for nearly every one here has 
 been saved from death out of some dangerous 
 sickness by it. Now I appeal to all these men 
 here present if what I am saying is not true. 
 But in your religion you just let the sick die. 
 You do nothing to them; but just use words 
 breath over them and that is no good. Would 
 you have us give up trying to make our sick well, 
 and just let them die before our faces without 
 making any effort to save them ? 
 
 1 1 1 will tell you what it is, said Yellow Thun 
 der; "you are just trying to take all the joy out 
 of our lives. You say we must not dance over a 
 scalp, you will not even allow us to go after a 
 scalp; now that is our principal joy, to dance 
 over a scalp. Our forefathers have always 
 done that; it has always been their joy. And 
 you say we must not gamble. Gambling is a 
 great part of our joy. And drumming, and 
 dancing, and making Grand Medicine you say 
 are no good. Why, these are the things we pass 
 our lives in; these are the things we find all of 
 
THE OJIBWAY 287 
 
 our pleasure in. And you say we are to give 
 them all up. I do not think you will find any 
 one foolish enough to listen to you. The mis 
 sionary had not said anything about these 
 things, but Yellow Thunder had learned from 
 other sources that they were considered objec 
 tionable. 
 
 "And," said Bitawikumigweb (The-man-sit- 
 ting - on - the - world - that - is-underneath-this- 
 world), "you come here and tell us not to drink 
 fire-water; not to get drunk. We did not make 
 the fire-water, but your own white people made 
 it. It would be a good deal more suitable for 
 you to go and forbid your own people who make 
 the fire-water, than to forbid us who have noth 
 ing to do about making it. If your people did 
 not make it, it would not be drunk. 
 
 "I have heard of this talk about becoming 
 Christians before," said old Ogema, "and I 
 have proved by matters within my own knowl 
 edge that it deceives and destroys the people. I 
 knew a certain Indian who was deluded by one 
 of these people into becoming a Christian and 
 being baptized. I knew him well, and I knew 
 the village where he lived. At a certain time he 
 was taken sick and died. When he died he went 
 to the place where the souls of the white people 
 are, and rapped at the door, oh, a beautiful 
 large house! and asked to go in. Who are 
 you? asked the doorkeeper inside. I am a 
 Christian Indian. Oh, said he, there are 
 only white people here. The Indians all go to 
 that other place you see over there. You had 
 better go there, for no Indian will be taken in 
 
288 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 here. So there he went, and tried to get in. 
 1 Who are you, asked the one on the inside. I 
 am a Christian Indian/ The Christians all 
 live in that place you see over there/ said the 
 man, pointing to where he came from ; there are 
 no Christians in this place ; nothing but Grand 
 Medicine-men here. You will have to go over 
 there since you are a Christian. So the poor 
 man was not allowed into any place had no 
 place to go to, but has to wander about there, a 
 homeless ghost forever. He came back and told 
 the Indians in that village what had happened to 
 him, and for none of them ever to be deluded 
 into becoming Christians, and I heard him my 
 self. All the Indians heard what he said after 
 he came back. I do not think any one will ever 
 be so foolish, after what that Christian Indian 
 reported, as to become a Christian, " 
 
 "Yes," said Agamakiwewedunk (He-who- 
 speaks - with - the-voice-of-one-speaking-on-the- 
 land-across-the-ocean), "the Great Spirit made 
 the Indians and the white people different. He 
 gave the white people their religion to live by 
 that is all right enough for them ; and He gave 
 the Indians their religion to live by, the Grand 
 Medicine; and when the white men die they go 
 to the place which the Great Spirit has made for 
 them ; and when the Indians die they go to a dif 
 ferent place, which the Great Spirit has made 
 for His Grand Medicine children. Both re 
 ligions are good the Christian for the white 
 men and the Grand Medicine for the Indians. 
 Neither should change to the religion of the 
 other." 
 
THE OJIBWAY 289 
 
 "It has always been a matter of wonderment 
 to me," said Ba-omba-kumig (The-man-who- 
 comes-rising-up-out-of-the-earth), why the white 
 people should try to turn the Indians from their 
 religion. I think they pay the missionaries so 
 much a head for every one they baptize. Money 
 is at the bottom of it after all they are so fond 
 of money. How much are you to be paid for 
 each one of the Indians who is foolish enough 
 to allow you to baptize him?" he asked the mis 
 sionary. 
 
 He modestly disclaimed that he was to be paid 
 any sum at all, or had any pecuniary interest. 
 
 "No, it is not that," said Shoniawugizhickok 
 ( The-woman-whose-sky-is-made-of -money ) , "it 
 is because they are afraid of the Indians. They 
 know what terrible fighters the Ojibways are. 
 Although the Sioux are great fighters, the Ojib 
 ways surpass them, for this was Sioux country 
 once where we are living now, and the Ojibways 
 whipped them out of it. Now the whites know 
 that if the Ojibways become Christians they will 
 not fight any more; so, being afraid of them, 
 they try to make them Christians, that they may 
 not have them to fight." 
 
 Here one of the group, Netaweweash (Knows- 
 how-to-make-a-noise when-flying), thought of 
 another thing. "Do you not have another coat 
 at home besides that one you are wearing?" he 
 asked. 
 
 The missionary confessed that he did have an 
 other for winter use. 
 
 1 Then why do not you bring it here and give 
 it to me?" he asked. "If I had two coats I 
 
290 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 would give one of them to some one who was 
 poor. I have no coat at all, only a blanket. 
 Why do you not give that other to me? You 
 have no use for it. I guess you are stingy. 
 
 "Yes, those Christians are all stingy, " said 
 Owayequakumig (The - one - who-comes-to-the- 
 end-of-the-land, as to a lake, etc.). "Have you 
 not got food in your house f " he asked. 
 
 "Again the missionary acknowledged that he 
 had. 
 
 l Then why do you not distribute it among all 
 of us? If you did we would know that you 
 really pitied us. That is what 7 would do if I 
 had food* If a poor man would come to my 
 wigwam and I saw that he had nothing I would 
 give him all he wanted. That is the way with 
 the Indians they are liberal, generous-hearted. 
 But you Christians are all alike, all stingy ; you 
 all keep food and clothing, more than you need, 
 and you do not give it to anybody. Come now, 
 be a man. Bring everything you have in your 
 house and distribute it among us. * 
 
 The missionary tried to explain that he re 
 quired to keep something ahead for his own fu 
 ture needs ; but they professed not to be able to 
 understand such a thing. 
 
 "See now," said they, and three or four of 
 them spoke at once, "we never keep anything 
 ahead, and we get along very well. When the 
 season for one kind of berry is past, another is 
 ripening for us; and when the berries are all 
 past, the wild rice is ready for us; and when 
 there is no more any wild rice in the fall, we find 
 the deer, and they are fat. When the deer are 
 
THE OJIBWAY 291 
 
 all gone we find the fish or something else. 
 Come now, and divide among us everything you 
 have, and you will be provided for some way, 
 just as we are ; and then we will know that you 
 really have a kindly feeling toward us." 
 
 This was rather turning the tables on their 
 visitor ; and he felt that he was being somehow, 
 without any fault of his own, placed in a false 
 position ; still he did not yield. He returned to 
 his original position and urged them to become 
 Christians that they might have life. 
 
 "Is it so, then, that some one is trying to kill 
 us?" answered Midwewecumig (Making-a- 
 sound-on-the-earth-with-his-f eet-walking) , play 
 ing on the word "life." And with that he 
 looked round in great pretended alarm. "Per 
 haps it is Sioux," he said, looking again toward 
 the bushes. 
 
 All broke out in a general laugh at this sally 
 somewhat to the discomfiture of the missionary. 
 Although he was sure that all they said about 
 non-distribution of goods and about stinginess, 
 and hypocritical professions of interest could 
 be answered, the objections were hurled so fast 
 that he did not have an opportunity of answer 
 ing them, and objections were made in a word 
 which it would take a discourse of some length 
 to answer, and there was such a cloud of arrows 
 discharged at him that it seemed of no use to 
 take his shield and stop one, when the air was 
 filled with them. 
 
 Here, however, there came unexpectedly re 
 lief to the hard-beset Missionary. A man, Kichi- 
 amink (Big-Star) advanced to him and strok- 
 
292 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ing his shoulder soothingly with his fingers, said, 
 "You are a good man. You mean well coming 
 talking to us about God and Heaven. But I 
 know far more about these things than you do, 
 and I can teach you. You talk about Heaven, 
 but you have never been there, but I have. And 
 you talk about God, but you have never seen 
 Him. I have, and I have talked with Him. Look 
 here and I will tell you." As he said this he 
 faced round towards the Indians. I was lying 
 on my bed one day when some one I do not know 
 who he was, perhaps an angel, came and said to 
 me, make ready; I will call for you tomorrow 
 and take you to Heaven. I was lying on my bed 
 the next day, about noon, when sure enough he 
 came for me, and took me away up, up, away 
 up ever so far. I thought I would never get 
 there, it was so far; and he took me through a 
 hole in the top of the sky, and I stood on the 
 outside of it, and I saw Heaven, and I saw God 
 and talked with Him. So you see I know all 
 about what you speak of only through hearsay. 
 "I did not see any trees growing there on the 
 other side of the sky," he went on to say, "but 
 I saw grass, and though I plucked some of the 
 grass and brought it with me and showed it to 
 my fellow-Indians, yet still they will not be 
 lieve in me." Here he glanced with an ag 
 grieved look at the Indians, and they, forgetting 
 for the time the Missionary, turned their atten 
 tion to him, their countenances still showing 
 their obstinate unbelief, and unwillingness to 
 take him for prophet and leader, notwithstand 
 ing the ocular proof he had showed them, of 
 grass gathered from the upper side of the sky. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 293 
 
 His burning desire to be acknowledged by them 
 as their great man, and their obstinate resist 
 ance came in very opportunely for the relief of 
 the Missionary. 
 
 But another man, Wa-Se-gon-esh-kunk, He- 
 who - makes - a - glittering - track - in - the - 
 snow - as - he - walks, returned to the subject. 
 Said he : God has no jurisdiction over this Island 
 (America) nor over the Indians. Wenabozho is 
 in charge here. He made the Indians and he 
 is in charge of them. It may be that God has 
 jurisdiction in other places, across the ocean, 
 and over the people living there, as you say ; but 
 not here. 
 
 Another man, Pi-zhi-ki (The Buffalo), now 
 addressed the Missionary. You speak to us 
 about Almighty God, he said. We have Al 
 mighty God with us in the wigwam. That drum 
 pointing to one is Almighty God. It has a 
 voice. It can speak. And we find by experience 
 that when we ask anything of it, it is granted. 
 
 Here there spoke up an old warrior, Queki- 
 gizhick ( The - man - of - the - turning-heavens) : 
 " These people tell us," said he, "that we must 
 be praying all the time, our eyes always directed 
 upward, and we praying, praying. If I became 
 a Christian I would starve to death, for I could 
 not see any wild beast to shoot, because my eyes 
 would always be directed toward heaven, pray 
 ing. So I would starve to death." 
 
 "Oh," said Sha-bosh-kunk, summing it all 
 up, "the Christians will all be toads in the next 
 world ; they will be lizards, and the most hideous 
 crawling things. They will be serpents and rep- 
 
294 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 tiles. Only the Grand Medicine people will be 
 resplendent and glorious. This man is merely 
 trying to delude the Indians; to deceive them, 
 and to destroy them. But it does not seem that 
 there would be any one so foolish, " he added 
 triumphantly, "as to listen to him." And with 
 that he set the example of breaking up the con 
 ference by moving away, in which he was fol 
 lowed by the others, and the affair was at an 
 end. 
 
 Apparently the missionary s purpose had 
 met with a signal defeat. Not the least ray of 
 hope could be gleaned from anything that had 
 been said by any one. Universal condemnation, 
 a universal spurning of the matter offered, 
 seemed the net result. That door seemed tightly 
 closed and locked, and double barred and 
 bolted. 
 
 As the conference was breaking up and the 
 people dispersing, Breck told them, as his final 
 word, something that in the light of all that had 
 passed sounded very strange, indeed impossible 
 of belief ; and that was, that notwithstanding all 
 that had been said, they would all, if they lived 
 a few years, be Christians. This they received 
 with perfect incredulity, each one saying that 
 though all the other Indians became Christians, 
 even though such an utterly impossible thing 
 as that should happen, he or she, the speaker, 
 never would. 
 
 Said Good-Sounding-Sky : Though such an 
 impossible tiling should come to pass as that the 
 Indians should become of Those-who-pray 
 (Christians), I for one never will." 
 
THE OJIBWAY 
 
 295 
 
 " 
 
 Nor I," said Yellow Thunder; "nor any one 
 of us never as long as the world lasts. " 
 
 Every one present endorsed that sentiment. 
 
 The missionary moved away, somewhat de 
 jectedly, it must be confessed, and as an answer 
 to all that had been said went before a rustic 
 altar, surmounted by a cross, which he had 
 erected under a tree at a little distance, and his 
 interpreter joining with him in the Ojibway 
 tongue repeated a few old words, which indeed 
 the missionary did not understand, but which 
 he had learned by heart. 
 
 The words, few but pregnant, were these: 
 We give them in Ojibway with the English 
 equivalent of each under it : 
 
 Nin 
 i 
 
 debueyendum 
 
 am persuaded in 
 my mind 
 
 ayad 
 
 that He 
 is 
 
 Kizhee-Manido 
 
 He who has God, 
 His origin 
 from no one 
 but Himself 
 (the uncreated), 
 
 Weosimind 
 
 He Who is the 
 Father ; 
 
 Gwetamigwendagozit, 
 
 He Who is almighty ; 
 
 gaye 
 
 and 
 
 Gaye 
 
 And 
 
 U 
 
 that 
 
 nin 
 
 i 
 
 ga-ozhitod 
 
 He Who made 
 it 
 
 aki: 
 
 earth. 
 
 debueyendum 
 
 am persuaded in 
 my mind, 
 
 ayad 
 
 that He Is, 
 
 bayezhigonidjin 
 
 the only one of Him 
 
 Ga-anishinabewiigut iniu 
 
 He Who was made a human that One, 
 being by 
 
 that sky 
 
 (or Heaven) 
 
 Jesus 
 
 Jesus 
 
 Christ 
 
 Christ 
 
 Oguisun 
 
 Son Mis. 
 
 Debeniminunk ; 
 
 He Who is Lord of us, 
 
 Panizinidjin 
 
 Him Who is holy, 
 
296 
 
 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Oslikinigiquen 
 
 young unmarried 
 
 woman 
 
 Ochichagwun 
 
 The Spirit 
 
 Gi-nigiigut inu 
 
 that He was that 
 
 born of one 
 
 gi-gotugiigut 
 
 that He was tor 
 tured by one 
 
 gi-sassagaquaont 
 
 that He was nailed upon 
 
 azhideatigong, gi-nibot gaye 
 
 the cross stick of that lie and 
 
 wood : died 
 
 Manyun : 
 
 Mary; 
 
 inu Pontius Pilatum, Gaye 
 
 that Pontius Pilate, and 
 
 gi-pugidenimint ; 
 
 that He was buried ; 
 
 Nibowinink, 
 
 to the place of 
 the dead ; 
 
 gi-abidjibad 
 
 He rose from the 
 
 Gi-izhad 
 
 that He went 
 
 Nesogwunagutinik 
 
 That on the third day His. 
 
 idush 
 
 But 
 
 dead 
 
 ishpiming 
 
 up above 
 (to Heaven) : 
 
 dush ima 
 
 but there 
 
 okichinikanink 
 
 on the right hand of 
 Him, 
 
 gi-izhi-ombishkad ; 
 
 that He thus ascended ; 
 
 Namatubi 
 
 He sits 
 
 Kizhee 
 
 Who has 
 His origin 
 from no one 
 but Himself 
 (the uncreated) 
 
 Manidon 
 
 God, 
 
 Weosimimindjin 
 
 Him Who is the 
 
 Father, 
 
 Gwetanrigwendagozinidjin ; 
 
 Him Who is Almighty. 
 
 ge-bi-ondjibad 
 
 that He shall come 
 from that place 
 
 die dibakonad 
 
 to Judge them 
 
 nebonidjin. 
 
 them that are 
 dead. 
 
 mi 
 
 So 
 
 bemadizinidjin 
 
 them that are living 
 
 dush 
 
 but 
 
 gaye 
 
 and 
 
 iwide 
 
 thence 
 
THE OJIBWAY 
 
 297 
 
 Nin debweyendum ayad 
 
 I am persuaded In that lie is 
 
 my mind 
 
 Ochichag ; 
 
 the Spirit ; 
 
 Gave ayamaguk gwayuk 
 
 and that there is true 
 
 that thing, 
 
 gaye 
 
 and 
 
 owikanisindiwad enamiadjig; 
 
 that there is a brother- those who pray 
 hood of (Christians). 
 
 Webinumagonk 
 
 That there is a throw 
 ing away of 
 
 mudji-izMwebiziwinun ; 
 
 bad deeds. 
 
 wiawiman 
 
 the body 
 
 Gaye Kagige 
 
 and everlasting life 
 
 Pamzid 
 
 He Who 
 is Holy 
 
 anamiawm ; 
 
 religion 
 (literally prayer) 
 
 Che abidjibamaguk 
 
 To 
 
 arise from the dead 
 that thing 
 
 bimadiziwin dagomaguk. 
 
 that there is. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 "iN THE MIDST OF LIFE WE ABE IN DEATH." 
 
 Some time after this, when the Moon-of-the- 
 freezing-over-of-the-waters - - as the Ojibways 
 poetically call November was shining, Good- 
 Sounding-Sky, with quite a number of families 
 of the Gull Lake village, determined to go a 
 considerable distance off on their fall hunt, to 
 the edge of the great prairies stretching indefi 
 nitely to the westward so far as they knew, in 
 order to obtain a more plentiful supply of game, 
 and especially of buffalo, which abounded in 
 the Wild Bice River country. They, therefore, 
 journeyed leisurely, camping at short intervals 
 every night, hunting to provide food as they 
 proceeded, and having a royal time. Nothing 
 more enjoyable could be imagined. The crisp 
 November air was stimulating, the sun shone 
 brightly every day. The country through 
 which they passed was fine forest land, of all 
 kinds of trees, interspersed with innumerable 
 lakes the smaller ones covered with a thin film 
 of ice, but the larger ones still sparkling in the 
 sun. Game was abundant, and they lived like 
 princes, on the best. AVhen their camp was 
 made at night there was a universal scene of 
 joy, in which only shouts of merriment were 
 heard. The out-of-door life, the abundance of 
 the finest food, and the crisp air kept them all 
 
THE OJIBWAY 299 
 
 in splendid health . They roamed through an 
 apparently illimitable domain, which was all 
 their own, filled with everything they needed; 
 where everything was provided beforehand 
 without any effort of theirs, and where they had 
 only to put forth their hand and take it. Their 
 life was a continual picnic. Only enjoyment 
 was thought of, and each day seemed more filled 
 with it than the preceding. Life was one long 
 holiday, without labor and without care. If 
 such a thing as a happy life could be found on 
 earth, surely they had it. Neither emperors nor 
 kings could boast the plenty, the freedom from 
 care, the royal range, the noble sport which they 
 had. 
 
 So the days wore on until they arrived at the 
 edge of the great prairie; and in the border of 
 the woods, where there was shelter and water, 
 they fixed their more permanent camp. Look 
 ing over the vast prairie, stretching as far as the 
 eye could reach, they could see the dark forms 
 of the buffalo scattered here and there in 
 groups, and moving about. Already they an 
 ticipated the succulent buffalo meat, and 
 thought of the rich pemicaigun (pemmican) 
 which they would carry to their winter home. 
 
 One bright November morning, Good-Sound 
 ing-Sky, Yellow Thunder, and Ogema, with 
 their families and some others, including Eed- 
 Sky-of-the-Morning, The-First-Heavens, and 
 Traveling-the-Heavens, left the main camp and 
 went out quite a distance on the prairie after 
 buffalo. They were all in the highest spirits, 
 for Nature was smiling upon them, and her joy 
 
300 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 was infectious. There was not a cloud in the 
 blue sky; a warm south wind was blowing, and 
 the sun shone just warm enough to thaw a 
 little the powdering of snow that was on the 
 ground. It was an ideal autumn day of an 
 autumn that was unusually prolonged. As it 
 was so warm and pleasant, and had been, and as 
 there were no signs of a change, they did not en 
 cumber themselves with unnecessary clothing, 
 taking only the thin cotton things suitable for 
 the fall season. So, in the highest spirits, they 
 moved toward the dark forms of the buffalo. 
 They were to return to the camp that night, and 
 expected to have a good supply of the juicy 
 buffalo steak with them. 
 
 By noon they were far out on the prairie. 
 The wind blew more strongly from the south, 
 and the little snow thawed still more. In a 
 moment a total change occurred. The wind 
 veered suddenly to the north, the sky became 
 overcast, it turned bitterly cold, and the snow 
 came down thickly. The blizzard and winter 
 were upon them! They could see nothing, not 
 even a few feet, for the snow filled the air. The 
 strong, piercing wind searched their thin cotton 
 garments, and even the blanket which each had 
 brought. To stay in that wind long was to 
 freeze to death, and there was no shelter any 
 wherenot a tree nor a bush behind which they 
 could hide ; and they had no idea which way to 
 go to reach their camp, now miles behind. The 
 blinding and whirling snow made it impossible 
 to tell any direction. Had they been in timber 
 the matter would have been easy make a huge 
 
THE OJIBWAY 301 
 
 fire, stay in the shelter of the woods, await the 
 end of the storm, and enjoy it. But here it was 
 death to stay, and death to go anywhere. In 
 one minute Nature, from being most smiling, 
 had changed to be most dreadful. From woo 
 ing with smiles she had become most savage, 
 and threatened speedy destruction. She pelted 
 them with snow and pierced them with wind, 
 and bore down upon them pitilessly and with an 
 awful insistence. She answered their distress 
 only by bearing down upon them more over 
 whelmingly. 
 
 They, stunned by this sudden and appalling 
 change, instinctively huddled together for the 
 protection of each other s bodies from the 
 piercing wind; for the mutual comfort of each 
 other s presence, and for consultation. 
 
 This is terrible, said one. It seems likely 
 now that we are all to die here, for there is 
 neither shelter, nor wood to make a fire; nor 
 can we tell in which direction the timber is, to 
 go toward it." 
 
 "Yes," said Good-Sounding-Sky, "if we 
 stay here we die; and if we go anywhere we 
 die, and there seems nothing else for it!" 
 
 "And," said Ogema, "this storm is not 
 going to be over soon by any means. It will 
 last two or three days, and then turn very cold, 
 as it always does after such a blizzard, and dur 
 ing it. And here we have on our thin fall cotton 
 things, for we did not expect anything like this 
 
 so soon. 
 
 "And," said Good-Sounding-Sky s wife, "we 
 have no food with us except that partridge that 
 
302 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Ogema shot, for we expected to get plenty of 
 buffalo meat, and to be back with our friends 
 tonight. So if we do not freeze to death, we 
 shall starve to death. 
 
 i Hurry up," said Yellow Thunder s wife, 
 * and decide on something, for I am almost dead 
 already in this piercing wind. Let us go some 
 where or do something, for we cannot endure 
 it here. " 
 
 In this sore perplexity a woman found the 
 right thing to do. Said the wife of Bi-zhu 
 The Lynx: "I notice here, to one side of us, 
 a depression in the ground in the lee of a little 
 hummock. Let us all get into it and scrape 
 away the snow, and the falling snow will soon 
 cover us over, and we shall be out of this intol 
 erable wind at any rate, and that will be a great 
 deal. And let us stay there, if we live, till the 
 storm subsides. And there," she continued, 
 i i Ogema accidentally brought his snow-shoes 
 with him, though there was no snow; but it 
 seems as if he brought them with him to pre 
 serve us. Let us stick them in the snow above 
 where we are, and our friends coming to look 
 for us, after the storm is over, will see them, 
 and know we are here, and come and dig us 
 out." 
 
 How ! How ! How ! They all responded ; 
 "let us do it; that is the very best thing we can 
 do; there lies our only chance." 
 
 With that they made a rush for the depres 
 sion; and kicking and shoveling away the snow 
 with their feet, and using their hands and 
 blankets, they partially cleared it out, and hud- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 303 
 
 dling together there in a group, the snow, of 
 which the air was full, quickly spread a pall 
 over them, and they were no longer in the pierc 
 ing blast. 
 
 Here they remained some time in silence, lis 
 tening only to the beating of their hearts 
 inwardly revolving what their chances for life 
 were. The warmth of each other s bodies 
 helped them a good deal and then there was a 
 light snowy covering spread all over them like 
 a sheet. The warmth of their bodies and their 
 ascending breaths melted the snow along their 
 sides and overhead, and caused it to retreat 
 from them, leaving them in a sort of chamber. 
 It is true the water, caused by their breath 
 melting the snow overhead, where it made a 
 small hole for exit, dripped down upon them, 
 and made their thin cotton garments thoroughly 
 wet, and they were exceedingly uncomfortable; 
 still it was paradise compared with being out 
 in that searching wind. It was with a sense of 
 blessedness that they listened and heard the 
 wind rave over their heads outside, while they 
 were in a chamber of absolute stillness. 
 
 This is blessed, anyway," said Good-Sound 
 ing-Sky, to be here out of that wind. I thought 
 it would pierce through me." 
 
 "Yes," said his wife, "we would not have 
 lived long if The Lynx s wife had not thought 
 of this place. I do not think one of us would 
 have lived till the evening. 
 
 "We are very uncomfortable here," said 
 Ogema; "sopping wet, and so cold. Still, any 
 thing is better than being out there." 
 
304 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 "Who would have thought," said Yellow 
 Thunder, "that from being a warm, sunshiny, 
 thawing day it would in an instant turn into a 
 piercing blizzard? Yet I have seen such things 
 before, and I remember the old Indians telling 
 us to look out for a blizzard when it is too warm 
 and nice in winter and the wind blowing softly 
 from the south. " 
 
 "I began to think," said Good-Sounding-Sky, 
 "just before it came, that there was something 
 coming by a peculiar look on the horizon, some 
 thing like a mirage." 
 
 "Oh! I am so glad I left my children at 
 home," said The Lynx s wife. "I thought 
 of bringing them, but somehow changed my 
 mind. Now they are warm by the wigwam fire, 
 and I am thankful. We old people may live 
 through it, but they would surely have died. 
 
 "I tell you what," said Good-Sounding-Sky s 
 wife, "the way the white people have is not so 
 bad after all. They raise gardens of stuff, 
 potatoes, corn, and things, and put them in 
 cellars under where they live; and it does not 
 matter to them whether it storms like this or not, 
 they are snug and happy. But we Indians never 
 have anything ahead, so we have to go out and 
 look for something to eat, no matter what the 
 weather is. We have always thought them 
 foolish; but I declare I do not know that they 
 are so foolish after all." 
 
 "If I live," said The Lynx s wife, "till an 
 other spring I am going to plant potatoes and 
 corn enough to keep my little children alive in 
 storms like this." 
 
THE OJIBWAY 305 
 
 1 1 Perhaps that jnissionary was not such a fool 
 after all," said Good-Sounding-Sky. "He told 
 us we should raise garden stuffs to live on in the 
 winter, and that he would go out into the fields 
 himself with us and show us how to do it. He 
 told us, too, that we would see the day when 
 all the buffalo, elk, and deer would be driven 
 away, and that we would have to do something 
 else for a living. But it does not seem to me 
 that it is possible for their numbers ever to be 
 diminished, there are so many of them. Why, 
 there are millions and millions of buffaloes on 
 these prairies! How could all of them ever be 
 killed! Just hear that blast! I am thankful 
 that I am here out of it, any way. 
 
 Hour after hour the wind continued to blow 
 over them, and the covering of snow became 
 thicker. Most of the time they remained in 
 quiet; sometimes they talked. Then they could 
 perceive that it was night, for it grew darker 
 in their cavern. A long, dreary night it was. 
 They mostly kept awake but sometimes one 
 would fall, for an instant, borne down with 
 sleep. 
 
 Another day dawned, they knew it by the 
 feeble light that struggled through from over 
 head, and still the wind blew as fiercely as at 
 the beginning. They were shivering, shudder 
 ing, uncomfortable. They had the one part 
 ridge, and of this they each took a bite raw. 
 
 After they had all been silent a long time, 
 Red-sky-of -the-morning began to speak. k l There 
 is one thing that has come to me very strongly 
 since we have got into this snow cave. Even 
 
306 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 before that, and when the blizzard first struck 
 us and I saw that we were going to be in a bad 
 fix, it came into my mind. In fact, it was the 
 very first thing I thought of." 
 
 "What is that!" they asked. 
 
 "It is that Sioux girl. Somehow her face 
 came up right before me when this misfortune 
 struck us. And I have not been able to cease 
 thinking of her since. " 
 
 "Had you not thought of her before!" asked 
 The Lynx s wife. 
 
