History, Manners, and Customs of the North American Indians Part 4

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

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

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

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

_Austin._ Why, it must be like magic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Austin._ How do the Indians cook their food?

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

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

_Hunter._ The Indians eat a great deal of green corn, pemican, and marrow fat. The pemican is buffalo meat, dried hard, and pounded in a wooden mortar. Marrow fat is what is boiled out of buffalo bones; it is usually kept in bladders. They eat, also, the flesh of the deer and other animals: that of the dog is reserved for feasts and especial occasions. They have, also, beans and peas, peaches, melons and strawberries, pears, pumpkins, c.h.i.n.kapins, walnuts and chestnuts.

These things they can get when settled in their villages; but when wandering, or on their war parties, they take up with what they can find. They never eat salt with their food.

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Brian._ What a figure he must have made!

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

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

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

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

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

_Austin._ What sort of a pipe was it?

_Basil._ What was in his tobacco sack?

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

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

_Basil._ What was in his tobacco sack?

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

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

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

_Austin._ How does an Indian scalp his enemy?

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

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

_Hunter._ Not always. Scalps are war trophies, and are generally regarded as proofs of the death of an enemy; but an Indian, inflamed with hatred and rage, and excited by victory, will not always wait till his foe has expired before he scalps him. The hair, as well as the scalp, of a fallen foe is carried off by the victorious Indian, and with it his clothes are afterwards ornamented. It is said, that, during the old French war, an Indian slew a Frenchman who wore a wig.

The warrior stooped down, and seized the hair for the purpose of securing the scalp. To his great astonishment, the wig came off, leaving the head bare. The Indian held it up, and examining it with great wonder, exclaimed, in broken English, "Dat one big lie."

_Brian._ How the Indian would stare!

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

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: _a_, scalping-knife. _b_, ditto, in sheath.

_c_, _d_, war-clubs. _e_, _e_, tomahawks. _g_, whip.]

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

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

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

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