 "No, a good while has elapsed since it hap 
 pened, and I hardly ever thought of it. But 
 now all of a sudden it is revived in my mind. I 
 know you are all uncomfortable and suffering, 
 but you are suffering in your bodies only. I 
 am suffering not only in my body, but in my 
 mind. Of the two, I think the suffering of the 
 mind is worse to bear. And it is all about that 
 girl. I see her face just as she looked when 
 I took out my knife and she asked me to let her 
 go. She has been with me somehow ever since 
 I got in here. You see I do not make any secret 
 of it, for you all know I did it." 
 
 "It is curious that you forgot it so long, and 
 it has come back to you here," said Good- 
 Sounding-Sky s wife. 
 
 "Yes, and I feel alarmed," she said. "I am 
 trembling. There is an apprehension of some 
 kind of evil hanging over me, and it is connected 
 with that girl. If I had not killed her I know 
 I would not feel so afraid in my mind as I do 
 now." 
 
 "Oh, never mind," said one of the women, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 307 
 
 "perhaps we shall get out of this alive and get 
 back to our wigwams. " 
 
 "I fervently hope we will," returned Eed- 
 Sky-of-the-Morning. "I suppose you are not 
 afraid to die," she said to the women. "But 
 somehow I am not ready to die. I guess I am 
 so wicked that I shall never get across the roll 
 ing and sinking bridge/ " Here she laughed, 
 pretending to be gay ; but it sounded hollow and 
 unnatural. "Perhaps my soul will be carried 
 down among the rapids and lost, and never get 
 to the Villages of the Dead." 
 
 "What did you kill her for, anyway," asked 
 The Lynx s wife, a tender-hearted, compassion 
 ate woman. 
 
 i Oh, I had a great deal to say about different 
 motives that actuated me; but the real reason 
 was that I could not bear to let her go out of 
 my hands without killing her. Our men here 
 kill a captive when they want to; it is their 
 privilege. And I thought that when she had 
 been granted to me, when I had gained her, that 
 I was just as much entitled to do it as they, I 
 did sometimes pity her, and thought of letting 
 her go ; then again I could not bear to do it. So 
 at last I killed her." 
 
 "And you wish now you had not!" queried 
 her interlocutor. 
 
 "Yes. The next minute after she died I 
 would have given anything to have brought her 
 back to life. It did not give me the satisfaction 
 after it was over that I thought it would. I 
 suppose I just did it because I was wicked. And 
 now I somehow connect it with this sudden storm 
 I do not know why. I wish I could get away 
 
308 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 from that look that was on her face when she 
 asked me to let her go." 
 
 "Do not worry yourself ahout it," said Yel 
 low Thunder. "We shall get out of this alive, I 
 think, and then you will not think any more 
 about it." 
 
 So the long day wore slowly away, and an 
 other night came. They were now more borne 
 down with sleep than on the preceding night, 
 but they struggled bravely to keep in such po 
 sitions when they did sleep as would be least 
 liable to bring upon them fatal illness. They 
 tried to sleep crouching or sitting, propped up 
 against each other, rather than stretched full 
 length upon the ground. When the increasing 
 light showed them that another day had dawned, 
 they roused themselves from their nodding and 
 began to talk. 
 
 "We are badly enough off here," said The 
 Lynx s wife, who was one who always had 
 something encouraging to say, and who inspired 
 them with hope, "for we are shuddering with 
 cold, sopping wet, and have nothing to eat. But 
 it might be worse. What a comfort it is to have 
 each other s company! We would be a good 
 deal worse off without that. It seems to me that 
 any calamity is more easily borne if there are 
 others to share it with us. So for that I feel 
 very thankful. Oh, what a comfort I feel it to 
 have you here! Not that I wish you to be 
 here," she added, with a laugh, "but if I have to 
 be here I would be a great deal worse off with 
 out your presence." 
 
 "Yes," observed Yellow Thunder s wife, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 309 
 
 "even if we do have to die, it takes off a great 
 deal of the horror of it that we can die in com 
 pany. It would be far harder for one to die 
 here alone and not know if her bones would ever 
 be found or if her friends would ever know what 
 had become of her. As it is, they will be sure to 
 look for us, for they know we have come in this 
 direction. 
 
 "If Ogema s snow-shoes blow down," said 
 her husband, i they will not find us till spring ; 
 for on this waste of snowy prairie there will be 
 nothing to show where we are. But if the snow- 
 shoes have stood the blast they will find us very 
 soon after the wind has subsided and the drift 
 ing snow ceased, for then they can see. As it is 
 now, the air is so filled with flying snow that no 
 one can see three feet. 
 
 "Would it not be possible," asked his wife, 
 to replace the snow-shoes in an upright position 
 even if they have blown down?" 
 
 "No," said he, "it will be so cold after this 
 blizzard is over that a man going out with his 
 clothes wringing wet would be frozen to death 
 before he could feel around and find those snow- 
 shoes and stick them up. You know how bitter 
 ly cold it always turns after a storm like this. 
 
 "It seems to me," said Ogema, "that I 
 would just as soon take my chances and try to 
 make for the timber as to stay here and chatter 
 to death under the snow. 
 
 "Don t!" they all clamored in a chorus. 
 "In the first place, you cannot see where the 
 timber is, for no one can see anything the way 
 the snow is driving. You would be just as like- 
 
310 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ly to go farther out on the prairie if you at 
 tempted it, as to go towards the timber; and 
 then you would surely be lost. Then, even if by 
 a miracle you did get to the timber, you are too 
 cold to make a fire. You would have to search 
 under the snow and find pieces of dry wood, and 
 find birch-bark somewhere to start your fire, or 
 make shavings of a piece of dry wood with your 
 knife for kindlings; and long before you could 
 get that done you would be frozen to death. 
 But with your wet clothes you would not live to 
 get as far as the timber, even if you could see 
 it. Do you not know that the instant you step 
 out of this place into the open air, your clothes 
 will be solid sheets of ice encasing you? Just 
 like a man who has broken through the ice into 
 a river or lake his clothes are as stiff as a 
 board the minute after he is dragged out, if it is 
 very cold like this; and if he does not get to a 
 fire in a very short time, he dies. And there is 
 no fire near you. No, our only hope is in 
 being rescued by our friends. As we are we 
 cannot save ourselves. ? > 
 
 "Do you not remember Big Feather 1" said 
 Good-Sounding-Sky to Ogema, "how he got 
 safely to the timber, but died while he was try 
 ing to make a fire? Froze to death. That is 
 the very time a man is most likely to expire. 
 While he is moving he can keep the life in him a 
 little, some way perhaps ; but when he stops and 
 begins to fumble and try to make a fire, his 
 hands are so benumbed that he is not able to, 
 and that is the time he dies." 
 
 By this unanimous condemnation of his pro- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 311 
 
 ject they deterred Ogema from attempting the 
 hazardous feat. However, the idea was still 
 working in his mind, although they had shown 
 him the futility of it; the certain death that 
 would attend its attempted execution. 
 
 The two companions, The-First-Heavens and 
 Traveling-the-Heavens, had kept very quiet up 
 to this time had had very little to say to any 
 one. They now chose an opportunity, when 
 they thought all the others of the party were 
 napping, to hold a very secret whispered con 
 ference. They were very careful to speak in 
 each other s ears, and to let no one else hear a 
 word, and they kept their eyes on the others to 
 be sure that they were asleep. 
 
 "What is this?" asked The-First-Heavens of 
 his companion. 
 
 "Yes, what is it! That is the very thing I 
 have been thinking ever since we got caught. 
 
 "It seems that thing is following us," said 
 The-First-Heavens. 
 
 * It seems it is, returned his companion. l i I 
 thought that it had blown over, and that we 
 would never hear of it again. But it seems 
 not." 
 
 * Yes, it is pursuing us, sure, said The-First- 
 Heavens. "That was the very first thing that 
 came into my mind when the storm came down 
 upon us. Did you hear what Red-sky-of-the- 
 morning said V he asked. 
 
 "Yes, she is in it just the same as we; but not 
 so bad, for she had a right to do what she did. 
 But I do not think any persons in the whole 
 
312 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 world have got such a thing hounding them as 
 we have." 
 
 "I wish that old Sha-bosh-kunk had been, I 
 do not know where, for I do not know any 
 place bad enough to wish him in, before he put 
 us upon doing that thing," said The-First-Hea- 
 vens. 
 
 "Yes, and it is pursuing us. This storm 
 shows it. We have not seen the end of it," 
 answered his companion. 
 
 What will the end be, do you think ? asked 
 Travel ing- the-Heavens. 
 
 "I do not know. Sometimes I think we shall 
 get out of this alive and sometimes not. If it 
 is bound to pursue us to the end it will surely 
 kill us," replied The-First-Heavens despon- 
 dingly. 
 
 "Do you not think this blizzard may be only a 
 chance? Do you not think it might just have 
 happened so anyway?" 
 
 "No, I do not think so. There was something 
 supernatural about it, changing all in an instant 
 from a bright sunny day, and a south wind, and 
 thawing, to this. It is after us, certain," re 
 plied Traveling-the-Heavens. 
 
 "Do you think the people here have any idea 
 of what brought it on?" 
 
 " No ; they do not suspect us in the least. Sha- 
 bosh-kunk never told anybody, and we certainly 
 never did." 
 
 "Then we are the cause of these innocent 
 people suffering, and perhaps losing their 
 lives?" 
 
 "It is certainly on our account, though Red- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 313 
 
 sky-of-the-morning has a little share in it." 
 
 * And what is going to be the end of it all ! 
 
 "I wish you would tell me ! For I would like 
 to know. But perhaps we may get out with our 
 lives, and then we will have surmounted it. Or 
 perhaps it will kill us, and then it will have 
 found us indeed; but I hope not," said Travel- 
 ing-the-Heavens. 
 
 "I suppose there is not anything that we can 
 dot" 
 
 "No, there is nothing we can do now but take 
 whatever comes." 
 
 This stealthy conference over, both relapsed 
 into silence ; and later kind sleep gave even them 
 some minutes forgetfulness of misery of mind 
 and body. 
 
 By and by some one began to speak, and that 
 roused all the sleepers. 
 
 Another train of thought now started in 
 Good-Sounding-Sky s mind. The wind was 
 still whistling overhead, the storm still at its 
 height, and as there was nothing that they could 
 do there was abundant leisure for reflection. 
 
 Is it not wonderful, said he, * how, when we 
 are in absolute security in this life, when we are 
 in such circumstances that it would seem noth 
 ing evil could happen to us ; and when we think 
 we are removed beyond the very possibility of 
 evil, that then is the very time when destruction 
 comes upon us. Here we were, coming out on 
 this hunt. We were laughing and merry; be 
 yond the reach of evil, as we thought. The 
 solid ground was under our feet; plenty of food 
 was in sight of us, there was a clear sky and the 
 
314 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 sun shining. Then suddenly in a few minutes 
 we were struggling for our lives; in a manner 
 and from a cause that we could never have 
 imagined. Buried in a way hiding, and with 
 a very small chance of life. If we had been on 
 the water in canoes, or on the ice, it would be 
 understandable, for the seams of our canoes 
 might open and leave us struggling in the water. 
 Or if we had been on the ice we might possibly 
 get on a weak place and break through. We 
 have known of such things, and are not sur 
 prised at them when they happen, for we can 
 understand them. But on the solid ground; 
 near our friends, only just left them it seems 
 beyond belief/ 
 
 "It is an illustration, " observed Yellow 
 Thunder, "of the truth of what the old people 
 taught us in their preaching, or instructions, 
 when they taught us about life. l You are going 
 into the thick jungle/ said they, and you can 
 not get around it. 
 
 "It shows another thing," answered Good- 
 Sounding-Sky, "and that is that we are under 
 government; some one is master over us. We 
 do not have full power over ourselves. Now 
 look at us here. We did not any of us wish to 
 get into this, we did not plan for it; on the con 
 trary, we strove all we could to do the opposite. 
 But some power thrusts it upon us, and in spite 
 of all our struggles we have to submit to it. It 
 is plain that we do not manage ourselves. Some 
 Power manages us as that Power sees fit, and, 
 not as we wish. We are ruled over, folks; we 
 are under government." 
 
THE OJIBWAY 315 
 
 Yes, said his wife, and it is the same way 
 all through life. You may try to lead one kind 
 of life, arid somehow you will find yourself con 
 trolled, and obliged to lead a different. You 
 may try to do something you have set your 
 mind on, and somehow you cannot do it; you 
 will have to do smething else. 
 
 All this time the wind was blowing fiercely 
 over their heads, and the faint light was strug 
 gling down through the window of the snow 
 overhead. 
 
 "It seems to me," said Ogema, "that the 
 buffalo are a good deal more favorites of the 
 Power you speak of than we ; or else they have a 
 good deal more sense. We came out to kill 
 them, and now here we are, fearing for our lives, 
 huddling here in a group in terror we, the ones 
 who came put to kill, only asking that we be al 
 lowed to live; whilst they, clad in their warm, 
 thick blankets of .fur, do not mind this at all. 
 Perhaps they are laughing at us somewhere. 
 They would be if they knew enough to laugh. 
 Well, it is a good thing that they do not know 
 enough to come here in a gallop and trample us 
 to death as we lie here cowering in this hole." 
 
 "If they only knew enough to do that," said 
 Yellow Thunder, "they would save themselves, 
 from all fear of being killed by us in future ; and 
 they would make needless all our consultations 
 about whether to strike out now or wait until the 
 storm is over." 
 
 "I do so much want to see my wigwam and 
 my friends once more," said Good-Sounding- 
 Sky s wife. "If I could just bid them good-by 
 
316 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and kiss them once more, then I would be con 
 tent to die. But it is so hard to die here without 
 seeing them. 
 
 It was now verging toward the third night 
 they had spent there. They had had very little 
 sleep, and had been miserably cold; and only 
 the one partridge divided among them. For 
 drink they had eaten snow or drunk a little 
 water wrung out of their blankets. They now 
 began to talk of dying, and to think about it, for 
 they felt that if relief did not come in someway 
 before another day expired they were indeed 
 lost. 
 
 To add to their misery, the wife of The Lynx, 
 who had been in a sense their preserver by 
 suggesting and pointing out the place where 
 they had taken refuge, began to be taken with 
 the pains of labor, and was delivered of a child. 
 The child died, but she lived. 
 
 The night, the third that they had spent there, 
 had now closed in. All was perfectly dark and 
 dismal, and their spirits were down to the lowest 
 ebb. So the long night of that northern latitude 
 wore away. There were noddings and starting 
 up again, short naps and awaking out of them. 
 There were incoherent visions of a warm wig 
 wam, of fire and food, of loved friends; then 
 with the awaking came the cheerless misery, of 
 their snowy dungeon. One gleam of satisfac 
 tion, however, they had. The storm was abat 
 ing its fury. It had evidently blown itself out. 
 It was almost three days since it had com 
 menced, and they knew that it never lasted be 
 yond the third day. Therefore when the fourth 
 
THE OJIBWAY 317 
 
 day dawned cold and cheerless, and the light 
 struggled through the snowy sheet above, they 
 realized that the day of release or the day of 
 death had come. They all knew that they had 
 not strength to live through another day, if they 
 were not rescued. 
 
 The-First-Heavens now found an opportunity 
 to speak privately to his companion. "By the 
 looks of things now we are about to die," he 
 said. "We are already extremely weak, and it 
 needs only the least little thing more to push us 
 over. Do you not think we had better tell it be 
 fore we die?" 
 
 "No, it would do no good to tell it," answered 
 his companion. Besides, we may live after all, 
 and if we do it would be a terrible thing to have 
 it known. Better hold on as you are. 
 
 1 I think I would feel more comfortable to die 
 if I am to die, said The-First-Heavens. 
 
 "No! keep up; don t say anything," returned 
 Traveling-the-Heavens. And his stronger 
 will prevailed and kept his companion silent. 
 
 They now realized by the increased bright 
 ness, that the sun for the first time since their 
 imprisonment was shining. It gave them com 
 fort and hope, and raised their spirits, though at 
 the same time they were made aware by their 
 feelings that, as usual after a storm the degree 
 of cold was now greater than it had been. 
 
 The sight of the bright rays of the morning 
 sun struggling through seemed to have an in 
 toxicating effect upon Ogema. He became more 
 restless and frequently expressed his intention 
 
318 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 of breaking through the enveloping crust and 
 running for the timber. 
 
 "I can certainly see the line of timber now," 
 he said, "for the sky is no doubt perfectly clear; 
 not only that, but I believe I can see the smoke 
 in the edge of the timber, where our friends are, 
 and which they will certainly raise so that we 
 may know just where they are and where we are 
 to run to. I have only to take one good run, 
 and I shall be safe by the wigwam fire. Not 
 only so, but I can tell them where you are, and 
 they can follow my tracks and come and rescue 
 you if you do not think fit to follow my ox- 
 ample. " 
 
 "Don t!" they all said, "don t attempt it. 
 It is true you can now see the woods, and very 
 likely see the smoke of their fire ; but you are so 
 weak from three days want of food, and it is 
 so cold, and your clothes are so wet, that you will 
 be frozen stiff before you get a gun-shot away. 
 Stay here with us. Our friends will certainly 
 start out and look for us, now that the storm is 
 over and they can see ; and we shall be rescued. 
 Stay here with us and we shall all be saved ! Be 
 sides, if you go and break through this crust of 
 snow which is now over us, and which gives us 
 what we may call some little warmth by keeping 
 in the warmth of our breaths and our bodies, you 
 will let in the cold air on us, and it may be that 
 in consequence we shall all freeze right here 
 where we are. 
 
 I have been against the Sioux many times, 
 the old warrior answered, "and have had the 
 bullets and the arrows flying all about me, and 
 
THE OJIBWAY 319 
 
 some of them sticking in me; and have looked 
 on the tomahawks brandished over my head 
 about to descend on me, and I never blenched 
 and I will not now ! I have stayed long enough 
 in this hole, and I shall stay no longer. With 
 that he made a violent struggle, and leaped and 
 got outside ; but had hardly gotten a few yards 
 from the edge when the intense cold, that had in 
 stantly frozen stiff his dripping garments, over 
 powered him, and the hero of many a hard- 
 fought battle lay there stark and dead. The de 
 gree of cold was what white people would call 
 forty below zero. 
 
 "Close up the hole that he has made," said 
 The Lynx s wife, " before the cold comes in and 
 kills us all." Whereupon some of the men did 
 so, stopping it up with snow and restoring it as 
 nearly as possible to its former condition. 
 
 All now sat in silence, knowing that the ques 
 tion of death or life would very soon be decided. 
 At length, after what seemed to them a long, 
 long time, human voices Oh, how blessed they 
 seemed sounded outside, and they were saved ! 
 Their friends, as soon as the wind died down 
 and the snow ceased drifting, enabling them to 
 see, had gone out, anxiously looking for them; 
 and at last one caught sight of Ogema s snow 
 shoes. Thither then they hastened with ponies, 
 improvised sleighs, all the furs and blankets 
 they could muster, and every appliance they 
 could think of for keeping the perishing alive. 
 They were hastily pulled out from their living 
 grave, instantly wrapped up in blankets and 
 buffalo robes, and driven as fast as their ponies 
 
320 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 could be urged to the edge of the timber, where 
 great fires were made and hot drinks poured 
 down them, as, enveloped in many wrappings, 
 they were propped up between the fires. Soon 
 they began to revive, and all lived. The Lynx, 
 only, was somehow partially paralyzed, in his 
 lower limbs, from the effects of the long-con 
 tinued cold; and to his dying day had to 
 walk in snow, or wet, or slush on his knees. His 
 feet and legs remained on, but they were dead, 
 useless. Sometimes he was seen, when he was 
 crossing some portage, and when he thought 
 no one was watching him, slowly and painfully 
 endeavoring to get once more upon his feet ; up 
 on which, having taken a few steps, as if in ex 
 ultation of being once more a man, he again had 
 to fall upon his knees. His faithful wife, the 
 preserver of the party, lived along with him 
 side by side, in perfect health. But neither of 
 them ever forgot the three days and nights un 
 der the snow. As for Ogema, his frozen body 
 rested in the forks of a tree outside the village, 
 free from the decaying touch of nature, until the 
 warm suns of spring shone upon it. 
 
 The-First-Heavens and Traveling-the-Hea- 
 vens met some time after this. "Well," said 
 the former, "we lived through it." 
 
 "Yes," returned the other, "that storm was 
 only a chance after all. We were scared though 
 a bout that thing. But we shall never hear any 
 thing more of it." 
 
 "I think so too," said The-First-Heavens. 
 "I believe it will never rise up against us again. 
 But we got a fearful fright, didn t we?" 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 "HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER." 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk had in his lodge his wife, 
 children, and mother-in-law, and in addition 
 his aged mother, Zobundaa ( She-is-greatly- 
 pleased-on-account-of-something-nice-being-put- 
 into-her-dish). She was a very industrious old 
 woman, always trying to do something useful, 
 and she was always cheerful and pleasant. If 
 any one was in distress of any kind, bodily or 
 mental, she was the one they naturally went to ; 
 and she had the faculty somehow of giving help 
 and consolation. She could either find a way 
 out of the difficulty for them, or if the matter 
 had to be borne she could point out compensa 
 tions which lightened the burden very much. 
 She had suffered a great deal in the course of 
 her long life; both mental anguish and bodily 
 suffering; and her suffering had made her kind. 
 It had also filled her with sympathy for those 
 who suffer, for knowing their feelings by exper 
 ience, she could enter into them. Instead of the 
 trials of her past life having made her hard, 
 they had softened and mellowed her. It is true 
 also that long trials and sufferings, meekly 
 borne, had given her wisdom. Sha-bosh-kunk 
 was her sole remaining child, all the others hav 
 ing died or been killed before attaining his age. 
 Her husband had long been dead. 
 
322 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk had for some time been medi 
 tating something concerning her, and at last it 
 came out. They two were alone in the lodge, 
 the others having gone somewhere. 
 
 "Mother," he said, "I have been thinking 
 about you for some time. I have been turning 
 over in my mind what I see you to be ; and what 
 I see you becoming. Mother, you are very 
 old." 
 
 "Yes, my son, I know that I am old; but not 
 so very old. There are a great many who are 
 far older than I. " 
 
 "Mother, you are old, and I see a change com 
 ing over you. To be frank with you, I am 
 afraid to sleep in the same lodge with you. 
 
 "And why should my son be afraid to sleep 
 in the same lodge with his good old mother? 
 Did you not sleep in my bosom when you were a 
 little baby? You were not afraid of me then. 
 And have you not slept in the same lodge with 
 me ever since, all our lives ? Have we not al 
 ways been one family?" 
 
 "Yes, mother; I have supported you, as you 
 say, in my lodge all our lives, but now I begin to 
 be afraid of you." 
 
 "As for the supporting, my son, you know 
 that I have always made my own living and 
 more, the same as all the Ojibway women. You 
 know I have not only supported myself, but 
 others. Have I not caught fish enough for the 
 whole family, and gathered wild rice for my 
 son, and made maple sugar? It does not become 
 me to boast, but I think I have borne the reputa 
 tion of having been one of the most industrious 
 
THE OJIBWAY 323 
 
 and capable of all the jib way women. I am 
 sure I never saw one who could provide more 
 food for the family than I." 
 
 "Yes, mother; but that is all past and gone, 
 and you are different now. What is the use of 
 going back to those old times that are long past? 
 It is about things as they are now that we have 
 to decide. What you were able to do long ago 
 won t support us, nor bring us food now." 
 
 And why, my son, should you be afraid of me 
 now ? Why should you be afraid to sleep in the 
 same lodge with me, as we have done all our 
 lives?" 
 
 "Mother, I will tell you frankly. I see signs 
 that you are about to turn into a Windigo (a 
 man-eating-witch) ; and that is why I am afraid 
 to sleep in the same lodge with you." 
 
 "0 my son, my son, why should you think of 
 such a thing of me ? Of me who have loved you 
 all my life. How could I think of doing such a 
 thing to my son! No, my son, do not think it. I 
 have never in my life felt the least impulse of 
 wishing to eat any one least of all my son. 
 How I am shocked that you should for a moment 
 think such a thing of me ! 
 
 "Do you not know, mother, that there have 
 been such things as man-eating-witches among 
 The People? Have you not heard of such 
 or seen them?" 
 
 "I have heard of such, my son, and have 
 heard the Indians say so, but I never believed it. 
 There may have been such things off at a dis 
 tancethe Indians say there have been, so I 
 suppose it must have been so. But those whom 
 
324 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 they said were witches who were near me, and 
 whom I knew, I always took to be harmless peo 
 ple, and that there was no truth in what was 
 said of them. I always thought that because 
 somebody had a spite against them, and wished 
 to put them out of the way, therefore they said 
 that they were witches. 
 
 "Now as for that matter, mother, we know 
 perfectly well that there have always been 
 witches among the Indians every once in a while. 
 Do we not know that the old Indians of long ago 
 were wise? That they would make no mistake? 
 And has it not come down to us from them from 
 time immemorial that there are witches? 
 Therefore it must be so. All the people could 
 not have been mistaken, and they have always 
 believed that. 
 
 1 1 Well, my son, you may say what you please, 
 but I know that I have never felt the least symp 
 tom of being about to turn into a witch; and I 
 would know it before any one else could, bo- 
 cause I know myself better than any one else 
 can. And you need not be afraid of sleeping in 
 the same lodge with me on that account. 
 Would I not give my life for my son, as I have 
 many a time in the past come near doing, and 
 been always ready to do, rather than try to eat 
 him as a witch ? And if I felt any such impulses 
 coming over me, would I not be the first to go to 
 you and ask you to knock me on the head or 
 throw me into the lake? O my son! how inex 
 pressibly grieved T nm that you should over 
 think such a tiling of your old mother, who loves 
 you." 
 
THE OJIBWAY 325 
 
 "Mother, I tell you again that I am afraid of 
 you; and afraid of you becoming a witch. 
 Mother, you are old; and to speak the truth 
 right out to you, it is about time for you to die. 
 Do you not know that old and useless people are 
 sometimes exposed to die?" 
 
 "Yes, my son, I know that, and I always felt 
 very sorry for the old people. I always thought 
 it would have been far better to have let them 
 live out their little time. They would not have 
 lived much longer anyway. And sometimes 
 when a man had exposed his helpless old father 
 or mother to die, I would secretly, in the night 
 time, carry them out a little food and take my 
 packing strap and pack them out more wood so 
 they would not freeze. I tried to keep them 
 alive a little longer, I felt so sorry for them. 
 And when I got out there and saw the old man 
 or woman helpless and unable to crawl away, 
 and heard them say, It was my son who did this 
 to me, oh, I felt so sorry that I just stood there 
 and cried ! And if there had been any way that 
 I could have saved that old man or woman I 
 would have done it. But I knew I could only 
 keep them alive for a little while, because the 
 one to whom the old man or woman belonged 
 was too strong for me, who was only a weak 
 woman; and they were too determined to put 
 the old folks away for me to overcome them. 
 
 "And do you know, I never could think well 
 afterwards of the person who did that. He 
 might be a great chief and have a tremendous 
 reputation, and everybody be praising him; but 
 for all that, whenever I met him I would think 
 of that old father or mother whom be had 
 
326 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 abandoned, and whom I had seen there. And 
 when I met such a person in the path I would 
 try to look the other way and not see him. I 
 did not want to give such person the customary 
 salutation, or to have any conversation with 
 him. And," she added, with rising alarm in 
 her voice, "surely my son does not think of 
 doing that to me?" 
 
 "Yes, mother," said he, "that is just what I 
 mean ; and I thought it best to tell you of it so 
 you might prepare yourself. I am a plain, out 
 spoken man, because I wish to be honest and 
 above board with everybody. Many a son 
 would have said nothing to you till he was just 
 ready to do it to you ; but I am a merciful man, 
 have been all my life, and so I talk it over with 
 you beforehand, that it may not come upon you 
 suddenly, but that you may go to it with your 
 own consent." 
 
 And that was what you meant by all that talk 
 about your fear of my turning into a witch! 
 That was the way you led up to it. I did not un 
 derstand you at first, but now it is all plain. Oh, 
 oh, oh!" here she wept aloud. "Oh! that I 
 should have lived to see the day when my own 
 son would say that to me! I feel as if I were 
 half dead already from hearing such a word 
 from my son, and that only a very little more 
 would be needed to kill me entirely." 
 
 "Well, mother, you ought to have expected it, 
 and it was your fault if you did not. And now 
 instead of crying about it and bewailing what 
 must take place, it would be more sensible if you 
 would take it calmly, and just turn your mind 
 
THE OJIBWAY 327 
 
 to considering how it ought to be done and how 
 yon would prefer to have it done. There is the 
 way; to let you make your bed outside in the 
 snow, without a fire, till you freeze. 
 
 1 1 my son, how can you talk to me like that ! 
 It makes my heart stand still to hear you talk 
 like that! Now, my son, look here. You say, 
 I m useless, and therefore I must be put out of 
 the way. My son, I m not useless. my son, 
 let me live ! I can do a great deal for you. I m 
 never idle a minute when I m awake. It is true 
 I m not able to walk about and do that kind of 
 work, but see this great ball of rope that I have 
 made. I make it out of the tough inner bark of 
 the trees. I tie piece to piece till I have made 
 this great roll. Ask your wife and she will tell 
 you that I am never idle. She sells that rope 
 that I make to other Indians, and gets a great 
 deal for it. She exchanges it for venison and 
 for food of all kinds, and all the family live on 
 it. And then I can do a good deal about mend 
 ing the nets and cleaning them. There is a 
 great deal that I can do here, and there is one 
 thing that I do that I love more than all, and 
 that is taking care of my little grandchildren 
 your children. The little things love grand 
 mother and I love them. And it seems to me 
 sometimes as if it were you who was back in my 
 arms again when I m holding one of them. I 
 relieve your wife a great deal by tending the 
 children when she is out drawing her nets or 
 bringing wood, or away visiting. I am very 
 useful in many ways. I am not a burden. 
 Then why is it necessary that I should die!" 
 
328 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 "I will tell you, my mother, and make it so 
 plain to you that if you are reasonable you must 
 see it. You know that I am a very great man, 
 and have a great reputation ?" 
 
 "Yes, my son, I hear that you have a great 
 reputation. 
 
 "Having then a great reputation, I am much 
 visited. People come to see me from Leech 
 Lake, and from Mille Lacs, because my reputa 
 tion has reached far. And when they come to 
 visit me I ought to take them into the lodge or 
 they will not think much of me. Already there 
 are my wife and children and my mother-in-law, 
 and with you in it there is no room for visitors. 
 You take up room that belongs to distinguished 
 people who come here, and there s no sense in it. 
 I need your room, and that is one reason why I 
 must put you out of the way. 
 
 i my son, do not talk in that dreadful way. 
 You know that it would take you or your wife 
 only a very few days work to enlarge the wig 
 wam, and then there would be room for all. All 
 you have to do is to add on to one end and make 
 it longer. I used to be able to build a whole wig 
 wam in a day when I was in my prime. ? 
 
 i i That is all very well, mother, for you to say 
 so, as I suppose it is natural for you to wish to 
 live; but I do not feel inclined to do so." 
 
 "Or," said she, "whenever there are visitors 
 I will go outside and sleep, if it is summer. I can 
 sleep just as well outside as in, if it is not very 
 cold. And if it is very cold I think that some of 
 the Indians would have pity on me, and take me 
 in, for I know them all and have been very kind 
 
THE OJIBWAY 329 
 
 to many of them in the past. I think they would 
 have mercy on me now, as I many a time showed 
 mercy to them. So that the matter of room and 
 visitors is provided for. 
 
 1 Well, even if what you say were so, here is 
 another matter. You have to be clothed. I 
 have my wife and children and mother-in-law to 
 clothe, and I can not be bothered with you any 
 longer. 
 
 i I can show you, my son, that I am no burden 
 to you in the matter of clothes. Do you not 
 know that the Government for some years past 
 has given us every year a blanket apiece all of 
 us grown people as the price of the tract of 
 land we sold to it? And with that blanket it 
 gives us a few yards of calico, enough to make 
 us a dress ; and some cotton cloth for leggings I 
 That blanket does me to sleep in the whole year 
 till the next blanket is given, and to wear by day. 
 And I make the calico and the white cotton cloth 
 do also, although I know I am ragged and dirty ; 
 but I can not help being so. While I was a young 
 woman and vigorous, I got myself all I wanted 
 by my work, and you, too, my son; and now in 
 the last few years, since I have become infirm, I 
 can t remember your having furnished me with 
 any clothing for as I have said, I have striven 
 to get along with what the Government gives 
 me. 
 
 "And sometimes I have got a deerskin shirt 
 or a deerskin coat and leggings from some of 
 the Indians for making nets for them, or for re 
 pairing them, for I am still able to make nets 
 and repair them. So in these ways, by the 
 
330 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 blanket the Government gives me; and by the 
 work I do for the Indians, I manage to get along 
 as far as clothes are concerned. Now just think 
 and tell me one time when yon have given me 
 any clothing. I am sure there is no such time. 
 So I m no burden to you in that way, and never 
 have been." 
 
 "It may be that what you say is so I can not 
 remember from one time to another; but I will 
 tell you one thing that you know I have to do for 
 you, that is a heavy drain, and that I will stand 
 no longer, and that is to feed you." 
 
 * You know, my son, that about all I get to eat 
 is fish, and that fish are so plenty that there are 
 more than can be consumed. You know that 
 whenever you and the others happen to have 
 tea or meat, or anything good, I do not get any 
 of it; and indeed I do not expect it, because 
 I am old. I smell the delicious smell of the 
 frying meat, and it works powerfully upon me, 
 and makes my mouth water to taste it, but that 
 I know I never must, because I am old ! So fish 
 the commonest and most worthless food is my 
 living. I do not even have salt. And as for 
 fish, you know very well that all summer long, 
 and all the spring and the fall, your wife throws 
 away a considerable quantity of fish every time 
 she draws her nets, because there are more than 
 can be consumed. Only in winter is there some 
 times a scarcity of fish, and that is because no 
 one took pains to catch a sufficient quantity in 
 their nets, for the winter s use jvst before it 
 froze up. So the little fish that keeps me alive 
 
THE OJIBWAY 331 
 
 is no drawback to anybody. Fish are as plenty 
 as water. " 
 
 "For all that, mother, you are a burden. In 
 many ways you are. Your room, although you 
 deny it; and your clothing, although you deny 
 that; and your food most of all. No one can 
 live without food and a good deal of it. We 
 have wild rice sometimes, and you get some of 
 it, yet you never make any wild rice. You can 
 not." 
 
 1 Then, if it is the food that weighs so much 
 with you, I will be satisfied with the fish skins 
 and the fins and the tails, and the potato skins 
 and the other things that you would throw to the 
 dogs. I can sustain life on them well enough, 
 and then I will be no burden to you, my son. 0, 
 do not kill me, and I will be perfectly satisfied 
 with what you would throw to the dogs ! 
 
 "And do you not know that the dogs need to 
 be fed ? Do you not know that they are very use 
 ful? That we harness them to sleds in winter, 
 and that they find game for us which we could 
 not find without them, and are useful to us in 
 many ways ? But you are of no use at all ! " 
 
 Here the old woman began to cry and sob bit 
 terly. "He is not willing to allow me even a 
 share of that which is thrown to the dogs," she 
 said, "because he is determined to kill me! 
 that I should have lived to hear my son tell me 
 that he was not willing that I should have a 
 share of even the dogs food. Oh, oh, oh!" 
 Here she burst out again in loud and bitter 
 weeping. 
 
 " I do not see what use there is in your taking 
 
332 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 on so," he said, "and making such a hullabaloo. 
 I should think you would like to go and see the 
 old people whom you knew in your youth. You 
 are miserable and unhappy now, and it ought to 
 be a relief to you to go and see them. Those 
 whom you grew up with are nearly all dead 
 now. You will find them all there before you in 
 the Villages of the Dead. They will be glad to 
 see you. They say they have plenty there, and 
 dance all the time." 
 
 "I shall see them soon enough, my son. I 
 do not wish to go and see them before my time." 
 
 "But I should think that being as miserable 
 as you are, poor and old, and in the way of 
 everybody, you would be glad to die and go to 
 the next life." 
 
 "My son, I dread to die. I have a horror of 
 it. When I was young I did not care. It 
 seemed to me sometimes that I would as soon the 
 Sioux would have killed me as not, but for the 
 little children I would have left in poverty. But 
 the nearer I approach death, the more I dread 
 it. The solemnity of life grows on me as I get 
 farther into it. I have been a good-living 
 woman all my life, but somehow I am not ready 
 to die. There is something wanting. There 
 fore I am distracted when you tell me that you 
 are about to push me over the precipice before 
 I am ready to go." 
 
 "But do you not know that you have to go 
 anyway, and before long, at your age ; and what 
 difference does it make whether you go now or a 
 few years later?" 
 
 * It does not seem so hard when I come to it in 
 
THE OJIBWAY 333 
 
 the way of nature, as to be violently thrust into 
 it. Perhaps my faculties may be benumbed by 
 sickness, so that I shall not dread it, or perhaps 
 I shall be unconscious and pass away in that 
 state and I shall die without knowing it. I have 
 seen many who were long sick, and somehow 
 their fear of death seemed to have passed away 
 with their long sickness ; and I hope it will be so 
 with me. But to die against my will, and before 
 my time; to be dragged toward it when I am 
 struggling with all my might, backing, trying to 
 go the other way! Oh, that is inexpressibly 
 dreadful to me ! I almost die to think of it. The 
 sweat stands out all over me when I think of it. 
 The other I can endure; that is, to meet death 
 when it approaches me slowly and in the way of 
 nature; but this overpowers me with horror. 
 All the other horrors of life are swallowed up in 
 this, and then do not half fill it, it is so vast a 
 horror. Therefore, my son, I ask you to let me 
 live. Do not push your old mother, shrinking 
 and holding back and shrieking in agony, over 
 this brink." 
 
 That is all very well for you to talk in that 
 way. I suppose it is natural. But let me tell 
 you this. I am a man of principle. I go by law 
 and by rule. The principle and the law is that 
 it is a good thing and is right and proper to put 
 old people out of the way when they have be 
 come useless and are in people s way. I believe 
 in it, and I am not going to be turned, by the cry 
 ing and beseeching of an old woman, from doing 
 so. I suppose all of them cry and take on in just 
 the way you are doing when they come to it." 
 
334 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 "Then are you really going to put me out of 
 the way?" 
 
 "I certainly am. I have said I would do so, 
 and I will not draw back from what I have once 
 resolved on. There are some of those irresolute 
 creatures who say they will do a thing to-day 
 and change to-morrow, but I am not one of them. 
 I am a man. Here he struck his hand proudly 
 upon his breast. "When I have said a thing, 
 my manhood obliges me to keep to my word and 
 do it. I have made up my mind to do this and 
 shall not change it." 
 
 "Listen to me, my son. I remember once long 
 ago when there was a starving time with the In 
 dians, and many of them died of hunger. They 
 could find no game ; and it was in the winter and 
 the snow very deep ; and it was very cold, and so 
 they starved to death. Those of them who lived, 
 lived by scraping the moss off the trees, and eat 
 ing it, keeping themselves barely alive in that 
 way. I was in that starving camp, and I kept 
 myself barely alive with moss. I had a little 
 boy with me, and notwithstanding the starva 
 tion and death all around me, I kept that little 
 boy fat. How did I do it? I had some food 
 secretly hidden, and every day, though starv 
 ing myself, I fed the little boy some of that food. 
 I never touched the food myself, though I was 
 starving; but gave it to that little boy, because 
 I loved hini better than my life. That little boy 
 was you. 
 
 "Very probably you did all that. Indeed. I 
 have heard it before. It is natural, I suppose, 
 for mothers to do that for their children. Al- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 335 
 
 most any of them would do it. But that is all 
 past long ago, and we have to consider the situa 
 tion now. And the situation is that you are old 
 and useless, and in the way. There is a thing 
 that I forgot to tell you when I was telling you 
 the reasons why you should leave this world. 
 Do you not know that The People do not live all 
 the year round in one place; that we have to 
 move around a good deal to make our living? 
 That we have to follow the food wherever it is?" 
 
 "Yes, I know that." 
 
 And do you not know that you are not able to 
 keep up with us on the march? Do you not re 
 member that time in the evening when we got in 
 to camp you were not there, because you were 
 not able to keep up with us? And you did not 
 come in all night, because you could not travel ; 
 and when we were all ready to start the next 
 morning you were still absent, and our march 
 was delayed by long waiting for you there till it 
 was high day, till you got in? And then you were 
 so weak, from having got no supper and no 
 breakfast, that you went tottering along and de 
 layed us still more? If I had not been the most 
 merciful man in the world I would have gone 
 on and abandoned you right there! I do not 
 know whether you would have got to where we 
 were or not! That was the first time that I 
 really got a-thinking what a burden you were, 
 and that it was about time for you to leave this 
 world. And you know very well that that thing 
 will not be getting any better, but will be getting 
 worse. Instead of getting spryer you will keep 
 getting more and more unable to march ; even if 
 
336 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 you do not carry any pack, and have only your 
 self to carry along. You remember that time 
 very well, and you know that you will be becom 
 ing, as I say, more and more a burden. There 
 fore let us talk no more about this matter. We 
 have talked about it long enough. I have said 
 that I am going to put you out of the way, and 
 I am not going to break my word ; and that in 
 cident that I have just called to mind only shows 
 me more clearly that I am right. 
 
 It was, therefore, arranged that she must 
 make her bed in the snow outside the wigwam 
 that night without any fire, and every night, un 
 til the end came; having only her old worn 
 blanket to wrap herself in. As it was cold 
 weather, it was calculated that it would not take 
 long for the cold to do its work. 
 
 The neighbors did not observe that she was 
 outside in the snow until daylight next morning 
 revealed it. Then there was, as may be sup 
 posed, the inquiry, "What is the meaning of 
 this!" And the answer quickly went round, 
 given by Sha-bosh-kunk himself, that he was 
 afraid to sleep in the lodge with her, because 
 she was turning into a man-eating witch. This 
 news quickly spread from wigwam to wigwam, 
 and was a sort of wonder. One repeated it to 
 another, and then both the teller and the hearer 
 marvelled. The instinct that is in fallen hu 
 manity to believe an evil report, and even in a 
 manner to rejoice at it, was there. And it caused 
 the women to utter their "gave," their long- 
 drawn exclamation of surprise, grief, and 
 horror that she should be such a bad old woman ! 
 
THE OJIBWAY 337 
 
 Then there came in the counter-feeling, that she 
 had always been such a good woman that the 
 accusation could not be true. Then there came 
 the thought that Sha-bosh-kunk only made the 
 charge for an excuse to put his old mother out 
 of the way. But last of all was the considera 
 tion that there was a real genuine witch in their 
 midst, and that was a most delightful sensation ! 
 The younger women, and the girls especially 
 took that view of it. There was a horrible, but 
 most delightful, fascination in going and taking 
 a fearful look at her as she sat outside ; feeling 
 thankful that they were not near enough for 
 her to take hold of them and devour them ! So 
 she was the wonder and, to some extent, the 
 horror, and then again the pity of her little 
 world. The last feeling prevailed so with some 
 of the women that, urged by the sight of her for 
 lorn condition and by the remembrance of so 
 many years of kind association and kind deeds 
 on her part, they brought her some warm cooked 
 food, and set it in reach of her, and spoke kindly 
 to her. They knew that they had no power to 
 alter her fate one way or the other, for she be 
 longed to her son, and it was his right and pri 
 vilege to do what he pleased with her, and no 
 one else had a right to interfere. But it was in 
 their power to cheer her and alleviate her suf 
 ferings by kindly words, and this they did. This 
 was more especially noticeable in the elderly 
 women, for the younger were more impressed 
 with the force of the accusation against her, 
 and from a distance gazed with a feeling of 
 mingled fear and horror upon her. 
 
338 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 So the hours of the day passed, and she was 
 the principal topic of conversation in the vil 
 lage. Finally some of the men rather remon 
 strated with Sha-bosh-kunk for making such a 
 public exhibition of her. They said to him: 
 * She is your mother, and we know it is none of 
 our business what you do to her, and we do not 
 question your right to do to her as you please; 
 but it rather hurts our feelings to see her there, 
 suffering, right in the midst of us, where we 
 have to see her every time we go out. It would 
 be better if you took her into some more secret 
 place, where she would be out of public sight. " 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk yielded to this request, and 
 pulled her inside the wigwam she had been 
 lying just outside but she was so badly frozen 
 that after awhile she died. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SHA-BOSH-KUNK KEACHES THE PINNACLE OF GLORY. 
 
 Some time after this, Yellow Thunder was 
 returning to the Gull Lake village from a hunt 
 on which he had started out that morning, when 
 an Indian met him who acted in a very strange 
 and even alarming manner. The man stopped 
 him in the path, and taking hold of him com 
 pelled him to sit down. In answer to Yellow 
 Thunder s anxious inquiry as to what it meant, 
 he made no answer, but pointed upward, and 
 then stood with his eyes fixed on the ground. 
 He seemed to be laboring under some great 
 emotion, and also acted as if he had lost the 
 power of speech. When Yellow Thunder, after 
 a long silence on the part of both of them, 
 attempted to rise and proceed on his way, the 
 man again took hold of him with an air of 
 authority and forced him down. Evidently there 
 was something of overwhelming importance 
 on his mind, yet he could not apparently bring 
 himself to disclose what it was. He acted as if 
 life and all its concerns had suddenly come to 
 a standstill and that only the thing he was think 
 ing of, whatever it was, remained. Finally, 
 after a long time, he did consent to rise and 
 walk along the trail leading to the village, and 
 allowed Yellow Thunder to follow him. 
 
 When they came to the village, Yellow 
 
340 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Thunder saw many of the men standing about 
 in the same apparently dazed state as his guide, 
 and he understood that something very unusual, 
 and he feared very serious, had occurred. What 
 it was he could not conjecture. No one had 
 died it was not that. Nor had there been any 
 irruption of the Sioux. An air of mystery, in 
 an oppressive form, hung over the village. 
 Yellow Thunder first made sure that his wife 
 was alive, and his near relatives, and then bent 
 his mind to thinking what it could be. But he 
 could not fathom it, nor did any of the groups 
 of silent men seem able to tell what it was; or 
 if they were able, they would not. 
 
 At last the man who had met him on the trail, 
 and another man, who by this time were posing 
 as priests of this mystery, whatever it was, 
 drew the men of the village by signs and by 
 leading them along, but without speaking and 
 still with the same air of profound mystery, 
 to a central place, and seemed to be wishing to 
 have a council with them, or to disclose some 
 thing to them. They all followed these myste 
 rious beckonings, and slowly and gravely, and 
 as mute as their guides, made their way to the 
 accustomed place. Here, in the same silence, 
 they took their places and waited for whatever 
 was to come. They had to wait a long while. 
 The two heralds, or priests, or whatever they 
 might be called, who were evidently in posses 
 sion of the secret, sat with their eyes fixed upon 
 the ground, as if weighed down with some 
 mighty matter. Either it was so great that 
 they could not utter it, or they staggered under 
 
THE OJIBWAY 341 
 
 the difficulty of doing so. The men assembled 
 looked equally grave they did not even look 
 at each other, their eyes were bent on the 
 ground. Save for an occasional deep sigh from 
 some one of the two leaders, they might have 
 been men suddenly turned to statues. 
 
 At last, after a long, long silence, which seemed 
 as if it would never end, one of the leaders 
 spoke. But it was not in strains of oratory, nor 
 in the vehement manner that ordinarily char 
 acterized their deliverances. It was in a low tone 
 that could scarcely be heard, and only a word 
 at a time, with long pauses between. And 
 he spoke not standing or facing them, but sitting, 
 with his eyes still cast upon the ground. He 
 began by telling that what he had to say was 
 amazing ; something too wonderful and too vast 
 for human utterance. Nevertheless, he must let 
 them know it, and therefore he had led them 
 there. 
 
 All this took a long time to say, and the 
 mystery deepened and heightened as he spoke. 
 Finally he approached the subject, and his 
 tones became more awe-struck, his voice sank 
 lower, and the periods of silence between his 
 words became longer than before. At last the 
 mighty secret was announced, or rather it 
 slowly, and word by word, forced itself through 
 his lips. 
 
 It was that God had appeared to Sha-bosh- 
 kunk, of their village, and had given a revela 
 tion of His will to him ; and had appointed him 
 His Son to save the world! Then followed the 
 circumstances of this appearing, slowly told, 
 
342 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and with becoming fear; how Sha-bosh-kunk 
 was out hunting in the woods and how the 
 Supreme Being appeared to him. There was 
 a detailed description of how He looked, of His 
 features, of His dress, which was very particu 
 larly described from head to foot, and which 
 seemed to have consisted mostly of gold. Then 
 came the words He used, which were very par 
 ticularly related. The setting of this wondrous 
 act of Revelation was also described, the par 
 ticular kind of tree that grew there, what Sha- 
 bosh-kunk was doing and thinking of at the time, 
 and the other accessories. Then the speaker 
 told them that he and the other man who assisted 
 him had been commissioned by the one to whom 
 the revelation was made to make it known to 
 the people for their acceptance and obedience, 
 and to act as his ("Oshkabewisug") heralds, 
 forerunners, men of business, and conveyors of 
 His will, for it means all these. 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk, while this announcement was 
 being made, sat amidst the group, his eyes like 
 wise bent upon the ground, weighed down as it 
 seemed, by the momentous commission which 
 had been put upon him. He was now too 
 great a man to speak to the people directly, 
 but as became his new dignity, through inter 
 mediaries. He meekly accepted all the honor 
 that his heralds put upon him, and there he was, 
 the Son of God, and the accredited representa 
 tive of Deity! When the first herald had 
 finished, the other took the matter up, adding 
 some touches which the former had omitted and 
 contributing to the roundness and coherency 
 
THE OJIBWAY 343 
 
 of the narrative. They helped each other, one 
 supplying what .the other omitted, and between 
 them raised a fabric that was solid and impos 
 ing. 
 
 The first thought that came to Yellow Thun 
 der s mind when he heard it was wonder; that 
 God, if He were making a. revelation of Himself, 
 should have done so to such a man as Sha-bosh- 
 kunk, and not to some more worthy representa 
 tive. For although he was a chief, and in many 
 ways had a great reputation, yet there were 
 things about him which he knew that did not 
 incline him to think at all favorably of him. He 
 thought of his matrimonial relations, and it 
 left a bad taste in his mouth. He thought of 
 many ways in which people had suffered by him 
 in time past. He remembered the expedition 
 to Leech Lake with the lucifer match, and 
 although it excited admiration for his adroit 
 ness, yet there was mixed with that the feeling 
 that it was not right towards those who had lost 
 their goods. He thought of the accusation 
 against his old mother, of being about to turn 
 into a man-eating witch, and of what grew out 
 of that, which had ended in the old mother now 
 resting in the crotch of a tree. And although 
 he realized that Sha-bosh-kunk had the legal 
 right to do with his mother as he pleased, yet 
 the impression produced on him was on the 
 whole a painful one. Therefore it seemed 
 strange to him that God, if He were about to 
 make a revelation, had not selected some other 
 man about whom so many unpleasant memories 
 did not cluster. But the circumstances of the 
 
344 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 interview with the Deity were related so cir 
 cumstantially, and the fact of his being the man 
 he was not seeming to make any difference in 
 its acceptance with the other Indians, Yellow 
 Thunder did not see any reason why it should 
 with him. Therefore, like the others, he ac 
 cepted the new revelation. 
 
 He now arose and made them a little speech, 
 but in low and somewhat awe-struck tones as 
 became the solemnity of the subject. And nr 
 the speech he voiced his own ideas on the matter, 
 which were also the ideas of those present. 
 
 4 Indeed, my friends/ said Yellow Thunder, 
 "this is a wonderful thing that we have heard, 
 that God has been pleased to make a revelation 
 of Himself to one of our village, Sha-bosh-kunk, 
 and to appoint him His Son! Neither we nor 
 our ancestors have ever known anything so won 
 derful ! It is amazing ! And in no other village 
 of the Ojibways has such a thing occurred; but 
 only in ours ! And yet, amazing as it is, we are 
 not, in one sense, surprised at it. We all know 
 there is a god or gods ; every Indian knows that. 
 We all know it as truly as we know that we our 
 selves live. I have never met an Ojibway in my 
 life who does not believe that, nor have any of 
 you, for there is no such Ojibway. And we have 
 seen the Sioux; they all know and believe that 
 just as we do. 
 
 "The missionary who was here told us there 
 is only one God, our ancestors taught us there 
 are many gods everywhere. But both doc 
 trines are the same; for both tell us that this 
 world and we were made and are governed by 
 some One or some ones else, and that neither 
 
THE OJIBWAY 345 
 
 we nor this world made or governs itself. You 
 know our fathers taught us that everything we 
 see as a bear, or a rock is only an outward 
 representation of the inward Deity that resides 
 therein. That every such thing is the outward 
 expression, or the body, and that the soul which 
 resides within is God or a spirit. And that is 
 why when we are traveling on the prairie and 
 see a rock, say, or anything remarkable, we 
 place an offering of tobacco upon it to the deity 
 within. We are very pious in that way, as our 
 ancestors taught us. And although we cannot 
 see God as Those- who-pray (the Christians) 
 call Him; or the gods, as our ancestors taught 
 us, for He hides Himself from us behind the 
 veil of matter, yet we come pretty close to see 
 ing Him, for we constantly see where He has 
 been at work. When in the spring and summer 
 season we go out of our wigwam doors in the 
 morning we see where Some One has been at 
 work during the night. Things look different 
 from what they did the day before. Leaves 
 have been shaped and opened during the night, 
 and colors have been laid on the flowers that 
 were not there the day before. While we were 
 sleeping Some One was at work. Red and blue 
 and green and all colors have been spread 
 and far more beautifully than we or any one 
 on the top of the ground could do it. We can 
 constantly see the work, though the Workman 
 eludes us. Our senses at present are not fine 
 enough to see Him. For my part, when I walk 
 abroad, in the spring especially, when the leaves 
 are opening and the flowers unfolding, I am 
 
346 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 filled with wonder and amazement as I look 
 around and on every hand see the marks of 
 God s working! And it is so with every one of 
 you I know. We are none of us so insensate as 
 not to take notice of these things which are right 
 under our eyes all the time. 
 
 " There being, therefore, a God or gods, it is 
 not surprising that He should in some way com 
 municate with His children whom He has made. 
 In fact, we have been expecting that in some 
 way He would. Rather would it be most sur 
 prising if He left us to grope along in the dark 
 and never communicated with us. We would 
 doubt whether He really pitied us if He never 
 in any way showed Himself to us, or spoke to 
 us. So I say for myself that I have been expect 
 ing something of this sort, and I know you have 
 also. And when the missionary was here with 
 us he told us the very same thing that we are 
 now thinking of and have long ago been think 
 ing of, namely, that God has spoken. These 
 two heralds say it; the missionary says it, and 
 we have long had a feeling that it would come 
 to pass, and now here it is. God has chosen 
 Sha-bosh-kunk, it appears, as the one by whom 
 He will speak, and who will represent Him on 
 earth. Well, it is for Him to choose whom He 
 pleases, and all we have to do is to accept and 
 obey." 
 
 His Indian politeness would not allow him 
 to recount any particulars of wherein he 
 thought Sha-bosh-kunk was not fully up to 
 the standard of what a representative of Deity 
 should be, especially as he was present. And 
 
THE OJIBWAY 347 
 
 even had he been absent he would not, consider 
 ing that it was God s part to choose whom He 
 pleased, and their part to accept the one sent. 
 He, therefore, concluded by saying that he, like 
 the others, accepted the revelation and accepted 
 Sha-bosh-kunk as the Son of God; and that he 
 would do his best to bring all into obedience to 
 him, as in duty bound. 
 
 The particulars of the revelation were how 
 stated by the two heralds, while Sha-bosh-kunk 
 sat meekly listening and approving. He was 
 dressed in moccasins, leggings, bead garters, 
 and a shirt, which flowed loose, not being con 
 fined by any other garment. Feathers were in 
 his hair. His eyes were mostly upon the ground, 
 and humility was the expression that was main 
 ly on his face, as if he felt himself unworthy of 
 so great an honor. The particulars were that 
 God had appointed Sha-bosh-kunk His Son to 
 save the world, and if he had not been sent the 
 world would not have lasted two years longer; 
 that the Indians were all implicitly to obey and 
 follow him ; that they were to discard all means 
 of making fire derived from the whites, as 
 matches, and flint and steel, and were to re 
 turn to the old Indian way of making fire by the 
 friction of sticks in rapid motion ; that the Deity 
 was very greatly displeased with them for 
 adopting these new ways of making fire; that 
 women were not to be struck ; that all dogs were 
 to be killed ; and that horses promised in a dance 
 were not to be delivered. There were some 
 other minor commands, but these were the prin 
 cipal ones. 
 
348 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 This met with the approval and acquiescence 
 of the Indians present, and they promised to 
 adopt them; ajid accepted Sha-bosh-kunk and 
 his revelation as the will of God for them. Some 
 of the commands, as that to kill dogs and throw 
 away the fire-steel, were a little hard, for dogs 
 were very useful, finding bears and other 
 animals for them in the woods, which without 
 them they could not find; bringing out of the 
 water birds that they killed, and doing many 
 other useful things. But this only made the 
 new religion more attractive, for what would 
 religion be without a spice of hardness in it? 
 The sacrifice demanded endeared it all the more 
 to them. They urged one another on, therefore, 
 to the slaughter of the dogs, saying, "If God 
 has told us this, we must do it whether we like 
 it or not." In the same way old contrivances 
 for making fire, long disused, were got ready. 
 The whole village unanimously and unques- 
 tioningly adopted the new revelation, and put 
 in practice its precepts. 
 
 The next thing was to make other villages 
 aware of this new revelation, and to demand 
 their obedience to it. It invested their village 
 with a certain superiority, that God had selected 
 it to appear in, rather than any other ; and that 
 one of themselves was the one He had appeared 
 to and appointed His Son. There were, there 
 fore, many willing volunteers to carry the news 
 to other villages, for the bearer of such an im 
 portant matter was thereby made a man of 
 much importance himself. Many councillings 
 were held, occupying many days, consulting 
 
THE OJIBWAY 349 
 
 how best to further this important matter. The 
 new cult overshadowed everything else ; nothing 
 else was thought or talked of. The heartiness 
 with which they threw themselves into it was 
 remarkable. Sqon emissaries were speeding to 
 Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, and every Ojibway 
 village, no matter how remote ; who, when they 
 arrived, arrested the hunters in the same myste 
 rious way that had been practiced on Yellow 
 Thunder; gathered them into councils, and 
 there, with the same impressive observance 
 which had been used at Gull Lake, made known 
 to them the new revelation, and the Son of God. 
 It spread like wild-fire everywhere in the Indian 
 country; and even to distant villages in the 
 British Possessions and far north toward Hud 
 son bay, went messengers bearing the wonder 
 ful news of the appearance of God in the Gull 
 Lake village, and of the commands he had 
 delivered to Sha-bosh-kunk. 
 
 The excitement produced by the wonderful 
 news increased. He who had heard it thought 
 himself in possession of a treasure which he 
 could not rest till he had communicated to some 
 other man, who had heard it not. He felt that 
 he had a certain superiority in his position of 
 conveyor over the one to whom he conveyed it. 
 
 Soon there began to come to Gull Lake, 
 Indians from great distances, to see this new 
 prophet, and to hear with their own ears. Some 
 came on horseback, some afoot. Many and 
 many painful days journeys did they make to 
 see him. From being comparatively unknown, 
 he had suddenly became a great celebrity. His 
 
350 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 fame reached hundreds and hundreds of miles, 
 and to the most distant Indian villages. 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk did not cheapen himself. He 
 allowed himself to be seen, indeed, by his 
 admirers, but they must approach upon their 
 hands and knees. To one who declined thus to 
 approach him, he foretold, through his heralds, 
 approaching disaster, and when the man was 
 going home his pony ran away and threw him 
 and nearly killed him. When this became known 
 it invested Sha-bosh-kunk with an attribute of 
 fear, and visitors were careful in future to 
 approach him with becoming reverence. He 
 himself did not deign to speak to any one; only 
 to be seen, and that not always readily. To his 
 heralds he communicated his will, and they pro 
 mulgated it to the people. 
 
 One of those who came to see him was, how 
 ever, of a skeptical turn of mind; for when he 
 saw him he found him eating boiled corn with 
 out anything else, and he went home and told 
 to his village that he did not believe he was the 
 Son of God, for if he had been he would have 
 been " blessed ;" that is, would have had some 
 thing better to eat than whole boiled corn ! 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk had now reached the highest 
 pinnacle of his glory. His name was known in 
 the most distant creeks and rivers, and in the 
 wigwams in the deepest recesses of the forest, 
 far, far away. Pilgrims came to see him from 
 distant villages which the Gull Lake Indians had 
 previously never heard of. Even as far away 
 as Wawiatanong (Detroit) it was told that God 
 had appeared to Sha-bosh-kunk at Gull Lake; 
 
THE OJIBWAY 351 
 
 and hunters in that vicinity turned the prows 
 of their canoes northward, to paddle for weeks, 
 to go and see him. Nor did they come empty- 
 handed. His votaries brought him presents of 
 all kinds, and he became by far the most opulent 
 man in the village. No longer could it be said 
 of him that he had only boiled corn to eat! Of 
 silver ornaments and of furs, of the various 
 things that the Indian considers most valuable, 
 he had a great store. And he brought such 
 honor and dignity to the village that they all 
 began to be proud of him. And not honor only, 
 but he brought profit also. In various ways 
 they reaped a material benefit from the crowds 
 of visitors. They became, in a way, hotel- 
 keepers, and did a thriving business housing the 
 visitors, for which they were paid; for there 
 were so many that they could not be expected 
 to do it for nothing. 
 
 It is no wonder, therefore, that they began to 
 look on him as a very great man; their great 
 man. Former shortcomings that they might 
 have remembered were condoned in his wonder 
 ful success. Those things were in the past; this 
 success was a blazing present fact. Not only, 
 then, in material spoils, but in the highest honor 
 and influence did Sha-bosh-kunk now abound. 
 He had climbed to the top of the ladder and was 
 firmly seated there, above them all, even if some 
 of the steps by which he had ascended were a 
 little shaky. He had all that heart could wish 
 for. He had proved himself a very successful 
 wrestler, for he had won the highest prize. 
 
 How had it all come about. It was the 
 
352 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 I 
 
 product of his own fertile brain, and of his keen 
 eye to see what would be of advantage to him 
 self, and seize upon it. When he had heard the 
 missionary, Breck, talking about the Son of 
 God; that He had come, and that He was to 
 come again, the idea occurred to him that here 
 was something for him. Who was so worthy to 
 be a Son of God as himself. Did he not surpass 
 in smartness his fellow Indians? Which of 
 them could have got such a large quantity of 
 goods by that lucifer match. He therefore men 
 tally laid by this new idea, as he had the Sioux 
 garter, for use at some future time. 
 
 The time came. He was at a dance where 
 much excitement was developed in the matter 
 of the dancers giving presents to each other. It 
 was done somewhat through the contagion of 
 excitement, the giving away of presents by some 
 stirring others to do the same. The principal 
 reason, however, of doing it was to gain reputa-r 
 tion. He who gave away his property was a 
 " strong-hearted " man, generous and magnani 
 mous, who did not mind giving away his sub 
 stance in the abundance of his generosity ! The 
 act excited admiration and the giver gained 
 praise. 
 
 When, therefore, Sha-bosh-kunk was caper 
 ing around in the ring dancing, at the same time 
 whooping and yelling, he felt a desire to attract 
 attention and to gain a reputation for being 
 generous and liberal, one who did not mind 
 giving away the most valuable property he had 
 to _a_ friend; so, carried away for the time by 
 these feelings, he looked aimlessly here and 
 
THE OJIBWAY 353 
 
 there as if he were uncertain just what he would 
 do, then of a sudden halted in front of a man 
 where he was seated and thrust in the ground 
 before him two rods. This was a pledge that he 
 would deliver to the man two ponies, the only 
 ones he had. This " brave " act brought loud 
 shouts of approval from the dancers; admiring 
 looks were cast upon Sha-bosh-kunk, and he was 
 a very happy man. But when the morning 
 brought reflection he was sorely troubled in 
 mind that he had to give away those ponies. 
 He sought some way out of it, but could find 
 none. There was no escape from delivering 
 those ponies or losing his honor and being 
 laughed at. 
 
 It occurred to him that perhaps the white 
 people, who had so much knowledge, might 
 know of some way out of it, so he resolved to 
 consult them. He therefore made a journey to 
 where his trader lived, quite a long distance off, 
 told him of his perplexity, and asked him to find 
 some way for him to avoid delivering those 
 horses. The trader, well accustomed to Indian 
 customs, frankly told him that there was no way 
 out of it ; that those horses must be delivered if 
 he were not to become an object of derision at 
 Gull Lake. 
 
 Thus thrown back on his own resources he 
 meditated very intently on the subject, and at 
 last the plan gradually made itself clear to him 
 to announce that God had appeared to him and 
 appointed him His Son; and further, that God 
 had given a revelation of His will to him, and 
 among the points given him, a command that 
 
354 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 "no horses promised in a dance were to be 
 delivered. " In this way he would save his 
 credit and his horses, too, and if he was success 
 ful, establish himself on a very lofty pinacle as 
 the Son of God. The next thing, having thought 
 out the scheme so far, was to find instruments 
 to aid him. It would not do for him to attempt 
 it himself alone he must be vouched for by 
 others. It would be too easy and too bare-faced 
 for him alone to assert that God had spoken to 
 him and given a revelation to him, and commis 
 sioned him. Help, therefore, he must have. 
 Casting about to see where the help would come 
 from, he remembered two men who, led away 
 by the excitement, had similarly promised 
 horses in the dance, and were now in very low 
 spirits touching the delivery of the same. To 
 these, therefore, he went ; informed them of his 
 interview and revelation, and particularly of 
 that part of it about the delivery of horses. He 
 pointed out to them this avenue of escape from 
 their predicament. He found them not at all 
 unwilling to be persuaded; in fact, very ready 
 to believe all he told them about his meeting 
 with God. Having thus enlisted them, he care 
 fully trained them for their part; instructed 
 them how to arrest hunters ; how to throw an air 
 of mystery about it ; how to produce a sensation. 
 When all was ready the disclosure was made, 
 and there, in among the other revelations, was 
 one little revelation against the delivery of 
 horses promised in a dance. 
 
 The scheme worked even better, and extended 
 wider than he had imagined ; not to horses only, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 355 
 
 but to far greater things. They all profited by 
 it. Not he alone, but his heralds also in less 
 degree, and they were equally interested in 
 keeping up what had unexpectedly become so 
 large a thing. Not only profit, but the heralds 
 even had become great men, upholding the 
 majestic figure of Sha-bosh-kunk. His surpass 
 ing greatness as the Son of God was reflected 
 upon them. Here, then, he was in the very hey 
 day of wealth, power, and popularity. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 FAMINE/ AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 
 
 This marvelous exaltation of Sha-bosh-kunk 
 continued all the summer. After a while the 
 winter set in and Gull Lake took on a new love 
 liness under a dazzling robe of pure white snow. 
 It was a different kind of loveliness from that 
 of rose crowned summer; but in its way it was 
 equally as great. The difference was so great 
 that they might have been two different worlds. 
 In summer everything was covered with a uni 
 versal mantle of green, save where it was 
 bespangled with the red petals of the rose. The 
 pines, the meadows, the little prairies and open 
 ings were all covered with this robe of green. 
 After a June shower, when there had come * the 
 clear shining after rain," there was a dazzling 
 greenness lit up by the sparkling of innumerable 
 raindrops. 
 
 But now, in winter, the world had changed 
 to pure white. As far as one could go to the 
 north or to the south not an inch of space could 
 be seen that did not have that pure white mantle. 
 The lake was covered with it, and but for its 
 levelness, and the absence of trees or shrubs, 
 would have seemed a part of the land. The pine 
 trees were loaded with snow, which hung on 
 their branches and on the tufts of the pines, 
 forming a thick cap for them and bending them 
 
THE OJIBWAY 357 
 
 down toward the ground. It was this loading 
 of the pines with snow, their supporting masses 
 of it in the air, that gave the landscape its 
 special winter loveliness. It was when the sun 
 shone clear, which it did day after day and week 
 after week, in a cloudless sky of deepest blue, 
 that this beauty reached its height. Then the 
 snow sparkled in innumerable diamond points 
 on the ground below and among the tufts of the 
 pines, till the earth was one dazzling splendor. 
 Oh, the perfect purity, the glory of such a day ! 
 And during the moon-of-the-freezing-of-the- 
 waters (November), especially, the trees were 
 covered with the most exquisite frost-work. It 
 was like a fairy dream. Humane imagination 
 could not have conceived much less human 
 hands executed, such miracles of artistic work 
 in frosting as were every morning displayed in 
 lavish prodigality. 
 
 Nor were these displays of beauty confined to 
 the day. The nights oftentimes presented 
 greater. The sky was filled with mock moons, 
 each one so bright that it was impossible to tell 
 which was the real one; and these moons were 
 connected by bands of light that formed a circle 
 round the entire sky. From the mock moons 
 and from the connecting bands other streams 
 of light shot up to the zenith. There were 
 crosses, and many different figures, so that the 
 world overhead was filled with an indescribable 
 glory and splendor. Beauty and splendor 
 above, beauty and purity below the beauty and 
 purity of the far northern winter. 
 
 Midway between the above and the below, 
 
358 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 sheltered beneath the overhanging pines the 
 Gull Lake village nestled. The smoke from each 
 open wigwam top could be seen ascending far, 
 far up toward the zenith in the still winter air 
 each morning. At night it was a pillar of fire. 
 From within came the shouts and laughter of 
 happy families, free from care, and with 
 nothing to do but enjoy the good things which 
 abounded on every hand. Quantities of flesh, 
 the proceeds of the exertions of their hunters, 
 were hung from rude scaffolds of poles in front 
 of each wigwam; and fish, which the mothers 
 had caught and which were suspended there 
 frozen. On the same scaffold, or within the 
 wigwam, were some little stores of wild rice 
 gathered by the women the previous autumn; 
 of corn raised by them; perhaps of potatoes. 
 There was also some of last spring s maple 
 sugar still remaining in the birch-bark "mo- 
 kuks" in which it had been put. 
 
 As usual, enjoyment was the only thing they 
 had to attend to. The only work to do was pro 
 viding the daily supply of wood to keep the 
 wigwam fire going, and this was done by the 
 women but not as work, but in the way of a 
 frolic. Daily, about an hour before sunset, they 
 could be seen issuing from their lodges, each 
 with her ax and packing strap. They laughed 
 and joked with each other as they followed the 
 path that led into the woods, and soon the forest 
 was vocal with the sound of their axes. Then 
 they emerged, each woman bearing a great load 
 on her back, carried by the packing-strap which 
 passed around her forehead. It was deposited 
 
THE OJIBWAY 359 
 
 at the door of her wigwam, and then she went 
 back for another load, until enough had been 
 secured. Besides this there was the tanning of 
 skins, the cooking of food, but all these could be 
 done without much exertion. The area of her 
 home was so small that the woman could reach 
 nearly every article she needed in her house 
 keeping without rising from her sitting position 
 on the mat, or at any rate with the aid of a 
 forked stick to bring it to her. 
 
 So the first part of winter wore joyously away 
 until midwinter came. Then occurred an event 
 of some importance a visit paid them by a 
 band of sixty men and women from the neigh 
 boring village of Leech Lake. The weather was 
 now cold (about forty degrees below zero) and 
 the snow was deep; but neither cold nor snow 
 had the smallest terrors for their visitors. Each 
 had his or her blanket, the equipment which the 
 jibway thinks sufficient in any sort of weather. 
 If he has his blanket he asks no more by night 
 or day. It is his house that protects him from 
 rain, snow, and wind ; and his sufficient covering 
 by night to keep him warm. They had been 
 about three days on the way, taking it leisurely, 
 as it was a pleasure trip. Their route being 
 through a timbered country, they made great 
 fires at night, and slept in perfect comfort. 
 
 Their arrival added to the enjoyment of the 
 Gull Lake people, and the time of their stay was 
 wholly given up to festivities. They were all 
 hospitably taken into the wigwams of their 
 hosts, crowding them to their capacity. The 
 stores of provisions were liberally drawn upon, 
 
360 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and everything they had, used freely to feed 
 their visitors. The hunters no longer went out 
 each morning to bring in supplies of meat, for 
 there was too much going on, and of too exciting 
 a character. Every morning, after breakfast, 
 they all assembled in a sort of council-house, or 
 dance-house, rudely constructed by themselves, 
 and of sufficient capacity to hold the entire 
 village and their guests. Here drumming and 
 dancing went on all day long and far into the 
 night. During the frequent intervals of the 
 dance, and while they were resting, the speakers 
 addressed them, and hundreds of speeches were 
 made. The favorite subject, both with speakers 
 and auditors, was about killing Sioux, and the 
 adventures they had met in that pursuit. 
 
 A Leech Lake man would stand up and begin 
 with his leaving Leech Lake; describe his jour 
 ney, all that he saw, his getting sight of the 
 enemy, his killing, his flight, the pursuit that 
 was made of him and how he saved himself. 
 When he came to the part where he killed his 
 enemy the drum gave the usual tap as the life 
 went out. 
 
 There were other subjects discussed their 
 own politics, the struggles of some for pre 
 eminence, and the efforts of others to keep them 
 down, the encroachments which they thought 
 were practiced on them by the whites, and sto 
 ries of hunting were told, and of adventures 
 with animals. But the most popular subject of 
 all was about killing Sioux. Food was cooked 
 and brought into them in a great common dish, 
 out of which they helped themselves. It was 
 
PEACE MEETING 
 
 -OF- 
 
 Ojibways and Dakotas* 
 
 -\/r TMT l_i(y) Transcribed and harmonized 
 
 i. o .w. 
 
 -^ ^ p F? : -~ 
 
 "" > * rr r r r 
 
 * , *. 
 
 n I I_J^. 
 
 f ->.s: * - ^- * ^f - - r TT* 
 
 
 
 
 / r ^ 
 
362 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 hard to find dogs since Sha-bosh-kunk s new 
 cult had caused them to be killed ; nevertheless 
 some were found somewhere, and solemn cere 
 monial feasts had upon them. 
 
 While the dancing and story-telling were 
 going on in the main building, there was a 
 gambling annex in a wigwam nearby, where 
 those who preferred that form of amusement 
 could have it. It was, in fact, a time of general 
 license, and anything that any one wished to 
 do was considered perfectly proper and legiti 
 mate. 
 
 At last their visitors had danced and drummed 
 and talked all they wished to, and prepared to 
 go home. Their hosts were by this time not at 
 all sorry to see them go, for though they had 
 eagerly welcomed them at first, they had now 
 got enough of it. The worst thing was that it 
 had made a serious inroad on their stock of 
 provisions. However, they trusted that their 
 hunters could supply the deficiency. 
 
 Their guests gone, they now settled down to 
 their former ways, but were soon alarmed by 
 the increasing scarcity of food. Their wild rice, 
 corn, and potatoes had all been consumed while 
 their visitors were there; their fish, taken just 
 at the time of the freezing up of the lakes, were 
 also exhausted, and the scaffolds were becoming 
 empty of meat. The severe cold still continued 
 day after day without relaxation. It was nearly 
 forty degrees below zero every day, and the 
 hunters did not like very well to go out nor to 
 go far in such extreme cold. But the worst of 
 all was that no game could be found ! The ani- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 363 
 
 mals had either been driven away by the storms 
 or for some mysterious reason had withdrawn 
 themselves to some other place but certain it 
 was that they could not be found. It is true 
 there were plenty of buffaloes on the edge of 
 the great prairies at Wild Bice river, but that 
 was four sleeps (one hundred miles) away. 
 There was no road, the snow was two and a half 
 feet deep on a level, and to move their little 
 children, themselves, and what they must take 
 with them, in such deep snow and in such ex 
 treme cold, was utterly impossible. They must, 
 therefore, remain where they were and try to 
 find food some way. 
 
 In this extremity they cut holes through the 
 ice of their lake and endeavored to spear fish, 
 using decoys to attract them, but, although they 
 lay all day on the snow over the hole, suffering 
 severely from the cold, their heads covered with 
 a blanket so they could see in the water, one 
 hand holding the fish spear, and the other work 
 ing the decoy, no fish came, and they returned 
 disheartened to the wigwam. The ice was by 
 this time nearly three feet thick, and although 
 it was about the first of February the cold 
 showed no signs of abating. They were held 
 fast in an iron grip. Everything was frozen 
 as hard as iron. Any metal that one accident 
 ally touched burned like fire; or if the hands 
 were moist, adherred to it. 
 
 The aspect of nature had changed from the 
 loveliness it had had in the beginning of winter, 
 and had become severe and even savage. 
 Nature had now assumed a positively hostile 
 
364 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 aspect. The sun no longer shone. The sky was 
 clouded and lowering for weeks. It kept trying 
 to snow and, though not a great deal fell, there 
 was a constant threat of burying them still 
 deeper than they were. The snow that had 
 loaded the pines and bent their branches toward 
 the earth, constituting a great deal of the loveli 
 ness of winter, had now been blown down by 
 the winds, and the trees waved their branches, 
 bare and desolate. 
 
 What a change in their condition had come 
 about in a short time, from the happy abandon 
 and the plenty of summer, autumn and early 
 winter ! 
 
 No longer was laughter heard in the wig 
 wams. The children were everywhere crying 
 for food ; their mothers in vain trying to pacify 
 them. There was hardly a home in which some 
 of the children did not sicken and die. This 
 was caused by hunger, or by eating food that, 
 in its effect on the digestive organs, was as bad 
 as hunger. In their dire extremity they went 
 to the pine trees and scraped thence a certain 
 moss, cooked it and fed it to their children and 
 themselves; but it injured the children s diges 
 tion so that many sickened and died. Others 
 collected the seedpods of last year s roses and, 
 scraping away the seeds, tried to live on the 
 meat that formed the walls. 
 
 They had now all become very thin from 
 long-continued fasting, and very weak. They 
 discussed with each other what they could do to 
 save themselves. Some of them might go to 
 Leech Lake, the nearest village, and ask for 
 
THE OJIBWAY 365 
 
 help. But Leech Lake was two days march 
 (nearly sixty miles) away. There was no road 
 broken through the deep snow, and it was 
 doubtful if any of them had sufficient strength 
 to go on snow-shoes, especially in the arctic 
 temperature that prevailed. Then if they did 
 succeed in reaching it, could the Leech Lake 
 Indians help them? They were probably in 
 almost as bad a plight themselves, for the same 
 causes which brought starvation upon them 
 the disappearance of the animals, the impossi 
 bility of finding fish, the extreme cold they 
 knew operated there also. Then they knew that 
 the Leech Lake Indians never laid in a stock 
 of wild rice or fall fish or raised any potatoes 
 and corn, but just what was barely sufficient for 
 their own needs under most favorable circum 
 stances, and that they were always at that season 
 of the year when it was toward the end of 
 winter, on the verge of starvation. So even if 
 they got there alive it was doubtful if they would 
 get any help. 
 
 They now deeply lamented not having raised 
 more corn and potatoes the previous summer, 
 which they could very easily have done by a few 
 days additional work, and which would have 
 put them beyond the possibility of any such 
 experience as this. 
 
 1 Oh, that I had gathered a sack or two more 
 of wild rice," said the wife of Good-Sounding- 
 Sky, "what would I not give for it now! I 
 could have done it just as easily as not, and 
 so could every woman in this village. I 
 could have gathered ten sacks where I gathered 
 
366 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 one, if I had wanted to. Most of it shelled off 
 into the water. But I thought I had enough 
 to carry us through till spring. I did not think 
 of those lazy Leech Lake vagabonds coming 
 here and eating up everything we had. If I 
 live through till spring I will never be caught 
 in this way again never as long as I live." 
 
 "Yes," said Good-Sounding-Sky, "if we had 
 known that the game was going to disappear in 
 this way just when we most needed it, there 
 were a dozen ways that we could have done, and 
 any one of them would have kept us in plenty. 
 You could have killed thousands of fish last fall, 
 when it began to freeze over, just as easily as 
 what you did, for you told me you took four 
 hundred tulibys every night. Or, as you say, 
 we might have made all the wild rice we wanted 
 to, for there were unlimited quantities of it, and 
 we had nothing else to do. Or we might have 
 raised all the potatoes and corn we wished. I 
 do not think it would have taken us ten days 
 labor in all, and then we would have been be 
 yond want. 
 
 "But that is the way with the Indian," he 
 added cheerfully. "He just provides what will 
 barely do under the most favorable circum 
 stances, and then if anything unusual occurs, 
 as this disappearance of the game, or anything 
 else, there he is ! It is the way the Indians have ; 
 it is the way they have been brought up. With 
 the whites I hear it is different. They provide 
 things in advance. And we need not think this 
 that we are now suffering anything so unusual, 
 for as long as I can remember I do not think a 
 
THE OJIBWAY 367 
 
 winter ever passed that this same thing did not 
 take place in some village of Indians. And 
 I am sure I have heard, every winter, of a 
 good many Indians starving to death some 
 where. 
 
 "Well," replied his wife, "I have told you 
 that if I live to see spring I shall never get 
 caught in this fix again. I shall cultivate a 
 garden and raise corn and potatoes, and then I 
 shall be beyond want. And it is not for myself 
 I care so much, though the pangs of hunger art? 
 hard to bear, but it is the cries and the appeal 
 ing look of that son of ours that go to my heart. 
 I do not mind so much losing my own life, but 
 I reproach myself with being the cause of his 
 losing his. I wish that at any rate I had given 
 nothing to those miserable Leech Lake Indians 
 when they were here. What would I not give 
 now to have that to feed to my son ! 
 
 "Oh, you talk just like all the people do," 
 said Good-Sounding-Sky. "How often have I 
 heard the women say, when the pinch of hunger 
 was on them, that if they lived through to an 
 other spring they would raise corn and potatoes. 
 But when they had plenty the next summer 
 they forgot all about it, and found it far more 
 pleasant to lie on the grass in the sun, or to 
 dance, than to go and hoe in the garden." 
 
 By this time the Indians were reduced to such 
 extremities that they ate old moccasins and 
 pieces of old blanket, anything to relieve the 
 dreadful gnawings of hunger. They also held 
 many consultations with each other about 
 organizing a party of the strongest to endeavor 
 
368 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 to break through to Leech Lake, though they did 
 not expect to find the people there in much 
 better condition than themselves. Still they 
 might get a little corn if they succeeded in 
 reaching it. So on the appointed day four of 
 the strongest ones were marshaled to start. 
 Their snowshoes were repaired and they each 
 had a handful of food given them. They were 
 advised to travel continuously, night and day, 
 as long as they had an ounce of strength left, as 
 the most likely way of reaching there alive. 
 Each man carried in his bosom a piece of birch- 
 bark with which he could make a fire under any 
 circumstances, for even if plunged in the water 
 it would at once blaze up when a match was 
 applied to it. 
 
 With many good wishes, therefore, they at 
 last started, all the people of the village viewing 
 their departure and calling words of encourage 
 ment after them. They disappeared from view, 
 and hopes were high that relief would come. 
 But toward evening one of them came stagger 
 ing back, more dead than alive, and faintly 
 reported that they got along after a fashion 
 until they reached a lake about five miles away; 
 but when they attempted to cross it, and were 
 no longer in the shelter of the woods, the pierc 
 ing wind, striking their frames enfeebled by 
 hunger, so benumbed them that they sunk down 
 exhausted in the deep snow, and were unable 
 to rise, and he was sure that they perished. 
 When he left they were still lying there barely 
 able to speak. Knowing that they were proba 
 bly not alive by that time, as it was still so 
 
THE OJIBWAY 369 
 
 extremely cold, no effort was made to rescue 
 them, as it would have been useless, and would 
 only have resulted in their own deaths. 
 
 A spark of hope from an unexpected source 
 now came to them. Two French traders, on 
 their way to a distant trading post, and accom 
 panied by their train of dogs and sled, now 
 appeared, and asked to pass the night in theitr 
 wigwams. Although starving, they had man 
 aged to keep warm, for they had strength 
 enough to crawl into the woods and chop some 
 fuel, and the Frenchmen would pass the night 
 much more comfortably sheltered in their wig 
 wams and sleeping by a good fire than camping 
 out in the woods. They, therefore, joyfully wel 
 comed them, feeling sure that they would get 
 some provisions from them, however little it 
 might be, in payment for the lodging afforded. 
 When their visitors came to take their evening 
 meal, with what eagerness did they watch every 
 morsel that disappeared down their throats! 
 But they were given nothing, and in answer to 
 their eager supplication for even a little morsel, 
 they were told to wait till the morning, which 
 they interpreted to mean that they would be 
 given then. When the morning came the 
 Frenchmen took a meal of what seemed to them 
 most delicious food, and then, gathering up all 
 the fragments and replacing them in their 
 packs, and throwing down a small coin, which 
 was of no use to them, told them that they 
 needed all the provisions they were carrying 
 with them to enable them to reach the place 
 where they were going, and had none to spare; 
 
370 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and, then backing off from them, and pointing 
 their guns toward them, commanded that not 
 one should rise out of his place or make the 
 least motion ; that if any of them did so he was 
 certainly a dead man, for they would fire; and 
 thus slowly backing away, with their guns still 
 pointed toward them, their guests disappeared 
 out of sight, leaving them in deep despair. It 
 put a severe strain on their deeply-ingrained 
 reverence for the white man, and their unwill 
 ingness to rob or kill him, or injure him in any 
 way, to see those men, with their packs of pro 
 visions that would have kept their little children 
 alive, disappear from view. 
 
 There was nothing now to do but to return 
 to the moss scraped from the pine tree, or to 
 gnawing a piece of blanket. Death in a horrible 
 form was slowly approaching them and their 
 loved ones. It aroused great searchings of 
 heart. One day The-First-Heavens and his old 
 companion, T raveling- the-Heavens, met as they 
 were crawling over the snow, too feeble to 
 walk, going to scrape some more moss from 
 the trees. 
 
 "You thought that we had surmounted that 
 thing, " said the former, "and that we would 
 never feel it again. But it appears that it is 
 still following us. 
 
 "Yes," returned his companion, "I thought 
 when we got out of that snowbank that that was 
 the end of it, but it apepars not." 
 
 "What is going to be the end of it?" asked 
 The-First-Heavens. 
 
 "I do not know," said the other. "It may 
 
THE OJIBWAY 371 
 
 overtake us and kill us at last. It looks like it 
 now." 
 
 "I would not mind dying, " said The-First- 
 Heavens, if it were not for that thing on my 
 mind. I have had no happiness since that oc 
 curred. It keeps cropping up every once in a 
 while. How is it with you?" 
 
 "Oh, oftentimes I thought I had it buried 
 for good, and then something occurred that 
 brought it right up again. I have found out 
 that it is not a dead thing. It is very much 
 alive." 
 
 "Yes," said The-First-Heavens, "we both 
 thought, perhaps, that we had got rid of it after 
 that blizzard, when lo and behold! this famine 
 comes, and it rises up and flies in our faces once 
 more. Now, when we are near death, we can 
 think of nothing else." 
 
 "You lost your girl, did you not?" inquired 
 T raveling- the-Heavens. "I mean old Ogema s 
 daughter?" 
 
 "Yes," sadly replied the other. "When I 
 came back she looked at me, examined me with 
 her eyes carefully for a long time and then said 
 I was not the man she thought I was ; that some 
 thing had come over me, she didn t know what. 
 But she would not have me. 
 
 "I do not think any of the other people here 
 suffer as badly as we," said his companion. 
 "They have only sufferings of the body; but 
 in addition to sufferings of the body, we have 
 of the mind, so we have double. 
 
 "There are some of them here," said The- 
 First-Heavens, "who suffer somewhat as we do, 
 
372 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 but none so badly, for I think that we are the 
 most unhappy pair in the whole world. There 
 is Red-sky-of-the-morning, I am sure she sees 
 the face of that Sioux girl again. Do you re 
 member how she felt in the snow-cave V 9 
 
 "Yes," I remember it," returned Traveling- 
 the-Heavens, " but hers is a light trouble to 
 what is on us. And "The Sioux" is here. You 
 just be sure he has some bad turns, though he 
 does not show it outwardly. Since I have done 
 that thing and have it on my mind, I seem to 
 know those that are in a like condition. Some 
 thing teaches me so that I recognize them. I 
 inwardly say when I come near them, So you, 
 too, are in this pit! You are another unhappy 
 wretch like me. ! 
 
 "I would give all the world to be like one of 
 the people that do not have our trouble," said 
 The-First-Heavens, "even if they are starving 
 to death. That 1 could stand. I envy every 
 one of them, though he is gnawing an old moc 
 casin ! I think to myself, i I wish I could change 
 places with you ! 
 
 "I wish Sha-bosh-kunk had been dead before 
 he proposed that thing to us," said Traveling- 
 the-Heavens. It was a black day for us, the 
 day we went with him. I said before I did that 
 thing that I should never be a happy man again ; 
 and it is even so. When I think I am done 
 with it something always turns it up afresh." 
 
 "What is going to be the end of it I" inquired 
 The-First-Heavens. 
 
 "There is never going to be any end to it," 
 replied his companion. "It follows us in this 
 
THE OJIBWAY 373 
 
 world, and if we could manage to go under the 
 earth it would follow us there; and if we went 
 to what the Christians call The-Bad-Fire (hell), 
 I believe it would follow us there. Sha-bosh- 
 kunk has ruined us. 
 
 "He does not seem to have any trouble about 
 it," said The-First-Heavens. 
 
 " No, he has no trouble about anything. Noth 
 ing troubles him. He is hard as a stone, " an 
 swered his companion. 
 
 "Did you see all that he did about being the 
 Son of God, and about those horses?" 
 
 "Yes, I saw it all. Since that happened to 
 us I seem to be inside of him and know every 
 move he makes, almost before he begins it." 
 
 "Well, I hope I shall get out of this alive," 
 said The-First Heavens, i for I do not feel ready 
 to die. And yet I do not see any use in my liv 
 ing, for I shall always be miserable, just as I am 
 now." 
 
 This melancholy conference ended, they each 
 dragged themselves to a tree to scrape a little 
 of the wretched substance which alone kept them 
 alive. 
 
 Red-sky-of-the-morning sat in her wigwam, 
 little knowing the conversation that had taken 
 place about her. She was trying to quiet some 
 of her children who were crying of hunger, but 
 it was an impossible task. Only one thing 
 would quiet them food, and she had none. She 
 had to watch one loved child sicken, its digestive 
 organs ruined by the wretched moss; she had 
 to watch the mysterious approach of death upon 
 its little face. As the features became pinched 
 
374 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and drawn it brought to her mind the last dying 
 face she had looked upon, that of the Sioux girl. 
 In her own mind she connected one with the 
 other, and it was somehow borne in upon her 
 that that child of hers had to die because the 
 Sioux girl died. Nay, that she was the cause 
 of the child s death because she had caused the 
 death of the girl. She made mental notes of 
 comparison between the signs of approaching 
 dissolution as they appeared one after the other 
 in the face of the child in her lap, and those 
 of the last dying person she saw. Her mind was 
 all afire, and she dreaded that this was not all, 
 nor the last. She had other hungry children. 
 Would they all have to go? Must the death of 
 that Sioux girl be atoned for by the loss of all 
 her children ? Did her sin require such heavy ex 
 piation? Was it right that so many should go 
 for one? She, too, when she got out of the 
 snow-cave, got out with a joyful heart, feeling 
 that she had left that tragedy behind and that 
 it would never rise again to trouble her. She 
 had not thought of it since; that is, not with 
 any particular regret or fear, but now looking 
 into the face of her dying child it came back 
 upon her with all its terror. She then was re 
 sponsible for the death of her child! that was 
 the terrible thought that came to her. Oh, by 
 what a terrible fate was she pursued ! She felt 
 that in committing that act she had given birth 
 to a terrible monster who was pursuing her, 
 and had just seized one of her innocent little 
 children! And not only so, but stood there 
 threatening to seize the others, and herself, too ! 
 
THE OJIBWAY 375 
 
 And, worst of all she was utterly powerless to 
 avert it! All she could do was to stand and 
 wait and see one victim after another fall a 
 prey to something inexorable. And no one could 
 help her in this trouble. She must bear it all 
 alone. She could not even tell her husband what 
 she believed was the cause of it, for that would 
 only cause a terrible explosion of his wrath upon 
 her as the cause of his losing his children. So 
 she must confine it within her own bursting 
 heart. Oh, how unutterably miserable she felt! 
 Then her mind went to the time when she her 
 self would lie as her child was then dying. 
 She asked herself, Could she die? she knew 
 it was coming. And she had to answer that she 
 could not ! Something was on her mind, on her 
 heart, and with that there she could not die! 
 
 Though life would be unspeakably dreary, 
 insupportable, if she lost all her children, as it 
 now seemed she would, death was worse. She 
 could not die! She felt that she was not ready 
 to die. And she felt that she never would be 
 ready. There was nothing that she could do that 
 she knew of, or had ever heard of, to make her 
 ready. Death was with her, about her, and it 
 forced her to think of all these things. Her 
 thoughts flew very swiftly during those hours 
 when her child was lying on her knee ; and they 
 explored her heart, and time and eternity, so 
 far as she knew it. They searched all deep 
 inward things in her soul, and brought out into 
 clear light things long half -hidden or before but 
 partially comprehended. Death was to her an 
 illuminator of the mysteries of her own being; 
 
376 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 of things past, of the present, and of things to 
 come. And it was an illumination that filled 
 her with alarm and made her more than ever 
 unhappy. It was therefore with a feeling that 
 she was bearing a load that was almost greater 
 than she could sustain, that she at last laid down 
 the little one and composed its limbs when it 
 had breathed its last; and then turned herself 
 to try and pacify the hungry and crying ones 
 of her brood that remained. 
 
 To add to the deep depression that now lay 
 heavy on the starving people, horrible tales be 
 gan coming to them from one quarter and an 
 other. One day a hunter of their village, who 
 had been wintering with his family at a small 
 lake not far off, entered one of their wigwams, 
 and in answer to the kindly inquiry how his 
 children were, mournfully answered that he no 
 longer had any children. 
 
 "A short time ago when this famine began to 
 threaten, " he said, "I had three children living 
 with me. I entrusted them to my married 
 daughter living some distance from me, at her 
 request, she telling me that she had plenty of 
 food and would bring them safely through the 
 winter. I hear they are all dead now," he 
 said mournfully, "and I know that they have 
 been killed and eaten by ray daughter. She 
 came this morning into the wigwam where my 
 wife and I were, with a knife in her hand, in 
 tending to kill us; but my wife caught her by 
 the hair as she put her head in the door, and 
 held her, and I cut off her head with the ax." 
 
 When people any people, no matter of what 
 
THE OJIBWAY 377 
 
 nation, and probably there is no difference be 
 tween the nations are starving and see death 
 approaching they lose command of themselves, 
 a sort of delirium seizes them ; they become cal 
 lous, and hear things with indifference that at 
 other times would freeze the marrow in their 
 bones, and do things that at other times they 
 would not have believed it possible they could 
 do. We draw a veil over the things that hap 
 pened during the long slow agony when that lit 
 tle community was starving. 
 
 One day at this time there came into the wig 
 wam of one of the women of the village, Med- 
 wewedjiwunoque ( The-woman-of-the-sound-of- 
 the-rapids), a poor little boy of very pitiful as 
 pect. He was about ten years of age dressed 
 in an old dirty boy s blanket, thin cotton leg 
 gings, black with dirt, and moccasins. He tim 
 idly sat down by the fire, or rather, as it seemed, 
 sunk down through weakness, for he was unable 
 to stand. His poor pinched face showed that 
 he was very nearly starved, as did his poor 
 wasted little body. He said nothing, for he was 
 too weak to speak. But his wistful eyes made 
 an appeal to the heart of Sound-of-the-rapids 
 woman that she found it hard to resist and al 
 though she and her family were almost starving 
 themselves, with womanly kindness she took a 
 little of the last food there was left in the wig 
 wam, put it in a birch-bark dish, and gave it 
 to the poor little boy. He took a little of it in 
 his poor wasted little hand and put it to his 
 mouth and chewed it a little, then he fell over 
 in a dead faint. The Sound-of-the-rapids worn- 
 
378 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 an now made an examination of him to see 
 what was the matter and found that his legs and 
 feet were frozen solid from the knees down. 
 They were as hard as rocks, and as cold as ice. 
 They seemed to have been frozen for some time. 
 She called the members of her family to assist 
 her, and after a while they succeeded in reviv 
 ing him and getting from him his pitiful story. 
 He was Ke-zhe-ka-nunk (The-swiftly-flying- 
 star), an orphan, both father and mother being 
 dead, and he had been out hunting about a day s 
 march from the village, with his grandfather 
 and grandmother, Quenubi-gi-zhick (Sky- turn 
 ing-upside-down), and Niganwewedumok (The- 
 woman -who- goes -ahead -and -makes -a -shout 
 ing) . They had been there about a month, wait 
 ing for an opportunity to come home. But the 
 snow was too deep, there was no road, and they 
 had no snow-shoes, and almost no food. They 
 could not find rabbits or game of any kind. 
 Finally his grandfather said to him : 
 
 "My grandson, your grandmother and I will 
 die here. We are old and cannot make our 
 way to the village, for we have no food and 
 are almost dead already. But you are young; 
 you have long to live. Save yourself, my grand 
 child ; do what I tell you. Here is a rabbit, the 
 only food I have. I give it to you to save your 
 life. Go in such a direction. " (Here he gave 
 him instructions about the road.) "Generally 
 the snow is too deep and too soft, and you have 
 no snow-shoes. Crawl on your stomach where 
 you cannot get through any other way. Now 
 
THE OJIBWAY 379 
 
 go and save yourself, your grandmother and I 
 will die here." 
 
 The little boy obeyed his directions, and, urg 
 ed on by the love of life, did barely succeed in 
 reaching the village and went into the first wig 
 wam he came to, which happened to be that of 
 Sound-of-the-rapids woman. There was no phy 
 sician, but nature in her own gradual way per 
 formed the amputation of both his legs below 
 the knee, after a period of most intense suffer 
 ing to him. Thenceforth he walked upon his 
 knees, with the protruding bones of his legs pro 
 jecting out behind. His grandfather and grand 
 mother died where he left them, and he, a poor 
 maimed boy, was the sole survivor of the family. 
 Such were the tales and sights of misery which 
 from every side came to the afflicted commu 
 nity. 
 
 The severe cold still continued, and it aggra 
 vated their sufferings, for they had very little 
 clothing, and in their enfeebled condition the 
 extreme cold took hold of them more. The snow 
 continued as deep as ever, about three feet on 
 a level, making it impossible to go anywhere 
 except on snow shoes; and in their emaciated 
 state they had not strength enough to travel. 
 The game still continued absent, and even if 
 there had been any they no longer had strength 
 to pursue it. They tried as before to spear fish 
 in their lake, hovering over holes cut in the ice ; 
 but it was difficult to reach the water, covered 
 as it was with the great depth of ice, and the 
 snow on top of that. And although they perse 
 vered faithfully, and spent hours at a time gaz- 
 
380 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 ing down that funnel of a hole into the water 
 beneath, no fish were to be found. The fish had 
 not yet begun to run. Even they, like every 
 thing else, seemed to have gone into a condition 
 of torpor during the severe cold and remained 
 in some place out of sight. 
 
 So there was the community slowly starving 
 to death. Day by day the number of bodies 
 resting in the limbs of trees about their village 
 increased, though the survivors had hardly 
 strength enough to carry them there. No longer 
 was laughter heard from any wigwam. Laugh 
 ter was a thing of the past. Instead, the cry 
 ing of starving children was the sound that one 
 heard from every wigwam. Many of the men 
 and women blackened their faces in token of 
 sorrow. It was a despairing little community. 
 
 There was only one thing to which they looked 
 forward that afforded a ray of hope, and that 
 was the coming of spring. Spring would relax 
 the iron grip of cold in which they were held. 
 Spring would bring abundance of natural food 
 of all lands. The fish would once more run in 
 the lake, and they could spear them through the 
 ice. The little creeks emptying into the lake 
 would be full of fish they could shovel them out 
 with their hands. The water below would 
 swarm with food ; so would the air above. Ducks 
 and birds of all kinds would come sailing in on 
 the warm southern breeze, and they could shoot 
 them if they were alive. But would spring ever 
 come and would any of them be alive when it 
 did that was the question they anxiously dis 
 cussed. As they had no way of knowing what 
 
THE OJIBWAY 381 
 
 time of the year it was but by the moons, and as 
 these came to the full any time during the 
 month, they were in great perplexity which 
 moon was then shining, and consequently how 
 long it would be till spring. 
 
 Some maintained that they had kupt an ac 
 curate account of the moons beginning with 
 Gushkudino-gizis. ( The-moon-of-the-f reezing- 
 over-of- the- waters November), which afforded 
 a sure starting point, and that the moon now 
 shining was Onabuni-gizis (The-moon-of-the- 
 c rust-on- the-snow March). If that were so, 
 spring would comej with the next moon that 
 would shine, Beboquedagimink ( The-moon-of - 
 the-breaking-of-snow-shoes, so called because the 
 snow being on the ground in some places, and 
 thawed off in others by the sun, the snow-shoes 
 were broken by traveling partly on snow and 
 partly on bare ground). This opinion was com 
 bated by others, who maintained that they had 
 kept an equally accurate count of the moons, 
 had marked them with notches on a stick they 
 said, and that the moon now shining was Na- 
 mebini-gizis (The-moon-of -suckers February) . 
 As a proof, they adduced the fact that there 
 was yet no crust on the snow, which there would 
 have been had it been Onabuni-gizis, and that 
 the cold was still severe. This opinion, that it 
 was the moon of suckers, threw them into de 
 spair. They realized that if that were so not 
 one of them would live to see the spring; that 
 all that would remain of their village would be 
 rotting corpses lying around. 
 
 Although they did not expect an affirmative 
 
382 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 answer, indeed, knew that it was impossible, 
 there was one question that instinctively rose to 
 the lips of all of them and which they found 
 themselves continually asking, even while they 
 knew the foolishness of it, "Have you seen or 
 heard a crow?" The crow is the first bird to 
 arrive from the south. His coming announces 
 that the long reign of winter is over, and his 
 "caw-caw" proclaims that there is a long pro 
 cession of birds of all kinds following him, 
 bringing food themselves for the Ojibways. 
 When the Ojibway hears him he knows that he 
 has survived the starvation of the latter part 
 of winter, which is always their time of extreme 
 scarcity, and has lived to see the abundance of 
 spring. Oh, how his heart beats when he first 
 sees the crow, or hears his joyful "caw-caw !" 
 
 He purposely betakes himself to the nearest 
 wigwam, and in answer to the question that is 
 sure to be asked if he has seen or heard a crow, 
 modestly replies that he has. That he heard him 
 and saw him when he was walking in such a 
 place, when the sun was l so high. " It is loudly 
 repeated by the good woman of the house that 
 the crows have come, and then she runs to the 
 wigwam of her dearest gossip to be the bearer of 
 such good news ! She is the most welcome visi 
 tor there has been in that wigwam for a year. 
 
 So the crow is the great-grandmother of the 
 Ojibway, assuring him that he has escaped star 
 vation one more winter ; that soft blue skies and 
 southern breezes are at hand. He corrects his 
 almanac, however astray he may have got in 
 his calculations, and however confused as to 
 
THE OJIBWAY 383 
 
 what moon is shining now, for he puts the stamp 
 of Onabuni-gizis on it, and he knows that the 
 next moon will bring him the delicious maple 
 sugar, as well as all other good things. 
 
 So the days dragged wearily on, and there 
 were no signs either of a crust on the snow or 
 of a crow, and the emaciated people were look 
 ing forward to death by starvation, which 
 seemed almost certain, when one day they were 
 startled by loud shouts to the southward. They 
 crept out, as rapidly as their feeble strength 
 would admit, to see what this unexpected thing 
 was. The shouts kept coming nearer and nearer 
 and soon trains of dogs came in sight, dragging 
 heavily-loaded sleds behind them. Urging the 
 dogs forward were men on snow-shoes, and con 
 spicuous among them by his great height was 
 the missionary, Breck, also on snow-shoes. 
 There was no road broken, and they had adopt 
 ed the only means of conveyance that would do. 
 Besides the sled loads, many of the snow- 
 shoers, Breck included, carried great packs on 
 their backs, suspended by packing-straps round 
 their shoulders. 
 
 "Food, food!" they joyfully cried, from as 
 far as they could be heard, to the company of 
 skeletons who had crawled out to look at them. 
 Oh, what joy filled them when it finally pene 
 trated their intellects that there was food ! The 
 call of the crow is cheering, but nothing to this ! 
 In one minute a sea of joy rolled in upon their 
 souls. What had been a minute before the most 
 despairing company in the whole world, was 
 now perhaps the happiest. They were not to 
 
384 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 die, but to live ! .Their distress was all forgot 
 ten, a thing of the past, and only bliss in its 
 place ! Mothers picked up and frantically hug 
 ged and kissed their emaciated babies, and told 
 them they should eat all they wanted to. Some, 
 looking at the trains, broke down and wept for 
 joy. Some threw themselves on the missionary 
 and the packers when they had come near 
 enough, and cried: "You have saved us, you 
 have saved us!" These, though rough men of 
 the frontier, and the missionary, were almost as 
 much affected as they; and some of them were 
 so much touched by the sight of the starving 
 company before them, and by their deep joy, 
 that they shed tears. Some of them literally 
 "lifted up their voices and wept," while more, 
 with their coat sleeves, wiped the tears out of 
 their eyes. 
 
 But this season of rejoicing must pass, there 
 was something better coming, participation. 
 Some packs were hastily opened, the precious 
 food brought out. They were going to devour it 
 just as it was, but the wise missionary hindered 
 them. Great fires were made by the strong voy- 
 ageurs; pots and kettles were brought out, and 
 hung over them, and filled with the tempting 
 food; and soon savory steams filled the air with 
 perfumes that was more delicious than that of 
 summer roses. A cracker was warily handed 
 round to each by the missionary to stay their hun 
 ger till the food could be prepared, and when it 
 was they had, what they had not had in months, a 
 good meal ! The little children could hardly be 
 restrained while the food was cooking, but by 
 
THE OJIBWAY 385 
 
 many promises of all they could eat by and by, 
 and a few mouthfuls of crackers, they were. Oh 
 what a feast was that ! Food of all kinds, and in 
 the most concentrated form. Beans, rice, flour, 
 beef, venison. And there was hot tea, which 
 they loved so much, and a new luxury which till 
 then they had never known, but which they fully 
 appreciated. It was coffee, for which, having 
 no name, they made a name expressing its es 
 sential characteristics, calling it "mukude- 
 mushkiki-wabo " black medicine-liquid. Black, 
 from its color; medicine, for it seemed to have 
 some mysterious supernatural stimulating prop 
 erties ; and liquid from its form. 
 
 When repletion came, as much as the mission 
 ary saw it to be wise to indulge them in, there 
 followed a period of mutual felicitations. They 
 told some of the things they had suffered; but 
 would break off in the middle of a sentence to 
 inquire how they came to be relieved. That was 
 soon told. The French traders, who had en 
 joyed their hospitality but given them nothing, 
 probably because they could not, and who had 
 backed away from them with pointed guns, had 
 nevertheless reported their starving condition 
 at the distant trading-post to which they went. 
 Thence the news had been carried to another dis 
 tant post where the missionary happened to be 
 wintering, and he, realizing that they would 
 probably all die if food was not taken to them, 
 with energy set to work to relieve them. With 
 some money of his own, and pledging his credit 
 to the owners of the trading-post, a credit 
 which they knew to be as good as the money, 
 
386 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 I 
 
 he procured the most concentrated foods he 
 could find; then hired the French voyageurs 
 who were accustomed to carry packs of fur? in 
 the winter from one trading-post to another with 
 their dog-sleds, loaded the provisions, put some 
 in packs, to be carried by the experienced snow- 
 shoers, and took a pack on his back himself and 
 accompanied them. Neither horses, nor any 
 other kind of power used by civilized man, were 
 of any use in the unbroken tract of snow which 
 lay between him and Gull Lake, but dogs were 
 just the thing. So they traveled, snow-shoeing 
 day after day; camping out every night, keep 
 ing themselves warm by great fires. Each man 
 had his blankets in which he slept, which in the 
 day time were strapped on the sleds. The men 
 were hardy, bearded fellows, brought up among 
 the snows of Eastern Canada, and dressed in the 
 picturesque costume so dear to the French Ca 
 nadian. There was the woolen cap of bright red 
 with its tassel falling to one side ; the coat, with 
 the hood behind, which in storms was put over 
 the head, enveloping it; there was the red and 
 blue sash around the waist, the ends depending 
 downward to the knee ; there were the leggings 
 fastened by a bright colored band above the 
 calf; there were the moose-hide moccasins. They 
 had the cherry, jolly abandon by which they so 
 soon made themselves at home with the " sav 
 ages. " 
 
 Before they went to their wigwams at the con 
 clusion of the feast, one of the Ojibway s Aki- 
 wad j-agindunk ( He-who-grew-up-along-with- 
 the-earth that is, when the earth was young 
 
THE OJIBWAY 387 
 
 he was young, and as the earth kept growing 
 up he kept growing up), expressed their feelings 
 to the missionary in a little address : 
 
 "You have saved our lives, " he said, "by 
 bringing these provisions, hiring these men and 
 dog-teams, and coming up here. None of our 
 own relatives would have done it; but you, a 
 stranger, have done it. We owe our lives to 
 you. I do not think there would have been one 
 living when spring comes if you had not done 
 this. We thank you, we thank you." 
 
 The voyageurs and the missionary were taken 
 into the wigwams where they slept warm and 
 comfortable for the first time in many nights. 
 And soon there were sounds that had not been 
 heard for a long time the sounds of laughter 
 and jollity. They were filled with thankfulness 
 that their long sufferings were at an end; that 
 relief had come in such an unexpected way, 
 and that the issue of all was life and not death. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE CONTEST. 
 
 When the warm summer suns again shone 
 over Gull Lake there was a change in the con 
 dition of the people. With the spring had come 
 abundance of natural food geese, ducks, birds 
 of all sorts ; and swarms of fish, which filled the 
 creeks and rivers. With abundant and good 
 food the people had fully recovered their health 
 and spirits. Men and women were again sturdy, 
 fresh and vigorous. Cheerfulness had returned 
 with bodily health. The horrors of the starving 
 time had receded into the caverns of memory, and 
 only the abundance of the present was thought 
 of. As the little birds perched in the trees 
 thought not of the storms and pinching of win 
 ter when they were cowering to find a shelter 
 from the icy blast, but only felt the joy of sum 
 mer by which they were surrounded and sang of 
 it, so it was with them. Joy filled all nature 
 around, and its influence reached even to them. 
 The victims of the famine were buried so were 
 the memories of their own sufferings. Even 
 those who had passed away were thought of 
 with a softened feeling, in which there was no 
 bitterness. 
 
 There was one new figure, and one new phase 
 of activity in the village. The new figure was 
 the missionary, Breck, who had remained with 
 
THE OJIBWAY 389 
 
 them. The new activity was a large field, or 
 farm, which he had opened in the edge of their 
 village. He had brought oxen there and plough 
 ed the ground ; had brought seed and called on 
 them to help him plant it, and offered to show 
 them the way. It was explained to them that 
 whatever they raised would be given to them, 
 and they were told that with a very little labor 
 on their part such disasters as that of the past 
 winter need never be feared again. The seed 
 and the breaking of the land were a present 
 from him; all they were required to do was to 
 put to a little labor, and that for themselves. 
 
 This then could now be daily seen in their 
 village, in the beginning of the beautiful sum 
 mer : The missionary out in the field ; perhaps 
 at 5 o clock in the morning, when the air was 
 sweetest, purest, the most lovely time of the 
 day, surrounded by the Indians whom he had 
 called from their wigwams; all busily engaged 
 in planting, hoeing, and all the varied parts of 
 gardening, under his direction. He saw clearly 
 that it would not be enough to teach them to 
 believe in God he must give them something to 
 do; something that would be useful, elevating; 
 and that would call off their minds and atten 
 tion from evil things. He saw that it was not 
 enough that the Devil be cast out, leaving a va< 
 cuum into which he would be sure to return in 
 one shape or other ; but that that vacuum must 
 be filled with something positively good, to keep 
 him out, that his exclusion might be permanent. 
 That positive good was, he saw, the belief and 
 practice of the Gospel and honest labor. 
 
390 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 It was an interesting sight to see him there 
 amongst them hoeing, planting, working hard 
 er than any of them, and directing all. He was 
 a very spiritual man ; but he was also a perfect 
 gardener. He had been trained to it in his 
 youth ; and as he now saw, providentially. With 
 out that part his work would have been very 
 halting. Honest daily labor something to take 
 up their minds from Sioux-killing, and degrad 
 ing heathen dances, was the necessary comple 
 ment to believing in God and His Gospel. 
 
 It was no sour and doleful company that 
 worked that field. Laughter and jokes re 
 sounded on every hand. There was mutual 
 confidence and mutual love between teacher 
 and taught. Each had forgotten that the 
 other was of a different color, of a different 
 race. They were all human, and were fused in 
 one on that broad base. They were also mem 
 bers of the same village, for he had now come 
 to live there, so in that regard they were one; 
 and besides, they were necessary to each other. 
 Very much they could not do for themselves 
 for much they must depend on him. But they 
 were equally necessary to him in many ways. 
 In many ways also they were his superiors 
 they the teachers and he the one to be taught. 
 In the mastery of a beautiful, but most difficult 
 language, which it was necessary for him to 
 know ; in their knowledge of the whole book of 
 nature plants, animals, the sky, the earth, the 
 water; things above, around, and beneath. In 
 all these things he realized that they were mas 
 ters, and he and his race very humble learners, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 391 
 
 sitting a long way off. All the common things, 
 but things absolutely necessary for living in that 
 country, they knew far better than he, better 
 than his race hunting, fishing, traveling, camp 
 ing, making canoes, gathering rice, protection 
 against the cold, the habits of animals, of fishes, 
 the ways of making a living. 
 
 Striking the balance between them, then, they 
 were about equal; he with weight on the spirit 
 ual side, but they with a manifestly superior ca 
 pacity on the earthly. 
 
 So it was that in that field there was no as 
 sumption of superiority on either side, but good 
 comradeship. They laughed at the ridiculous 
 mistakes he made in trying to say a few words 
 of their language; he, in turn, made them all 
 laugh at the awkward way in which some of 
 their number had planted something. To one 
 coming along, that group of men, women, and 
 children workers presented a delightful picture 
 to the eye ; and their happy laughter was music 
 to the ear. Here was the solution of a problem. 
 In what that man was doing in that field was 
 the way out of darkness into light for a race. 
 There was the solution of the apparently hope 
 less problem of how to change scalp-taking and 
 scalp-dancing savages into honest, industrious, 
 and useful citizens, a blessing to the world and 
 a help to their neighbors. 
 
 When they had worked an hour or two they 
 went home to breakfast for an hour, and then 
 reassembled in the field. That was one of the 
 missionary s objects to teach them regularity, 
 even of meals, something to which they had been 
 
392 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 utter strangers. Then, after they had worked 
 an hour or two longer, a sweet bell rang out 
 from the log tower of the little log church, 
 for the missionary had already built a little 
 chapel, and the entire company dropped their 
 hoes and went into the sacred place. Oh, how 
 grateful was its shade after the hot glare of 
 the sun ! There was a little stained-glass win 
 dow over the altar, with a figure of the sweet 
 Saviour in it. There was a small altar, sur 
 mounted by a brass cross. There was the chan 
 cel rail; and outside, the benches for the wor 
 shippers. 
 
 The missionary was a wise man, and knew 
 that the people could not at first endure con 
 tinuous labor all day long, never having been 
 used to labor at all. He realized that as they 
 were part body and part spirit, they required 
 refreshment and nutriment for the spirit as well 
 as for the body. Therefore it was that every 
 day he led them from the field to the house of 
 God, for bodily rest and for spiritual refresh 
 ment. While they were sitting there he put on, 
 in a little vestry room, the pure white robes that 
 befitted him so well, and the black stole; then 
 came in and began the Morning Prayer. None 
 of them were yet Christians, but he was lead 
 ing them on the way to be so. They soon learned 
 to say the General Confession in their own 
 language; the Lord s Prayer, and the Creed. 
 He had learned to say them also. He had his 
 interpreter read the portions of Scripture in 
 their own language; he himself read the pray 
 ers. But the best of all were the hymns. With 
 
THE OJIBWAY 393 
 
 a delighted surprise they found that they could 
 sing hymns in their own language! They had 
 previously had no music in their own language, 
 except the chants used in their dances, and med 
 icine and war songs; and this seemed to them 
 as if they had acquired a new and delightful 
 sense and knew how to exercise it. Their voices, 
 the women s especially, were very melodious, 
 and soon they made the walls of the little chap 
 el resound with their beautiful tunes, which they 
 carried strongly and well themselves. Soon out 
 doors and indoors one would hear snatches of 
 Christian songs. One would hear them at their 
 work, and when they were sitting quietly in their 
 wigwams. There was a little log school-house 
 also, in which their children began to be taught 
 Seeing what was going on, one realized that 
 they were what they were simply because noth 
 ing had ever been done to make them other 
 wise; and that when the proper means were 
 used to make them otherwise a change began to 
 appear. In this case one saw that the means 
 were applied by a master-handone who saw 
 very clearly just what was needed ; had faith in 
 the efficacy of the instruments he used; and 
 with courage and persistency applied them. 
 
 When the hour spent in church was over, 
 Breck dismissed them to their homes to attend 
 to their own concerns. There was no further 
 labor that day. The morning hours devoted to 
 the fields were enough to keep the plants grow 
 ing, and without a weed. The morning s hour 
 of worship and with hymns, but without any 
 
394 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 sermon except on the Lord s Day, was enough 
 for their spiritual culture. 
 
 So the early weeks of summer wore along; 
 but now came an unlocked for trial. Nearly 
 all June it did not rain. The plants began to 
 wilt under the long-continued and fierce heat. 
 Breck and his friends still worked daily in the 
 garden, but the people began to fear that their 
 labor was thrown away. There was no longer 
 any growth. They said among themselves that 
 if rain did not come in three or four days the 
 fields were ruined. They had had high hopes of 
 a new and better way of living than the way 
 their fathers knew; they had made an honest 
 effort, under the inspiration of their missionary, 
 to enter on that way, and now their hopes and 
 their efforts were mocked ! They had done the 
 best they knew in the new and good way, and 
 now God cast them down! What were they to 
 think of it? It seemed that God did not intend 
 them to be Christians, nor to follow the Christ 
 ian way of life. Day after day, week after wee, 
 there was the same brazen sky overhead, without 
 a cloud in it, with only a fierce sun pouring out 
 of it. The soil was baked and parched ; it gap 
 ed open; great cracks opened in it. The little 
 streams were all dried up, as were the ponds and 
 small lakes. Even the oak trees began to shed 
 their leaves. It seemed as if God had forsaken 
 the earth. It seemed as if it never could rain 
 again. Several times there had been some gath 
 erings of clouds, there had even been some mut 
 tering thunders, but they had passed and left 
 everything more hopeless than before. A long, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 395 
 
 settled, steady drought a drought that would 
 ruin their crops was all that was in sight. 
 And how proud they had been of those fields 
 the plants and vines growing so closely together 
 and so luxuriantly that they hid the ground! 
 All the same height, even as a brush; but now 
 wilting on the ground, lost, apparently, beyond 
 recovery. 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk was the one man who had 
 stood aloof from the new departure. He had 
 never been in the fields with the missionary and 
 the workers. On the contrary, he had steadily 
 opposed everything that had been going on. He 
 instinctively recognized in the missionary his 
 antagonist ; and in what was being done, the un 
 dermining of his position. His glory as the Son 
 of God was distinctly beginning to fade with the 
 introduction of the new ideas that now occupied 
 the people s minds. And the civilized farmer s 
 life, on which the people seemed to be entering 
 made, he felt, directly against him. He saw 
 light coming, and he hated and fought against it. 
 A true Son of God was proclaimed, and before 
 Him he found his light diminishing. He intui 
 tively felt that these doctrines struck at the 
 foundation of his claim to be the Son of God, 
 and so of his greatness and opulence. 
 
 He directed his efforts, therefore, to discour 
 aging the people, and to keeping them from liv 
 ing the life of farmers and well he knew how 
 to set about it. He collected them into little 
 councils here and there; and even labored with 
 them in little groups, or singly, wherever he 
 could find them. The unexpected and terrible 
 
396 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 drought placed a formidable weapon in his 
 hands. 
 
 "Look here/ he said to them, "how this mis 
 sionary is abusing you." An Indian, or any 
 man, is naturally very ready to listen to any one 
 who tells him someone is abusing him. "See 
 how hard this man has worked you out there in 
 the field under the hot sun! And I have seen 
 you there sometimes very early in the morning, 
 when you ought to have been sleeping. But he 
 has no regard for you ; he deprives you of your 
 natural rest and drags you out into the field with 
 him. And what are you to get for it for all 
 the sweat that has showered from you on that 
 field, and for your broken rest? Yes, what are 
 you to get for it? Just look at that field, for 
 answer. You will get nothing. Those plants 
 are all wilted and dying. He promised you the 
 crops when matured ; but there are not going to 
 be any crops. So he has deceived you. Yes, he 
 has deluded you. So many days you have toiled 
 and toiled there ; and all for nothing ! This man 
 has been a curse to you, making you toil and 
 slave ; and he will be as long as he lives in this 
 village. You ought to rise in your might, like 
 the noble people you are, and kill him for a de 
 ceiver. It is evident that all he wants is to make 
 slaves of you, and he to be the prince! Who 
 ever heard of the noble Ojibways being slaves? 
 They never have been till now, for they are too 
 noble a race for that! But he has made you 
 slaves at last and he is the master! Yes, I can 
 see that when I look in that field and see you 
 there with a hoe put into your hand and your 
 
THE OJIBWAY 397 
 
 back bent, and your face down, and grubbing, 
 grubbing in the ground, a slave ! What the Sioux 
 were never able to do ; nor the English, when their 
 trading-posts were here; nor the Long Knives 
 since they came, he has done that is, to make 
 you slaves ! And Oh, he speaks you so fair, and 
 smiles so sweet, and is so kind ; and underneath 
 it, all he is thinking of is to make you slavesj 
 And now we see what the Powers above think of 
 it there is that garden dying, or dead. That 
 shows you plainly what a bad man he is. Every 
 thing is working against him. His heart is so 
 black that it will not even rain where he is. Do 
 any of us ever remember such a drought as this ? 
 Not one of us. And he is the cause of it. His 
 very presence brings our village under a curse. 
 Don t any of you go to the field with him any 
 more. Do not let him delude you any more. He 
 has almost ruined you already with this drought 
 and he will certainly completely ruin you if you 
 keep on with him any more. 
 
 "Oh, it makes my blood boil to see the noble 
 men who used to be warriors, and stepped the 
 prairie free and independent, going against the 
 Sioux, and bursting right in on them in their 
 skin lodges to take their scalps I say it makes 
 me sick to see those men now with a hoe in their 
 hand! This deceiver has taken the gun and the 
 tomahawk out of their hands, and has given 
 them a hoe ! He has made them women, instead 
 of warriors ! Old women at that, with not spirit 
 enough to resent anything; only able to hoe. 
 The next thing will be he will bring out petti 
 coats and put them upon you men ; and then he 
 
398 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 will have made you his slaves indeed ! Then he 
 will lead you into that house which he calls his 
 church, and go through his mummery talk ; and 
 you sitting there with a spirit as small as some 
 poor little orphan bird sitting on a bough, in the 
 cold and rain, that is so subdued it is hardly able 
 to utter a cheep. 
 
 "Well, I think I had better stop, for if I allow 
 myself to dwell much longer on what I see that 
 man is doing to you, I shall not be able to con 
 tain myself. Don t any of you ever again go in 
 with him into that house, nor into that field ; but 
 rise up and come with me, and let us kill him and 
 tear down his house. Our fathers told us that 
 there were some men so bad that everything 
 went wrong where they were it would not rain, 
 or some misfortune was sure to occur ; and mis 
 fortunes kept following one another ; and it ap 
 pears that this man who has intruded himself 
 upon us is one of these, for we have had nothing 
 but misfortunes since he came." 
 
 All this set the people to thinking very seri 
 ously. It might be so. It certainly looked like 
 it. Perhaps Sha-bosh-kunk s view was true. It 
 was certainly in accord with all their previous 
 ideas up to this time. This man might after all 
 be a deceiver. Instead of his presence bringing 
 blessings to them, perhaps it brought a curse. 
 His course so far had not been attended with 
 success. It is true he had once relieved them 
 when starving, but that was an old story, long 
 past. Perhaps he did that good turn once to get 
 secure possession of them for the future. 
 
 The soul of the missionary was very sorely 
 
THE OJIBWAY 399 
 
 exercised by this entirely unexpected misfor 
 tune of the protracted and terrible drought. He 
 could read in the people s faces and demeanor 
 something of what was going on in their minds. 
 And although Sha-bosh-kunk s counsels were 
 given secretly, where he would not hear them, 
 yet an inkling of them in some way came to him. 
 He was made aware that not only were Provi 
 dential events all against him, but also that there 
 was a powerful, though insidious, influence 
 working that threatened to bring to naught all 
 the good that he had proposed to do to the poor 
 people. That his expulsion at least, and the 
 frustrating of his life-work, were very near, and 
 very probably his death. He knew that all sav 
 ages are liable to revulsions of feeling. He 
 knew their limited knowledge; could look at 
 things from their standpoint ; could make allow 
 ance for them. He did not blame them ; it was 
 their bringing up. But he was a very sorrowful 
 man. He saw that this meant more than the 
 loss of crops, the loss of food, or even of life. 
 He saw that in the peculiar circumstances of the 
 case it meant the loss of faith in God a worse 
 loss to the poor people than the loss of all other 
 things combined. 
 
 So he grieved much over this subverting of his 
 plans. At last it occurred to him that God and 
 His Church commanded to pray for rain when 
 it was needed, and that he had not yet specially 
 done so. He had indeed, in their daily prayers, 
 read the prayer for rain; but he had not sum 
 moned them specially to pray for it. He now, 
 therefore, in this desperate case, summoned 
 
400 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 them all to the church, to pray specially for rain 
 to save their fields from ruin. He first went to 
 every wigwam with his interpreter, and an 
 nounced what the meeting would be for; then 
 the sweet-toned bell called all. Soon they were 
 going from every wigwam, but with no faith that 
 anything could call rain from that cloudless sky. 
 Some were openly derisive, and went there to 
 witness the more signal discomfiture of the mis 
 sionary. He would call and call again, and there 
 would be no answer. Among those who mocked 
 was Sha-bosh-kunk. His futile efforts would only 
 make his defeat more conspicuous. His way, 
 the white man s way, the Christian way, was a 
 failure; the only way for the Indian was to de 
 pend on his drum and rattle ; on his gun and his 
 fish-net. They had hoed and planted and done 
 their best, and the white man s God but mocked 
 them. 
 
 So with mingled feelings all despairing, and 
 many derisive they entered the church and 
 took their seats on the benches to see what would 
 come to pass. Soon the white-robed Priest ap 
 peared from the vestry-room and began his 
 service. If others had lost faith, he not one jot. 
 He had been cast down, but not destroyed. God 
 had told him to pray, and pray he would. The 
 service, with the singing of many hymns, lasted 
 about an hour. Through his interpreter he ad 
 dressed them on faith in God and His ability to 
 help them. He expressed his entire conviction 
 that He would help them. He urged them to 
 join him in praying for help. Then he knelt 
 down and prayed fervently in his own tongue. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 401 
 
 Then he had the prayer interpreted, clause by 
 clause to them, that they might join in it. 
 
 The interest in these rather strange doings 
 had kept them oblivious of what was going on 
 outside ; and when at the end of two hours they 
 went out they were surprised at what a change 
 had come over the face of the sky. The drop 
 ping rain began to fall on their faces as they left 
 and they had to run to. their wigwams to avoid 
 being drenched. There they sat; and through 
 the open doors and out of the open tops watched 
 the big deluge come down. The Heavens were 
 black with clouds and wind, and there was a 
 great rain." 
 
 How the grateful thunder did roll all night 
 long, and the lightning flash, and the water come 
 down in sheets ! If before it was a question 
 whether the earth would not parch and burn up 
 from the utter dryness, it was now a question 
 whether it could hold the quantity that was 
 poured down upon it. When they got up in the 
 morning, and the sun broke through the clouds 
 that had poured down such a deluge, there was 
 water, water everywhere, in pools. The drills 
 between their rows of potatoes were filled with 
 it to the brim ; it lay in pools in all low places ; 
 the lakes and ponds that had dried up were all 
 again filled to the brink, and every little rivulet 
 was laboring its hardest to convey the surplus 
 away. Their fields, lately so drooping and wilt 
 ed, were now, more than ever, blooming "as a 
 watered garden. " No fear of any failure now, 
 for that soaking, even if no more rain came, had 
 
402 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 filled the ground so full of water that full fruit 
 age was assured. 
 
 The wonder of this, coming as it did while 
 Breck was praying, and while he had assembled 
 them to pray for rain, had a great effect on the 
 people, and proved to them, what they did not 
 before believe; that God hears and answers 
 prayer. 
 
 And now something occurred which made 
 quite a commotion. There was a warrior named 
 Wasegoneshkunk ( He-who-makes-a-glittering- 
 track-in-the-snow-as-he-walks ; that is, it spark 
 les when kicked aside by his feet), who had al 
 ways stood very high. He had been in many 
 expeditions against the Sioux, and had always 
 behaved like a man. None was braver than he 
 in the face of the enemy. In all the relations of 
 life he was honest. There was not in the settle 
 ment a man more respected than he. And now 
 the amazing news went round that Wasegonesh- 
 kunk had put on trousers ! No Qjibway had ever 
 done so, and at first it seemed incredible. The 
 garb of his fathers, and of his people, that he 
 should discard it! That he should so far de 
 mean himself as to put off the breech-cloth and 
 leggings of the warrior, and put on trousers ! 
 
 And furthermore, it was rumored that he was 
 going to have his scalplock, his badge of man 
 hood, cut off ! Heretofore it had waved victor 
 ious in the face of the enemy, his hair gathered 
 conveniently into one bunch for the greater con 
 venience of his enemy to take it if he coiild! 
 This it was that Wasegoneshkunk had been 
 wont to take in his hand and shake in the sight 
 
THE OJIBWAY 403 
 
 of the enemy as he uttered his war-whoop of de 
 fiance, at the same time jumping from side to 
 side to escape the whizzing bullets. And this he 
 was now going to cut off a public degradation 
 of himself from the position of warrior, and a 
 placing of himself with women ! And not only 
 so, but that he was going to be baptized, and re 
 nounce the faith of his fathers and their gods 
 renounce their Grand Medicine and the most 
 sacred traditions of their race. Could this be 
 true? 
 
 This great sensation was now agitating their 
 world ; and was the sole thing talked of in every 
 wigwam. It was felt to be a very serious mat 
 ter, and one that affected them all. They did 
 not know just what to think about it, but it 
 seemed to be in some way pregnant with mis 
 chief. 
 
 Now it was that Sha-bosh-kunk came to the 
 front and sent tobacco to all the people, calling 
 them to a council. The time came there they 
 were, on a hill overlooking the lake. The under 
 brush had been cleared off a certain space, in 
 the centre of which the drummers and chanters 
 sat, and then, leaving a space between, the men 
 of the village. After much chanting and many 
 dances, the caller of the council rose and ad 
 dressed them. 
 
 "My friends, " said he, "I have called you to 
 speak to you about this stranger who has come 
 among us. His being here is a very serious 
 matter. We did not send for him, yet he has 
 come. And he has built a house here, that he 
 lives in, and a church. So he has taken per- 
 
404 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 manent possession as it were. He considers 
 now that he has just as much right to live here 
 as we have. If he had come on a visit, or even 
 was living in a tent, it would be different, but he 
 is fixed ; in a house. And now that he is come, 
 we do not know how many hundreds or thou 
 sands he may bring after him; and they will 
 crowd us out of our village and lands, and take 
 possession. So we shall be thrust out, and he 
 and his friends live where we and our fathers 
 have always lived, and we shall be vagabonds. 
 Perhaps they will throw us on some rock some 
 where, where no human being can live, and at 
 last crowd us into the sea. If we let this man 
 come here and live, it is the first step toward all 
 this." 
 
 Here he waxed righteously indignant. " In 
 deed, my friends, the jib way Indian is a most 
 patient man to bear all this. No other people 
 would bear it. This man s own people would 
 not. Suppose one of us went and camped on 
 the white man s land. Would he allow us to 
 live there quietly? No, he would kick us off his 
 premises in short order. But the Ojibway is so 
 patient that he will bear anything. 
 
 "And my friends," he continued, taking up 
 another matter, "this man does not treat us 
 right. He has a great many things that we 
 need in that house of his, and he does not divide 
 with us. He has tea there, and generally we 
 have none, yet he does not divide. Now if I had 
 something, as tea, and saw a poor person with 
 out any, that is the very first thing I would do, 
 I would give the poor person tea. And he has 
 
THE OJIBWAY 405 
 
 money there, no doubt, every white man has 
 money, and he does not divide with us, who 
 have none. He is stingy. If he wishes to come 
 here and live with us and be one of us ^hy does 
 he not first of all, divide everything with us, and 
 then he will be one with us. Then we shall bo 
 indeed brothers. He talks about feeling pity 
 for us, about having a kind feeling toward us in 
 our poverty, the white people all talk in that 
 way, then why does he not show it by dividing 
 everything to say to us: My friends, I see 
 that you are very poor; here, I give you every 
 thing I have; take it and divide it among you. 
 If he did that we would know that he did really 
 feel kindly toward us, and that it is not merely 
 hypocritical pretending. 
 
 "And there he takes our wood to burn in his 
 stoves, to cook, and keep himself warm. Why 
 does he not pay us for that wood? It does not 
 belong to him, it is ours. And I might even 
 mention the water out of our lake that he drinks. 
 That water is ours, and he has no business to 
 take it without paying us for it. He should at 
 least keep us in tobacco for our wood and water 
 that he uses. That would be a very small thing, 
 to give us a little tobacco to chew and smoke. 
 From the bottom of my. heart I pity you noble 
 men, who are sitting there, that you are so poor 
 you have not even tobacco. You have deserved 
 better things than this, my friends. Yet I see 
 you smoking the inner bark of the red willow, 
 without the least bit of tobacco to mix with it- 
 like some poor orphan, who whas no father to 
 give him anything, so he is reduced to the ex- 
 
406 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 tremity of poverty. And all this time that man 
 has plenty of money to get you tobacco, but he 
 will not. He is probably secretly laughing at 
 you all this time because you are so poor ! 
 
 "Now what are we going to do about all this, 
 my friends? Are we going to sit still and en 
 due all this like cowards ? Or are we going to 
 crouch in a corner, like dogs that have been 
 whipped, and let this man exult over us ? No ! 
 I think we are not that kind of men. The jib- 
 way is a warrior, a brave man, not a coward. 
 The Ojibway is not afraid to face the Sioux, no 
 matior how many there may be of them; nor 
 their bullets, nor their war-clubs! Then will 
 the Ojibway be afraid of this stranger who has 
 come among us; who is abusing us? I will 
 never believe it! For my part, I glory in being 
 an Ojibway warrior !" Here he struck his hand 
 upon his expanded chest. 
 
 "So I think, my friends, as the conclusion of 
 the whole matter, that we had better go and take 
 what property this man has, and which we so 
 much need, and either drive him away or kill 
 him. Is not the property here, on our land? So, 
 being upon our land, it belongs to us. We did 
 not tell him to bring it here ; but by bringing it 
 here and putting it upon our land, he made it 
 ours, and it is ours. 
 
 "So what I propose to you is let us go and 
 take this man s property and drive him off or 
 kill him ; and let us stop all this foolishness that 
 he has inaugurated here. Let us not let this 
 man ride over us nor abuse us as he has been 
 doing. " 
 
THE OJIBWAY 407 
 
 In this harangue Sha-bosli-kunk was very 
 careful not to remind them that Breck had res 
 cued them from death the previous winter, when 
 in a starving condition, by bringing them pro 
 visions. It was already some time ago, and he 
 trusted that it had been partially forgotten. He 
 reckoned also on his own people being like all 
 savages, capricious. Yesterday, when Breck 
 brought them provisions, he was in high favor 
 THE man; to-day, when they do not need his 
 provisions, and when his belief offends their 
 prejudices, drive him off, or kill him, and let the 
 past be forgotten! Sha-bosh-kunk understood 
 this trait, and played upon it. 
 
 When he had finished this speech, there were 
 many war-whoops let out, showing that what he 
 had said had struck a responsive chord in many 
 hearts. Then the drums gave a long roll, and 
 the dancers jumped up, and soon they were giv : 
 ing vent to their pent-up feelings by whooping 
 and dancing furiously. It took a long time for 
 them to work off the excitement that had been 
 generated within them by the speaker s words,. 
 When at last they quieted down, and were once 
 more seated on the ground, every mind was 
 working intently, trying to find just what was 
 the right thing to do, and all ready to listen, if 
 more light could be thrown on the subject by 
 any one. They were anxious to decide accord 
 ing to the best light they had. They were per 
 plexed, but strongly leaning to the views they 
 had just heard. Even those who worked daily 
 with the missionary in the fields, and saw him 
 daily in the house of God, could not free them- 
 
408 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 selves from being influenced by things presented 
 from the old Indian standpoint. It may seem to 
 others that it was a very simple thing to find the 
 right ; but to people brought up as they had been 
 and in the environment in which they were, it 
 was not simple. 
 
 The chiefs evidently shared in the perplexity 
 of the rest, and in order to stave off the decision 
 for a little while and give themselves some re 
 spite from the disagreeable duty of deciding, 
 they bethought them of asking a distinguished 
 visitor what he thought of it. This was Medwe- 
 ganonint (He-who-is-heard-spoken-to-at-a-dis- 
 tance), the famous head chief of the Red Lake 
 band. His home was about five sleeps (130 miles) 
 to the northwest, on the great lake already 
 named. He had a reputation for wisdom and 
 courage greater than any man in the Indian 
 country, and there was no chief anywhere who 
 was so respected and obeved by his band, who 
 numbered about 1,000. While no orator, he had 
 ruled over them so bravely and sagaciously that 
 they followed him implicitly. 
 
 When he was requested by the chiefs to give 
 his opinion, all eyes were turned on him in ex 
 pectation. He, on being thus invited, sat still 
 for some moments in meditation. Then he rose 
 and arranged his blanket so that it was draped 
 around his form like a Roman toga. It took him 
 some time to raise his six feet and four inches of 
 height into an erect position, and there he stood 
 motionless. What a magnificent chest he had! 
 What a splendid head! He seemed, as he was, 
 a king of men. One could see that if the inter- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 409 
 
 ior corresponded to the exterior, nothing low or 
 unworthy found a refuge there. And so indeed 
 it was, for his whole life had been noble. No 
 bility was stamped on all that he did on his 
 manner and bearing as well as on his words and 
 actions. Looking upon him one could not bring 
 himself to believe that he had ever been guilty 
 of anything mean. He indeed embodied that 
 much abused phrase, nature s nobleman. 
 
 1 i My friends, he said slowly and calmly, it 
 is evident that Sha-bosh-kunk s heart and his 
 intention are good, notwithstanding. " This 
 was the way in which his native politeness led 
 him not to ascribe any evil intention about 
 which he could not be sure to the proposer of 
 a matter; while disagreeing with the conclusions 
 that he drew. "We have heard what he has 
 said about the evil which he thinks this man is 
 doing to you, and his advice to drive him off. 
 Now, since you ask me I will tell you how it ap 
 pears to me. He has told you about your wood 
 that this man uses. But we all know that he 
 takes wood of dead or fallen trees, that is of no 
 use to anybody. We know there are thousands 
 and thousands of such trees lying on the ground 
 rotting that will never be used by any one. Is 
 it not better that he should use them than that 
 they should rot there? And when they are used 
 is it not to keep you warm while you are in 
 church, or your children, while they are in 
 school ; or himself, so he will keep alive to work 
 for you? And when he built his log house and 
 his log church, I understand he paid the value of 
 the logs, although they were of no value to you, 
 
410 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and that you all got a share of what was paid. 
 Sha-bosh-kunk even spoke of the water he 
 drank ; but that seems almost ridiculous to me, 
 for your great lake and all the lakes and rivers 
 are full of water. Then he spoke of his not 
 dividing everything with you. But do you not 
 see that if he did so he would have to go away 
 the next day, because he would have nothing to 
 live on? It may be that that is the way the In 
 dians do, divide everything ; but I think it would 
 be a great deal better if they did not do it. That 
 is what keeps gamblers and lazy people still gam 
 blers and lazy, because they think they are en 
 titled to share with the industrious, and then 
 what inducement does any man have to be in 
 dustrious? So, notwithstanding what Sha- 
 bosh-kunk has said about dividing, I think that 
 the missionary is right on that subject ; and that 
 we had better imitate him. Then there would 
 not be so many gamblers and worthless people, 
 for they would have to go to work. 
 
 "You have been told that this missionary is 
 stingy, but it seems to me that he gives :/ou a 
 great deal. Did I not see you all out with him 
 day after day, working with spade and shovel, 
 and he working with you, making a good wagon 
 road from your village to Leech Lake? And 
 were not every one of you paid good wages by 
 him in money or clothing for your work? I have 
 not seen anything like that anywhere in the In 
 dian country, and you are the most blessed of all 
 people, and all on account of the missionary. 
 And I noticed that while you were working on 
 that road you had all kinds of good food in 
 
THE OJIBWAY 411 
 
 abundance, such food as the white man eats, but 
 our people knew nothing about till just now. I 
 noticed that you had tea, that you are so fond of, 
 and coffee, which we never heard of ; as well as 
 beans, and dried apples, and such a variety of 
 delicious food. Whereas you know that if the 
 poor Indian has one thing only as fish only, or 
 venison only, or wild rice only he thinks he has 
 a good enough meal. And there I saw every 
 man and woman have all they wanted of another 
 thing that you never tasted till very lately, srood 
 flour bread. You know that all we have had 
 heretofore is bread made of corn pounded with 
 stones. But if you drive this man off, farewell 
 to such food as you have been having. I wish 
 that some man would come among my people at 
 Red Lake and do for them what I see this man 
 is doing for you. How thankful they would be 
 for the food I see you have, and for the money 
 to buy such clothing as I see you wear. 
 
 "I have been everywhere in the Ojibway 
 country and nowhere have I seen a people so 
 blessed as you are here; and all on account of 
 this man whom Sha-bosh-kunk advises you to 
 drive off or kill. And there is that field in 
 which you have been working day by day and 
 which is now glorious with corn, potatoes, and 
 vegetables of all kinds vegetables which we 
 now have seen for the first time, but which we 
 like so much. I have seen no field to begin to 
 compare with that anywhere in the Indian 
 country. Who is to have the proceeds of that 
 field t I understand that you are, who have 
 done the work j but it was that man who showed 
 
412 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 you, and gave you the seed, and worked with 
 you, and but for him you would have had no 
 field and no crop. And now you propose to kill 
 that man or drive him away! You know, my 
 friends, that a good many of us Indians starve 
 to death every winter somewhere in the Indian 
 country, because we have raised no crops, but 
 depended on game; and when no game can be 
 found we die. But in that field I see the end of 
 starvation in the Indian country, and I see 
 abundance for every man all the year round. 
 So it seems that while we have been starving to 
 death we have been living on a gold mine, 
 this rich soil all about us, and did not know it. 
 Now this man and his garden have discovered it 
 to us, and yet we talk of killing him or driving 
 him away ! My friends, I see here in this man s 
 work and his field the first clear sign of life for 
 the Ojibway people that I have ever seen. This 
 man has certainly struck out a path to life, for 
 us to follow, and he is the first man who has 
 done it! 
 
 1 Then I went into a building here and I saw 
 your little children well clothed and well fed, 
 and singing hymns in what they call a school. 
 It seems they are being taught there all the wis 
 dom of the white man. How much better start 
 in life they will have than we, who were only 
 taught about killing Sioux and dancing over a 
 scalp ! We would have been very different peo 
 ple had we had the chance they have. And all 
 this comes through this man. 
 
 "My friends, you have heard that the white 
 man will come and fling us out of this place, and 
 
THE OJIBWAY 413 
 
 take everything we have, and that this man is the 
 advance guard. It may be the white men will 
 sometime come and crowd us out of our beauti 
 ful land. I do not know that is in the future, 
 and neither I nor any man can tell; but one 
 thing I can tell you that I am sure of it will 
 never be this kind of white man. I suppose 
 there are among the white people some who are 
 murderous and some who are robbers, and some 
 who sell us fire-water to destroy us; and there 
 are others among them who are very good. 
 This man is evidently of the good kind and he 
 will never do us anything but good; and any 
 people that he brings here, no matter how many 
 they be, will be of the same kind as he is and will 
 do us nothing but good. 
 
 "This man is not the same kind of white man 
 that we have heretofore seen. The white men 
 we have seen have been nearly all traders; or 
 officers and soldiers at a military post. The 
 traders, we know, are usually Frenchmen, and 
 they generally cheat us. They give us fire 
 water and get our furs for a trifle. The officers 
 and soldiers have never made any efforts for 
 our good that I know of; but on the contrary, 
 many evils from which we grievously suffer 
 have come from their presence near us. But 
 this man does not try to make money out of us 
 like the trader, nor to keep us down like the sol 
 dier. He seems to be here solely for our good. 
 I went into his house and sat down and talked 
 with this man, and I watched him, and I could 
 see no evil in him. He is of a different spirit 
 from the others. 
 
 
414 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 "Now let me tell you another thing that you 
 do not know. You think there are only a few 
 hundred people in the whole world, for you have 
 traveled over this whole country, over the whole 
 world, as one may think days and days in 
 every direction, and you have seen only a few 
 hundred people in it all. So you think there are 
 only a few people in the whole world. But I 
 have been to Washington, because I am a chief 
 and my father was chief before me ; and I tejl 
 you that there are countless towns and villages 
 in the world that you do not know anything 
 about. Now you think it is but a small thing 
 to kill this man or drive him off ; but let me tell 
 you that if you touch him you touch the whole 
 white people, and you will draw the whole white 
 people upon you. Do anything bad to this man, 
 the soldiers and the white people will be upon 
 you on account of it and that will come to pass 
 quickly which you have spoken of, and which 
 you dread so much, namely, that you will be 
 violently hurled out of this beautiful land which 
 you love so much, and thrown into some desert 
 to starve to death; but your own land you will 
 see no more! That will come about by your 
 molesting this man in any way; but never by 
 letting him stay here and doing all the good he 
 can to you. 
 
 "And now, my friends, this is the last thing T 
 will say to you. This man has opened a road to 
 you to life by his farm, and by his schools, and 
 by his teachers, and by the employment he gives 
 you. Now let him alone, do not injure him 
 for he is your best friend." 
 
THE OJIBWAY 415 
 
 When the chief sat down the drums struck up 
 again with their inspiring roll and soon all were 
 again whirling in the dance. But when they sat 
 down there was no longer indecision in their 
 manner nor a desire for more light. The right 
 had been made clear to their minds the chief 
 had convinced them. 
 
 Sha-bosh-kunk saw that he was defeated ; that 
 the current had set hopelessly against him. But 
 although he could not have all he wanted, there 
 was yet something that he might save from the 
 wreck. So he arose and addressed them again. 
 
 "I see, my friends, that it is not your minds 
 to do what I wanted you to do about the mission 
 ary. Well, I suppose that you are wise, at any 
 rate there is no use in my speaking to you any 
 more about that. But here is another thing of 
 very great importance which I wish to speak to 
 you about. You know that if we are united we 
 are strong; but if we are split up into various 
 parties we become pitiably weak. You know 
 that that was one thing that the old Indians en 
 joined upon us most of all, to be of one mind, 
 for then we were strong. You know they told 
 us that if we made a united demand, say on the 
 white people, we would always get what we 
 wanted because we were of one mind. But they 
 told us that if, when we stood before the white 
 people, even one man spoke a different senti 
 ment from the others, that one man would so 
 weaken us with the whites that we would get 
 nothing. For the whites would say these peo 
 ple are of different minds ; some of them think 
 one thing, some think another ; we need not pay 
 
416 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 any attention to any of them. So our fore 
 fathers always impressed us with the absolute 
 necessity of being united, and indeed we see tha,t 
 necessity ourselves. 
 
 "Now if there is one thing that is more abso 
 lutely essential for us to be united in than anoth 
 er it is our religion, for that is the centre of our 
 whole fabric; and if that falls, all falls. Hith 
 erto we have all been united perfectly in our re 
 ligion ; we have all been of the religion that the 
 Spirits gave us who came out of the waters and 
 stayed with our fathers, and on account of whom 
 our fathers were blessed. That is the religion 
 of the Ojibways; has always been so from time 
 immemorial, and always will be as long as the 
 Ojibways live upon the earth. The Great Spirit 
 Himself, Whom the white missionaries talk 
 about, gave that religion to our forefathers, 
 even as He gave the Christian religion to the 
 whites, and commanded our forefathers ever to 
 cling to that old faith. And by means of it, as 
 we know, we have cured disease, warded off 
 sickness, and lived to extreme old age upon the 
 earth. And by means of it we have drawn the 
 animals to us, and have killed buffalo, deer, elk, 
 bears, and all other animals; and have lived in 
 plenty on the very best. And by means of that 
 we have clothed ourselves with otter skins, and 
 mink skins, and silver-grey fox, and the most 
 precious furs. And by means of it and the pro 
 tection it afforded we have gone against our 
 enemies, and have escaped their bullets and 
 their arrows, and returned in safety to our vil 
 lages with scalps oftentimes not a man miss- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 417 
 
 ing. All this our religion has done for us up to 
 this time, because we have been wholly united in 
 it. But now for the first time there is a division 
 that threatens us, and everything we hold dear, 
 with ruin. One man has put on trousers, dis 
 carded the sacred breech-cloth of his fathers; 
 and he has taken the eagle feathers out of his 
 hair, and has cut off his scalp-lock, and has be 
 come as a woman. We hear, besides, that he 
 has been baptized and left our religious lodge 
 and become one-of-those-who-pray (a Chris 
 tian). So you see, my friends, that if this is not 
 stopped our whole fabric will topple to ruin. If 
 one man may do this thing, another may, and 
 another and another, until all our fathers great 
 ness and glory is gone, and we sink into con 
 tempt and weakness. Who will listen to us if 
 we become like women, or who will any longer 
 be afraid of us I We who are the unconquer 
 able Ojibways; who whipped even the terrible 
 Sioux out of this land and occupy it in their 
 stead! So you see that all our glory and our 
 greatness, and our very existence, depend upon 
 our doing something. We must stop this leak 
 that has begun, or everything will leak out. 
 Wherefore I propose, and I am sure this distin 
 guished chief from Red Lake will sustain me in 
 so reasonable a thing, that we unanimously ad 
 monish Wasegoneshkunk to come back to the re 
 ligion of his fathers ; to take off those garments 
 which are unworthy of a warrior, and to put on 
 again the Indian s garb; to come back into the 
 sacred lodge and sacred fellowship, where we 
 will receive and forgive him. And besides, 
 
418 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 that we pass a law, unanimously, and make it 
 strong, that in future any one who leaves the 
 religion of his fathers and becomes a Christian 
 shall immediately be killed ! 
 
 "If you have made up your minds to allow 
 this miserable man to remain here, because you 
 derive some benefit from him in the way of food 
 or clothing, so be it, I do not resist it, although I 
 think differently ; but I only ask that no one in 
 the future shall leave the religion of his fathers 
 and join his miserable religion, under penalty of 
 death. Let us agree that we shall all bury our 
 tomahawks in the head of such a one; and so 
 zealous am I for our ancestral faith that I prom 
 ise you I shall be the first one to do it ? even 
 though it were my own brother. 
 
 Loud applause and cries of concurrence in 
 these sentiments, indicated by "How, how, 
 how!" followed this speech; and once more the 
 drums beat fast and furious, and the dancing 
 and howling was of a similar character. 
 
 When quiet was restored the old men were not 
 in a quandary as before, but had their minds 
 pretty well made up. They were supported by 
 the assemblage, which was nearly unanimous in 
 favor of enacting the law proposed by Sha-bosh- 
 kunk. Before they passed the law, however, 
 Medwe-ganonint rose of his own account to say 
 a few words on the subject. They were very 
 few, merely stating that in his opinion medicine 
 men often killed their patients by worrying them 
 as they did; working them over and keeping 
 them from sleep and rest. And so far from the 
 Christian religion being so bad as they supposed 
 
THE OJIBWAY 419 
 
 it was, he did not know but some day he would 
 become a Christian himself, if Christianity came 
 within reach of him. 
 
 This was .rather a damper, so great was the 
 influence of the man ; but it could not overcome 
 the almost unanimous feeling of the assembly, 
 so with loud shouts of approval the law of death 
 was passed. They were not ready to drive the 
 missionary away, because the benefits derived 
 from his presence were too evident; so they en 
 deavored to retain those benefits and yet prevent 
 any damage to their religion by the law. Hav 
 ing thus made everything secure the assembly 
 dissolved. 
 
 While all this commotion over him was going 
 on, the missionary was proceeding with his 
 labors holding his daily services, which were 
 well attended, because the people, having 
 nothing else particularly to do, were attracted 
 to a pleasant way of spending an hour ; teaching 
 the children in a boarding-school, tending some 
 of them with his own hands, who slept in his 
 private room; working daily in the field, work 
 ing on the road, and attending to all depart 
 ments of the mission. He got some inkling of 
 the serious deliberations which were being held 
 looking to his expulsion, but kept on in his quiet- 
 way. When the Indians went off in a body on 
 distant hunts he sometimes went with them. 
 camping with them at night on the ground, and 
 sharing their food. Although reared in tho lap 
 of luxury, he was perfectly able to adapt himself 
 to their kind of life. He could outwalk any of 
 them, and what particularly struck them was 
 
420 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 how, in Lent, he would walk all day long without 
 tasting a mouthful of food, and only at the even 
 ing meal would break his fast. Yet they said 
 he had a sweet smile on his face all day. 
 
 The man who had put on the trousers did not 
 take them off; and notwithstanding the death 
 edict, one by one they came into the Christian 
 fold. Here some women, and there some men, 
 and very many children were baptized; many 
 scalp locks were cut, and much civilized dress 
 donned. Some began to build log houses for 
 themselves, and discarded the wigwam. They 
 opened little fields for themselves and cultivated 
 them. They left off in great measure their 
 wandering habits and settled down to a more 
 orderly life. The voice of singing and of joy 
 was everywhere heard in their village, and to 
 sing Christian hymns became a passion with 
 them. They met often in assemblies of their 
 own; but now it was not to talk about killing 
 Sioux, nor to dance degrading dances, but to 
 congratulate each other on having escaped from 
 the dreadful moral and spiritual dangers 
 through which they had passed, and to urge each 
 other to steadfastness in the new, and to them 
 very blessed life on which they had entered. 
 
 Their numerous councils or dances had af 
 forded them an outlet for their feelings in their 
 old life, by furnishing them an opportunity to 
 make addresses on the subjects nearest their 
 hearts; so did these new meetings in this new 
 life. Now, however, both men and women 
 spoke. There was no longer the subjection of 
 women, and their efTacement from having any 
 
THE OJIBWAY 421 
 
 voice in the affairs of the community. Both 
 now stood on an equal footing in the new king 
 dom. Women had the privilege of speaking of 
 things that troubled their minds, as well as men. 
 They related their past experiences, and their 
 hopes and fears for the future, equally with the 
 other sex. These meetings had now become of 
 almost daily occurrence. In them they ex 
 plored their past in the light of the new knowl 
 edge that had come to them. In them they en 
 deavored to correct that past as far as they 
 could; and by their acknowledged mistakes to 
 guide themselves in the future. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 BE SURE YOUE SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT. 
 
 In one of these meetings all those who had 
 become Christians were present, and many of 
 those who had not yet attracted to hear what 
 the different speakers would say, and perhaps 
 with an undefined uneasy feeling in their own 
 minds. An atmosphere of expectancy pervaded 
 the assembly. Nearly all the people in the vil 
 lage were there, and this day there were many 
 addresses both by men and women. In them 
 they bewailed their past mistakes which were 
 well known to those who listened to them; and 
 lamented the blindness of the old life, which had 
 caused them to fall into those things which they 
 now bitterly regretted. They declared that 
 they had been blind during their past lives, and 
 had only just now had their eyes opened. A 
 great many frank confessions were made. It 
 seemed to clear away from their breasts their 
 loads, thus to openly spread before the people 
 the things that weighed heavy on their hearts. 
 Some of them openly asked forgiveness of their 
 neighbors to whom they had done wrong; which 
 was readily accorded, men shaking hands with 
 each other, and women kissing each other in 
 token of forgiveness, while tears of joy in some 
 cases streamed down their faces. Some who 
 had come there with very heavy hearts had them 
 
THE OJIBWAY 423 
 
 lightened. There was a general feeling of joy, 
 as if some new treasure had been found. Even 
 those who had not yet adopted the new belief 
 could not help but admire the spirit of sincerity 
 and love, and of mutual forgiveness, which was 
 abroad. Old misunderstandings were cleared 
 up. Friends long alienated were made friends 
 again, and embraced each other in the gladness 
 of reconciliation. A blessed day of joy and of 
 mutual love seemed to have come upon the com 
 munity. 
 
 And now all were startled by a commotion 
 which arose in the farthest back seat of the as 
 sembly. Some one there seemed to be in deep 
 distress. Instantly all eyes were turned in that 
 direction, and a man who was not yet a Chris 
 tian was seen on his feet, trying to force his way 
 through the ranks and get to the front. He was 
 evidently laboring under strong excitement He 
 was trying to speak, but incoherently, and they 
 could not understand what he said. There was 
 a demand, therefore, that he should come to the 
 front and address them so they could under 
 stand what this meant. He went and faced 
 them. His emotion from some cause was very 
 great, for he was gasping and apparently in 
 danger of falling down. 
 
 "My friends," he began, but that was all he 
 could utter. My friends, he again began, I 
 think I am the most miserable man in the whole 
 world; I think there never was a man in this 
 world so unhappy as I, and now coming in here, 
 and hearing you confessing your faults, one to 
 another, I can keep it in no longer, I must tell it 
 
424 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 to you, my friends, if I die the next minute. 
 Just wait till you hear what trouble is on me, 
 and then you will know what I mean. All the 
 things that I have heard you confessing that you 
 have done oh, my friends, they are as nothing 
 compared to what is on me! But listening to 
 you has started me in what I am now saying. 
 
 "Let me tell you, my friends, how I have been. 
 For some time past I have been very sad. 
 There has been such a sadness in my heart that 
 sometimes I thought I could not live. That is 
 away back before this new religion came to us. 
 And I thought to myself, what shall I do to get 
 rid of this terrible depression. Not finding any 
 way myself, nor anything I could do to throw it 
 off, I asked the advice of one of the young men 
 of my own age. He advised me to join in the 
 games with the young men, and have a good 
 time; that that would cure me. I took his ad 
 vice, and I joined in the gambling and in the 
 dancing and drumming, and in all other things 
 that people do to find joy in. But instead of 
 getting better, I got worse; my heart was 
 heavier in the midst of all that joy than it was 
 before. So I found there was no help for me 
 there. Then after a little this new religion 
 came, and instead of giving me any joy it 
 seemed to make me worse. Hearing that there 
 was a God, and the different things we hear 
 about, made me more unhappy than ever. It 
 seemed to me that I hated God, and was ready to 
 curse when His Name was mentioned. It is 
 true we heard about gods in our old religion, 
 and about one God whom we called the Great 
 
THE OJIBWAY 425 
 
 Spirit; but it was all so far off that it had no 
 concern with us. But hearing that God is and 
 that He is near us, as we have heard since this 
 new religion came, increased my pains. The 
 closer He came to me the more unhappy I was. 
 I heard some of you speaking about joy that you 
 felt, and I wondered at it, for instead of joy, it 
 brought me greater wretchedness. I could 
 never bear to go and hear the missionary 
 preaching, for it seemed to aggravate my sick 
 ness. I was ready to curse and blaspheme 
 whenever he began. At last I got so desperate 
 that I knew I must do something, so I went to 
 one of you Indians who is a Christian, and told 
 him how sad I was, and asked him what I must 
 do. I did not tell him what caused my sadness, 
 but only how I felt. He thought a while, and 
 then he advised me to go out alone by myself 
 somewhere and pray, though I was not one of- 
 those-who-pray, and perhaps that God would 
 show me something, if He was going to have 
 mercy on me. I did so ; I went away off by my 
 self in the woods, and I prayed and prayed. 
 But no answer came nothing. I was more un 
 happy than before. To-day, hearing that you 
 were going to have this meeting, I came in here 
 because I must do something ! I was desperate ; 
 that is why I came in here. I feel that I cannot 
 live if something, I do not know what, is not 
 done. And hearing you confessing here to one 
 another what things you have done has brought 
 it to a head, and I feel that I must confess what 
 I have done. And when you hear what I am 
 going to say you will not wonder at the grief 
 
426 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 that has oppressed me. For some time I had 
 forgotten it, for it is a good while since it hap 
 pened; I only remembered it when some great 
 distress was on me, as when I was caught in the 
 blizzard, or when I was near dying with the 
 famine last spring any great distress like that 
 brought it fresh to my mind. But for the rest 
 of the time I only knew that some terrible weight 
 of sadness was on my heart. I only knew that 
 something was very far wrong with me. But 
 listening to you here has made me see clearly 
 what is the matter with me, and when you hear 
 what a terrible thing it is you will not wonder 
 that I have been nearly insane. 
 
 "My friends, you think that 0-kun-di-kun and 
 his family were killed by the Sioux. You know 
 that Sioux beadwork was found there. No, my 
 friends, he was not killed by Sioux. He and his 
 wife and family were killed and scalped by me 
 and Sha-bosh-kunk, and my companion, whom I 
 see in here. Now, my friends, you know the 
 terrible load that I have been carrying. We 
 started to go to the Sioux country for scalps, 
 and it rained so that we could not, and we were 
 ashamed to return home without going there, so 
 Sha-bosh-kunk prevailed on us to do that in 
 order to save our credit, and we were weak 
 enough to comply." 
 
 Here he noticed a man in the rear of the meet 
 ing, and with a bound he placed himself before 
 him. "Here," he cried, presenting to the man 
 his big butcher knife and tearing open his shirt 
 and presenting his naked bosom; "here, take 
 this knife; you are the nephew of 0-kun-di-kun 
 
THE OJIBWAY 427 
 
 who was murdered; you are the nearest of kin 
 to him here ; take this knife and drive it through 
 my breast! I offer my bare breast to you. I 
 wish you would do it, for I would feel more 
 comfortable if this knife was driven through 
 me, for I deserve it. I feel that I would in some 
 measure atone for what I have done if you 
 would kill me!" 
 
 The nephew was startled; so was the whole 
 assembly. Nearly every one was talking, say 
 ing that this or the other thing ought to be done 
 a great confusion. The nephew did not seem 
 inclined to do the deed, and he stood in a sort of 
 a dazed way looking at the man with his breast 
 open and presenting the knife. Here half a 
 dozen men took hold of both of them, and 
 dragged them apart, declaring that no such 
 thing should be done until they should con 
 sider it. 
 
 And now a new sensation occurred, for Trav- 
 eling-the-Heavens pushed forward amidst the 
 surging mass, and took his stand beside The- 
 First-Heavens, and declared all that he said to 
 be true ; and furthermore that whatever they de 
 creed should be done to his companion he wished 
 done to him also, as equally guilty. He said, 
 moreover, that he was glad this thing had come 
 out openly; that it had long hung as a heavy 
 load upon his heart; but that already, terrible 
 as was the disclosure, he felt lighter in mind, 
 and that whether he was to die or to live he yet 
 felt relieved by what had happened. 
 
 The assembly now quieted down, and began to 
 deliberate calmly on the matter. The two com- 
 
428 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 panions were told to sit down and wait for the 
 decision that would be given. They were told 
 that they had done their part, and done well, in 
 telling about it; and that they were now to sub 
 mit themselves to whatever was thought best by 
 their fellows. The inquiry now went round, 
 where was Sha-bosh-kunk ? The very mention 
 of his name produced execration. An agitation 
 swept over them when he was named. He, how 
 ever, was not to be found ; he never came to any 
 of their meetings ; purposely avoided them. He 
 had labored all he could for the death or expul 
 sion of the missionary, and, when he had failed 
 he never went near him nor any Christian meet 
 ings. Now when they so much wished to see 
 him; when they would have torn him to pieces, 
 almost had they seen him, he could net be 
 found. He was off at a distance hunting. This 
 compelled reflection, since action was impos 
 sible. One of the men, Nawukumigowinini 
 (The-man-in-the-centre-of-the-earth), got up to 
 address them. 
 
 "My friends," said he, "this is most amaz 
 ing that we have heard to-day. I do not mean 
 this in reference to the two young men who have 
 confessed. Although it is a most terrible thing 
 that they have confessed, yet we feel sorrow for 
 them as well as anger. We consider their 
 youth ; that they were not then come to their full 
 strength of mind; and we consider that they 
 were under the overwhelming influence of their 
 leader, Sha-bosh-kunk. My friends, he is the 
 man we are all thinking of, and not these. My 
 friends, it is amazing. Some of the speakers 
 
THE OJIBWAY 429 
 
 here to-day, before this thing came out, said 
 that we were blind in our old life. We see now 
 that we were blind. Here is this man whom we 
 made our god, and followed him and obeyed him 
 as if he had been God. We knew what sort of a 
 life he had lived. We knew that he had stolen 
 from a good many of us, and cheated us. We 
 knew about his going to Leech Lake and getting 
 those goods from poor widows and poor people 
 with his lucifer match. And it was he, my 
 friends, who caused the deaths of Big Wind and 
 Big-Elder-Brother. He wrought on them in a 
 devilish way, and made Big-Elder-Brother, an 
 honest man, kill Big Wind, another honest man, 
 and then was killed himself. So there were two 
 men, both of them better than himself, whose 
 deaths he brought about by his devilish cunning. 
 And then his good old mother, She-who-is- 
 pleased - with - something-nice-in-her-dish Oh 
 what a good woman she was ! She was with us 
 all our lives, wintering with us and summering 
 with us, and going in and out among us, and did 
 good to us all ! And yet we saw her put out in 
 the cold to die! And we looked on and did 
 nothing. Amazing it is! My friends, when 
 we look back we see that as those speakers 
 said, we were blind ! We thought we were the 
 very best people ; and we suffered such a thing 
 as that to be done ! An innocent, good woman? 
 and we knew her to be good all her life. I say, 
 my friends, it is amazing our blindness. And 
 then we made the man who did all that our God ! 
 And we knew that he had done all these things ! 
 I do not speak of this killing of 0-kun-di-kun 
 
430 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 and his family, for that we did not know, and 
 we are not to blame for. He, such a man as he, 
 said he was the Son of God, come to save the 
 world ; and we believed him ; although we knew 
 all he had done; and made him our God! We 
 approached him on our hands and knees ! Just 
 think what a monster we approached on our 
 hands and knees!" 
 
 Here another man was seen trying to rise and 
 say something, and the speaker gave way to 
 him. It was Awunanaquot (Misty Cloud). 
 
 1 My friends, he said, l all this brings to my 
 mind a word that that we lately heard read from 
 the book that we are told is the Word of God. I 
 am so stupid that though I listen when it is be 
 ing read I can remember very little afterwards 
 of what I hear, oftentimes nothing at all. I 
 suppose it is the Devil, who held us in bondage 
 all our lives and our fathers before us, who is 
 there making us dull so that we do not under 
 stand nor remember. If it was one of the tales 
 about Wenabozho it takes six months to tell 
 them all, and yet they are so fascinating that let 
 a child of ten years even hear one of them once, 
 he will never forget it, but can tell it fifty years 
 afterwards word for word, just as he heard it, 
 even though he had never heard it but that one 
 single time. But this which we are told is the 
 Word of God, and so the most precious thing 
 in the world, we may hear it, and hear it, and 
 yet we will remember nothing. So it must be 
 the Devil. Nevertheless, I do remember the 
 word that I heard last Sunday, and it is to speak 
 that word that I disturb you now in the midst of 
 
THE OJIBWAY 131 
 
 your consultations. The word is this: There 
 is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, 
 neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore 
 whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be 
 heard in the light; and that which ye have 
 spoken in the ear in closets shall be heard upon 
 the housetops/ That made a particular im 
 pression on me when I heard it read. I did not 
 believe it then, but I do believe it now. Here 
 was this murder of 0-kun-di-kun and his family 
 so skilfully covered up by Sha-bosh-kunk, and 
 remaining unknown and unsuspected so long a 
 time ; and now it is openly displayed before us 
 all ! So we see that the saying which I have quot 
 ed is true. And we may see by this that every 
 thing, every bad deed that has been done in the 
 world, will be openly known and come abroad ! 
 Nothing shall be hid! While these young men 
 were telling about that deed of Sha-bosh-kunk s 
 that saying kept coming in my mind." 
 
 A man now arose who said he wished to say 
 just a word. "We have been hearing in this 
 new religion about a general judgment that is 
 to be when this world is over," he said. "Per 
 haps we did not believe it, but we see now how it 
 can be. Even here already there is a judgment, 
 for everything is coming out. That shows us 
 how easy it will be for everything to come out 
 hereafter." 
 
 A woman in another part of the audience was 
 now seen endeavoring to speak, and all eyes 
 were turned on her. It was Red-Sky-of-the 
 Morning. "I wish you would hear me awhile," 
 she said. "While that young man was speaking 
 
i32 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 my heart was full. I went with him in every 
 word he said, for I know how he feels. I sup 
 pose I would have kept this trouble within my 
 own breast always and never spoken of it to any 
 one. But there is something in the example of 
 that young man that spurs me on; something 
 that says to me, now do you make confession 
 even as he has done. And there seems to be 
 something in the air here to-day which makes 
 this meeting a place of casting away of burdens. 
 I think I have the heaviest and the blackest of all. 
 I think mine is heavier than even that young 
 man s. My friends, you all know what I have 
 done; how I killed that Sioux girl! That, al 
 though she looked beseechingly in my eyes and 
 asked me to let her live, yet I cut her with my 
 knife! Oh what I have suffered for that; and 
 what I suffer this minute ! When my child was 
 dying in the famine, that was what I was think 
 ing of, and that caused me more of a pang than 
 my child s death. I felt that my child was some 
 how safe ; that it was better, in one way, for the 
 child to die then and escape suffering all that 
 we have suffered. But I felt that I was the one 
 in great danger ; I knew I was not ready to die, 
 and yet I was going to die. I kept asking myself, 
 When the time comes for you to die like this, 
 can you die 1 And I had to anwser that I could 
 not. I saw that that deed that I had done to 
 that girl was following me. I saw it was the 
 cause of my child s death. I saw it would prob 
 ably take all my other children, and then not.be 
 satisfied; be just as hungry pursuing me as it 
 was before. So that is why I rise in this meet- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 433 
 
 ing and confess to you what I did, thinking that 
 if you can forgive me, God will, perhaps, forgive 
 me. It is only lately that God has come to us; 
 for though we sometimes spoke of Him in our 
 old life, He was so far away that He had no 
 concern with us. Now, if you wish to kill me, 
 I am perfectly satisfied to have you kill me. I, 
 a woman, showed no mercy to my fellow-woman, 
 and I ought not to expect mercy to be shown 
 to me. I was foolish and blinded. I had gained 
 her by my plea, and I thought I had as good a 
 right to exercise my right over her as any of our 
 men had, and although I sometimes relented, 
 yet I could not bear to let her go out of my 
 hands, so I killed her! Oh, I think I am the 
 most unhappy woman in this assembly ! I think 
 I am the most wretched woman that ever was ! 
 Who but I ever deliberately killed her fellow- 
 woman begging for life! We see how deeply 
 killing had become ingrained in us, that even 
 we women killed our fellow-women. 
 
 Here there was a movement in another part 
 of the meeting and another woman was standing 
 up, evidently wishing to speak. Everybody 
 looked to hear what she had to say. She was 
 Mizhagamegizhikok ( The-woman-who-lands-in- 
 Heaven-f rom-her-canoe) . Misty Cloud is not 
 the only one," she said, "who is able to remem 
 ber a good word. I suppose I am more stupid 
 than he ; I suppose I am the most stupid of all 
 the Indians/ this she said with genuine hu 
 mility, "and I do not know any of the crooked 
 tracks that the white people call letters, and so 
 cannot gain any information for myself from 
 
434 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 books, but have to depend entirely on what I can 
 gather from other people by my two miserable 
 ears. . But yet I made some use of them, though 
 I am stupid ; for as I say, I remember one word. 
 It was at the Holy-mutual-putting-a-bite-in- 
 each-other s-mouth (The Holy Communion). I 
 have been to that twice, I believe, and there I 
 heard this word that I am going to tell to you. 
 I do not remember, and I did not very well 
 understand the many other sayings that were 
 read in that service ; but this one saying seemed 
 to be so suitable to me, and just what I needed, 
 that I suppose on that account I remembered 
 it. It was this: This is a true saying and 
 worthy of all men to be received, that Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 
 When it was read it passed upon my mind like 
 a flash of fire, and immediately afterwards my 
 heart was filled with joy and with deep thank 
 fulness to the One Who did save sinners. From 
 the joy and gratitude I felt I know it was God 
 Who applied it to my case. I knew myself to 
 be a sinner, and a great sinner, as I suppose we 
 all were, and more than that, our missionary 
 happened to preach a sermon on those very 
 words, and he explained to us that that was a 
 saying going round among the first ones who 
 were of the fellowship of Those-who-pray, and 
 which they comforted each other with. I am 
 sure we do not know who they were nor where 
 they lived; whether in this island (America) or 
 beyond the salt sea that we hear exists; nor 
 when they lived; but he told us that they had 
 been bad-living people, just as we were when 
 
THE OJIBWAY 435 
 
 we were in darkness, and that they passed this 
 around among them as a proverb or good say 
 ing to comfort themselves with when they 
 thought of all the bad things that they had done. 
 They repeated then to one another, that Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners, 7 and 
 that took away all the terror arising from think 
 ing of the bad deeds they had done. So I say 
 to my sister, Red-sky-of-the-morning, and I say 
 to The-First-Heavens and to Traveling-the- 
 Heavens, who have confessed, not to be too much 
 cast down about this thing. Those are very sad 
 and sorrowful things that they have done; but 
 they are not the only ones, and if we would all 
 begin and confess, who is there among us that 
 is clear? If there is not one thing, there is 
 another with all of us. Every one of us has 
 something or other. Let us rely on that good 
 word that I happened to remember and which 
 I have quoted, and let us not be too much cast 
 down. 
 
 When she sat down, a man, Azhawukumigweb 
 (He-sits-across-the-earth), said: "Very often 
 it is a woman who shows the way out of a diffi 
 culty or out of danger. It was a woman, The 
 Lynx s wife, who showed the party what to 
 do in the blizzard, by which their lives were pre 
 served. And I think that this woman who has 
 just spoken has pointed us out the way of life. 
 We have got into a hole, and a very bad one, by 
 our evil lives in our ignorance, and I am satis 
 fied that this woman has pointed the road out. 
 Let us remember what she has told us." 
 
 And now there rose one whom every one was 
 
436 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 surprised to see stand up, for he was about the 
 last one that they thought would address them 
 in such a place. It was The Sioux, the hero 
 of many an exploit. 
 
 "My friends, " he said, "I see you are sur 
 prised to see me stand up to address you in such 
 a place as this. Indeed I am surprised at my 
 self. You know my past life. That is, you think 
 you do, but really you do not. You know how 
 I went and killed my own uncles, and brought 
 home their scalps. You applauded it in the 
 days of your ignorance, and I felt proud of it. 
 Now I loathe it. I see that I was the Devil s 
 chief servant. I thought then that I was a good- 
 living man because I never killed any of my 
 fellow Ojibways. Oh, how I was blinded ! And 
 you know how I treacherously killed the old 
 Sioux and his daughter and family on the 
 prairie. We flattered ourselves in those days 
 that we were reducing the number of our 
 enemies and so were doing a good thing by 
 killing them. But it was not so. All the inno 
 cent children and women whom we killed made 
 no appreciable difference in the number of our 
 enemies, nor the men either. The truth is, that 
 we did it through the wickedness of our own 
 hearts. If we had let them live it would have 
 been of no disadvantage to us. We see now 
 that we causelessly injured and destroyed inno 
 cent and helpless women and children who 
 never would have done us any harm. We see 
 now that all the miserv that Sioux and Ojibways 
 inflicted on each other was useless. It was the 
 Devil, whom we both served, who made us do it. 
 
THE OJIBWAY 437 
 
 And those whom I have mentioned are not the 
 only Sioux that I have killed. But I have done 
 more than that, my friends, more than any of 
 you know of. I went once toward the white 
 man s country a great many days journey to 
 visit some Ojibways there; away over toward 
 the river that is called Gigo-shekumot (St. 
 Croix river). When I was near that place I 
 saw a family of those whom we call The Chip 
 munks (The Swedes), because when they first 
 settle on land, being poor, they have no money 
 to build a house, and so burrow in a bank of 
 earth, like chipmunks, till they get money 
 enough to build them a house. There I saw the 
 little tow-headed children, with white skins and 
 red cheeks and eyes as blue as the sky, playing 
 about the door. What do you think I did! I 
 killed the whole family. Why did I do it! It 
 was not any advantage to me. They were poor 
 and nothing that they had could profit me. Why 
 did I do it? It was because I had got so used 
 to killing that I wanted to kill more and more. 
 Thai was the dreadful curse that was on me; 
 that was my dreadful punishment, that the more 
 I killed the more I wanted to kill. And as you 
 may imagine, that was not the last family of 
 whites that I killed. I was out hunting with one 
 of my young men, when we came on the house 
 of a Long Knife (American) whom I knew. I 
 incited my young man to join me in killing that 
 family. He did not wish to, but I overper- 
 suaded and forced him. So we shot the father 
 through the window in the evening, and then 
 went in and killed the mother and all the chil- 
 
438 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 dren with our tomahawks. Then we took what 
 we wanted and set fire to the house and burned 
 them all up to cover up what we had done. My 
 friends, that is what grows out of killing Sioux ! 
 The-First-Heavens, who has spoken here, 
 thought he had a load on his mind, and by the 
 way he was gasping and staggering we could 
 see that it was as much as he could bear, and 
 Red-Sky-of-the-Morning thought she was the 
 most unhappy woman living. But what a light 
 grief is theirs compared with what lies on me ! 
 It is as nothing. I have opened my trouble to 
 you, and you see how vast it is. My friends, I 
 never thought to have made to any human being 
 the confession I have made here to-day; but 
 listening to those who have spoken has drawn 
 it from me in spite of myself. You see before 
 you the most unhappy man there is living. I 
 suppose the whites would kill me as soon as they 
 find. me, but that is nothing. Now I have shown 
 you the depth of my grief." 
 
 Pi-zhi-ki (The Buffalo) now rose and wished 
 to speak. "My friends, " said he, "I wish you 
 to notice what my namesake the buffalo teaches 
 us about these matters, and about these confes 
 sions that we have heard. We have often 
 secretly watched my namesake feeding, when we 
 were lying hidden, perhaps, in a grove. What 
 does he do? He reaches out his long tongue 
 and with a swirl he draws all the grass within 
 reach of it into his mouth. He swallows it down 
 and then reaches out his tongue for more ; and 
 so he keeps on until he has filled his stomach. 
 Then he lies down. He has had enough. What 
 
THE OJIBWAY 439 
 
 does he do next? He brings every bit of what 
 he has swallowed down so greedily, up back 
 into his month, and tastes it all over again at his 
 leisure, and if he has eaten sweet and wholesome 
 grass he finds the taste of it very good, and if 
 he has swallowed down bitter and poisonous 
 stuff he has again to feel it in his mouth and to 
 find it indeed bitter and poisonous. So we in 
 our life, like my namesake the buffalo, have 
 been greedily swallowing down all sorts of 
 things: and we thought it made no difference; 
 that that was the end ; but no, we find, like him, 
 that we have to chew it all over again at our 
 leisure. If we had watched the buffalo to take 
 a lesson from him he would have taught us to 
 put only sweet and wholesome stuff into our 
 stomachs, for we find the bad inexpressibly 
 bitter when we come to taste it over again, and 
 the taste remains. " 
 
 "I," said Ga-wi-ta-we-we-dunk He-who-goes- 
 around-where-we-are-hallooing), rising to speak, 
 "will not take a parable from the buffalo, as 
 that man has done, but from ourselves. You 
 know, my friends, how it is when we have eaten 
 something that has disagreed with us. We try 
 to keep it down, but no ! we get sicker and sicker, 
 and more and more uncomfortable ; and though 
 we try to put something on the top of it to keep 
 it down, or drink something, yet our distress 
 becomes greater and greater, and there is no 
 relief for us until we have vomited it up. Then 
 at last we are rid of it, and have ease, but not 
 before. We have been swallowing down all 
 sorts of things in our old life, and today they 
 
440 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 are making us very sick; and I say that The 
 Sioux and Red-Sky-of the morning, and The- 
 First-Heavens, and the others have taken the 
 only sensible course in vomiting these things all 
 up out of their stomachs they will be well now. 
 But, my friends, neither you nor I, nor any one 
 in the world can know what it is to be well while 
 vainly struggling to keep these things down, 
 which yet in spite of all our efforts will make 
 us sicker and sicker until they force themselves 
 out at the last. And if we did succeed in keep 
 ing them down and in us they would kill us ! Let 
 us learn from what we see takes place in our 
 bodies, to know how to treat the maladies of 
 our souls. M 
 
 "I want to say a word," said Yellow Thunder, 
 standing up, " about what that man, The 
 Sioux, has just said about its being useless for 
 us Ojibways to think that we would do any good 
 by killing a few Sioux and so reducing the num 
 ber of our enemies. It was useless, and our 
 killing a few innocent women or children, or even 
 killing a few men, made no difference in their 
 numbers and did us no good. It was the wicked 
 ness of our hearts, I suppose, that made us do it, 
 and we merely got up that pretext of reducing 
 their numbers as a cloak for what we wanted 
 to do. And all that which came down to us 
 from our forefathers, about doing honor to a 
 dead child by putting a lock of their hair or a 
 toy in the bowels of a slain enemy, we see now 
 to have been bad and wrong. It was the Devil 
 who had possession of us at that time, and he 
 incited us to do those things that we did. Oh, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 441 
 
 how devil-ridden we were both the Sioux and 
 we! What misery we inflicted on each other, 
 they on us and we on them ; and it was all en 
 tirely useless. What a life of constant fear and 
 apprehension we lived in on account of that 
 thing! We could not enjoy this beautiful world 
 that God gave us, because we made our lives a 
 hell, by butchery, and by that fear ever hanging 
 over us. We see now how much better it would 
 have been to have enjoyed the good things of 
 this life in peace, and to have let each other 
 alone. But no ! the Devil was our master in 
 those days and he must drive us into that ex 
 treme misery. When I think of how we suffered 
 from fear, all spring and summer long, and 
 sometimes mooring our little children out on the 
 lake in canoes for weeks at a time, I shudder at 
 the recollection of it. We made our lives very 
 miserable by our blindness. And you know, my 
 friends, that I was one of those who went on a 
 war-party yes, who got up a war-party and 
 went and killed innocent women and children, 
 as well as men, and took their scalps and 
 brought them home and danced over them ; you 
 know all that. So I now publicly acknowledge 
 my error, and say it was all wrong. And you 
 know I was one of those who brought home that 
 poor Sioux girl who perished here among us, so 
 I feel that I am partly to blame for that. Not 
 Red-Sky-of-the-morning only, but I also. I 
 thought in those days that I was doing 
 a good thing; now I see how blind I was. The 
 Devil blinded me, whom I loved and whom 
 served. Now I have thrown him off " here he 
 
442 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 made a motion of throwing him off, " and will 
 trample on him every day, here he trampled 
 with his foot on the earth, " and oh, how I 
 loathe my old life ! So I ask God to forgive me ; 
 and you also, my friends, who have known all 
 that I have done." 
 
 Here another man rose to speak. It was 
 Good-Sounding-Sky, the great hereditary Grand 
 Medicine-man. "I wish to speak, my friends, 
 of a different thing from that which the man 
 who has just sat down has spoken to you about. 
 Although it is true that I am equally to blame 
 with him about that war-party, and killing those 
 innocent people, and bringing that captive, I 
 wish to speak to you about my Grand Medicine. 
 You know that I am far the foremost man in 
 the Ojibway nation in the Grand Medicine, and 
 so was my father before me. You know how the 
 sick were carried to me from all the villages of 
 the Ojibways two and three and even as much 
 as seven days march distant for me to cure 
 them. You know the presents of blankets and 
 food and furs and every imaginable thing that 
 I received. I made myself hoarse and I made 
 myself tired Oh, how exhausted I was calling 
 on endless names of spirits to help me; spirits 
 under the lakes and under the rivers, spirits 
 everywhere ; and shaking my rattle, and beating 
 my drum, and chanting my medicine songs, and 
 working over the sick, for days and days at a 
 time. And I say to you now, I, the foremost 
 Medicine-man in the whole nation, after having 
 tried to the full all that our fathers left us in 
 the way of knowledge; after having made the 
 
THE OJIBWAY 443 
 
 utmost proof of it more than any other man I 
 say to you that there is nothing in it. I say that 
 we have inherited from our fathers, lies, vanity, 
 and things wherein there is no profit. And I 
 publicly declare here that I shall bury all the 
 instruments of my craft, my drum and my 
 rattle, and my medicine-bag, and all my medi 
 cines, and that I shall practice my art no more. 
 I will not give them away, for fear some person 
 might use them; but I shall bury them so 
 no person can use them. When I first began to 
 hear this new doctrine there was some one stood 
 at my elbow and said, Do not listen, do not 
 listen. I could almost hear the voice. Then I 
 v^ould take my drum and beat it violently, so as 
 io shut out the sound of what the missionary was 
 saying, both from myself and from others. I 
 know now that it was the Devil who was at my 
 elbow, and said to me, Do not listen*/ but I, like 
 Yellow Thunder, am trampling on him, and shall 
 every day of my life. And it was the Devil or 
 one of his spirits who came to me in the che-suk- 
 an when practicing sorcery to find out about the 
 future, as when calling upon him to know wheth 
 er Yellow Thunder s daughter would live or not. 
 There was a power in our old religion ; a malign 
 power; from the evil spirits whom we invoked; 
 whom we loved and whom we served, and to 
 whom we gave ourselves. We called them to 
 come to us ; we invited them ; we implored them ; 
 and it was our punishment that they did. I 
 used to think my Grand Medicine the greatest 
 thing in the world, now I think it just about so 
 much "showing the thickness of his nail " in 
 
444 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 comparison with this that has been brought to 
 us, and I acknowledge with the last speaker that 
 I have been blind all my life, and have only just 
 now received my sight." These words from 
 such a source were a great surprise. 
 
 Here a woman arose, Omayaosek (The- 
 woman-general-of-the-army), and said she had 
 something to say about this. i My friends, she 
 said, "I wish to deal first with the cases of The- 
 First-Heavens and his companions, and with 
 Red-Sky-of-the-Morning, reserving the case of 
 "The Sioux for the last, because it has different 
 features from the others, and requires to be 
 separately dealt with. I shall speak of that last. 
 The-man-in-the-centre-of -the -earth and Misty 
 Cloud have quoted to you words from the Scrip 
 ture. Now I want you to know that I also am 
 capable of remembering a word when I hear it. 
 I have a brain in my body and not all words 
 escape me. And I think I know a word that I 
 listened to lately when it was read in church, 
 which tells us what we ought to do to these who 
 are so sorrowful, these who have addressed us, 
 and made confessions here before us. It is this 
 I remember every word of it: So that con- 
 trarywise you ought rather to forgive him and 
 comfort him, lest such a one should be swallowed 
 up with his overmuch sorrow. You see the 
 condition that these are now in. They are so 
 weighed down to the lowest depths with sorrow 
 that if we do not do something to them they will 
 become desperate, and very likely kill them 
 selves. They are in danger of being swallowed 
 up with their overmuch sorrow. And I remem- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 445 
 
 ber that near the same place there is a word 
 that speaks that we should take care that the 
 Devil does not get an advantage over us through 
 their overmuch sorrow. That is what he is now 
 in danger of doing to these poor people if we 
 do not prevent him. He first set them on to 
 killing those people ; we all know very well that 
 he did that. And now having got them to do it, 
 he is trying to drive them to despair by making 
 them think that what they have done is so bad 
 they are beyond reach of forgiveness, so that 
 they will not go to God for mercy, but make 
 away with themselves or become reckless and 
 desperate. And then he will have got them for 
 ever and ever. He will rule over them in the 
 Bad Fire (hell), and that is what he is now com 
 ing pretty close on doing. So we must do some 
 thing quickly to save these people, and I shall 
 tell you what it is. It is that every one of us 
 who are Christians shall rise and kiss and shake 
 hands with these people, and tell them not to 
 grieve too much about what they have done, but 
 to trust in God. In that way we are to do as the 
 Word tells us, confirm our love toward them. 
 We are to tell them that we forgive them; and 
 what is the word that we so often hear! Ye 
 are the body of Christ. If we who are the body 
 of Christ forgive them, that means that Christ, 
 Who is the Head, has forgiven them, and that 
 they are to grieve no more, and we are to tell 
 them so. And I say the same to The Sioux/ 
 who has told us what he has done. I tell him to 
 remember the word that The-woman-who-lands- 
 in-Heaven-from-her-canoe quoted that Christ 
 
446 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 
 And I wish to give him for his consolation this 
 further word from myself which I remember, 
 4 If we walk in the light we have fellowship one 
 with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His 
 Son cleanses us from all sin. Then why should 
 we fear! Let us rely on that word. It is 
 sad that he has done what he has, but there 
 is great virtue in repentance. If the white 
 people come upon him for what he has done, 
 and execute him, he must stand that as well 
 as he can. That is his punishment in this 
 world which he must bear. But God will save 
 him in the world to come if he does what I say. 
 We have nothing to do with what the white 
 people may do to him, neither to tell them nor 
 not to tell them. We must leave that to God 
 to do about that as He sees best. Now I am 
 going to begin, and I want every one of you men 
 and women here who belong to Those-who-pray 
 to follow my example, that we may save these 
 people. " 
 
 With that she went to Red-Sky-of-the-Morning 
 and, putting her arms about her, kissed her 
 heartily, and said a few words of encouragement 
 to her. Then she went and kissed each of the 
 three men in succession, and told them to trust 
 in God and not to grieve. In this she was fol 
 lowed by every woman of the Christian band, 
 who kissed and addressed encouraging words to 
 each. The men followed, shaking hands with 
 each one and addressing to them words of cheer. 
 All the assembly was in motion while this was 
 going on, either shaking hands, or moving about, 
 
THE OJIBWAY 447 
 
 or speaking to the sorrowful ones who were the 
 objects of all this attention. As for them, they 
 appeared visibly comforted. As one after anoth 
 er kissed them or shook hands with them and 
 comforted them, they looked up; their hearts 
 were touched with this Christian Iove 4 and they 
 were no longer the woe-begone beings they had 
 been before. They felt their heavy burdens roll 
 ing off. They felt that God forgave them when 
 they saw so much love in the faces of His people, 
 and in their actions. 
 
 The- Woman-G eneral-of- the- Army, who had 
 now taken the lead and was the one who said 
 what should be done, evidently because she was 
 the one who saw clearly what ought to be done 
 and did it, passing over even the men, now had 
 a final word to say about these newly reconciled 
 ones. She said she wanted them brought imme 
 diately to the missionary to be baptized, for that 
 she remembered what he had said, that if one s 
 hands or one s face were very dirty and the 
 person took water and washed, then the filth 
 would all be removed and the person be clean ; 
 that so in the water of baptism the soul was 
 washed from all the filth of sin and made clean. 
 She said these persons sins were upon them 
 still, and would be till they were baptized, so 
 she wanted them to be baptized at once. She 
 said there were sponsors wanted, who would 
 vouch for them in the future, and she called for 
 volunteers who would act in that capacity. In 
 stantly there uprose many, men and women, 
 each saying " I. " She selected those she thought 
 
448 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 proper, and they took the candidates and 
 marched them off to seek the missionary, telling 
 him what had happened, and asking him to bap 
 tize them. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 RETBIBUTION. 
 
 While they were gone there was still a very 
 important question to be decided what was to 
 be done with Sha-bosh-kunk. To this they now 
 addressed themselves. One and all spoke of 
 him with detestation. They recounted again 
 how he had deceived them, abused them, and 
 set himself up for them to worship as the Son 
 of God, while inwardly full of the greatest 
 enormities. They recalled again his aged 
 mother s end a thing they thought little about 
 at the time, but which in the light in which they 
 now stood they saw to have been most abomina 
 ble. They recalled Big Wind and Big-Elder- 
 Brother, and their sad fate brought about by 
 him. In fact, the speakers could hardly bring 
 themselves to an end when they began to speak 
 of him. However, it would do no good to talk 
 on in that way the question was, what was to 
 be done with him. 
 
 The first thing that suggested itself to all was 
 to kill him. Some of them advocated going and 
 as many as could get at him burying their toma 
 hawks in his head. They considered for awhile 
 that proposition. They all agreed that he 
 deserved it; that it would be a light punishment 
 for what he had done. They said it would take 
 many deaths to atone for the deaths he had 
 
450 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 caused. But could they do it? Some, it is true, 
 were in favor of it ; but the larger part thought 
 that in the new life on which they had entered 
 they should not kill any one. In their old life 
 they said that is what they would immediately 
 have done, but in this new life they could not. 
 
 Then they discussed allowing him to live on 
 in their village, but this they were unanimously 
 averse to. Finally, not knowing what to do, 
 and after they had discussed it a long time with 
 out finding just the right thing to do, they agreed 
 as a compromise measure to call him into their 
 council and then to be guided by circumstances, 
 or to some extent by how he would conduct him 
 self. Accordingly, messengers were dispatched 
 to his wigwam to summon him, for he had by 
 this time returned from his hunt. By the mes 
 sengers also they sent word to him to repent, for 
 with their new principles fresh in their minds 
 they had the wish even for Sha-bosh-kunk that 
 he should repent. Amidst all their hot indigna 
 tion against him there was mingled that touch of 
 pity for him the wish that he might come to 
 a better mind. 
 
 His answer to the messengers was a refusal 
 to go, nor would he give any satisfaction to them 
 in any way. In answer to their request that he 
 should repent he gave only the hard, cold 
 answer, "I will not repent. What have I done 
 that I should repent f " He would remain just 
 as he was; would never change as long as he 
 lived ! 
 
 When this answer was reported to them their 
 indignation was more hot against him than ever. 
 
GAMBLING SONG.-Ojibway, 
 
 Transcribed and harmonized 
 by EDWIN S. TRAC 
 
 I I 31 
 
 
 
 -9. -y- = -f- -f- 
 
 1 r r " " r 
 
 H?: 
 
 
452 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Earnestly did they wish to go and tear him to 
 pieces, but their new principles forbade. At 
 last, moved by a common impulse, they decided 
 to let him live, but to drive him away from their 
 village, never more to return there. And they 
 decided to send runners to all the other villages 
 of the Ojibways to notify them of what they had 
 done, and to request that he be received in no 
 one of them. They asked that he be forced to 
 live by himself, away from human kind live 
 with the beasts whose equal only they thought 
 he was. 
 
 In order to emphasize more strongly their 
 detestation of him, they passed a law that his 
 name should never more be spoken by any 
 Ojibways, but that when they had occasion to 
 refer to him it should be by the new designation 
 which they gave him, Gegwanisugendagozit 
 (The- Accursed). This new name also was to be 
 made known to all the other Indians to whom 
 they were to send word about him; and 
 they also were to be requested to observe it, and 
 by it alone in future was he to be known to them. 
 The messengers were instructed also to tell them 
 that they had sent word to him to repent , and 
 that if he had, notwithstanding all the enormi 
 ties he had committed, there was no telling with 
 how much leniency they might have dealt with 
 him, or how they would have regarded him. but 
 that his final deliberate answer, "I will not 
 repent, " and his refusal to acknowledge that 
 he had done anything wrong had put the stamp 
 of permanence on what he was and on all that 
 he had done burned it in, and made it an in- 
 
THE OJIBWAY 453 
 
 separable part of himself; so that thenceforth 
 by his own deliberate decision, the door of for 
 giveness and restoration was forever closed 
 against him ; to all eternity he must remain what 
 he had deliberately elected to be. 
 
 The runners who were sent to the neighboring 
 villages were instructed to ask that those vil 
 lages in turn notify others still more remote ol 
 what had been done, and they in turn others; 
 so that to the farthest limits to which his fame 
 as the Son of God had extended there might also 
 extend the news of his degradation and banish 
 ment from human kind. The loathing of him 
 was to be co-extensive with his exaltation. The 
 god whom they had approached on hands and 
 knees was to be dragged in the dust and be an 
 object of execration to them all. The lonely 
 canoe man on Lake Ontario who had heard that 
 he was the Son of God was to hear that he was 
 a vile impostor, the companion of beasts. 
 
 On a certain day the inhabitants of Gull Lake 
 were assembled around the fallen idol s wig 
 wam. First the fire on the hearth was put out, 
 and it was commanded that as long as the earth 
 remained no fire should ever be made on that 
 spot. Next the wigwam was torn down and the 
 materials burned. Then Sha-bosh-kunK was 
 brought forth, his gun and a few traps given 
 him, and he was commanded to go to a certain 
 lonely region away from their village, which 
 was designated to him, and never more to show 
 his face there. He was told to keep himself from 
 human kind ; that orders had been given to shoot 
 him if he ever approached or spoke to any 
 
454 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 Indian. He must not approach any other village 
 on pain of death. If he needed powder and ball 
 to make his living he must go to a certain dis 
 tant white trader mentioned to him, and then 
 only in the night. He was to build himself a 
 wigwam as best he could and there live all alone. 
 His wife and children refused to go with him 
 to banishment; said they would remain with 
 their relatives, and would became Christians and 
 be baptized. 
 
 When at last he went forth there was the en 
 tire village looking after him, with arms 
 stretched forth and voices sending after him 
 words of execration. It recalled the day when 
 he set forth from that same village on his war 
 expedition, and then there were the same people 
 shouting after him words of love and of encour 
 agement. 
 
 He disappeared from view, a lonely man; 
 indeed, a " fugitive and a vagabond " on the 
 earth. Once in a while a hunter caught a glimpse 
 of a distant figure, then turned his head. Occa 
 sionally for some years a smoke was seen to 
 rise; then the mother uttered the name Gegwa- 
 nisugendagozit, and her little one shudderingly 
 hid its head in her skirts. For some years a 
 gun was occasionally heard to sound; then the 
 hunter stamped upon the earth and spat. By 
 and by all was silent, no smoke any more; no 
 gun any longer heard. The hunter still avoided 
 that tract lest he should come on the bones of 
 Sha-bosh-kunk, gnawed clean by wolves, and his 
 skull lying like dung upon the ground. He had 
 no burial but what the wild beasts gave him. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 STILL WATERS AT LAST. 
 
 Soon after, this a great event happened a 
 Successor of the Apostles visited their village. 
 He was the godly old man who had been con 
 secrated by that other Successor of the Apos 
 tles who ministered before George Washing 
 ton, to be the Apostle of the Northwest 
 wilderness. As an Apostle he had carried 
 the Gospel through Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, 
 and as far west as there were any settlers; and 
 into all the states of the Southwest, even to 
 Florida and Louisiana and all this in the days 
 before railroads, when there were only the slow 
 and painful stage coach, and the not very safe 
 river steamer. He cared nothing for fame, for 
 applause, for rank, for anything but to do the 
 will of his Father in Heaven. He fled from 
 praise, and love pursued him. In his own state, 
 Wisconsin, in which he had now taken up his 
 residence, he was worshiped. When he alighted 
 at a town all the hackmen crowded around him, 
 and fought as to who would have him. "Here, 
 Bishop, get into my hack," cried one; "here, 
 Bishop, take mine," cried another; "here, 
 Bishop, get into mine," cried they all! When 
 he was driven to his destination and asked what 
 was to pay, not a cent would any of them take. 
 "Well," he would say, "I do not think I ought 
 
456 THE OJIBWAY 
 
 to do this; you have your family to support. " 
 4 No, no," cried the delighted cab-owner, "not 
 a cent from you, Bishop; will not take a cent." 
 The man thought himself already overpaid by 
 being permitted to carry him. 
 
 This godly old man, Jackson Kemper, with his 
 silvery white hair, came to Gull Lake, and took 
 his place beside the Altar in the log Church. As 
 many as could get in the church were in and the 
 rest crowded around outside. They were 
 brought before him; the women in their white 
 dresses, which had been given them at their bap 
 tism, and the purity of which they were exhorted 
 to keep unsullied. The aged Apostle asked them 
 if they ratified the vows of their baptism; to 
 renounce the Devil and all his works, to believe 
 in God, and to serve Him to their life s end, and 
 they answered with a loud voice that they did. 
 Then they knelt and each received an Apostolic 
 blessing, and the Apostle laid his hands upon 
 them and prayed for them that they might re 
 ceive the Holy Ghost. Then followed the holy 
 feast upon the Body and Blood of the Saviour 
 Christ, of which they each partook, each of them 
 receiving the Consecrated Bread and then drink 
 ing of the Consecrated Chalice, after which they 
 went joyfully to their homes. 
 
 It seemed to themselves like a dream, all that 
 they had passed through ! starvation, the fights 
 with their enemies, pursuing and being pursued ; 
 all the dreadful miseries of their past lives. And 
 now they were safe from it all, like a canoeman 
 who has nearly lost his life in the boiling waves 
 but is now at last safe in the quiet haven. Soon 
 
THE OJIBWAY 457 
 
 they had houses, farms, cattle, and every earthly 
 comfort. They laid down and slept in security, 
 with no fear of hearing the awful Sioux yell in 
 the morning, nor of beings with the energy of 
 demons bursting in upon them! 
 
 They had, though, through a most frightful 
 and terrible experience, found God ; and in find 
 ing Him they had found every blessed thing in 
 this world and in the world to come. Their 
 meetings with each other now were filled with 
 thanksgivings, ^recalling the frightful dangers 
 through which they had passed and their present 
 happiness. " We went through fire and water, 
 and THOU broughtest us out into a wealthy 
 plaoel" 
 
 "Thou shalt forget thy miseries or remember 
 them only as waters that pass away ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE~ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 rdd a UbJ S Ct t0 a fine " 
 to $1.00 per volume afer the sixfh J Verdu ^creasing 
 demand may be renewed if rff \^ y< Books not n 
 expiration of loan period. appllcatlon made before 
 
 
 Due 
 
 to re^JJ a,;.; _ "" MARl 4 72 3Q 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY