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diff --git a/42527-0.txt b/42527-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2dcdf41 --- /dev/null +++ b/42527-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4398 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42527 *** + + TRAILS THROUGH + WESTERN WOODS + + +[Illustration: LAKE ANGUS McDONALD] + + + + + TRAILS THROUGH + WESTERN WOODS + + By + + HELEN FITZGERALD SANDERS + + _Illustrations from Photographs + by the Author_ + + NEW YORK & SEATTLE + THE ALICE HARRIMAN COMPANY + 1910 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY + THE ALICE HARRIMAN COMPANY + + _Published, July 1, 1910_ + + THE PREMIER PRESS + NEW YORK + + + + +_DEDICATION_ + + + _To the West that is passing; to the days + that are no more and to the brave, + free life of the Wilderness that + lives only in the memory of + those who mourn its loss_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +The writing of this book has been primarily a labour of love, undertaken +in the hope that through the harmonious mingling of Indian tradition and +descriptions of the region--too little known--where the lessening tribes +still dwell, there may be a fuller understanding both of the Indians and +of the poetical West. + +A wealth of folk-lore will pass with the passing of the Flathead +Reservation, therefore it is well to stop and listen before the light +is quite vanished from the hill-tops, while still the streams sing the +songs of old and the trees murmur regretfully of things lost forever and +a time that will come no more. We of the workaday world are too prone +to believe that our own country is lacking in myth and tradition, in +hero-tale and romance; yet here in our midst is a legended region where +every landmark is a symbol in the great, natural record book of a folk +whose day is done and whose song is but an echo. + +It would not be fitting to close these few introductory words without +grateful acknowledgment to those who have aided me toward the +accomplishment of my purpose. Indeed, every page brings a pleasant +recollection of a friendly spirit and a helping hand. Mr. Duncan +McDonald, son of Angus, and Mr. Henri Matt, my Indian friends, have +told me by word of mouth, many of the myths and chronicles set forth +in the following chapters. Mr. Edward Morgan, the faithful and just +agent at the Flathead Reservation, has given me priceless information +which I could never have obtained save through his kindly interest. He +secured for me the legend of the Flint, the last tale told by Charlot +and rendered into English by Michel Rivais, the blind interpreter who +has served in that capacity for thirty years. Chief Charlot died after +this book was finished and he lies in the land of his exile, out of the +home of his fathers where he had hoped to rest. From Mr. Morgan also I +received the account of Charlot's meeting with Joseph at the LoLo Pass, +the facts of which were given him by the little white boy since grown +to manhood, Mr. David Whaley, who rode with Charlot and his band to the +hostile camp. + +The late Charles Aubrey, pioneer and plainsman, furnished me valuable +data concerning the buffalo. + +Madame Leonie De Mers and her hospitable relatives, the De Mers of +Arlee, were instrumental in winning for me the confidence of the Selish +people. + +Mrs. L. Mabel Hight, the artist, who has caught the spirit of the +mountains with her brush, has added to this book by making the peaks +live again in their colours. + +In conclusion I would express my everlasting gratitude to Mr. Thomas +H. Scott, of Lake McDonald, soldier, mountain-lover and woodsman, who, +with unfailing courage and patience, has guided me safely over many and +difficult trails. + +For the benefit of students I must add that the authorities I have +followed in my historical references are: Long's (James') "_Expedition +to the Rocky Mountains, 1819-20_," Maximilian's "_Travels in North +America_," Father De Smet's "_Oregon Missions_," Major Ronan's "_History +of the Flathead Indians_," Bradbury's "_Travels_," Father L. B. +Palladino's "_Indian and White in the Northwest_," and the _Reports_ of +the Bureau of Ethnology. + + HELEN FITZGERALD SANDERS. + + _Butte, Montana, + April 5, 1910._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. The Gentle Selish 15 + + II. Enchanted Waters 77 + + III. Lake Angus McDonald 89 + + IV. Some Indian Missions of the Northwest 97 + + V. The People of the Leaves 155 + + VI. The Passing Buffalo 169 + + VII. Lake McDonald and Its Trails 229 + + VIII. Above the Clouds 245 + + IX. The Little St. Mary's 271 + + X. The Track of the Avalanche 281 + + XI. Indian Summer 297 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Lake Angus McDonald _Frontispiece_ + + Facing Page + Joe La Mousse 50 + + Abraham Isaac and Michel Kaiser 66 + + Lake McDonald from McDonald Creek 90 + + Francois 154 + + Glacier Camp 234 + + Gem Lake 266 + + On the Trail to Mt. Lincoln 290 + + + + +_THE GENTLE SELISH_ + + + + +TRAILS THROUGH WESTERN WOODS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE GENTLE SELISH + + +I + +When Lewis and Clark took their way through the Western wilderness +in 1805, they came upon a fair valley, watered by pleasant streams, +bounded by snowy mountain crests, and starred, in the Springtime, by a +strangely beautiful flower with silvery-rose fringed petals called the +Bitter Root, whence the valley took its name. In the mild enclosure of +this land lived a gentle folk differing as much from the hostile people +around them as the place of their nativity differed from the stern, +mountainous country of long winters and lofty altitudes surrounding it. +These early adventurers, confusing this tribe with the nations dwelling +about the mouth of the Columbia River, spoke of them as the Flatheads. +It is one of those curious historical anomalies that the Chinooks who +flattened the heads of their children, should never have been designated +as Flatheads, while the Selish, among whom the practice was unknown, +have borne the undeserved title until their own proper and euphonious +name is unused and all but forgotten. + +The Selish proper, living in the Bitter Root Valley, were one branch of +a group composed of several nations collectively known as the Selish +family. These kindred tribes were the Selish, or Flatheads, the Pend +d'Oreilles, the Coeur d'Alenes, the Colvilles, the Spokanes and the +Pisquouse. The Nez Percés of the Clearwater were also counted as tribal +kin through inter-marriage. + +Lewis and Clark were received with great kindness and much wonder by +the Selish. There was current among them a story of a hunting party that +came back after a long absence East of the Rocky Mountains, bearing +strange tidings of a pale-faced race whom they had met,--probably the +adventurous Sieur de La Vérendrye and his cavaliers who set out from +Montreal to find a highway to the Pacific Sea. But it was only a memory +with a few, a curious legend to the many, and these men of white skin +and blue eyes came to them as a revelation. + +The traders who followed in the footsteps of the first trail-blazers +found the natives at their pursuits of hunting, roving over the +Bitter Root Valley and into the contested region east of the Main +Range of the Rocky Mountains, where both they, and their enemies, the +Blackfeet, claimed hereditary right to hunt the buffalo. They were at +all times friendly to the white men who came among them, and these +visitors described them as simple, straight-forward people, the women +distinguished for their virtue, and the men for their bravery in the +battle and the chase. They were cleanly in their habits and honorable +in their dealings with each other. If a man lost his horse, his bow or +other valuable, the one who found it delivered it to the Chief, or Great +Father, and he caused it to be hung in a place where it might be seen by +all. Then when the owner came seeking his goods, the Chief restored it +to him. They were also charitable. If a man were hungry no one said him +nay and he was welcome even at the board of the head men to share the +best of their fare. This spirit of kindliness they extended to all save +their foes and the prisoners taken in war whom they tortured after the +manner of more hostile tribes. In appearance they were "comparatively +very fair and their complexions a shade lighter than the palest new +copper after being freshly rubbed." They were well formed, lithe and +tall, a characteristic that still prevails with the pure bloods, as does +something of the detail of their ancient dress. They preserve the custom +of handing down by word of mouth, from generation to generation, their +myths, traditions and history. Some of these chronicles celebrate events +which are estimated to have happened two hundred years or more ago. + +Of the origin of the Selish nothing is known save the legend of their +coming out of the mountains; and perhaps we are none the poorer, for no +bald historical record of dates and migrations could be as suggestively +charming as this story of the people, themselves, colored by their own +fancy and reflecting their inner life. Indeed, a nation's history and +tradition bear much the same relation to each other as the conventional +public existence of a man compared with that intangible part of him +which we call imagination, but which is in reality the sum-total of his +mental inheritance: the hidden treasure of his spiritual wealth. Let us +look then, through the medium of the Indian's poetic imagery, into a +past rose-hued with the sunrise of the new day. + +Coyote, the hero of this legend, figures in many of the myths of the +Selish; but they do not profess to know if he were a great brave bearing +that name or if he were the animal itself, living in the legendary age +when beasts and birds spoke the tongue of man. Likely he was a dual +personality such as the white buffalo of numerous fables, who was at +will a beautiful maiden or one among the vast herds of the plains. +Possibly there was, indeed, such a mighty warrior in ages gone by about +whose glorified memory has gathered the half-chimerical hero-tales which +are the first step toward the ancestor-worship of primitive peoples. +In all of the myths given here in which his name is mentioned, except +that one of Coyote and the Flint, we shall consider him as an Ideal +embodying the Indians' highest conception of valor and achievement. + +Long, long ago the Jocko was inhabited by a man-eating monster who lured +the tribes from the hills into his domain and then sucked their blood. +Coyote determined to deliver the people, so he challenged the monster +to a mortal combat. The monster accepted the challenge, and Coyote went +into the mountains and got the poison spider from the rocks and bade him +sting his enemy, but even the venom of the spider could not penetrate +the monster's hide. + +Coyote took counsel of the Fox, his friend, and prepared himself for the +fray. He got a stout leather thong and bound it around his body, then +tied it fast to a huge pine tree. The monster appeared with dripping +fangs and gaping jaws, approached Coyote, who retreated farther and +farther away, until the thong stretched taut and the pine curved like +a bow. Suddenly, the tree, strained to its utmost limit, sprang back, +felling the monster with a mortal stroke. Coyote was triumphant and the +Woodpecker of the forest cut the pine and sharpened its trunk to a point +which Coyote drove through the dead monster's breast, impaling it to the +earth. Thus, the Jocko was rid of the man-eater, and the Selish, fearing +him no more, came down from the hills into the valley where they lived +in plenty and content. + +The following story of Coyote and the Flint is of exceptional interest +because it is from the lips of the dying Charlot--Charlot the unbending, +the silent Chieftain. No word of English ever profaned his tongue, so +this myth, told in the impressive Selish language, was translated word +for word by Michel Rivais, the blind interpreter at the Flathead Agency, +who has served faithfully and well for a period of thirty years. + +"In the old times the animals had tribes just like the Indians. The +Coyote had his tipi. He was hungry and had nothing to eat. He had bark +to shoot his arrow with and the arrow did not go through the deer. He +was that way a long time when he heard there was Flint coming on the +road that gave a piece of flint to the Fox and he could shoot a deer and +kill it, but the Coyote did not know that and used the bark. They did +not give the Coyote anything. They only gave some to the Fox. Next day +the Fox put a piece of meat on the end of a stick and took it to the +fire. The Fox had the piece of meat cooking there and the Coyote was +looking at the meat and when it was cooked the Coyote jumped and got the +piece of meat and took a bite and in it was the flint, and he bit the +flint and asked why they did not tell him how to kill a deer with flint. + +"'Why didn't you tell me?' the Coyote asked his friend, the Fox. 'When +did the Flint go by here?' + +"The Fox said three days it went by here. + +"The Coyote took his blanket and his things and started after the Flint +and kept on his track all day and evening and said, 'Here is where the +Flint camped,' and he stayed there all night himself, and next day he +travelled to where the Flint camped, and he said, 'Here is where the +Flint camped last night,' and he stayed there, and the next day he went +farther and found where the Flint camped and he said, 'The Flint started +from here this morning.' He followed the track next morning and went not +very far, and he saw the Flint going on the road, and he went 'way out +that way and went ahead of the Flint and stayed there for the Flint to +come. When the Flint met him there the Coyote told him: + +"'Come here. Now, I want to have a fight with you to-day.' + +"And the Flint said: + +"'Come on. We will fight.' + +"The Flint went to him and the Coyote took the thing he had in his hand +and struck him three or four times and the Flint broke all to pieces and +the Coyote had his blanket there and put the pieces in the blanket and +after they were through fighting and he had the pieces of flint in his +blanket he packed the flint on his back and went to all the tribes and +gave them some flint and said: + +"'Here is some flint for you to kill deer and things with.' + +"And he went to another tribe and did the same thing and to other tribes +and did the same until he came to Flint Creek and then from that time +they used the flint to put in their arrows and kill deer and elk. + +"That is the story of the Flint." + + * * * * * + +Coyote was the chosen one to whom the Great Spirit revealed the disaster +which reduced the Selish from goodly multitudes of warriors to a handful +of wretched, plague-stricken invalids. Old women are still fond of +relating the story which they received from their mothers and their +mothers' mothers even to the third and fourth generation. + +Coyote laid down to rest and dreamed that the Voice of the Great Spirit +sounded in his ears, saying that unless the daughter of the Chief became +his bride a scourge would fall upon the people. When morning broke he +sought out the Chief and told him of the words of the Voice, but the +Chief, who was a haughty man, would not heed Coyote and coldly denied +him the hand of his daughter in marriage. + +Coyote returned to his lodge and soon there resounded through the +forests the piercing cry of one in distress. Coyote rushed forth and +beheld a man covered with sores across the river. This man related to +Coyote how he was the last survivor of a war party that had come upon +a village once occupied by the enemy whom they sought, but as they +approached they saw no smoke arising from the tipis and no sign of life. +They came forward very cautiously, but all was silent and deserted. From +lodge to lodge they passed, and finally they came upon an old woman, +pitted and scabbed, lying alone and dying. With her last breath she told +them of a scourge which had fallen upon the village, consuming brave and +child alike, until she, of all the lodges, was left to mourn the rest. +Then one by one the war party which had ridden so gallantly to conquest +and glory, felt an awful heat as of fire run through their veins. +Burning and distraught they leaped into the cold waters of a river and +died. + +Such was the story of the man whom Coyote met in the woods. He alone +remained, disfigured, diseased, doomed. So Coyote brought him into the +village and quenched his thirst that he might pass more easily to the +Happy Hunting Ground. But as the Great Spirit had revealed to Coyote +while he slept, the scourge fell upon the people and laid them low, +scarcely enough grief-stricken survivors remaining to weep for their +lost dead. + + * * * * * + +Besides this legendary narrative of the visitation of smallpox there +are other authenticated instances of the plague wreaking its vengeance +upon the Selish and depleting their villages to desolation. In this wise +the tribe was thinned again and again and as early as 1813, Mr. Cox +of the Northwest Fur Company, told in his "Adventures" that once the +Selish were more powerful by far in number than in the day of his coming +amongst them. + +There was also another cause for the nation's decline quite as +destructive as the plague;--the unequal hostility continuing generation +after generation, without capitulation or truce, with the Blackfeet. +The country of the Selish abounded in game but it was a part of the +tribal code of honour to hunt the buffalo in the fields where their +ancestors had hunted. All of the deadly animosity between the two +peoples, all of the bloodshed of their cruel wars, was for no other +purpose than to maintain the right to seek the beloved herds in the +favoured fields which they believed their forefathers had won. The +jealousy with which this privilege of the chase was guarded and +preserved even to the death explains many national peculiarities, forms, +indeed, the keynote to their life of freedom on the plains. + +It is possible that the Selish would have been annihilated had not the +establishment of new trading-posts enabled them to get fire-arms which +the Blackfeet had long possessed. This means of defence gave them fresh +strength and thereafter the odds against them were not as great. + +The annals of the tribe, so full of tragedy and joy, of fact and +fancy, of folk-lore and wood-lore, contain many stories of war glory +reminiscent of the days of struggle. Even now there stands, near +Ravalli in the Jocko, a rock resembling a man, called by the Indians +the Stone Sentinel, which touchingly attests the fidelity and bravery +of a nameless hero. The story is that one of the runners who had gone +in advance of a war-party after the Indian custom, was surprised while +keeping watch and killed by the Blackfeet. The body remained erect and +was turned to stone, a monument of devotion to duty so strong that not +even death could break his everlasting vigil. + +Notwithstanding their love of glory on the war-path and hunting-field, +they were a peaceable people. The most beautiful of their traditions +are based upon religious themes out of which grew a poetical symbolism, +half devotional, half fantastic. And even to-day, in spite of their +profession of Christianity, there lives in the heart of the Indian the +old paganism, not unlike that of the Greeks, which spiritualizes every +object of the woods and waters. + +They thought that in the Beginning the good Spirit came up out of the +East and the Evil Spirit out of the West, and then began the struggle, +typified by light and darkness, which has gone on ever since. From this +central idea they have drawn the rainbow Spirit-fancy which arches their +dream-sky from horizon to horizon. They consider some trees and rocks +sacred; again they hold a lake or stream in superstitious dread and shun +it as a habitation of the evil one. + +Thus, a cave in the neighbouring hills where rattlesnakes sleep in +Winter, they avoided in the past, not on account of the common snakes, +but because within the damp, dark recesses of that subterranean den, the +King of Snakes, a huge, horned reptile dwelt, appearing occasionally in +all his venomous, scaled beauty, striking terror wherever he was seen. +A clear spring bubbled near the cave but not even the cold purity of +the water could tempt the Indians to that accursed vicinity until by +some revelation they learned that the King Snake had migrated to other +fastnesses. He is still seen, so they say, gliding stealthily amongst +deserted wastes, his crest reared evily, and death in his poison tail. + +In contrast to this cave of darkness is the spiritual legend of the +Sacred Pine. Upon those same gentle hills of the Jocko it grows, lifting +its lessening cone of green toward heaven. It has been there past the +memory of the great-grand-fathers of the present generation and from +time immemorial it has been held sacred by the Selish tribe. High upon +its venerable branches hangs the horn of a Bighorn Sheep, fixed there so +firmly by an unknown hand, before even the tradition of the Selish had +shaped its ghostly form out of the mists of the past, that the blizzard +has not been strong enough to wrench it from its place, nor the frost +to gnaw it away. No one knows whence the ram's horn came nor what it +signifies, but the tree is considered holy and the Indians believe that +it possesses supernatural powers. Hence, offerings are made to it of +moccasins, beads, weasel skins, and such little treasures of wearing +apparel or handiwork as they most esteem, and at certain seasons, +beneath the cool, sweet shadow of its generous boughs the devoted +worshippers, going back through the little superficialities of recent +civilization to the magnetic pole of their own true blood and beliefs, +assemble to dance with religious fervor around its base upon the green. +The missionary fathers discourage such idolatrous practices; but the +poor children of the woods play truant, nevertheless, and wander back +through the cycle of the centuries to do honour to the old, sweet object +of their devotion in the primitive, pagan way. And surely the Great +Spirit who watches over white and red man impartially, can scarcely be +jealous of this tribute of love to a tree,--the instinctive, race-old +festival of a woodland tribe. + +There is another pine near Ravalli revered because it recalls the days +of the chase. It stands upon the face of a mountain somewhat apart from +its brethren of the forest, and there the Bighorn Sheep used to take +refuge when pursued. If driven to bay, the leader, followed by his band, +leaped to death from this eminence. It is known as the Pine of the +Bighorn Sheep. + +Thus, it will be seen there lives among the Selish a symbolism, making +objects which they love chapters in the great unwritten book, wherein +is celebrated the heroic past. He who has the key to that volume of +tribe-lore, may learn lessons of valour and achievement, of patience and +sacrifice. And colouring the whole story, making beautiful its least +phase, is the sentiment of the people, even as the haze is the poetry +of the hills. + + +II + +As heroic or disastrous events are celebrated in verbal chronicles +it follows that the home of the Selish is storied ground. Before the +pressure of civilization, encroaching in ever-narrowing circles upon +the hunting-ground of the Indians, cramping and crowding them within +a smaller space, driving them inch by inch to the confinement which +is their death, the Selish wandered at will over a stretch of country +beautiful alike in the reality of its landscape and in the richness +of myth and legend which hang over every peak and transfigure every +lake and stream. To know this country and the people it has sheltered +through past centuries one must first glean something of that ephemeral +story-charm which records in crag, in mist, in singing stream and +spreading tree the dreams made almost real by the thousands of souls +who have treasured them, and given them, lip to lip, from old to young, +since the forests were first green upon the hills. + +The land of the Selish extended eastward to that portion of the Main +Range of the Rocky Mountains known to them as _Sin-yal-min_, or the +"Mountains of the Surrounded," from the fact that once a hunting party +surrounded and killed a herd of elk by a stream upon those heights; +another time a war-party surrounded and slew a company of Blackfeet +within the woods upon the mountain side. Though this range marked the +eastern boundary of their territory, they hunted buffalo, as we have +seen, still east of its mighty peaks,--a region made bloody by battles +between the Selish and the Blackfeet tribes. Westward, they wandered +over the fertile valley of Sin-yal-min, where they, in common with the +Pend d'Oreilles, Kootanais and Nez Percés enjoyed its fruits and fields +of grain. This valley is bounded to the north by the great Flathead +Lake, a body of water vast in its sweep, winding through narrow channels +among wooded shores ever unfolding new and unexposed vistas as one +traverses it. On a calm summer day, when the sun's rays are softened +by gossamer veils of haze, the water, the mountain-peaks and sky are +faintly traced in shades of grey and faded rose as in mother-of-pearl. +And on such days as this, at rare intervals, a strange phenomenon +occurs,--_the reflection of a reflection_. Looking over the rail of a +steamer within the semi-circular curve of the swell at its stern, one +may see, first the reflection of the shore line, the mountains and trees +appearing upside down, then a second shore line perfectly wrought in +the mirroring waters right side up, pine-crest touching pine-crest, +peak poised against peak. This lake was the Selish's conception of +the greatest of waters, for their wandering never took them to the +Atlantic or Pacific Seas, and in such small craft as they used to +travel over the forty miles of water among serpentining shores, the +distance must have seemed immense. Many islands rise from the lake, +the largest of them, Wild Horse Island, is timbered and mountainous, +and so big as to appear like an arm of the main land. This Wild Horse +Island, where in olden days bands of wild horses were found, possesses +a peculiar interest. Upon its steep cliffs are hieroglyphics traced +in pigments unknown to-day, telling the forgotten story of a lost +race. The same strange figures appear upon the sheer escarpments of +the mainland shore. These rock-walls are moss-grown and colored by the +lichen, chrome yellow, burnt orange, russet-brown and varying shades +of bronze-green like Autumn leaves, and upon them broods a shadow as +darkly impenetrable as the mystery which they hold. Still, it is easy to +distinguish upon the heroic tablets of stone, crude figures of horses +and some incomprehensible marks. These writings have been variously +interpreted or guessed at. Some declare them to be ancient war signals +of the Selish, others suggest that they were records of hunting parties +left behind for the guidance and information of the tribe; but they, +themselves, deny all knowledge of them, saying that to them as to us, +the pictured rocks are a wonder and a riddle, the silent evidence of +foot-falls so remote that not even an echo has come down to us through +the centuries. + +Such are the valley of Sin-yal-min and the Lake of the Flathead where +the Selish hunted. But their real home, the seat of their fathers, +was the Bitter Root Valley, where one branch of the tribe, headed by +Charlot, the son of Victor, lived until the recent exodus. Therefore, +the Bitter Root Valley was particularly dear to the hearts of these +Indians. It was there the bond between the kindred tribes, the Nez +Percés and the Selish, was broken; there the pioneer Fathers came to +build the first Mission and plant the first Cross among these docile +children of the wood. It was there they clung together like frightened +sheep until they were driven forth to seek new homes in the Valley of +the Jocko, which was to be merely a station in their enforced retreat. + +Eastward and southward from the Bitter Root, the Jocko and the range +of Sin-yal-min in the contested country, is a cañon called the Hell +Gate, because within its narrow limits, the Blackfeet wreaked vengeance +upon their less warlike foes. Flowing through the cañon is a river, +_In-mis-sou-let-ka_, corrupted into Missoula, which bears one of the +most beautiful of the Selish legends. + + * * * * * + +Coyote was taking his way through a pass in the mountains during the +ancient days, when there came to him, out of the closed lip of silence, +the echo of a sound. He stopped to listen, in doubt if it were the +singing of waters or human voices that he heard, and as he listened the +echo grew into a reality and the strains of wondrous, weirdly sweet +music greeted his ear. He followed the illusive melody, attracted as by +magic, and at last he saw upon the flower-sown green a circle of young +women, dancing around and around, hand clasped in hand, forming a chain +and singing as they danced. They beckoned to Coyote and called unto him, +saying: + +"Thou art beautiful, O Warrior! and strong as is the sun. Come dance +with us and we will sing to thee." + +Coyote, like one who walks in his sleep, obeyed them and joined the +enchanted circle. Then he perceived that as they danced and sang they +drew him closer and closer to a great river that lashed itself into a +blind, white fury of foam upon the rocks. Coyote became afraid like a +woman. He noted with dread the water-weed in the maidens' hair and the +evil beauty of their eyes. He strove to break away but he was powerless +to resist them and he felt himself drawn nearer and nearer the roaring +torrent, until at last the waters closed over him in whirlpools and he +knew no more. + + * * * * * + +The Fox, who was wise and crafty, passed along the shore and there he +found, among the water-weeds and grasses the lifeless body of Coyote +which had been cast up by the waters, even as they had engulfed him. +The Fox was grieved for he loved Coyote, so he bent over the corpse and +brought it back to life. Coyote opened his eyes and saw his friend, but +the chill of the water was in his blood and he was numb. Then above the +roar of the river, echoed the magical measure of a weird-sweet song +and through a green glade came the dancers who had lured Coyote to his +death. He rose at the sound of the bewitching melody and strained +forward to listen. + +"It was they who led me to the river," he cried. + +"Aye, truly. They are the water Sirens and thou must destroy them," +replied the Fox. + +At those words Coyote's heart became inflamed with ire; he grew strong +with purpose and crept forward, noiseless as a snake, unobserved by the +water-maidens. + +They were dancing like a flock of white butterflies upon a stretch of +grass yellowed and seared by the heat of the sun. Swiftly and silently +Coyote set fire to the grass, imprisoning them in a ring of flame. They +saw the wall of fire leap up around them and their singing was changed +to cries. They turned hither and thither and sought to fly to the water +but the way was barred by the hot red-gold embrace of the fire. + +When the flames had passed, Coyote went to the spot where the Sirens +had danced, and there upon the blackened ground he found a heap of +great, white shells. He took these, the remains of the water-maidens, +and cast them into the river, saying as he did so: + +"I call thee _In-mis-sou-let-ka_ and thou shalt forever bear that name!" + +Thus it was that the river flowing through the Hell Gate came by the +title of In-mis-sou-let-ka, which men render into English by the +inadequate words of "_The River of Awe_." + + * * * * * + +Through the length and breadth of the country are story-bearing +land-marks. There is a rock in the Jocko, small of size but of weight so +mighty that no Indian, however strong, can move it; there is a mountain +which roars and growls like an angry monster; there is a cliff where a +brave of the legendary age of heroes battled hand to hand with a grizzly +bear, and a thousand other spots, each hallowed by a memory. So, through +peak and lowland, rivers and forests one can find the faery-spell of +romance, lending the commonest stone individuality and interest. And the +most prosaic pilgrim wandering along haunted streams, cooling in the +shadow of storied woods and upon the shores of enchanted lakes, must +feel the spell of poesy upon him; must look with altered vision upon the +whispering trees, listen with quickened hearing to the articulate murmur +of the rivers, knowing for a time at least, the subtle fellowship with +the woodland which is in the heart of the Indian. + +Such is the legended land of the Selish, a land fit for gentle, poetic +folk to dwell in, a land worthy for brave and devoted men to lay down +their lives to save. + + +III + +Within the Bitter Root Valley dwelt Charlot, _Slem-Hak-Kah_, "Little +Claw of a Grizzly Bear," son of the great chief Victor, "The Lodge +Pole," and therefore by hereditary right Head Chief of the Selish tribe. +That valley is perhaps the most favoured land of the region. The snow +melts earlier within its mountain-bound heart, the blizzard drives less +fiercely over its slopes and the Spring comes there sooner, sprinkling +the grass with the rose stars of the Bitter Root. Under the guidance +of the missionary fathers the Indians learned to till the soil and the +bounty of their toil was sufficient, for the rich earth yielded fine +crops of grain and fruit. The Indians who sowed and plowed their small +garden-spots, and the kindly fathers who watched over their prosperity, +little dreamed that in the free gift of the earth and the mild beauty of +the land lay the cause which should wreak the red man's ruin. This land +was dear to the hearts of the people. Victor, their brave guardian, had +saved it for them at the treaty of the Hell Gate when they were called +upon to give up part of their territory to the increasing demands of +the whites. Those of the dominant race kept coming into the Bitter Root +and they were welcomed by the Indians. Thus, bit by bit the valley was +taken up, its fame spread and it became a region so desirable that the +government determined to move the Selish tribe out of the land of their +fathers. + +Charlot was a courageous and honest man, a leader worthy of his trust. +It was he who met the Nez Percés as they descended into the Bitter Root, +headed by Chief Joseph, hot with the lust for the white man's scalp. +There are few more dramatic incidents in western history than Charlot's +visit to Chief Joseph on the LoLo trail and the ultimatum which he +delivered to the leader of the Nez Percé hosts. + +He rode forth accompanied by Joe La Mousse and a small war-party, +carrying with him a little white boy. About his arm he had tied a snowy +handkerchief in token of the peaceful character of his errand. When the +two Chiefs, Charlot and Joseph faced each other, Charlot spoke these +words, slowly, defiantly as one who has made a great decision: + +"Joseph, I have something to say to you. It will be in a few words. + +"You know I am not afraid of you. + +"You know I can whip you. + +"If you are going through the valley you must not hurt any of the +whites. If you do you will have me and my people to fight. + +"You may camp at my place to-night but to-morrow you must pass on." + +And it was as Charlot decreed. Joseph the brave, intractable warrior who +did battle with the army of the United States and kept the cleverest +of our generals guessing at his strategies, bent to the iron will of +Charlot. The Nez Percés passed peacefully through the valley and never a +soul was harmed. + +In the long, cruel struggle that followed, when Chief Joseph and his +braves struck terror to the settlers, leaving death and ruin in their +path, Charlot remained staunch and true. Indeed, the boast of the Selish +is that they, as a nation, were never guilty of taking a white man's +life. + +Meantime, while they lived in peace and plenty, the fates had sealed +their doom. There is no use reiterating the long, painful story of the +treaty between the Selish and the government, ceding to the latter the +land where the tribal ancestors lived and died. Charlot declared he did +not sign away the birth-right of his people and he was an honourable +man. He and his friends went farther and said that his mark was forged. +On the other hand some of those who were witnesses for the United +States maintain that the name Charlot was written like that of Arlee +and others, with a blank space left for the mark, or signature of each +Chief. They further state that Charlot never affixed his mark to the +document nor was it forged as he asserted to the end. This is at best +mere evasion. One of two things happened: a fraudulent signature was +put upon the face of the treaty to deceive the government, or Charlot, +as Head Chief, was overridden and ignored. Whatever the means employed +the outcome was the same. It was an unhappy day for the Indians. They +had no recourse but to submit, so most of them headed by Arlee, the War +Chief, struck their tipis, abandoned the toil-won fields where they had +laboured so long and so patiently, left the shadow of the Cross where +they were baptized, and went forth into the Jocko to begin again the +struggle which should never be more than a beginning. + +[Illustration: JOE LA MOUSSE] + +But Charlot the royal-blooded, son of a long line of fighting chiefs, +was not to be moved by the master-hand like a pawn in a game of chess. +He haughtily refused to leave the Bitter Root Valley, telling his +people that those of them who wished to go should follow Arlee, but he +with a few of the faithful, would lie down to his repose in the land +of his fathers beneath peaks that mingle with the sky. With impassive +dignity he and a party of his loyal band went to Washington at the +bidding of the Great Father to listen to the justice of the white man's +claim. Charlot proudly declined to accept pension and authority bought +at the price of his exile. He wished only the "poor privilege" of +dwelling in the valley where his fathers had dwelt; of resting at last, +where they had lain so long. He wanted neither money nor land,--simply +permission to live in the home of his childhood, his manhood and +old age. He added that he would never be taken alive to the Jocko +Reservation. The Powers saw no merit in the sentiment of the old Chief. +He had dared to oppose their will and they determined to break his +spirit. He might remain in the Bitter Root the All-Wise decreed, but in +remaining he relinquished every right. More crushing to him than poverty +and exile was the final blow to his pride. In a sense he was King of +his tribe. The title of Great Chief descended from father to son, even +as the crowns of empires are handed down. The War Chiefs, on the other +hand, were elected to command the warriors for a year and at the end of +their service they became simple braves again. The government, ignoring +the canons of the Selish, put Charlot aside, and Arlee, the Red Night, +last of the War Chiefs, took precedence over him and became Head Chief +of his nation. Charlot was stripped of his title, his honours, his +privileges of land grant and pension; in other words, he was reduced +from Great Chief to pauper. + +Thus Charlot, who with his braves had defied his kinsfolk, the Nez +Percés, to protect the weak colony of settlers in their Bitter Root home +was driven forth by these same strangers within his gates, and he, the +bravest and best of his kind, shorn of the dignities his forebears and +he, himself, had won;--robbed, cast out, was held up to contumely as an +unruly savage and spurned by the people his mercy had spared. + +From the Bitter Root, the poor wanderers took their way into the Jocko, +a region also fair, where some of their tribe already dwelt, and made +for themselves new homes. They accepted the change uncomplainingly and +set to work to sow and reap in this adopted land. + +Charlot and his band of nearly two hundred lingered in the Bitter Root +until 1891, when driven by hunger and suffering they followed their +tribesmen into the Jocko. He had said he would never be _taken alive_ +to the new reservation, nor was he. Clad in his war dress, mounted on +his best horse, surrounded by his young men in full war regalia, he rode +into exile, proud, unbending as a triumphant Chief entering dominions +won by conquest. No expression of pain crossed his bronze-stern face; +no hint of humility or subjection softened the majesty of his mien. He +and his braves were met by the Selish who had gone before, with great +ostentation and ceremony. Charlot never forgot nor forgave. He had been +cast out, betrayed, but not conquered. + +The Selish have learned to love the soft, yellow-green of the Jocko +hills, the free sweep of its prairies, where sun flowers flow in a sea +of gold beneath the rushing tide of the summer wind, and the prettily +boisterous little Jocko River laughs and plays over its rocky bed +between a veritable jungle of trees and vines and flowers. In these +woods bordering the stream, the most luscious wild gooseberries, +strawberries and bright scarlet brew berries grow--this last, dear to +the Indian, is picked by the squaws and made into a sparkling draught. +There the trees are hung with dense tapestries of blossoming vines, +thick moss deadens the footstep and birds call shrilly from the +twilight of the trees. But the Jocko and Sin-yal-min are beautiful and +fertile, and wherever there is beauty and fertility there comes the +Master saying: + +"_This is mine by right of might! Go forth again O Indian! There are +lean hills and deserts left for thee!_" + +And the Indian, grown used to such things, folds his tipi and takes his +way into the charity of the lessening wilderness. + +Not long ago a strange thing came to pass. One evening the sun set +in a passion of red and gold. The tide of light pulsed through the +skies, the air throbbed and shimmered with it, and every lake and pool +reflected its ruddy splendour until they seemed to be filled with +blood. The Indians gazed at the spectacle in silent awe. Groups of them +on horseback, dark figures silhouetted against the bright sky, stared +curiously at the awful glory of the heavens and earth, whispered in +low tones together and were afraid. Was the Great Spirit revealing +something to his children? Some there were who thought that the crimson +banners in the West foretold a disaster and verily it was true. The end +was near. The sun was setting forever upon their freedom. Once more the +children of the old time would be driven to another camping ground where +they might halt for a little space and rest their weary heads before +they take up the march upon their endless retreat. + + +IV + +During the Summer at the time when the sun reached his greatest +strength, according to the ancient custom, the Selish gathered together +to dance. In this celebration is embodied the spirit of the people, +their pride, their hates and loves. But this dance had a peculiar +significance. It was, perhaps, the last that the tribe will celebrate. +Another year the white man will occupy the land, and the free, roving +life and its habits will be gone. It was a scene never to be forgotten. +Overhead a sky deeply azure at its zenith which mellowed toward the West +into a tide of ruddy gold flowing between the blue heavens and the green +earth; far, far away, dim, amethyst mountains dreaming in the haze; +and through that rose-gold flood of light, sharply outlined against +the intense blue above and the tender green below, silent figures on +horseback, gay with blankets, beads and buckskins, rode out of the filmy +distance into the splendour of the setting sun, and noiselessly took +their places around the musicians on the grass. + +There were among them the most distinguished men of the tribe. Joe La +Mousse, once a warrior of fame, grown to an honored old age, watched +the younger generation with the simple dignity which becomes one of his +years and rank. He possessed the richest war dress of all, strung with +elks' teeth and resplendent with the feathers of the war-eagle. It was +he, who with Charlot, met the Nez Percés and repudiated their bloody +campaign; he, whose valiant ancestor, Ignace La Mousse, the Iroquois, +helped to make glorious the name of his adopted people. _François_ and +_Kai-Kai-She_, the judge, both honoured patriarchs, and Chief Antoine +Moise, _Callup-Squal-She_, "Crane with a ring around his neck," who +followed Charlot to Washington on his mission of protest, moved and +mingled in the bright patchwork of groups upon the green. There was +none more imbued with the spirit of festivity than old François with +white hair falling to his bowed shoulders. These and many more there +were whose prime had known happier days. Chief Moise's wife, a handsome +squaw, rode in with her lord, and conspicuous among the women was a +slim wisp of a girl with an oval face, buckskin-colored complexion, and +great, dusky, twilight eyes. A pale gray-green blanket was wrapped +about her head and body, hanging to her moccasined feet. She was the +wife of Michel Kaiser, the young leader of the braves. But towering +above the rest of the assembly, regal to the point of austerity, was a +man aged but still erect, as though his strength of pride would never +let his shoulders stoop beneath the conquering years. He wore his +blanket folded closely around him and fanned himself with an eagle's +wing, the emblem of the warrior. One eye was hidden beneath a white film +which had shut out its sight forever, but the other, coal-black and +piercing, met the stranger gaze for gaze, never flinching, never turning +aside. It was Charlot. Though an exile, his head was still unbent, his +spirit unbroken. + +Sometimes we see in the aged, the placid melancholy which comes with +the foreknowledge of death, so in the serenely sad faces of the aged +Indians, we recognize that greater melancholy which is born of the +foreshadowing of racial death. They cherish, too, a more personal grief +in that they shall live to see the passing of the old life. Patiently +they submitted to the expulsion from the Bitter Root, but now in the +darkness of gathering years once more they must strike their tipis to +make room for the invading hosts. The setting sun streamed through the +leaves and touched the venerable faces with false youth. Wagon and +pony discharged their human loads who sat passively, listening to the +admonition of the tom-tom and the chant: + + "_Come, O! ye people! Come and dance!_" + +After this preliminary measure had lasted hours, not an Indian professed +to know whether the people would be moved to dance or not. A race +characteristic is that impulse must quicken them to action. It was +strange how the tidings had spread. The tipis and lodges are scattered +over many miles, but the Indians kept coming as though called up by +magic from their hiding places in the hills. + +Beneath a clump of cottonwood trees around the tom-tom, a drum made of +deer hide stretched over a hollowed section of green tree, sat the four +musicians beating the time of the chant with sticks bound in strips of +cloth. Of these players one was blind, another aged, and the remaining +two, in holiday attire, with painted lips and cheeks, were braves. One +of these, seated a trifle higher than his companions, leaned indolently +over the tom-tom plying his sticks with careless grace. He possessed a +peculiar magnetism which marked him a leader. Occasionally his whole +body thrilled with sudden animation, his voice rose into a strident cry, +then he relapsed into the languid posture and the bee-like drone. Of all +that gathering he was the one perfect, full-blood specimen of a brave in +the height of his prime. The dandy, Victor Vanderberg, was handsomer +perhaps, and little Jerome had the beauty of a head of Raphael, but this +Michel Kaiser was a type apart. His face and slim, nimble hands were the +colour of bronze. His nose curved sharply as a hawk's beak, his mouth +was compressed in a hard, cold line over his white teeth, his cheek +bones were high and prominent, his brows straight, sable strokes above +small, bright-black eyes that gleamed keen as arrow darts. His hair was +made into two thick braids wrapped around with brown fur, his arms were +decorated with bracelets and from his neck hung string upon string of +beads falling to his waist. It was he who with suppressed energy flung +back his head as he gave the shrill cry and quickened the beat of the +tom-tom until louder and louder, faster and faster swelled the chant: + +"_Come, O! ye people! Come and dance!_" + +Then out into the open on the green stepped a girl-child scarcely three +years of age, who threw herself into rhythmic motion, swaying her small +body to the time of the music and bearing in her quavering treble the +burden of the chant. The impressive faces of the spectators melted into +smiles. She was the pet of the tribe, the orphan granddaughter of Joe La +Mousse and his venerable wife. Loving hands had made for her a war dress +which she wore with the grave complaisance of one favoured above her +peers. She scorned the sedate dances of the squaws and chose the quicker +action of the war dance, and she would not yield her possession of the +field without a struggle which showed that the spirit of her fighting +fathers still lived in her. + +Suddenly a brave painted grotesquely, dressed in splendid colours with +a curious contrivance fastened about his waist and standing out behind +like a tail, bounded into the ring, his hurrying feet beating to the +tintinnabulation of sleigh bells attached to his legs. Michel Kaiser and +the young man who sat beside him at the tom-tom gave up their places +to others, and after disappearing for a moment came forth freed from +encumbering blankets, transformed with paint and ornament. A fourth +dancer joined them and the awe-begetting war dance began. The movement +was one of restrained force. With bent heads and bodies inclined +forward, one arm hanging limp and the other resting easily at the back, +they tripped along until a war-whoop like an electric shock, sent them +springing into the air with faces turned upward and clenched fists +uplifted toward the sky. + +It was now that Michel stood revealed in all his physical beauty. In +colour and form he was like a perfectly wrought bronze statue. He was +tall and slender. His arms and legs, metal-hard, were fleet and strong +and his every motion expressed agility and grace. He was clad in the +full war-dress of the Selish, somewhat the same as that which his +ancestors had worn before the coming of the white man. Upon his head +was a bonnet of skunk tails that quivered with the slightest motion +of his sinewy body. He wore, besides, a shirt, long, fringed buckskin +leggins and beaded moccasins. He was decorated with broad anklets and +little bells that tinkled as he moved. Of the four dancers Michel sprang +highest, swung in most perfect rhythm, spent in that wild carnival most +energy and force. Supple and lean as a panther he curvetted and darted; +light as the wind his moccasined feet skimmed over the green, scarcely +seeming to crush a spear of grass. As he went through that terrible +pantomime practiced by his fathers before they set out to kill or die, +the fire flashing in his lynx-eyes, his slim arm poised over his head, +his whole willow-lithe body swaying to the impulse of the war-lust, +it was easy to fancy how that play might become a reality and he who +danced to perpetuate an ancient form might turn relentless demon if the +intoxication of the war-path once kindled in his veins. + +[Illustration: ABRAHAM ISAAC AND MICHEL KAISER] + +This war dance explained many things. It was a portrayal of the glorious +deeds of the warriors, a recitation of victorious achievement, a picture +of battle, of striking the body of the fallen enemy--one of the great +tests of valor. The act of striking was considered a far more gallant +feat than the taking of a scalp. After a foe was shot and had fallen, +a brave seeking distinction, dashed forth from his own band into the +open field and under the deadly rain of the enemy's arrows, struck with +his hand the body of the dead or wounded warrior. In doing this he not +only courted the desperate danger of that present moment, but brought +upon his head the relentless vengeance of the family, the followers and +the tribe of the fallen foe,--vengeance of a kind that can wait for +years without growing cold. By such inspiring examples the young men +were stirred to emulation. The dance showed, too, how in the past +the storm-clouds of war gathered slowly until, with lightning flash +and thunder-blast, the warriors lashed themselves to the white-heat +of frenzy at which they mocked death. The whole thing seemed to be a +marshalling of the passions, a blood-fire as irresistible and sweeping +as those floods of flame which lay the forests low. + +The warriors ceased their mad career. The sweat streamed from their +brows and down their cheeks as they sat beneath the shade trees in +repose. Still the tom-tom beat and the chant continued: + +"_Come, O! ye people! Come and dance!_" + +They needed no urging now. What did they care for vespers and sermons +when the ghostly voices of warrior-ancestors, of forest dwellers and +huntsmen came echoing from the lips of the past? Their spirit was +aroused and the festival would last until the passion was quenched and +their veins were cooled. + +The next dance was started by a squaw. It was called the "choosing +dance," from the fact that either a man or a woman chose a partner for +the figure. The ceremony of invitation was simple. The one who desired +to invite another, grasped the individual's arm and said briefly: + +"Dance!" + +The couples formed two circles around the tom-tom, one within the other, +then slowly the two rings moved 'round and 'round, with a kind of short, +springing step, droning the never-varying chant. At the end of the +dance the one who had chosen his partner presented him with a gift. In +some cases a horse or a cow was bestowed and not infrequently blankets +and the most cherished bead-work belts and hat-bands. Custom makes the +acceptance of these favours compulsory. Even the alien visitors were +asked to take part and the Indians laughed like pleased children to +welcome them to the dance. One very old squaw, Mrs. "Nine Pipes," took +her blanket from her body and her 'kerchief from her head to give +to her white partner, and a brave, having chosen a pale-faced lady +for the figure, and being depleted in fortune by his generosity at a +former festival, borrowed fifty cents from a richer companion to bestow +upon her. It was all done in the best of faith and friendliness, with +child-like good will and pleasure in the doing. + +When the next number was called, those who had been honoured with +invitations and gifts returned the compliment. After this was done, +the Master of the Dance, Michel Kaiser, stepped into the center of the +circle, saying in the deep gutturals of the Selish tongue, with all the +pomp of one who makes a proclamation, something which may be broadly +rendered into these English words: + +"This brave, Jerome, chose for his partner, Mary, and gave to her a belt +of beads, and Mary chose for her partner, Jerome, and gave to him a +silken scarf." + +Around the circumference of the great ring he moved, crying aloud the +names of the braves and maids who had joined together in the dance, and +holding up to view the presents they had exchanged. + +The next in order was a dance of the chase by the four young men who had +performed the war dance. In this the hunter and the beast he pursued +were impersonated and the pantomime carried out every detail of the +fleeing prey and the crafty huntsmen who relentlessly drove him to earth. + +The fourth measure was the scalp dance given by the squaws, a rite +anciently practiced by the female members of families whose lords had +returned victorious from battle, bearing as trophies the scalps of +enemies they had slain. It was considered an indignity and a matter of +just reproach to her husband or brother, if a squaw were unable to take +part in this dance. The scalps captured in war were first displayed +outside the lodges of the warriors whose spoil they were, and after a +time, when they began to mortify or "break down," as the Indians say, +the triumphant squaws gathered them together, threw them into the dust +and stamped on them, heaping upon them every insult and in the weird +ceremony of that ghoulish dance, consigning them to eternal darkness, +for no brave without his scalp could enter the Happy Hunting Ground. The +chant changed in this figure. The voices of the women rose in a piercing +falsetto, broken by a rapid utterance of the single syllable "la, la" +repeated an incredible length of time. The effect was singularly savage +and strange, emphasizing the barbarous joy of the vengeful women. As the +war dance was the call to battle, this was the aftermath. + +In pleasing contrast to this cruel rite was the marriage dance, +celebrated by both belles and braves. The young squaws, in their gayest +attire, ornamented with the best samples of their bead work and painted +bright vermillion about the lips and cheeks, formed a chain around +the tom-tom, singing shrilly. Then a brave with a party of his friends +stepped within the circle, bearing in his hand a stick, generally a +small branch of pine or other native tree. He approached the object +of his love and laid the branch on her shoulder. If she rejected his +suit she pushed the branch aside and he, with his followers, retired +in humiliation and chagrin. It often happened that more than one youth +desired the hand of the same maiden, and the place of the rejected lover +was taken immediately by a rival who made his prayer. If the maid looked +with favor upon him she inclined her head, laying her cheek upon the +branch. This was at once the betrothal and the marriage. At the close of +the festivities the lover bore her to his lodge and they were considered +man and wife. + + * * * * * + +The sun set mellow rose behind the hills which swam in seas of +deepening blue. Twilight unfolded shadows that climbed from the valleys +to the peaks and touched them with deadening gray chill, until the warm +glow died in the bosom of the night. Still the tom-tom beat, the chant +rose and fell, the dancers wheeled on madly, singing as they danced. The +darkness thickened. The stars wrote midnight in the sky. Papooses had +fallen asleep and women sat mute and tired with watching. By the flare +of a camp fire, running in uneven lights over the hurrying figures, +one might see four braves leaping and swaying in the war dance. The +night wore on. A heavy silence was upon the hills which echoed back the +war cry, the tom-tom's throb and the chant. One, then another, then a +third dropped out. Still the quivering, sweat-burnished bronze body of +Michel writhed and twisted, bent and sprang. The lines of his face had +hardened, the vermillion ran down his cheeks in rivulets, as of blood, +and the corners of his mouth were drawn like the curves of a bow. The +camp fire glowed low. The gray of the dawn came up out of the East with +a little shuddering wind and the faint stars burned out. The tom-tom +pulsed slower, the chant was broken. Suddenly a wild cry thrilled +through the pallid morn. The figure of Michel darted upward like a +rocket in a final brilliant gush of life, then fell senseless upon the +ground. + +The embers grayed to ashes. The last spark was dead. The dance was done. +The mists of morning rolled up from the valleys and unfurled their pale +shrouds along the peaks, and the Indians, mere shadow-shapes, like +phantoms in a dream, stole silently away and vanished with the night. + + + + +_ENCHANTED WATERS_ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ENCHANTED WATERS + + +I + +There is a lake in the cloistered fastnesses of Sin-yal-min, named by +the Jesuit priests St. Mary's, but called by the Indians the Waters +of the Forgiven. It is a small body of water overshadowed by abrupt +mountains, fed by a beautiful fall and for some reason, impossible +to explain, it is haunted by an atmosphere at once ghostly and sad. +So potent is this intangible dread, this fear of something unseen, +this melancholy begotten of a cause unknown, that every visitor is +conscious of it. Most of all, the Indians, impressionable and fanciful +as children, feel the weird spell and cherish a legend of it as nebulous +as the mists that flutter in pale wraith-shapes across its enchanted +depths. + +The story goes that once, long ago, someone was killed upon the lake and +the troubled spirit returns to haunt the scene of its mortal passing, +but the murderer, smitten with remorse and repenting of his crime was +finally forgiven by the Great Spirit, and the lake became known as the +Waters of the Forgiven. The shadow of that crime has never lifted and +it broods forever over the lake's dark face and upon the mountains that +hold it in their cup of stone. There the echo is multiplied. If one +calls aloud, a chorus of fantastic, mocking voices takes up the sound +and it goes crying through the solitude like lost souls in Purgatory. +The Waters of the Forgiven exhale their eternal sigh, their pensive +gloom, even when the sun rides high in the blue, but to feel the +fullness of its spectral melancholy, one must seek it out in the secrecy +of night. Then, as the mellow moon rises over the mountain tops laying +the pale fingers of its rays suggestively on rock and tree, touching +them with magical illusion and transforming them to goblin shapes, one +palpitates with strange fear, is impressed with impending disaster. +As the moonlight flows in misty streams, sealing ravine and lake-deep +in shadow the more intense for the contrast of white, discriminating +light that runs quicksilver-like upon the ripples of the water and the +quivering needles of the pine, the silence is broken by dismal howls. It +is the lean, gray timber wolves. Their mournful cry is flung back again +by the ghostly pack that no eye sees and no foot can track. Mountain +lions yell shrilly and are answered by distant ones of their kind and +inevitably that other lesser cry comes back again and again as though +the phantom chorus could never forget nor leave off the burden of that +lament. Out of the pregnant darkness into the spectral moonlight shadowy +creatures come to the shore to drink. The deer, the bear, sometimes the +mountain lion and the elk stalk forth and quench their thirst. These +things are strange enough, savage enough to inspire fear, but it is +not they, nor the grisly mountains that create the terror which is a +phantasm, the dread which is not of flesh nor earth. + +No Indian, however brave, pitches his tipi by this lake nor crosses its +waters, for among the tangle of weeds in its black, mysterious bosom, +water sirens are believed to dwell. Ever watchful of human prey they +gaze upward from their mossy couches and if a boatman venture out in +his frail canoe, they rise, entwining their strangling, white arms +about him, pressing him with kisses poisonous as the serpent's sting, +breathing upon him their blighting, deadly-sweet breath that dulls his +senses into the oblivion of eternal sleep. + + +II + +The Jocko or Spotted Lakes are enchanted waters also. They lie high up +in the crown of the continent--the main range of the Rocky Mountains. +To reach them the traveller needs patience and strength of body and +soul, for the trail is long and tortuous, winding along the rim of +sickening-steep ravines, across treacherous swamps, amid mighty forests +to great altitudes. There are three lakes in this group, one above the +other, the last being sometimes called the Clearwater Lake because it is +within the borders of that terrible wilderness whose savage fastnesses +have claimed their prey of lost wanderers. + +The first lake is inexpressibly ghostly. The flanks of the mountains +rise sheer and frown down on murky waters, leaving scarcely any shore, +and around their margin, gray-white drift-wood lies scattered like +unburied bones. It is a spectral spot, unearthly, colourless as a +moth, preyed upon by a lamentable sadness which broods unbroken in the +solitude. There the fox-fire kindles in the darkness, the owl wheels in +his midnight flight and pale shades of mist unwind their shroud-like +scarfs. It is a pool of the dead, a region of lost hopes and throttling +despair. + +From this lake the trail bears upward through dense jungles and +morasses, venomously beautiful with huge, brilliantly coloured flowers +growing to the height of a man. Their scarlet and yellow disks exhale +an overpowering fragrance, insidious, almost narcotic in its strength. +Beneath rank stalk and leaf, rearing blossom and entangling vine, +creeping things with mortal sting dwell in the dank, sultry-sweet +shadow. One is dazzled with the colour and the scent; charmed and +repelled; tempted on into treacherous sinkholes by a wild extravagance +of beauty too wanton to be good. + +At length the second lake unfolds itself from the living screen of tree +and wooded steep. A point of land, stained blood-red, juts out into the +water and over it tumbles and cascades a foam-whitened fall. This stain +of crimson is a thick-spun carpet of Indian Paint Brush interwoven with +lush grass. The mountains show traces of orange and green, apparently a +mineral wash hinting of undiscovered treasure. + +Looking into the depths of the lake one is impressed with its freckled +appearance. A blotch of milky white, then one of dull yellow mottles +the water and even as one watches, a shadow darkens the surface, +concentrating, scattering in kaleidoscopic variety, then disappearing as +mysteriously as it came. There is no cloud in the sky, nor overhanging +tree, nor passing bird to cause that shade without substance. At first +it seems inexplicable and the Indians, finding no natural reason for its +being, believe it to be the forms of water sirens gliding to and fro. +On this account, here as at the Waters of the Forgiven no Indian dares +to come alone and even with human company he fears the sirens' spell. +For as the victim sleeps they come, drawing closer and breathing his +breath until he dies. If one watches patiently he may see that the dark +shadows are made by shoals of fish, gathering and dispersing, and in so +doing, accentuating and lessening the sable spots. The lake is as uneven +in temperature as it is in colour. It has hot pools and icy shallows, +so it is probably fed by springs as well as by the torrent which falls +from the peaks. A strong, sulphurous odour taints the air; the water is +unpleasant to the taste and the sedgy weeds which grow about the shores +are stained. And as the waters recede during the summer heat, along +the banks, in uneven streaks a mineral deposit traces their retreat. +Towards the end of July or August a curious thing may be seen in this +Lake of the Jocko. A current eddies around and around in a gigantic +whirlpool, transforming it into a mighty funnel with an underground +vent. At a considerable distance below a stream bursts forth from the +mountain side with terrific energy of pressure and plunges downward in a +foaming torrent. It is the Jocko River,--the gentle, merry-voiced Jocko +of the prairie which winds its course among lines of friendly trees and +blossoms. Who would guess that it drew its nurture from the Lake of the +Jocko, siren-haunted, poison-breathed, which careful Indians avoid as a +region of the accursed? Still it is so and the menace of that mysterious +lake becomes the blessing of the plains. + + * * * * * + +Such are the Waters of the Forgiven and the Jocko, secure in their +solitude, guarded more potently by their spell of evil than by wall of +stone or armed hosts, holding within their deep, dark bosoms the charm +of the water sirens whose sad, sweet song quavers in the music of fall +and stream, whose pallid, white faces flash lily-like from the depths, +whose entangling tresses spread in flowing masses of sedgy green. + +And of the strange things which have happened on those shores, of the +braves lured to the death-sleep on couches of moss and pillows of lily +pad, scarcely an echo shrills down from the white-shrouded peaks to give +warning to the adventurers who would seek out the awful beauty of those +Enchanted Waters. + + + + +_LAKE ANGUS McDONALD_ + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LAKE ANGUS McDONALD AND THE MAN FOR WHOM IT WAS NAMED + + +Within the range of Sin-yal-min, which rises abruptly from the valley of +the Flathead to altitudes of perpetual snow, in a ravine sunk deep into +the heart of the mountains, is Lake Angus McDonald. Though but a few +miles distant the bells of Saint Ignatius Mission gather the children of +the soil to prayer, no hand has marred the untamed beauty of this lake +and its surrounding mountain steeps where the eagle builds his nest in +security and the mountain goat and bighorn sheep play unmolested and +unafraid. + +The prospect is a magnificent one as the roadway uncoils its irregular, +tawny length from rolling hills into the level sea of green where only +a year or two ago the buffalo grazed in peace. Beyond, the jagged +summits of Sin-yal-min toss their crests against the sky, their own +impalpable blue a shade more intense than the summer heavens, their +silvered pinnacles one with the drifting cloud. A delicate, shimmering +thread like the gossamer tissue of a spider's web spins its length from +the ethereal brow of the mountains to the lifted arms of the foothills +below. The yellow road runs through the valley, passes the emerald patch +around the Mission and thence onward to blue shadows of peaks where +gorges flow like purple seas and distant trees are points of azure. The +swelling foothills bear one up, the valley melts away far beneath and +sweet-breathed woods sigh their balsam on the breeze. The pass becomes +more difficult, the growth thickens. Among the trees broad-leafed +thimble berry, brew berry and goose berry blossom and bear; wild +clematis builds pyramids of green and white over the bushes; syringa +bursts into pale-starred flower, and a shrub, feathery, delicate, sends +forth long, tender stems which break into an intangible mist of bloom. + +Suddenly out of the tangled forests, a sheet of water, smooth and clear, +appears, spreading its quicksilver depths among peaks that still bear +their burden of the glacial age. And in the polished mirror of those +waters is reflected the perfect image of its mountain crown. First, the +purplish green of timbered slopes, then the naked, beetling crags and +deep crevasse with its heart of ice. A heavy silence broods here, broken +only by the wildly lonesome cry of the raven quavering in lessening +undulations of tone through the recesses of the crags. Two Indians near +the shore flit away among the leaves, timid as deer in their native +haunts. Such is Lake Angus McDonald, and yonder, presiding over all, +shouldering its perpetual burden of ice, is McDonald's Peak. Strangely +beautiful are these living monuments to the name and fame of a man, and +one naturally asks who was this Angus McDonald that his memory should +endure in the eternal mountains within the crystal cup of this snow-fed +lake? + +The question is worth the answering. Angus McDonald was a Highland +Scotchman, sent out into the western wilderness by the Hudson Bay +Company. There must have lurked in his robust blood the mastering love +of freedom and adventure which led the scions of the House of McDonald +to such strange and varied destinies; which made such characters in the +Scottish hills as Rob Roy and clothed the kilted clans with a romantic +colour totally wanting in their stolid brethren of the Lowlands. In any +event, it is certain that Angus McDonald, once within the magic of the +wild, flung aside the ties that bound him to the outer world and became +in dress, in manner of life and in heart, an Indian. He took unto +himself an Indian wife, begot sons who were Indians in colour and form +and like his adopted people, he hunted upon the heights, moved his tipi +from valley to mountain as capricious notion prompted, and finally made +for himself and his family a home in the valley of Sin-yal-min not far +below that lake and peak which do honor to his memory. Physically he was +a man of towering stature, standing over six feet in his moccasins; his +shoulders were broad and he was very erect. His leonine head was clad +with a heavy shock of hair, and his beard, during his later years, snow +white, hung to his waist. His complexion was ruddy, his eyes, clear, +blue and penetrating. A picturesque figure he must have been, clad in +full buckskin leggins and shirt with a blanket wrapped around him. He +was known among the Indians and whites through the length and breadth of +the country about, and no more strange or striking character quickened +the adventure-bearing epoch which we call the Early Days. + +As he was free to the point of lightness in his nature, trampling down +and discarding every shackle of conventionality, he was likewise bound +but nominally by the Christian creed. He believed in reincarnation and +his one desire was that in the hereafter, when his soul should be sent +to tenant the new body, he might be re-born in the form of a wild, +white horse, with proud, arched neck and earth-scorning hoofs, dashing +wind-swift over the broad prairies into the sheltering hills. + +So it seems fitting that McDonald's Peak and Lake should remain untamed +even as their namesake; that the eddying whirlpool of life should pass +them by and that in their embrace the native creatures should live and +range as of yore. And may it be that within those shadowy gorges, remote +from the sight and hearing of man, a wild, white horse goes bounding +through the night? + + + + +_SOME INDIAN MISSIONS_ + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SOME INDIAN MISSIONS OF THE NORTHWEST + + +More than a century after the Spanish Francescans planted the Cross upon +the Pacific shores, the French, Belgian and Italian Jesuits or _robes +noires_, took their way into the Northwestern wilderness in response +to a cry from the people who lived within its solitudes. Civilization +follows the highways of intercourse with the outer world, so the Western +coast had passed through the struggle of its beginnings and entered +into a period of prosperity and peace, while that territory with the +Rocky Mountains as its general center, was still as primeval as when the +galleons of Juan de Fuca sailed into Puget Sound. + +The mellowness of old romance, the warmth of Latin colour, hang over +the Missions of California. The pilgrim lingers reverently in their +cloistered recesses, breathing the scent of orange blossoms, reposing +in the shade of palm and pepper trees. With the song of the sea in his +ears and its sapphire glint in his eye he re-lives the olden days, +weaves for himself out of imagination's threads, a picture as harmonious +in its tones of faded rose and gray as an ancient tapestry. How much +the architectural beauty of these Missions has brought them within the +affectionate regard of the people it is hard to say, but undoubtedly it +has had an influence. The graceful lines of arch and pillar, the low, +broad sweep of roof and corridor, the delicate, yellowish-white of the +adobe outlined against a sky of royal blue, stir the sleeping sense +of beauty in our hearts and make us pause to worship at such favoured +shrines. + +It is for precisely the opposite reason that we are drawn to the +Missions of the Northwest. Austere, ascetic in form, they make their +appeal because of their unadorned simplicity. They were originally the +plainest structures of logs, added to as occasion demanded and always +constructed of such homely materials as the surrounding country could +yield. Hands unaccustomed to other labours than telling the rosary or +making the sign of the Cross, hewed forest trees and wrought in wood +the symbol of their teaching. No wonder, then, that the buildings were +small and crude, but their lack of grandeur was the best testimony +to the sacrifice and noble purpose of which they were the emblems. +Overlooked, isolated they stand, passed by and all but unknown. Yet they +are monuments of heroic achievement and devotion; brave men risked their +lives willingly to lay these foundation stones of the faith; bitter +struggles were fought and won in their consecrated shadows and upon them +is the glamour of thrilling episode. + +During the seventeenth century a little band of French missionaries of +the order of St. Ignatius journeyed from their native France to Canadian +territory with the purpose of spreading the word of God amongst the +savages of that benighted land. One of them, Father Ignace Jogues, +became the apostle of the Iroquois and died at their hands, a martyr. +Strangely enough, his teachings lived after him and were preserved in a +measure, at least, by those who had murdered him because of the message +he brought. + +Years afterwards, about 1815, a small party of Iroquois took their +way from the Mission of Caughnawaga, in the neighbourhood of Sault +St. Louis, on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, and proceeded, +probably in quest of furs, into the little known and perilous ascents +of the Rocky Mountains. This party was headed by one Ignace La Mousse, +his given name being by a curious coincidence, the same as that of the +martyred disciple of the Gospel. He was a man of lordly stature and +puissance indomitable. Upon their wanderings they came to _Spetlemen_, +"the place of the Bitter Root," a mild, fair valley where dwelt a folk +kindly in their natures, who called themselves the Selish. These people +welcomed the Iroquois, made them at home in their lodges and shared with +them the sports of the chase until the visiting Indians were visitors no +more and claimed no other land than this. + +From the lips of Old Ignace, as he was known, the Selish heard of a +mysterious faith symbolized by a Cross, a greater medicine than that of +any of the tribes, and of pale-faced, sable-robed priests, who, in the +olden time, taught that faith and died happily in the teaching. + +The Selish practiced a simple, spontaneous kind of paganism. They +believed in a Good and Evil Spirit who were constantly at war. These two +powers were symbolized by light and darkness and their heroic battle +was pictured in the alternate triumph of day and night. If buffalo came +in plenty, if elk and moose were slain and the season's yield were rich, +then, according to their notion, the Good Spirit was in the ascendency; +but if, on the other hand, Winter rode down from the mountains while +their larder was low, if fish would not bite and game could not be +caught, the influence of the Evil Spirit prevailed. They believed also, +in a future existence, happy or miserable according to the merit or +demerit of the soul during its mortal life. The worthy shade passed +into eternal Summer time, to a land watered by fair streams and green +with meadows; in these streams were countless fishes and in the meadows +bands of wild horses and endless herds of the beloved buffalo. There the +spirit, united with its family, would ride through all eternity, hunting +amongst the ghostly flocks in the Summer sun of happy souls. But those +who had violated the tenets of the tribe, who had been liars, cowards +or otherwise dishonourable, and those negative offenders who had been +lacking in love for their wives, husbands and children, had sealed for +themselves a bitter fate. These outcasts went to an arctic region of +everlasting snow where false fires were kindled to torment their frozen +limbs with the mocking promise of warmth. Phantom streams offered their +parched lips drink, but as they hastened to the banks to quench their +thirst, the elusive waters were ever farther and farther away. So ever +and anon, through the years that never seemed to die, the shades were +doomed to hurry onward through the night and cold of Winter that knows +no Spring, in misery as dark as the shadow engulfing them. The Lands +of Good and Evil were separated by savage woods, inhabited by hungry +wolves, lithe wild cats and serpents coiled to strike. The wretched +sinner in his prison of ice, might after a period of penance, short or +long, according to the measure of his offense, expiate his sins and join +his brethren in the Happy Hunting Ground. + +Besides this general belief held in common by the tribe, they cherished +countless myths such as those of the creation and many lesser fanciful +legends which formed a part of their religion. + +Although these Indians were sincere in this simple, half-poetical +mythology, they listened very willingly, like eager children, to Old +Ignace, and from him learned to make the sacred sign and repeat the +white man's prayer. After knowing something of their mysticism it is +not surprising that the greater mysticism of the Catholic Church should +appeal to them; that once having heard the story of a faith much in +accord with many of their elementary, pre-conceived ideas, they should +pursue it tirelessly until they gained that which they most desired. + +Time upon time at the councils, the chiefs discussed a means of +getting a Black Robe to come to them. At last, in a mighty assembly, +Old Ignace arose and proposed that a delegation be sent to St. Louis +to pray that an apostle of the church might come to shed the light +of the new faith upon the darkness of the Western Woods. A stir of +approval ran through the attentive people, for it was a great and daring +thing to think of. But who would go? The journey of about two thousand +miles lay over barriers of mountains, rushing torrents, virgin forests +where the sun never shone, and worst of all, penetrated the country of +their hereditary enemies, the Sioux. In spite of these perils, in the +breathless quiet of expectation that had hushed the tribe, four braves +came forward and volunteered to undertake the quest. + +The knights of the olden days, who went forth sheathed in armour, in +goodly cavalcades, to the land of the Saracen in search of the Holy +Grail, have gathered about their memory the white light of heroism, +but if their daring and that of these four were weighed impartially, +the Indians would rise higher in the scale of glory. Alone, afoot, +armed only with such weapons as their skill could contrive, they +started out in the Spring of 1831, and in spite of the death that +lurked around them, reached their journey's end with the Autumn. The +tragical aftermath of that heroic adventure followed quickly. The +dangers overcome, the goal won, they failed. Not one among them could +speak a word of French or English. They sought out General Clark who had +penetrated into their lands, but what brought them from across the Rocky +Mountains, through the teeth of perdition to St. Louis, not even he +could guess. Picture the tragedy of being within reach of the treasure +and unable to point it out! Through General Clark the four emissaries +were conducted to the Catholic Church. Monseigneur, the Bishop, +was absent--he whom they had travelled six moons to see. Very soon +thereafter, two of the number fell ill as a result of exposure. In their +sickness, doomed to die in a strange land far, far from the pleasant +glades of their native valley, they made the sign of the Cross and other +feeble gestures which some priests who visited them interpreted rightly +to be an appeal for baptism and the last rites of the church. The +priests accordingly gave them the consolation they prayed for and placed +in the hands of each a little crucifix. So rigidly did they press these +symbols to their breasts, that they retained them even in death. Still +in their final agonies not one word could they tell of that mission for +which they were even then yielding up their lives. They died christened +Narcisse and Paul and were buried in a Catholic cemetery in the City of +St. Louis. + +The two survivors, nameless shadows, flitted back into the wild and +were lost forever in the darkness. No tidings of them ever reached the +waiting tribe, so they, too, sacrificed themselves to a fruitless cause. + +After these things had happened a Canadian, familiar with the Indians, +informed the good fathers who these children of the forest were and of +their devotion to a Faith, the merest glimmering of which had penetrated +to their remote and isolated valley. Then a priest of the Cathedral +offered to go with one companion to these zealous Indians when the +Spring should make possible the desperate trip. + +Meantime, the Selish waited long and anxiously for word from their +delegation. Michel Insula, or Red Feather, "Little Chief and Great +Warrior," small of stature but mighty of spirit, always distinguished +by the red feather he wore, hearing that some missionaries were +travelling westward, fought his way through the hostile country and +arrived at the Green River Rendezvous where Indians, trappers and some +Protestant ministers were assembled. Insula was dissatisfied with the +ministers because they had wives, wore no black gowns such as Old Ignace +described, and carried no crucifix. The symbolism of the Catholic Church +had impressed him deeply and he would have no other faith, so he and his +band returned to their people to tell them that the _robes noires_ were +not yet come and their brave messengers had perished with their mission +unfulfilled. + +They were resolute men, these Indians, and never faltering, they +determined to send another party upon the same sacred quest. This time +Old Ignace, he who had first broached the adventure to the council, +arose among the chiefs and warriors and offered to go. He took with him +his two young sons. The Summer was already well spent, but he and the +lads started out undaunted, and after a terrible period of ceaseless +travelling, smitten with cold and hunger, they reached St. Louis, and +Ignace more favoured than the preceding delegation, made known the wants +of his adopted tribe to the Bishop, who listened to him kindly and +promised to send a priest among his people. + +Ignace and his sons returned safely to the Bitter Root Valley and +brought the glad tidings to the Selish. But eighteen moons waxed and +waned and though the watchful eyes of the Indians scanned the East, +never a pale-faced father in robes of black came out of the land of the +sunrise. + +The chiefs took counsel again. A third time they determined to make +their appeal. Once more Ignace La Mousse led the way and in his charge +were three Selish and one Nez Percé brave. They fell in with a little +party of white people near Fort Laramie, and uniting forces for greater +safety, took up the march together. They journeyed onward unmolested +until they came to Ash Hollow in the land of the warlike Sioux. In that +fateful place three hundred of the hostile tribe surrounded them. The +Sioux, wishing only the scalps of the Selish and Nez Percé, ordered the +white men and Old Ignace who was dressed in the garb of civilization, to +stand apart. The whites obeyed, but Ignace La Mousse, scorning favour +or mercy at the enemy's hands, joined his adopted tribal brethren and +fought with them until they all lay dead upon the plains. So ended the +third expedition. + +Once more news of the bloody death of their heroes reached the Selish. +A fourth and last party volunteered to undertake that which now seemed +a hopeless charge. Two Iroquois, Young Ignace La Mousse, so called +to distinguish him from the elder of the name, whose memory was held +honourable by the tribe, and Pierre Gaucher, "Left Handed Peter," set +out, joining a party of the Hudson Bay Fur Company's men and making the +trip in canoes. They finished the journey in safety and obtained from +Monseigneur, the Bishop, the pledge that in the Spring he would send a +missionary to the Valley of the Bitter Root. Young Ignace waited at the +mouth of Bear River through the Winter in order to be ready to guide +the priest to the Selish with the coming of the Spring. Pierre Gaucher +returned hot-footed, in triumph, conveying to the tribe the glad tidings +that their prayer had been answered; that the Great Black Robe was +sending them a disciple to preach the Holy Word. At last, after eight +years of waiting, the Selish were to have granted them their hearts' +desire. From out of the East the pale-faced, black robed father would +come bearing with him the Cross illuminated by the rising sun, casting +the benediction of its shadow upon the people and their land. + +When the Selish learned from Pierre Gaucher that the _robe noire_ was +in reality travelling towards their country even then, the Great Chief +assembled his braves and it was decided that the tribe should march +forward to meet and welcome their missionary. Accordingly they started +in good season and on their way met groups of Kalispehlms, Nez Percés +and Pend d'Oreilles, who joined them, swelling their number to about +sixteen hundred souls. The ever increasing cavalcade moved on over pass +and valley, peak and ford, clad in rich furs, war-eagle feathers and +buckskins bright with beads--a gaily coloured column filing through the +woods. Finally, in the Pierre Hole Valley they came upon him who was +henceforth to be their teacher and guide, Father de Smet, whose memory +is held in reverence by the Indians of the present generation. + +There was great rejoicing among the Selish, the Nez Percés, the Pend +d'Oreilles and the Kalispehlms. They burst into wild shouts of delight, +swarming around the pale priest, shaking his hand and bowing down +before him. They conducted him to the lodge of the Great Chief, called +the "Big Face," whom Father de Smet has described as one "who had the +appearance of a patriarch." The Chief made Father de Smet welcome in +these words: + +"'This day the Great Spirit has accomplished our wishes and our hearts +are swelled with joy. Our desire to be instructed was so great that four +times had we deputed our people to the Great Black Robe in St. Louis to +obtain priests. Now, Father, speak and we will comply with all that you +will tell us. Show us the way we have to take to go to the home of the +Great Spirit.'" + +Thus spake the Big Face, Chief of all the Selish, and there before the +assembled peoples of the kindred tribes, he offered to the priest his +hereditary honours as ruler. His renunciation was sincere, but Father de +Smet replied that he had come merely to teach, not to govern them. + +That night in the deepening shadow, the children of the forest gathered +together around their new leader and chanted a song of praise. Strange +music swelling from untutored lips and awakening hearts into the wild +silence which had echoed only the howl of native beasts and the war cry +of battle and death! Yet even in that hymn of thanksgiving there was an +undertone of unconscious sadness. It was the beginning of a new epoch. +The old, poetical wood-myth and paganism were gone; the free range +over mountain and plain in the exhilarating chase would slowly give +place to the pursuits of husbandry. And this new, shapeless compound of +civilization and religion was bringing with its blessings, a burden of +obligation and pain. The Indians did not know, the priest himself could +not understand, that he was the channel through which these simple, +happy folk should embark upon dangerous, devouring seas. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: LAKE McDONALD FROM McDONALD CREEK] + +Father De Smet was a Belgian and he had spent some time with the +Pottowatamies, in Kansas. He understood the Indians well and what was +most important, he loved them. He remained among the Selish long enough +to be assured of their docile nature and sincerity of purpose, then +returned to St. Louis to urge the establishment of a permanent mission +and to ask for assistance to carry on his work. Monseigneur, the Bishop, +listened favourably to his appeal and consequently, in the Spring of +1841, Father De Smet, reinforced with two Italian priests, three lay +brothers and some other man, started for the Rocky Mountains. The Selish +had promised to meet the party at a given place at the base of the Wind +River Mountains, on the first day of July. The Indians waited until +they were driven by hunger to hunt in more likely fields. The Fathers, +learning of this, sent a messenger to recall them, and they hastened +back to greet their apostle and his followers. And of that little band +there were Charles and François, the sons of Old Ignace, the Iroquois, +Simon, the oldest of the tribe, and Young Ignace of great fame, who, we +are told, journeyed for four long days and nights having neither food +nor drink, in his haste to make good his promise to meet the _robes +noires_. + +So far was the season advanced that the Selish had started on their +buffalo hunt. Therefore, the priests whose supplies were exhausted, +with their Indian friends, went on to Fort Hall, procured provisions +there, and then proceeded to the Beaverhead River to join the tribe. +The priests stayed only a few days among the Indians who were absorbed +in the chase, and again took up their journey with the Bitter Root +valley as the chosen place of permanent rest. There they had determined +to build the Mission, "the house of the Great Spirit," and there the +Selish promised to join them after the hunt was over in the Fall. Along +the course of the Hell Gate River they took their way and at last came +safely within the green refuge of the valley to lay down their burden +and build their church. They selected a fair spot near the present site +of Stevensville and laboured long to fashion the pioneer home of the +Faith which they called The Mission of St. Mary's. The good priests +went farther still and re-named the valley, the river watering it and +the highest peak, St. Mary's, so anxious were they in their zeal to +eradicate every trace of the old, pagan beliefs of their converts, even +to the names of the valleys, lakes and hills! + +The element of incongruity and pity in this, the zealous fathers did +not appreciate. That a jagged, beetling crest, the home of the thunder +cloud, the womb whence issues glacier and roaring stream, fit to be +Jove's dwelling, should bear the mild title of St. Mary's, did not +shock their notions of the eternal fitness of things. Happily, the +valley with its rose-starred brocade of flowers, is still the Bitter +Root and a re-awakening interest is calling the old names from their +long oblivion to take their places once again, vesting peak and stream +and grassy vale with a significance of meaning totally wanting in the +artificial foreign titles forced on them by those who neither knew nor +cared for their tradition and sentiment. And even the ancient gods and +spirits are no longer despised as evils antagonistic to the salvation +of the soul. Lafcadio Hearn expressed pity for the cast-off Shinto +gods whose places were usurped by the deities of the Buddhist creed. +Likewise, the best Christian amongst us, if he looks beneath the surface +into the heart of things, must be conscious of a vague regret for the +quaint, mythical lore which cast its glamour over the wilderness; for +the poor, vanished phantoms of the wood and the gods who have fallen +from their thrones. Sometimes in the remotest mountain solitudes we +dare to acknowledge thoughts we would not harbour elsewhere. Under the +pensive appeal of the still forests, the heaven-reaching peaks and +stream-songs, we wonder if upon the heights, in deep-bosomed caverns, +those sad exiles dwell, casting over the cloistered groves a subtle +melancholy, evasive as the shadow of a cloud, fleeting as the sigh of +the Summer wind. + +But the good fathers of St. Mary's had no such thought for the ancient +paganism and its symbols. They were busy planting the Cross, building a +chapel, the best that their strength and skill could erect, and other +structures necessary for their protection and comfort. It was a labour +of love, as much a religious rite as the saying of the Mass, and verily, +the ring of the hammers must have seemed in the ears of those devoted +men, endless _aves_ and _pater nosters_. Finally the work was done. A +comfortable log cabin, large enough to hold nearly the assembled tribe, +stood in the valley, and when the Indians returned from the hunt, they +were joyful in this, their reward, for all those brave attempts to bring +the Light into the Wilderness. + +The Mission completed, Father De Smet travelled to Fort Colville in +Washington, a journey of more than three hundred miles, to procure +seeds and roots, and on his way he stopped among the Kalispehlms, the +Pend d'Oreilles and the Coeur d'Alenes, all of whom welcomed him and +listened attentively to the message he brought. He took back to his +Selish charges at St. Mary's "a few bushels of oats, wheat and potatoes" +which he and his brethren sowed. The Indians, like children, watched +with wonder, the planting, sprouting, ripening and reaping of the crop, +a thing hitherto unknown to them, though husbandry on a small scale had +been practiced at an earlier date by some of the Eastern tribes. + +But however truly the Indians loved their new teachers, the _robes +noires_, and however sincerely they accepted the tenets of their +faith, they still persisted in buffalo hunts, which twice a year took +them into the contested country, and upon these expeditions, fired +with excitement, alive with all the heritage of passion inspired by +the chase, the war path and the intoxication of glory handed down +to them through an ancestry so ancient as to be lost in the dimness +of beginnings, they forgot for a time, at least, the life of order, +industry and religion they had pledged themselves to lead. Therefore, +one of the new priests, Father Point, accompanied them on the hunt, but +in the abandon of those days when every sense was strained to find the +prey, and every nerve was as tense as the bow-string 'ere it speeds the +arrow to its mark, it was impossible to preach to them the gentle word +of Christianity, so the Fathers gave up these attempts and remained at +the Mission awaiting the return of their straying converts, a situation +which was to result sadly for St. Mary's. Meantime the work was growing. +The Pend d'Oreilles and Coeur d'Alenes had asked for missionary +priests and Father De Smet needed more helpers in the new land. + +From St. Mary's, the Mother Mission, Father Point and Brother Huet +went forth to minister to the Coeur d'Alenes, where they established +the Mission of the Sacred Heart. A third Mission, St. Ignatius, was +founded amongst the Kalispehlms on the Pend d'Oreille River. With these +two offshoots from the parent stem of St. Mary's, it was necessary for +Father De Smet to seek re-inforcement abroad, but before he sailed he +started westward three new recruits from St. Louis. + +It must have been an inspiring sight when this humble priest, fresh +from the western woods, the scent of the pines exhaling from him, the +breadth of vast distances in his vision, the simplicity of the Indians' +racial childhood reflected in his own nature, stood before his August +Holiness, Pope Gregory XVI., in the grandeur of the Vatican at Rome, +and there, amidst the pomp and ostentation, the wealth and luxury of +the headwaters of that Church which sends its streams to the utmost +corners of the earth, pled the cause of the lowly Indian. More imposing +still, it must have been, when His Holiness arose from his throne and +embraced this apostle from the great, New World. The Pope sought to +make the priest a bishop, but Father De Smet chose to remain as he was, +and certainly in the eyes of unprejudiced laymen, he gained in simple +dignity more than he foreswore in ecclesiastical honors. + +This trip of Father De Smet to Europe has a peculiar interest in that +it was the means of bringing into the West, besides numbers of pioneer +Sisters, and clergy, a man so beloved, so revered that his name--Father +Ravalli--is known by Catholic and Protestant, Indian and White alike, +through the whole of the Rocky Mountain region. Those who knew the +gentle old man loved him not only for his spirituality, but for his +human sweetness. He possessed that breadth of sympathy which sheds mercy +on good and bad equally, commiserating the fallen, pitying the weak. +He was a native of Ferrara, Italy, and at a very early age decided to +become a missionary priest. That he might be most useful materially +as well as religiously, he fitted himself for his work. He graduated +in _belles lettres_, philosophy, the natural sciences, and became a +teacher in these branches of learning, in several cities of Italy. +Under a skilled physician of Rome he studied medicine; in a mechanic's +shop he learned the use of tools; finally, in a studio, he practiced +the rudiments of art which he always loved. So he came to the Indians +bringing with him great human kindliness, and the knowledge of crafts +and homely pursuits that made their lives more easy and independent. +It was he who devised the first crude mill, the means of giving the +people flour and bread, he who by a hundred ingenious devices lightened +the burden of their toil. But most of all was his practice of medicine +a mercy. To stricken infancy or old age he was alike attentive; to +dying Christians he bent with ready ear and alleviating touch, or +as compassionately eased the last throes of highwaymen, heretic or +murderer. Over the bleak, snowy passes of the mountains, heedless of +hardship or danger, he hurried in answer to the appeal of the sick, +no matter who they were or where they dwelt. And though often those +who went before or came after him were robbed, he was never molested. +The most desperate of the "road agents" respected him and suffered +him to pass in peace on his way. Gently brave, like the good bishop in +_Les Miserables_, his very trustfulness was his safeguard. Perhaps as +striking an example of his forethought as we can find is the fact that +he trained a squaw to give intelligent care to women in the throes of +childbirth. There is no record of the mothers and babes spared thus, but +there were many, and even the letter of the monkish law never stayed his +helping hand or curbed his humane devotion. The more ascetic brethren +who lived in colder spiritual altitudes, looked doubtfully upon Father +Ravalli's impartial ministry; the more astute financiers who held the +keys to the Church's coffers, frowned upon his unrewarded toil, and +there comes a whisper through the years that there were times when he +was an object of charity because he never asked reward for the surcease +of suffering his patient vigils brought. + +He travelled from one to another of the Northwestern missions and even +to Santa Clara, California, but he is known best and loved most as the +Apostle of the Selish at St. Mary's. Indeed, looking back through the +perspective of time at the plain, little Mission crowned as with an +aureole, one figure stands out clearly among the pious priests, who, in +turn, presided at its altar, and this figure is Father Ravalli. + +His grave, marked by a shaft of stone, is within the shadow of the +church in the valley of the Bitter Root, and it was fitting he should +lie down to rest where he had laboured so long and lovingly. A +generation hence, when the hallowed places of the West become shrines +about which pilgrims shall gather reverently, this mountain-tomb of +the gentle old priest will be visited and written of. Meantime, he +sleeps as sweetly for the solitude, and those whose lives he made more +beautiful by his presence think of him at peace as they turn their eyes +heavenward to the infinite rosary of the stars. + +In spite of the progress of the beneficent work and the fresh blood that +had infused new strength into the cause, dark days were to cast their +shadow upon the little Mission of St. Mary's. No power could restrain +the Selish from the chase, and during their absence twice a year, the +colony left behind, consisting only of the priest and those too aged +or sick to follow the tribe, were menaced by the Blackfeet and Bannock +Indians. The old feud was fanned red hot by the Selish killing two +Blackfeet warriors who invaded the very boundaries of the Mission with +hostile intent. The threats from the Blackfeet became more terrible. +They lurked in the thick timber and brush around the stockade which +enclosed the Mission, and, finally, while the tribe was absent on a +buffalo hunt, a rumour reached the anxious watchers that the hostiles +would descend in a great war party upon the defenseless community. And +indeed, they were roused by war whoop and savage yell to see swarming +around their weak barricade, the dreaded enemy. Father Ravalli was in +charge of the Mission at that time and he and his companions prepared +themselves for the death which seemed inevitable. But the Blackfeet, +probably seeing that only a man stricken with years, two young boys and +a few aged women and little children were all of their hated foe who +remained at St. Mary's, retreated to the brush. One of the two boys +ventured to the gate to make sure the Blackfeet were gone and was shot +dead. This tragical incident and the more awful menace it carried with +it to those who were left at the mercy of the invading tribes, and +another reason we shall now consider, led to the temporary abandonment +of St. Mary's. + +In those early days, the missions being the only habitations within many +hundreds of miles, became the refuge and abiding place during bitter +weather, of French-Canadian and mixed breed trappers, who in milder +seasons ranged over the mountains and plains in pursuit of furs. These +half-savage men were undoubtedly a picturesque part of the old, woodland +life and their uncouth figures lent animation and colour to the quiet +monotone of the religious communities. In the first quarter of the last +century we find mention of French-Canadians employed by the Missouri Fur +Company, appearing on New Year's Eve, clad in bison robes, painted like +Indians, dancing _La Gignolee_ to the music of tinkling bells fastened +to their dress, for gifts of meat and drink. These trappers were, in +the day of St. Mary's Mission, a licentious, roistering band with easy +morals, consciences long since gone to sleep, who did not hesitate to +debauch the Indians, and who feared neither man nor devil. They went +to St. Mary's as to other shrines, and under the pretext of practicing +their religion, lived on the missionaries' scanty stores and filled +the idle hours with illicit pastimes. It is said that they became +revengeful because of the coolness of their reception by the priests, +and maliciously set about to poison the Selish against the beloved +_robes noires_. However this may be, whether the wayward, capricious +children strayed or not, it is certain that they would not sacrifice the +buffalo hunt for priest nor promise of salvation, so the Mission was +dismantled and leased; its poor effects packed and the Apostles of the +Faith started out again to seek refuge in new fields. At Hell's Gate, +the inferno of the Blackfeet, they parted; Father Ravalli to wend his +way to the Mission of the Sacred Heart among the Coeur d'Alenes; the +rest, under the escort and protection of Victor, the Lodge Pole, Great +Chief of the Selish and father of Charlot, followed the Coriacan defile +to the Jocko River and finally arrived at St. Ignatius, the Mission of +the Kalispehlms. + +For a time we leave St. Mary's in the sad oblivion of desertion, while +those who had tended its altar, poor pilgrims, toiled over diverse +trails toward different destinations. + +It is not necessary to follow the varying fortunes of the few, small +missions in the Northwestern wilderness, included then within the vast +territory called Oregon. Each has its pathetic story of privation and +danger, which may be found complete and detailed in ecclesiastical +histories written by priests of the order. + +We shall pass on to the Mission of St. Ignatius, whither the party from +St. Mary's sought refuge, which, in the course of time absorbed some +of the lesser institutions and became, as we shall see, the religious +center of several tribes. The Mission of St. Ignatius was the same +founded by Father Point on the banks of the Pend d'Oreille River +among the Kalispehlms in the year 1844. The original location proved +undesirable, so ten years later the Mission was moved to a site chosen +by the advice of Alexander, Chief of the tribe. A wonderful revelation +it must have been when the Indian guide, leading the priests through a +pass in the mountains, the secret of his people, showed them the vast +sea of flowing green--the valley of Sin-yal-min--barred to the East +by the range of the same name. There ever-changing shades of violet +and lights of gold altered the mien of these mountains whose jagged +peaks showed white with snow, from whose deep bosoms burst a water-fall +plunging from mighty altitudes into the emerald bowl of the valley. +This was veritably a kingdom in itself, and no white man had trodden +the thick embroidery of wild flowers and grass. It had been a gathering +place for many tribes. Within its luxuriantly fruitful limits, berries +and roots grew in plenty and game abounded in the neighbouring hills. + +In the very palm of Sin-yal-min the new Mission of St. Ignatius was +builded. There could scarcely have been a more ideal spot for church +and school, forming the nucleus of an agricultural community. There +gathered parties of the upper and lower Kalisphelms, upper Kootenais, +Flat Bowes, Pend d'Oreilles and Selish, to pitch their tipis in the +shadow of the Mission Cross. Many of these Indians made for themselves +little farms where they laboured and lived. Entire families of Selish +moved from the Bitter Root valley to be near the _robes noires_ they +loved. St. Ignatius possessed an advantage that bound the Indians to +it by permanent ties and that was its schools. Four pioneer Sisters +travelling into the Rocky Mountain region under the guidance of two +priests and two laymen, from their home mission in Montreal, founded +at St. Ignatius the first girls' school among the Indians of the +territory. Not long thereafter the priests established a similar school +for boys, where they taught not only the French and English languages +and the rudiments of a simple education, but also such handicrafts as +seemed most necessary to the development of industry. In saddle-making +particularly, the boys excelled, and wonderful specimens of leather +work have gone forth from the Mission shops. Thus, largely through +its practical industry St. Ignatius grew into a powerful institution. +Building after building was added to the group until a beautiful village +sprang up, half hidden among clumps of trees and generous vines. On +the outskirts of this community rows of tiny, low, thatch-roofed log +cabins were built by the Indians to shelter them when they assembled +to celebrate such feasts as Christmas, Good Friday and that of St. +Ignatius, their patron Saint. + +The fates favoured St. Ignatius. In the year of its removal the +Hell's Gate treaty was signed wherein the bounds of the reservation +were re-adjusted, making the new mission the center of that rich +dominion. The treaty of the Hell Gate, participated in by the Selish, +the Pend d'Oreilles and some of the Kootenais, was the same, it may +be remembered, wherein Victor, the father of Charlot, insisted upon +retaining possession of the Bitter Root Valley "above the LoLo Fork" for +himself and his people, unless after a fair survey by the United States, +the President should deem it best to move the tribe to the Jocko. This +agreement was entered into in 1855. Seventeen years went by. The Indians +declare that no survey was ever made during that time nor were they +furnished with school teachers, skilled artisans and agriculturalists +to instruct them, as had been promised on the part of the government. +Summarily the Selish were called upon to sign a second agreement, the +Garfield treaty, which deprived them of their ancestral home and drove +them forth to share the Jocko Reservation in common with the allied +tribes. This was at once an impetus to the fortunes of St. Ignatius and +a mortal blow to St. Mary's. + +That pioneer shrine, abandoned on account of the depredations of the +Blackfeet, remained dark and silent for sixteen years. The Selish +mourned the loss of their friends and teachers, the _robes noires_. In +spite of the absence of the church's influence, save such intermittent +inspiration as the occasional visit of a priest, the Selish prayed and +waited. And surely, poor, impulsive children that they were, if they +had been misled by tale-bearing, mixed breed trappers, their digression +was dearly expiated. During those sixteen years they remained faithful +to the cause which four delegations of their number had braved danger, +privation and death to win. + +In the meantime the West was changing. The first stern, ascetic days +were passing when the best of men's characters was called into active +existence to cope with immediate hardship; when every nerve rang true, +tuned to the highest bravery and that magnificent indifference to death +which makes heroes. The cry of gold ran through the length and breadth +of the land and the headlong rush of adventurers, good and bad, from the +four corners of the earth, all bent on wealth, changed the spirit of the +western world. In that mad stampede, men, spurred by the lust of gain, +pushed and crowded each other, and with such competition, who thought +of or cared for the Indian? His day was done; the accomplishment of his +ruin was merely a matter of years. Moreover, the lower element of the +reckless, pillaging crew of gold seekers brought with it the vices of +civilization--drink and the game. + +Change the ideal which inspires a deed and the deed itself is changed. +That first, stern West which taught men not to fear by surrounding them +with danger, made heroes of them because they had braved the unknown +for some noble purpose, religion, the simple love of Nature or another +reason as good; but in these altered conditions where debauching gain +was the one object of their quest, though they spurned death as the +pathfinders had done, their bravery sank to bravado and dare-deviltry +because their purpose was sordid. + +With this invasion of the wilderness the whole aspect of the mission +work underwent a change. The masked man on horseback stalked the trails; +the bizarre glamour of the dance hall flaunted its coarse gaiety in the +mushroom camps' thronged streets; the saloon and gaming house brought +temptation to the Indian, and generally he fell. It was also true that +in more than one instance the precedent of bloodshed was set by brigand +whites, sowing the seeds which were later to bear a red harvest of war. + +So, when St. Mary's opened her doors in 1869, it was upon a period of +transition. If the placid image of Our Lady, looking through half +closed eyelids, could have seen and understood the metamorphosis what +a shock would have smitten her sainted soul! The painted, war-bent +Blackfeet were gone far back into their fastnesses, but here and there, +thick and fast, came the white settler, peaceful, cold, inevitable, +overwhelming, bringing ruin to the old life and its people--the +beginning of the end. And that calm, just Mother of Mankind would have +seen the timid shadow-shapes of the Selish melting into the gathering +twilight, at once welcoming the stranger to the land and relinquishing +it to him, retiring step by step before the great, white inundation. It +is useless to prolong the story. The climax had to come, and come it +did, swiftly, cruelly, with a dark hint of treachery that we, of the +superior race are too willing to excuse and condone. By the Garfield +Treaty, which, by a curious anomaly, never very lucidly explained, +bears the sign of Charlot, son of Victor, hereditary chief of the +Selish, that he, a man in his sane senses swears he never signed, the +tribe renounced all claim to the land of their fathers and consented to +betake themselves to the Jocko reservation. During the twenty-two years +of the existence of St. Mary's as an Indian Mission, after its second +opening, the fathers, among them Father Ravalli, watched over and tended +their decreasing charge. The numbers of the red hosts dwindled; the +falling off of the people through new and unnatural conditions thinned +their ranks, but surer still, was the admixture of the white strain, so +corrupting in most cases to the unfortunate in whom the two race strains +commingle. But in spite of the Garfield Treaty, notwithstanding the +exodus of the main body of the Selish, St. Mary's faithful to the end, +drew to her little altar the last, failing remnant of the tribe--the +splendidly defiant Charlot and his band. At last, in 1891, they accepted +the inevitable and rode away to the land of their exile resigning to +the conquering race their blood-right to the Bitter Root. This was the +death of St. Mary's. It remained standing, a church of the whites, but +an Indian mission no more. In looking back through the years, their +mercies and their cruelties, it is a sorrowfully sweet thing to remember +that Father Ravalli, guardian spirit of the Selish, lay down to rest +before the ultimate change, the final expulsion, while the first light +of the wilderness from the altar of St. Mary's still shone, however +faintly, to show the way. + +The sequel of St. Ignatius is, happily, less pathetic in its unfolding. +The life that ebbed from St. Mary's flowed amply into the newer +Mission's growing strength and to-day it stands, substantial and +prosperous in the valley of Sin-yal-min. Though the same tragedy is +about to be enacted, the expulsion, less summary, leaving to the +individual Indian his garden patch, St. Ignatius remains a beacon to +the dusky hosts, poor frightened children who cling to this last hope, +promising as it does a happiness born of suffering, an ultimate reward +which not even the white man can take away. A handsome new church, +frescoed by an Italian brother, does service instead of the old chapel, +venerable with age that hides behind the sheltering trees. In front of +the modern church stands the great, wooden Cross erected by the early +fathers, which the Indians kneel to kiss before they go to Mass. And +to the right, covered with wild grass, and that neglect of which such +vagrant growths are the emblem, is the old cemetery where so many weary +pilgrims who travelled long and painfully over difficult trails, have +sought peace past the power of dreams to disturb. + +Here, as we have seen, upon feast days the Indians come, the scattered +bands gathering from mountain and valley, clad in gala attire. Their +ranks are thinning fast. The once populous nation of the Selish is +shrunk to between three and four hundred souls, still the little village +often holds a thousand Indians all told, from the different neighbouring +tribes. And sometimes, bands from far away, distinguished by diversified +language, curious basketry and articles of handicraft, come as +spectators to the feasts. + +Until a few years ago these religious festivals were preceded by solemn +rites of expiation. A kind of open air court was held, the chiefs +sitting in judgment upon all offenders and acting in the capacity of +judges. The whole tribe assembled to watch with impassive gravity the +austere spectacle of the accusation, sentence and chastisement of those +who had broken the law. All malefactors were either brought before +the chiefs, or spurred by conscience, they came forward voluntarily, +confessed their guilt and prayed to be expurgated of sin through the +sting of the lash. When the accusations and confessions were finished, +the multitude dropped upon their knees and prayed. Then those arraigned +were examined and such of them as the chiefs decreed guilty, were +sentenced and immediately suffered the penalty. A blanket was spread +upon the earth and the offender lay on this, his back exposed to the +raw-hide lash which marked in welt-raising strokes the degree of his +transgression. Even while he smarted, never wincing under this ordeal, +the spectators at the bidding of the chiefs, prayed once again for +the culprit's reformation and forgiveness. Such was the practice of +the Selish handed down from the earliest days. The time and place of +the chastisement were regulated in these later years by the Catholic +festivals, but public punishment with the lash was a custom of the +tribe before the missionaries penetrated the West. The confession, the +judgment and the whipping they believed to be a complete expiation; +having suffered, the sin-soiled were made clean, and thus purified, they +met and mingled with the best of their brethren on equal terms, without +further reproach. This was a simple and summary form of justice, suited +to the people whom it controlled,--was in fact the natural outgrowth of +their moral and ethical code--and it is a pity that the ancient law, +together with much besides that was desirable in the pristine life of +the Indian, has been stamped out beneath the master's iron heel. + +One cannot take leave of the missions of the Northwest without looking +back upon Father De Smet, their founder, and the work which he began. +Through his devotion missions were established among many different +nations, even the unyielding Blackfeet falling under the spell of +gentleness. And he who lived most of his life either in the wilderness +or labouring elsewhere for what he believed to be the salvation of its +benighted children, died at last at St. Louis in 1873, after meditative +and reminiscent years spent in recording his travels and his triumphs. + +There are some subtle questions crying out of the silence which are not +to be pushed back unspoken, even though we can find no answer to their +riddle. How far have the missionaries succeeded? If completely, why does +the Christian Indian still dance to the Sun? And did those Fathers in +their errand of mercy blindly pass to the people they would fain have +saved from annihilation the fate they strove to spare them from? Who can +say? + +The Indians were probably in their racial infancy when the maturer ranks +marched in and absorbed, or otherwise destroyed them. It would seem that +with them it is a case of arrested development. If left to themselves, +through centuries they might have brought forth a civilization +diametrically opposite to our own. That they never could nor can +assimilate or profit by our social and educational methods has been +sufficiently proved. Their race instincts are essentially as foreign to +ours as those of the Hindu, and their evolution must have necessarily +proceeded along totally different lines. The Indians were decreed to +work out their own salvation or die, and the latter thing has come to +pass. One might go on painting mental pictures of what would have been +the result if the free, forest-born red race had thrived and grown into +maturity. Certainly in their decadence, their spirit-broken second +childhood, we find the germ of an original moral sense, of tradition and +poetry, even of religion, which might have borne rich fruit. + +The Oriental is to us an enigma, and we recognize in his makeup psychic +qualities but slightly hinted of in ourselves. So in the Indian we +must acknowledge a race of distinct and separate values that we can +never wholly know or understand. The races are products of countless +centuries begotten of habit and environment; we cannot put aside these +growth-accumulations builded like the rings of the pine, nor can we take +that which the Creator made and re-create it to suit our finite ends. +Therefore, instead of helping the Indian we are merely killing him, +kindly perhaps, with comforts, colleges and sacraments, but none the +less surely striking at his life. + +And though they are still amongst us, picturesque figures which we value +chiefly as relics of a gaily-coloured past, the Indians are the mystery +of our continent. They speak to us, they smile at us, they sit within +our churches and use our tongue, but for all that they remain forever +strangers. What pagan beliefs vibrating through the chain of unrecorded +ancestry, what hates, loves, aspirations and bitter griefs, separate +from our comprehension as the poles, thrill out of the darkness of +yesterday and die unspoken, unformed, beneath those calm, bronze brows? +They are a problem to be studied, never solved; a riddle one with the +Sphinx, the Cliff Dwellers and the Aztec ruins. For, after all is said, +what do even the good Fathers, with candle, crucifix and creed, know of +their primal souls, of the unsounded depths of their hearts? + + + + +_THE PEOPLE OF THE LEAVES_ + + +[Illustration: FRANCOIS] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE PEOPLE OF THE LEAVES + + +Among the early Canadian French the Sioux were known as the _Gens des +Feuilles_, or People of the Leaves. This poetical title seems very +obscure in its meaning, at first, but it may have originated in a legend +of the Creation which is as follows: + +In the ultimate Beginning, the Great Spirit made the world. Under his +potent, life-giving heat the seeds within the soil burst into bloom +and the earth was peopled with trees--trees of many kinds and forms, +the regal pine and cedar in evergreen beauty and the other hosts whose +leaves bud with the Spring, change with the Autumn and die with the +Winter's snow. These trees were all possessed of souls and some of them +yearned to be free. The Great Spirit, from his throne in the blue +skies, penetrating the slightest shadow of a leaf, divining the least +unfolding of a bud with his all-seeing, omnipotently sensitive beams +radiating like nerves from his golden heart, perceived the sorrow of the +sighing forests and mourned with tears of rain at their discontent. Then +he knew that a world of trees, however beautiful, was not complete and +he loosed the souls from their prisons of bark and limb and re-created +them in the form of Indians, who lived in the shelter of the woods, knit +to them by the eternal kinship of primal soul-source--verily the People +of the Leaves. + + * * * * * + +It is not strange that among a nation which adored the sun, the chief +ceremony should have been the Sun Dance, at once a propitiatory offering +to the Great Spirit and a public test of metal before a young man could +become a brave. The custom was an ancient one, as ancient, perhaps, as +the legend of the leaves, and in the accounts of the earliest explorers +and missionaries we read of this dance to the sun; of the physical +heroism which was the fruit of the torture and filled the ranks of +soldiery with men Spartan in fine scorn of pain and contempt of death. +It is interesting to trace similar practices in races widely separate +in origin, habits and beliefs, and it seems curious that this rite of +initiation into the honourable host of the braves, however dissimilar in +outer form, was not totally unlike in spirit the test of knighthood for +the hallowed circle of the Table Round. + +The festival of the Sun Dance was celebrated every year in the month +of July, when the omnipotent orb reached his greatest strength, is, +indeed, still celebrated, but without the torture which was its reason +for being. A pole was driven deep and solid in the ground and from +the top, somewhat after the manner of a May-pole, long, stout thongs +depended. After incantations by the Medicine Men, the youths desiring +to distinguish themselves came forward in the presence of the assembled +multitude, to receive the torture which should condemn them as squaw men +or entitle them to fold their blankets as braves. + +With a scalping knife the skin was slit over each breast and raised so +a thong from the pole could pass beneath and be fastened to the strip +of flesh. When all were bound thus, the dance began to the time of a +tom-tom and the chant. Goaded by pride into a kind of frenzy the novices +danced faster, more wildly, leaping higher, bending lower, until they +tore the cords loose from their bleeding bosoms and were free. If, +during the ordeal, one fainted or yielded in any way to the agony, he +was disgraced before his tribe, cast out as a white-hearted squaw man +until the next year's festival, when he might try to wipe out the stain +and enter the band of the brave. If, on the other hand, all the young +men bore the torture without flinching, their spirits rising superior to +all bodily pain, they were received as warriors and earned the right to +wear the medicine bag. Often one of greater puissance than his fellows +wished further to distinguish himself by a test extraordinary and +submitted to a second torture more heroic than the first. He suffered +the skin over his shoulder blades to be slit as his breast had been and +through these gashes thongs were drawn and fastened as before, but this +time the ends were attached to a sacred bison's skull, kept for the +purpose, which the brave dragged over rough, rocky ground and through +underbrush, until his strained flesh gave way and freed him of his +burden. This feat entitled him to additional honors and he was respected +and held worthy by the great men of the tribe. + +After the torture, when a youth was declared a brave he retired to the +wilderness, there in solitude to await the message of the Great Spirit +which would reveal to him his medicine, or charm. + +This "making medicine" as it was called, was a rite of most solemn +sacredness and secrecy and therefore shrouded in mystery. From the +lips of one who, in days past, when the ancient customs were rigidly +preserved, followed and watched a newly made brave, the ensuing +narrative was gleaned. + +After dark the young Indian took his way cautiously far off into silent, +unpeopled places where sharp escarpments cut like cameos against the +sky. There, poised upon the cliffs, his slim figure silhouetted against +the moonlit clouds, he remained rigid as a statue through long hours, +waiting for the Voice from Above by whose revelation he should learn +wherein his power lay. Then lifting his arms towards the heavens he made +strange signs to the watchful stars. So he remained 'till dawn paled +from the East, when, having received his message, he went forth to seek +the animal which should hereafter be his manitou, or guardian spirit. +Sometimes it was the bison, the elk, the beaver, the weasel or other +beast of his native wild. Into his bag he put a tooth or claw and some +fur of the chosen creature, with herbs which might be propitious. Such +was his charm, his medicine-bag, the source of his valour and safety, to +be worn sleeping and waking, in peace and in war; to be guarded with his +life and to go with him in death back to the Great Spirit by whom it was +ordained. + +If a warrior lost his medicine-bag in battle, he became an outcast among +his people and his disgrace was not to be wiped out until he slew and +took from an enemy's body the medicine-bag which replaced his own and +thus retrieved his honour. + +Of all the quaint ceremonies connected with the old wood-worship and +sun-worship, combining the idea of Beginning and End, of pre-existence +and after-existence, none are more interesting than the rites attending +the burial of the dead. As the Indians sprang from the forest trees, +according to the myth of the leaves, lived in the shadow of the pleasant +woods, so at last, they were received into the strong, embracing +branches that tossed over them in wild gestures when the Great Spirit +spoke in anger from the sky; that tempered the Summer's heat into +cooling shadow for their repose; that shed their gift of crimson leaves +upon the Indians' devoted heads even as they, themselves, must shed the +garb of flesh before the blast of death. Or, sometimes, the dead were +exalted upon a naked rock, rising above earth's levels toward the sun. +Wherever his resting place might be, the dead man sat upright, if a +brave, dressed in his full war regalia, surrounded by his most prized +possessions and if he owned a horse, it was shot so its shade might +bear his spirit on the long, dark, devious way to the Happy Hunting +Ground. No mournful ghost who met his death in darkness could ever bask +in the celestial light of endless Summer-time; he was doomed to become +a phantom living in perpetual night. That is the reason none but forced +battles were fought after dark; the bravest of the braves feared the +curse of everlasting shadow. They believed, too, that no warrior who +lost his scalp could enter the fields of the glorious; hence the taking +of an enemy's scalp at once killed and damned him. The suicide was +likewise barred from Paradise. + + * * * * * + +Years ago, when the feuds of the hostile tribes still broke into the red +vengeance of the war-path, the Sioux and Cheyennes did battle with the +Gros Ventres at Squaw Butte, and by some mischance a medicine man of the +Sioux, not engaged in the combat, whose generalship lay in marshalling +the manitous to the aid of his people, was killed. A traveller, +journeying alone in the mountains, found him high upon a cliff with +his blanket and war dress tumbling about his bleaching bones, his +medicine-bag and all the emblems of his magic preserved intact. In the +bag was a grizzly bear's claw, an elk's tooth, and among other trinkets, +a small, smooth brass button of the kind worn by the rivermen trading +up and down the Missouri River between the East and the savage West. +It would be interesting to trace the migrations and transfiguration of +that little button from its existence as an humble article of dress to +the dignity of a charm in the medicine-bag of the old magician on that +isolated cliff. And the Master of Magic himself; he of prophetic powers +and knowledge born of intercourse with the gods; there he sat, an arrow +through his skull, his blind, eyeless sockets uplifted to the sun, his +necromancy unavailing, his wisdom but a dream! In that remote home which +his devoted tribesmen chose for him, no irreverent hand had disturbed +his watch, and he is probably still sitting, sitting with blind eyes +toward the sun while eagles circle overhead and gray wolves howl to the +moon. The years pass on unheeded, the face of the land has changed, +is changing, will change, and the rustling, swirling leaves of Autumn +fall thick and fast. Mayhap, after all, the old Magic Master, keeping +his eternal vigil, may see from beyond the flesh the thinning woods and +the dead leaves dropping from the trees; hear their weary rustle--poor +ghosts, as they flutter before the wintry wind. And among the lessening +trees, also driven by the Northern blast, does he see also, a gaunt and +silent troop of phantoms--mere Autumn leaves--whirling away before the +Storm? + + + + +_THE PASSING BUFFALO_ + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PASSING BUFFALO + + +I + +It was summertime in the mountains--that short, passionate burst of +warm life between the long seasons of the snow. The world lay panting +in the white light of the sun, over gorge and pine-clad hill floated +streamers of haze, and along the ground slanted thin, blue shadows. +The sky pulsed in ether waves and the distant peaks, azure also, with +traceries of silver, were as dim as the memory of a dream. In this +untrodden wilderness the passing years have left no record save in the +gradual growth of forest trees, and in its rugged beauty it is the +same as a century ago. Therefore time itself seems arrested, and it is +scarcely strange to come upon a buffalo skull naked and bleached by sun +and rain, and close by, half hidden in the loose rocks, an arrow head of +pure, black obsidian. + +This, then, was once the scene of a brave chase when wind-swift Indians +pursued mad, hurtling herds over mountain slope and plain. These empty +fastnesses thrilled to the shock of thousands of beating hoofs, these +hills flung back the echo to the brooding silence as the black tide +flowed on, pressed by deadly huntsmen armed with barb and bow. And even +then, far over the horizon, unseen by hunted and hunters, silent as the +shadow of a cloud, inevitable as destiny, came the White Race, moving +swifter than either one, driving them unawares toward the great abyss +where they should vanish forever into the Happy Hunting Ground, lighted +by perpetual Summer and peopled by immortal herds and tribes. + + +II + +In such a remote and deserted place as this, no great effort of the +imagination is needed to call up the shades of those who once inhabited +it, to react their part in the tragedy of progress. Let us fancy that a +riper, richer glow is upon the mountains, that the white light of the +sun has deepened into an amber flood which quivers between the arch of +lapis-lazuli sky and the warm, balsam-scented earth that sighs forth +the life of the woods. Already the trees not of the evergreen kind are +hung with bewilderingly gorgeous leaves of scarlet, russet-brown and +yellowing green; the haze has grown denser and its ghostly presence +insinuates itself among the very needles of the pines. It is Autumn. +The gush of life has reached its climax and is ebbing. High on the +steepled mountains is a wreath of filmy white that trails low in the +ravines. It seems as fragile as a bridal veil, but it is the foreword +of Winter which will soon descend with driving blast and piping gale, +lancing sleet and enshrouding snow to chill the last red ember-glow of +the brilliant autumnal days. It was at this time that the Indian's blood +ran hot with longing for the hunt. Lodges were abandoned and only those +too weak to stand the hardship of the march were left behind. Chiefs +and braves, women and children struck out for the haunts of the buffalo +where the fat herds grazed before the impending cold. + +These children of the forest sought their prey with the woodcraft handed +down from old to young through unnumbered generations. Indeed, it was +necessary for them to outwit the game by strategy in the early days +before the wealthy and progressive Nez Percé Kayuses, who were first to +break the wild horses of the western plains, brought the domesticated +pony among them. In passing, it is interesting to know that the term +"cayuse" applied to all Indian horses, had its origin with this tribe, +since the chief article of trade of the Kayuses was the horse, the +horse of Indian commerce became known as a "cayuse." The Selish used +the method of the stockade. After the march into the buffalo country, +they camped in a spot where they could easily fashion an enclosed park +by means of barricades built among the trees. A great council of the +chiefs and warriors was held and this august body appointed a company +of braves to guard the camp and prevent any person from leaving its +boundaries lest in so doing the wily buffalo should become alarmed and +quit the neighbouring hills. The council proclaimed anew the ancient +laws of the chase, and then began the building of the pen. This was a +kind of communal work in which the entire tribe engaged, and as all +contributed labor so all should benefit alike from its fruits. There +within the mock park, whose pleasant green fringe of trees was in +reality a prison wall, would be trapped and killed the food for the +sterile winter months, when, but for that bounty, starvation would stalk +gaunt among them and lay the strongest warrior as low as a new born +babe or the feebly old who totter on the threshold of death. The place +chosen for the pen was a level glade and the enclosure was built with +a single opening facing a cleft in the surrounding hills. From this +opening, an avenue also cunningly fenced and gradually widening towards +the hills, was constructed, so that the animals driven thither, could +escape neither to the right nor the left, but must needs plunge into the +imprisoning park. + +Next came the election of the Master of Ceremonies, the Lord of the +Pen. He was a man seasoned with experience, mighty with the knowledge +of occult things--one of the _Wah-Kon_, Medicine Men or jugglers, who +possessed the power of communicating with the Great Spirit. This high +functionary determined the crucial moment when the hunt should begin, +and when the buffalo, roused from the inertia of grazing, should be +driven into the snare. In the center of the clearing he posted the +"medicine-mast," made potent by three charms, "a streamer of scarlet +cloth two or three yards long, a piece of tobacco and a buffalo horn," +which were supposed to entice the animals to their doom. It was he who, +in the early dawn, aroused the sleeping camp with the beating of his +drum and the chanting of incantations; who conferred with the great +Manitous of the buffalo to divine when the time for the chase had come. + +Under the Grand Master were four swift runners who penetrated into the +surrounding country to find where the buffalo were browsing and to +assist by material observation the promptings of the spirits of the +hunt. They were provided by the Grand Master with a _Wah-Kon_ ball of +skin stuffed with hair, and when the herds were found in a favourable +spot and the wind blew from the direction of the animals to the pen, one +of the runners, breathless with haste, bearing in his hand the magic +ball, appeared before the Grand Master and proclaimed the joyful news. +There was a mighty beating of the Grand Master's drum, and out of the +lodges ran the excited people, all bent with concentrated energy upon +the approaching sport. Every horseman mounted, and those less fortunate +armed themselves and took their positions in two lines extending from +the entrance to the enclosure toward the open, separating more widely as +the distance from the pen increased, thus forming a V shape with but a +narrow gateway where the lines converged. + +Then through the silent, human barricade rode the bravest of the braves, +astride the fleetest horse and he went unarmed, always against the wind, +enveloped in a buffalo skin which hung down over his mount. All was +quiet. Only the light Autumn wind flowing through the trees carried the +curious, crisp, cropping noise of thousands of iron-strong jaws tearing +the lush, green grass. And as the rider came upon the crest of the hill +and looked at the panorama of waving verdure peopled by multitudes of +bison stretching far away across the meadows and over the rolling ground +beyond, it must have been a sight to quicken the pulses and stir the +blood. Suddenly there sounded a prolonged and distressing cry--the cry +of a buffalo calf which wailed shrilly for a moment, then ceased. It +came from the brave alone in the open, shrouded in the buffalo hide. + +There was a movement in the herd. Every heavily maned head rose, and +quivering nostrils snuffed the running wind. At first the buffalo +advanced slowly, as if in doubt; gradually their pace quickened to a +trot, a gallop, then lo! the whole vast band came hurtling and lurching +in its furious career like the swells of a tempestuous, black sea, +breaking into angry waves at every shock. And from those deep throats +came a mighty roar, ponderous and resonant as the thunder of the surf. + +Still the cry of the calf reverberated and re-echoed, and the single +horseman crouching beneath his masquerade, led the herd on and on, +eluding their onslaught, luring them forward between the lines of his +companions who stood silent, trembling with eagerness for the sport. +Then pell-mell the mounted hunters rushed out from cover and the wide +extremes of the V shaped line closed in so that the horsemen were behind +the herd. This done, the wind blowing toward the corral, took the scent +of the Indians to the buffalo. Pandemonium reigned. Men, women and +children on foot, leaped out from their hiding places with demoniac +yells, brandishing spears, hurling stones and shooting arrows from +their bows. The stampeded animals, surrounded save for the one loophole +ahead, plunged into the pen. The chase was over and the slaughter began. +The tribe would live well that Winter-time! + + * * * * * + +Among the Omawhaws of the first part of the last century, the hunt +was preceded by much preparation and ceremony. Generally by the month +of June their stores of jerked buffalo meat were well-nigh exhausted, +and the little crops of maize, pumpkins, beans and water-melons, with +the yield of the small hunting parties pursuing beaver, otter, elk, +deer and other game, were scarcely sufficient to fill the wants of +the tribe. So, after the harvesting and trading were done, the chiefs +called a council and ordered a feast to be held in the lodge of one of +the most distinguished of their number, to which all hunters, warriors +and chiefs should be invited. Accordingly the squaws of the chosen host +were commanded by him to make ready the choicest maize and the plumpest +dog for the ceremonial board. When all was in readiness the host called +two or three venerable criers to his lodge. He smoked the calumet with +them, then whispered that they should go through the village proclaiming +the feast and bidding the guests whom he named. He instructed the +criers to "speak in a loud voice and tell them to bring their bowls and +spoons." They sallied forth singing among the lodges, calling to the +distinguished personages to come to the banquet. After these summons +the criers went back to the lodge of the host, quickly followed by the +guests who were seated according to their rank. The ceremony of smoking +was performed first, then the Head Chief arose, thanked his braves for +coming and explained to them the object of the assembly, which was the +selection of a hunting ground and the appointment of a time to start. +After him the others spoke, each giving his opinion frankly, but always +careful to be respectful of the opinions of others. + +Neither squaws nor children were suffered to be present. The criers +tended the kettle and when the speech-making was done, one dipped out +a ladle of soup, held it toward the North, South, East and West, and +cast it into the ashes of the fire. He also flung a bit of the best +part of the meat into the flame as a sacrifice to _Wahconda_, the Great +Spirit. The guests then received their portions, the excellence of which +depended upon their rank. The feast closed as it began, with the smoking +of the calumet and at its conclusion the criers went forth again, +chanting loud songs in praise of the generosity of the host, enumerating +the chiefs and warriors who partook of his bounty, finally proclaiming +the decision of the council and announcing the time and place of the +hunt. This was an occasion of great rejoicing. The squaws at once began +to mend the clothing and the weapons of their lords and pack their +goods; and the young braves, gay with paint and bright raiment, beguiled +the hours with gaming and dancing in the presence of the chiefs. + +When the day of the journey arrived the whole community departed, +the chiefs and wealthy warriors on horseback, the poorer folk afoot. +Sometimes the quest of the buffalo was prolonged over weary weeks, and a +meager diet of _Pomme blanche_ or ground-apple, was insufficient to stay +the pangs of hunger that assailed the tribe. The hunters preceded the +main body, carefully reconnoitering the country for bison or foes. When +at length herds were discovered, the hunters threw up their robes as a +signal, the tribe halted and the advance party returned to report. They +were received with pomp and dignity by the chiefs and medicine men who +sat before the people solemnly smoking and offering articulate thanks to +_Wahconda_. In a low voice the hunters informed the dignitaries of the +presence of buffalo. These mighty personages, in turn, questioned the +huntsmen as to the numbers and respective distances of the herds, and +they replied by illustrating with small sticks the relative positions of +the bands. + +An old man of high standing then addressed the people, telling them that +the coveted game at length was nigh, and that on the morrow they would +be rewarded for the long fast and fatigue. + +That night a council was held and a corps of stout warriors elected to +keep order. These officers painted themselves black, wore the _crow_ and +were armed with war-clubs in order that they might enforce the mandates +of the council and preserve due decorum among the excited tribe folk. + +Early in the morning the hunters on horseback, carrying only bows and +arrows and the warriors provided with war-clubs, led by the pipe-bearer +who bore the sacred calumet, advanced on foot. Once in view of the +splendid, living masses covering the green plains as with a giant sable +robe, they halted for the pipe-bearer, the representative of the Magi, +to perform the propitiatory rite of smoking. He lighted his calumet of +red, baked clay, bowed his head in silence, then held the stem in the +direction of the herds. After this he smoked, exhaling the aromatic +clouds towards the buffalo, the heavens, the earth and the four points +of the compass, called by them the "sunrise, sunset, cold country and +warm country," or by the collective term of the "four winds." At the +completion of this ceremony the head chief gave the signal and the +huntsmen charged upon their prey. + +From this point their methods were somewhat the same as those of the +Selish, except that instead of building a stockade, they, themselves, +enclosed the herd in a living circle, pressing closer and closer upon +it until the killing was complete. This surrounding hunt was called +_Ta-wan-a-sa_. + +The chase was the grand event, the test of horsemanship, of archery, of +fine game-craft and often the opportunity for glory on the war-path as +well--for where the buffalo abounded there lurked the hidden enemy, also +seeking the coveted herds, and an encounter meant battle to the death. +Both ponies and hunters were trained to the ultimate perfection of skill +and the favoured buffalo horse served no other purpose than to bear +his master in the chase. As the cavalcade descended upon the startled +game, the rider caressed his faithful steed, called him "father," +"brother," "uncle," conjured him not to fear the angry beasts yet not +to be too bold lest he be hurt by goring horns and stamping hoofs, and +urged him with honeyed speech to the full fruit of his strength and +cunning. And the horse, responding, flew with wingéd stride, unguided +by reins to the edge of the compact, fleeing band, never hesitating, +never halting until the shoulder of the animal pursued, was exposed to +the death-dealing shot. It was just behind the shoulder blade that the +huntsman sought to strike. The inclination of his body in one direction +or another was sufficient to send the horse speeding after fresh prey. + +The hunters, themselves, scorned danger and knew not fear. If they were +uncertain how deep the arrow had penetrated they rode close to the +infuriated brute to examine the nature of the shot, and if necessary +to shoot again. And even though in the grand _melée_, a single animal +was often pierced with many arrows, there were seldom quarrels as to +whom the quarry belonged, so nicely could they reckon the value of the +different shots and determine which had dealt the most speedy death. + +Onward and onward they sped, circling and advancing at once, like a +whirlwind on the face of the prairie. At length, the darting riders +were seen more and more vividly as they compressed their line about the +routed band, until finally, only a heap of carcasses lay where the herd +had been. Then the tribe came upon the scene. The squaws cut and packed +the meat. If a hunter were unfortunate and killed no game, he helped +dissect the buffalo of a lucky rival. On completion of his task he stuck +his knife in the portion of the meat he desired and it was given to him +as compensation for his labor. + +Someone, either by order of the chief or of his own free will, presented +his kill to the Medicine for a feast. There was great revelry and joy, +dancing and eating of marrow bones, to celebrate the aftermath of the +royal sport. + + +III + +Although the meat of the buffalo was the Indians' chief article of +food, this was by no means the only bond between the red man and +the aboriginal herds of the plains. Besides the almost innumerable +utilitarian purposes for which the different parts of the animals were +used, there was scarcely a phase of life or a ceremony in which they +did not figure. In the dance, a rite of the first importance, in the +practice of the _Wah-Kon_, or medicine, in the legends of the creation +and the after-death, the buffalo had his place. Such lore might make a +quaint and curious volume, but we shall consider only the more striking +uses and traditions of the bison in their relation to the life of the +early West. + +The buffalo was, in truth, the great political factor among the tribes; +nearly all of the bitter warfare between nation and nation was for no +other purpose than to maintain or gain the right to hunt in favourable +fields. Thus the Judith Basin, the region of the Musselshell and many +other haunts of the herds, became also battle fields of bloodshed and +death. Not only did the bison cause hostilities among the nations, but +they were likewise the reason of internal strife. It is said that the +Assiniboines, or Sioux of the Mountains, separated from the main body of +the tribe on account of a dispute between the wives of two rival chiefs, +each of whom persisted in having for her portion the entire heart of a +fine bison slain in the chase. This was the beginning of a feud which +split the nation into independent, antagonistic tribes. + +The utmost economy was generally observed by the early Indians in the +use of the buffalo. Each part of the animal served some particular +purpose. The tongue, the hump and the marrow bones of the thighs were +considered the greatest delicacies. The animals killed for meat were +almost always cows, for the flesh of buffalo bulls could be eaten only +during the months of May and June. + +Among the Omawhaws of nearly two centuries ago, all the meat save the +hump and chosen parts reserved for immediate use, was cut into "large, +thin slices" and either dried by the heat of the sun or "jerked over +a slow fire on a low scaffold." After being thoroughly cured it was +compressed into "quadrangular packages" of a convenient size to carry on +a pack saddle. The small intestines were carefully cleaned and turned +inside out to preserve the outer coating of fat, then dried and woven +into a kind of mat. These mats were packed into parcels of the same +shape and size as the meat. Even the muscular coating of the stomach was +preserved. The large intestines were stuffed with flesh and used without +delay. The vertebrae were pulverized with a stone axe after which the +crushed bone was boiled. The very rich grease that arose to the surface +was skimmed and preserved in bladders for future use. The stomach and +bladder were filled with this and other sorts of fat, or converted into +water bottles. All of the cured meat was _cached_, in French-Canadian +phrase, until hunger drove the Indians to draw upon these stores. + +The pemmican of song and history was a kind of hash made by toasting +buffalo meat, then pulverizing it to a fine consistency with a stone +hammer. Mr. James Mooney in the _Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau +of Ethnology_, describes the process as follows; "In the old times a +hole was dug in the ground and a buffalo hide was staked over so as to +form a skin dish, into which the meat was thrown to be pounded. The hide +was that from the neck of the buffalo, the toughest part of the skin, +the same used for shields, and the only part which would stand the wear +and tear of the hammers. In the meantime the marrow bones are split +up and boiled in water until all the grease and oil comes to the top, +when it is skimmed off and poured over the pounded beef. As soon as the +mixture cools, it is sewed up into skin bags (not the ordinary painted +parfléche cases) and laid away until needed. It was sometimes buried or +otherwise cached. Pemmican thus prepared will keep indefinitely. When +prepared for immediate use, it is usually sweetened with sugar, mesquite +pods, or some wild fruit mixed and beaten up with it in the pounding. +It is extremely nourishing, and has a very agreeable taste to one +accustomed to it. On the march it was to the prairie Indian what parched +corn was to the hunter of the timber tribes, and has been found so +valuable as a condensed nutriment that it is extensively used by arctic +travellers and explorers. A similar preparation is used upon the pampas +of South America and in the desert region of South Africa, while the +canned beef of commerce is an adaptation from the Indian idea. The name +comes from the Cree language, and indicates something mixed with grease +or fat. (Lacombe.)" + +Among the Sioux at Pine Ridge and Rosebud, in the ceremony of the Ghost +Dance, pemmican was celebrated in the sacred songs. Mr. Mooney gives the +translation of one of them: + + _"Give me my knife,_ + _Give me my knife,_ + _I shall hang up the meat to dry--Ye'ye'!_ + _I shall hang up the meat to dry--Ye'ye'!_ + _Says grandmother--Yo'yo'!_ + _Says grandmother--Yo'yo'!_ + _When it is dry I shall make pemmican,_ + _When it is dry I shall make pemmican,_ + _Says grandmother--Yo'yo'!_ + _Says grandmother--Yo'yo'!"_ + + * * * * * + +Though at first the main object for which the buffalo was hunted was the +flesh, next in importance and afterwards foremost, was the hide made +into the buffalo robe of commerce. Since these robes played such an +important part in the early traffic and were partly responsible for the +annihilation of the bison, it is worth while to consider how they were +procured and treated. The skins to be dressed were taken in the early +Spring while the fur was long, thick and luxuriant. Those obtained in +the Autumn called "Summer skins" were used only in the making of lodges, +clothing, and for other domestic purposes. To the squaws was assigned +the preparation of the hides as well as the cutting and curing of the +meat. Immediately after the hunt while in the "green" state the skins +were stretched and dried. After this, they were taken to the village and +subjected to a process of curing which was carried on during the leisure +of the women. The hide was nearly always cut down the center of the back +so that it could be more easily manipulated. The two parts were then +spread upon the ground and scraped with a tool like an adze until every +particle of flesh was removed. In this way all unnecessary thickness was +obviated and the hide was made light and pliable. When the skin had been +reduced to the proper thinness a dressing made of the liver and brains +of the animal were spread over it. This mixture was allowed to dry and +the same process was repeated save that in the second instance while the +hide was wet it was stretched in a frame, carefully scraped with pumice +stone, sharp-edged rocks or a kind of hoe, until it was dry. To make it +as flexible as possible, it was then drawn back and forth over twisted +sinew. The parts were sewed together with sinew and the buffalo robe was +ready for the trader's hands. + +As early as 1819 these robes were in great demand and one trader +reported that in a single year he shipped fifteen thousand to St. Louis. + +In the everyday life of the Indians the products of the buffalo yielded +nearly every comfort and necessity. The hides were used not only for +robes and portable lodges which furnished shelter on the march, but they +were made into battle shields; upon their tanned surface the primitive +artist traced his painted record of the chase, the fray, or the mystic +medicine. They were laid upon the earth for the young braves to play +their endless games of chance upon, and the wounded were taken from the +field on stretchers of buffalo hides swung between a pair of ponies. +From them two kinds of boats were made. One, described by James in his +account of the journey of his party in 1819-20 is as follows: + +"Our heavy baggage was ferried across in a portable canoe, consisting +of a single bison hide, which we carried constantly with us. Its +construction was extremely simple; the margin of the hide being pierced +with several small holes, admits a cord, by which it is drawn into the +form of a shallow basin. This is placed upon the water, and is kept +sufficiently distended by the baggage which it receives; it is then +towed or pushed across. A canoe of this kind will carry from four to +five hundred pounds." + +The second variety, known as a "bull-boat," was made of willows woven +into a round basket and lined with buffalo hide. + +The grease of these beasts was used to anoint the Indians' bodies and to +season the maize or corn. + +From the horns were made spoons, sometimes holding half a pint, and +often ornamented upon the handles with curious carving. + +The shoulder blade fastened to a stick served for a hoe or a plow. + +From the hide of unborn buffalo calves bags were made to contain the +war-paint of braves. + +It would be at once possible and profitable to continue enumerating the +practical uses of the buffalo, but far more interesting than these facts +were the ceremonies, superstitions and traditions in which they were +bound up. + +Perhaps, first among the rites in sacred significance and solemn dignity +was the smoking of the calumet. This was supposed to be not only an +expression of peace among men and nations, but a propitiatory offering +to the Manitous, or guardian spirits, and to the Master of Life. + +According to Colonel Mallory in the _Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau +of Ethnology_, the Sioux believed that this supreme emblem of good will +was brought to them by a white buffalo cow, in the old days when the +different bands of the nation were torn with internal strife. During +this period of hostility a beautiful white buffalo cow appeared, bearing +a pipe and four grains of corn, each of a different colour. From the +milk which dripped from her body, sprang the living corn, so from the +beginning the grain and the buffalo meat were decreed to be the food +of the Indians. She gave to the rival factions, the pipe which was the +sacred calumet, instructing them that it was the symbol of peace among +men and he who smoked it with his fellows, by that act sealed the bond +of brotherhood. After staying for awhile among the grateful people, and +teaching them to call her "Grandmother," which is a term of affectionate +reverence among the Indians, she led them to plentiful herds of her own +kind and vanished into the spiritland whence she came. + +The odour of the buffalo was believed to be agreeable to the Great +Spirit so that the tobacco or kinnikinick of the calumet was flavoured +with animal's excrement in order that the aroma wafted upward might be +most pleasing. This custom of flavouring the pipe with the scent of the +buffalo was carefully observed by the Pawnee Loups of the olden time, +a tribe which claimed descent from the ancient Mexicans, in the awful +ceremonies preceding a human sacrifice to Venus, the "Great Star." Upon +this austere occasion four great buffalo skulls were placed within the +lodge where the celebration was held and they were offered the sacred +_nawishkaro_ or calumet. The bodies of their chiefs or those who died +gloriously in war were robed in buffalo skins, furnished with food and +weapons, and placed sitting upright, in a little lodge near a route +of travel or a camp in order that the passers by might see that they +had met their death with honour. The Pawnees also used bison skulls as +signals, and we find in James' _Travels_ this interesting account: + +"At a little distance in front of the entrance of this breastwork, was +a semi-circular row of sixteen bison skulls, with their noses pointing +down the river. Near the center of the circle which this row would +describe if continued, was another skull marked with a number of red +lines. + +"Our interpreter informed us that this arrangement of skulls and other +marks here discovered, were designed to communicate the following +information, namely, that the camp had been occupied by a war party of +the Pawnee Loup Indians, who had lately come from an excursion against +the Cumancias, Tetans or some of the Western tribes. The number of red +lines traced on the painted skull indicated the number of the party to +have been thirty-six; the position in which the skulls were placed, that +they were on their return to their own country. Two small rods stuck +in the ground, with a few hairs tied in two parcels to the end of each +signified that four scalps had been taken." + +There are many other similar instances recorded by different adventurers +who braved the early West, yet this was but one of numerous uses of +buffalo skulls and heads. Among the Aricaras upon each lodge was a +trophy of the war path or the chase composed of strangely painted +buffalo heads topped with all kinds of weapons. + +There was a curious belief among the Minitarees that the bones of the +buffalo killed in the chase became rehabilitated with flesh and lived +again, to be hunted the following year. In support of this superstition +they had a legend that once upon a time on a great hunt a boy of the +tribe was lost. His people gave him up for dead but the succeeding +season a huge bison was slain and when the body was opened the boy +stepped out alive and well. He related to his dumbfounded companions, +how the year before, he had become separated from them as he pursued a +splendid bull. He felled his game with an arrow, but so far had he gone +that it was too late to overtake and rejoin the tribe before nightfall. +Therefore, he cut into the bison's body, removed a portion of the +intestines and feeling the keen frost of evening upon his unsheltered +body, sought warmth within the carcass. But, lo! when the boy awakened +the buffalo was whole again and he was a prisoner within his whilom prey! + +The Gros Ventres, in the day of Lewis and Clark, thought that if the +head of the slain buffalo were treated well, the living herd would come +in plentiful numbers to yield an abundance of meat. + +Of the many bands into which the Omawhaw nation was divided there were +two, the _Ta-pa-eta-je_ and the _Ta-sin-da_, bison tail, which had the +buffalo for their medicine. The first of these were sworn to abstain +from touching buffalo heads, and the second were forbidden the flesh +of the calves until the young animals were more than one year old. If +these vows were broken by a member of the band and the sacred pledge +so violated, a judgment such as blindness, white hair or disease was +believed to be sent upon the offender. Even should one innocently +transgress the law, a visitation of sickness was accounted his condign +portion and not only he but his family were included in the wrath and +punishment of the outraged Manitous. + +The Crow Indians, Up-sa-ro-ka, or Absaroka, used the buffalo as a part +of their great medicine. An early traveller, Dougherty, describes an +extraordinary "arrangement of the magi." In his own words, "the upper +portion of a cottonwood tree was emplanted with its base in the earth, +and around it was a sweat house, the upper part of the top of the tree +arising through the roof. A _gray_ bison skin, extended with oziers on +the inside so as to exhibit a natural appearance, was suspended above +the house, and on the branches were attached several pairs of children's +moccasins and leggings, and from one limb of the tree, a very large fan +made of war-eagles' feathers was dependent." + +This leads to an interesting superstition of the Indians, which was +that any variation in the usual colour of the buffalo was caused by the +special interference of the Master of Life, and a beast so distinguished +from his kind was venerated religiously, much as the ancient Egyptians +worshipped the sacred bull. Once a "grayish-white" bison was seen and +upon another occasion a calf with white forefeet and a white frontal +mark. An early traveller once saw in an Indian lodge, the head of a +buffalo perfectly preserved, which was marked by a white star. The man +to whom it belonged treasured it as his medicine, nor would he part with +it at any price. + +"'The herds come every season,' he said, 'into the vicinity to seek +their white-faced companion!'" + +Maximilian, in his _Travels in North America_, gives an interesting +description of the martial and sacred significance of the robes of white +buffalo cows among the Mandans and Minitarees. He says that the brave +who has never possessed this emblem is without honour, and the merest +youth who has obtained it ranks above the most venerable patriarch who +has never owned the precious hide. Indeed, "of all the distinctions +of any man the white buffalo hide" was supreme. As the white buffalo +were extremely rare it was seldom a hunter killed one for himself. The +robes were brought by other tribes, often from far distant parts of the +country, to the Mandans who traded from ten to fifteen horses for a +perfect specimen. It was necessary for the hide to be that of a young +cow not more than two years old, and it had to be cured "with the horns, +nose, hoofs and tail" complete, In Maximilian's words: "The Mandans +have peculiar ceremonies at the dedication of the hide. As soon as they +have obtained it they engage an eminent medicine man, who must throw it +over him; he then walks around the village in the apparent direction +of the sun's course, and sings a medicine song. When the owner, after +collecting articles of value for three or four years, desires to offer +his treasure to the lord of life, or to the first man, he rolls it up, +after adding some wormwood or a head of maize, and the skin then remains +suspended on a high pole till it rots away. At the time of my visit +there was such an offering at _Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush_, near the stages for +the dead without the village. Sometimes, when the ceremony of dedication +is finished, the hide is cut into small strips, and the members of the +family wear parts of it tied over the head, or across the forehead, +when they are in full dress. If a Mandan kills a young white buffalo +cow it is accounted to him as more than an exploit, or having killed an +enemy. He does not cut up the animal himself, but employs another man, +to whom he gives a horse for his trouble. He alone who has killed such +an animal is allowed to wear a narrow strip of the skin in his ears. +The whole robe is not ornamented, being esteemed superior to any other +dress, however fine. The traders have, sometimes, sold such hides to the +Indians, who gave them as many as sixty other robes in exchange. Buffalo +skins with white spots are likewise highly valued by the Mandans; but +there is a race of these animals with very soft, silky hair, which has a +beautiful gold lustre when in the sunshine; these are, likewise, highly +prized." + +There are numerous myths of a white buffalo cow, who at will, assumed +the form of a beautiful maiden. + +The Sioux in common with the Aricaras and the Minitarees observed the +custom of fasting before going to war or upon the hunt. They had a +"medicine lodge," where a buffalo robe was spread and a red painted post +was planted. Upon the top of the lodge was tied a buffalo calf skin +holding various sacred objects. After preliminary rites they tortured +themselves, one favorite method being to make a gash under their +shoulder blades, run cords through the wounds and drag two large bison +heads to a hill about a mile distant from their village, where they +danced until they fell fainting with exhaustion. + +Some of the tribes performed the _Ta-nuguh-wat-che_, or bison dance. +The participants were painted black, wore a head dress made of the skin +of a buffalo head which was cut after the fashion of a cap. It was +adjusted in a manner to resemble a live animal, and extending from this +head dress, over the half-naked and blackened bodies of the dancers, +depended a long strip of hide from the back of the buffalo which hung +down like a tail. + +The Omawhaws believed that the Great Wahconda appeared sometimes in the +shape of a bison bull and they, like other tribes, cherished legends of +a fabulous age when animals spoke together, did battle and possessed +intelligence equal to that of men. The following myth of the bison bull, +the ant and the tortoise, related by James, is an interesting example of +these fables: + +Once upon a time an ant, a tortoise and a buffalo bull formed themselves +into a war party and determined to attack the village of an enemy in +the vicinity. They decided in council that the tortoise being sluggish +and slow of movement, should start in advance and the ant and bull +should time their departure so as to overtake him on the way. This plan +was adopted and the awkward tortoise floundered forth on his hostile +mission alone. In due time the bison bull took the ant upon his back, +lest on account of his minuteness he be lost, and together they set out +for the enemy's country. At length they came to a treacherous bog where +they found the poor tortoise struggling vainly to free himself. This +caused the ant and the bull much merriment as they crossed safely to +solid ground. But the tortoise, scorning to ask the aid of his brothers +in war, replied cheerfully to their taunts and insisted that he would +meet them at the hostile village. + +The ant and the bison advanced with noise and bravado and the watchful +enemy perceiving them, issued from their lodges and wounded both, +driving them to headlong, inglorious retreat. + +Finally the tortoise with sore travail, reached his destination to find +his companions flown, and because he could not flee also, he fell into +the hands of the foe--a prisoner. These cruel people decided to put him +to death at once. They threatened him with slow roasting in red coals +of fire, with boiling and many awful tortures, but the astute tortoise +expressed his willingness to suffer any of these penalties. Therefore +the enemy consulted together again and held over his head the fate of +drowning. Against this he protested with such frenzied vehemence that +his captors immediately executed the sentence, and bearing him to a deep +part of the river which flowed through their country, flung him in. Thus +restored to his native element he plunged to the bottom of the stream, +then arose to the surface to see his enemies gaping from the bank in +expectation of his agony. He grabbed several of them, dragged them +down and killed them, and appeared once more triumphantly displaying +their scalps to the bewildered multitude of thwarted warriors who were +helpless to avenge their brethren. The tortoise, satisfied with his +achievement, returned to his home where he found the ant and the bull +prone upon the floor of the lodge, wounded, humbled and fordone. + + * * * * * + +Finally, the Minitarees and other tribes had a curious legend of their +origin. They believed that their forefathers once dwelt in dark, +subterranean caverns, beyond a great, swift-running river. Two youths +disappeared from amongst them and after a short absence returned to +proclaim that they had found a land lighted by an orb which warmed +the earth to fecundity, where deep waters shimmered crystal white and +countless herds of bison covered grass and flower-decked plains. So the +youths led the people up out of the primal darkness into the pleasant +valleys where they dwelt evermore. And as the bison were celebrated in +this child-like tradition of the Beginning, so likewise, did they figure +in the primitive conception of the hereafter. That region of Summer +where the good Indian should find repose, was pictured as an ideal +country, fair with verdure and rich with herds of buffalo which the good +spirits would go seeking through the golden vistas of eternity. + + +IV + +When the first explorers penetrated the fastnesses of the New World the +buffalo was lord of the continent. Coronado on his march northward from +Mexico saw hordes of these unknown beasts which a chronicler of 1600 +described naïvely as "crooked-backed oxen." The mighty herds roamed +through the blue grass of Kentucky, the Carolinas, that region now +the state of New York, and probably every favorable portion of North +America. Very gradually they were pushed farther and farther westward +to the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, which was for many years their +refuge and retreat. In 1819 the official expedition sent by John C. +Calhoun to examine the Rocky Mountains, their tribes, animal and plant +life, found the buffalo reduced in numbers, though in the wild stretches +of country lying South along the Arkansas, they were seen in countless +hordes. The report says: + +"During these few days past, the bisons have occurred in vast and almost +continuous herds, and in such infinite numbers as seemed to indicate the +great bend of the Arkansas as their chief and general rendezvous." + +The account continues to narrate how the scent of the white men borne +to the farthest animal, a distance of two miles, started the multitudes +speeding away, and yet so limitless were those millions, that, day +after day, they flowed past like a sea until their presence became as +a part of the landscape, and by night their thunderous bellow echoed +through the savage wastes. + +In Bradbury's _Travels_ there is a description of a fight among buffalo +bulls. He says: + +"On my return to the boats, as the wind had in some degree abated, we +proceeded and had not gone more than five or six miles before we were +surprised by a dull, hollow sound, the cause of which we could not +possibly imagine. It seemed to be one or two miles below us; but as our +descent was rapid, it increased every moment in loudness, and before we +had proceeded far, our ears were able to catch some distinct tones, like +the bellowing of buffaloes. When opposite to the place from whence it +proceeded, we landed, ascended the bank, and entered a small skirting +of trees and shrubs, that separated the river from an extensive plain. +On gaining a view of it, such a scene opened to us as will fall to the +lot of few travellers to witness. This plain was literally covered +with buffaloes as far as we could see, and we soon discovered that +it consisted in part of females. The males were fighting in every +direction, with a fury which I have never seen paralleled, each having +singled out his antagonist. We judged that the number must have amounted +to some thousands, and that there were many hundreds of these battles +going on at the same time, some not eighty yards from us. The noise +occasioned by the trampling and bellowing was far beyond description." + +At that time the bison paths were like well trodden roadways and served +as such to the explorers. These paths always led by most direct routes +to fresh water, and therefore were of the greatest assistance to +travellers unacquainted with the undiscovered lands. + +Such were the legions of the plains even when the East had refused them +shelter. And although it was roughly estimated that the tribes dwelling +along the Missouri River killed yearly 100,000 for food, saddle covers +and clothes, this did not appreciably lessen their hosts. Not until the +white tide flowed faster and faster over the wilds was the doom of the +buffalo sounded, together with that of the forests which sheltered them, +and the Indians who were at once their foes and their friends. + +Then the destruction was swift beyond belief. The royal game which +Coronado saw in 1585, which Lewis and Clark in their adventurous journey +into the unknown West encountered at every turn, was nearly gone. They +endured in such numbers that as late as 1840 Father De Smet said: + +"The scene realized in some sort the ancient tradition of the holy +scriptures, speaking of the vast pastoral countries of the Orient, and +of the cattle upon a thousand hills." + +It was inconceivable to the Indians that civilization should wreak +such utter desolation. They could not comprehend the passing of the +mighty herds any more than they could appreciate the destruction of +the forests or their own decline. They did not know that the railroad +which traversed the highway of the plains between the East and West ran +through miles upon miles of country whitened with buffalo bones; that +veritably the prairies which had been the pasture of the herds were +now become their graveyard--a graveyard of unburied dead. They did not +know that armies of workingmen and settlers had drawn upon the buffalo +for food and warmth, that the beasts had been harried and hunted North, +South, East and West, sometimes legitimately, but too often in cruel, +wanton sport, until, at last, it became an evident fact that they were +visibly nearing their end. A kind of stampede possessed the terrified +beasts. Their old haunts were usurped. Where the fostering forests had +given them shelter, towns arose. Baffled and dismayed they fled, hither +and thither, only to crash headlong within the range of the huntsman's +gun. So they charged at random, ever pressed closer and closer to bay by +the encroaching life which was their death. + +About the year of 1883 it was known that the last thinned and vagrant +remnant of the buffalo was virtually gone. Maddened into desperate +bewilderment they had done an unprecedented thing. Instead of going +northward as their habit had been since man first observed their kind, +they turned and fled South. This was their end. The half-breeds of the +Red River, the Sioux of the Missouri, and most relentless of all, the +white hide-hunter, beset the wild, retreating band. Their greed spared +neither beast that tottered with age, nor calf fresh from its mother's +womb. All fell prey to the mastering greed of the lords of the great +free land. + +Upon the shores of the Cannonball River, so-called from the heaps of +round stones upon its banks, on the edge of the Dakotas, the buffalo +made their last stand. Driven to bay they stood and fell together, the +latest offspring of a vanished race. + +But the poor Indian, he who had shared the freedom of the continent +with his horned friend, could not yet understand that the buffalo were +gone--gone as the sheltering woods were going, even as he, himself, must +go. Evolution is cruel as well as beneficent and there is a pang for +each poor, lesser existence crushed out in the race, as there is joy +in the survival of the strongest and best. And those who are superior +to-day must themselves be superseded to-morrow and fall into the abysmal +yesterday, mere stepping stones toward the Infinite. The Indians, +knowing none of these things, became troubled and perplexed. In vain +they sought the herds on their old-time hunting grounds, but only stark, +bleached bones were there and they went back to their lodges, hungry, +gaunt and wan. + +In years past the buffalo had disappeared at intervals to unknown +pastures, then returned multiplied and reinforced. Was it not possible +that they had gone upon such a journey, perhaps to the ultimate North +where the Old Man dwelt, to seek refuge in a mighty polar cave under +his benign protection? So from their meager stores the Indians offered +sacrifices of horses and other of their most valued possessions, to the +Old Man, that he might drive the buffalo back to the deserted pasture +lands near the Rocky Mountains. + +"They are tired," said Long Tree of the Sioux, "with much running. They +have had no rest. They have been chased and chased over the rocks and +gravel of the prairie and their feet are sore, worn down, like those of +a tender-footed horse. When the buffalo have rested and their feet have +grown out again, they will return to us in larger numbers, stronger, +with better robes and fatter than they ever were." + +Still the years passed and the buffalo came not, and some there were +who said that if the Old Man, the Great Spirit of the North, loved +his children of the forest, he would not have left them to suffer so +painfully and long. + +Then out of dumb despair came sudden hope; out of the bitter silence +sounded a Voice and a prophet came "preaching through the wilderness," +even as John the Baptist had come, centuries ago, bringing a message of +peace and the promise of salvation. This prophet was _Wovoka_, founder +of the Ghost Dance religion, who arose in "the land of the setting sun," +in the shadow of the Sierras. He told the wrapt people that when "the +sun died" he went to heaven where he saw God, the spirits of those long +dead and vast herds of revivified buffalo feeding in the pastures of the +skies. Heaven would not be perfect to the Indian without the buffalo, +and the red man, less jealous than ourselves of his paradise, was +willing to share the bliss of immortality with his old-time companions +of the plains. The tenets of the new creed were gentle, teaching peace, +truth, honesty and universal brotherhood. Under the thrall of the Ghost +Dance, devotees dropped to earth insensible and had visions of the +spirit-world. Wovoka prophesied that at the appointed time the ghostly +legions, led by a spirit captain, would descend from heaven, striking +down the unbelievers and restoring to the Indians and the buffalo +dominion over the earth. + +With the awful desperation of a last hope the Indians leaped high into +the Night surrounding them to grasp at a star--a star, alas! which +proved to be but a will-o'-the-wisp set over a quagmire of death. +Nothing seemed impossible to their excited fancy. Had not the white race +killed the Christ upon a Cross of torture, and would he not come to +earth again as an Indian, to gather his children together in everlasting +happiness when the grass should be green with the Spring? Meantime they +must dance, dance through the weary days and nights in order that the +prophesy might be fulfilled. + +An alarm spread through the country. What meant this frenzied dance of +circling, whirling mystics who strained with wide eyes to look beyond +the skies? An order came that the dance must cease. This decree was but +human, the one which bade them dance they believed to be divine. And +dance they did, wildly, madly, to the sharp time of musketry until the +hurrying feet were stilled and the dancers lay cold and stark on the +field of Wounded Knee. + +In all the annals of the Indians' tragic tale there is nothing more +pitiful than this Dance of Death. The poor victims, together with the +last hope of a despairing race, were buried at Wounded Knee, and the +white man wrought his will. + +Slowly and steadily the woods were laid low, inevitably the Indians +retreated farther and farther back, closer pressed, routed as the +buffalo had been. All hope of the return of the beloved herds left their +hearts and they knew at last that they would find them only in those +Elysian fields of perpetual summertime--the Happy Hunting Ground. + + +V + +The sun set red behind the mountains. The shadows stole down, gray +and mystical as ghosts. From afar the coyote's dolorous cry plained +through the silence and the owl hooted dismally as he awakened at the +approach of night. There in the pallid dusk lay the bleached skull +and the arrowhead of black obsidian, mute reliques of the past. The +royal buffalo is no more, the hunter that hurled the bolt is gone. We +may find the inferior offspring of the one in city parks, of the other +on ever-lessening reservations, but degeneracy is more pitiful than +death, and the old, free herds that ranged the continent are past as the +fleet-footed, strong-hearted tribes have vanished from the plains. + +So the story of the two fallen races is told eloquently by this whitened +skull on the hillside and the jet-black arrow head flung by the stilled +red hand. + + + + +_LAKE McDONALD & ITS TRAIL_ + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LAKE McDONALD AND ITS TRAIL + + +In the northern part of Montana, towards the Canadian border, the Main +Range of the Rocky Mountains has been rent and carved by glacial action +during ages gone by, until the peaks, like tusks, stand separate and +distinct in a mighty, serrated line. No one of these reaches so great a +height as Shasta, Rainier or Hood, but here the huge, horned spine rises +almost sheer from the sweep of tawny prairie, and not one, but hosts of +pinnacles, sharp as lances, stand clean cut against the sky. Approaching +the range from the East, in the saffron glow of sunset, one might fancy +it was wrought of amethyst, so intense and pure is the colour, so clear +and true the minutest detail of the grandly sculptured outline. Within +the ice-locked barriers of those heights live glaciers still grind +their passages through channels of stone; down in shadowy ravines, +voiceful with silver-tongued falls, lie fair lakes in the embrace of +over-shadowing altitudes. The largest of these lakes, McDonald, is the +heart of a vast and marvelous country, the center of many trails. + +The road to Lake McDonald winds along the shores of the Flathead River +for half a mile or more, skirting the swift current now churned into +white foam by rapids, then calm and transparent, revealing the least +stone and tress of moss in its bed, in shades of limpid emerald. Leaving +the river, the way lies through dense forests of pine and tamarack, +cedar and spruce, and so closely do the spreading boughs interlace that +the sun falls but slightly, in quivering, pale gold splashes upon the +pads of moss and the fragrant damp mold which bursts into brilliant +orange-coloured fungus and viciously bright toadstools. Each fallen +log, each boulder wrested from its place and hurled down by glacier +or avalanche, is dressed in a faery garb of moss and tiny, fragrant +shell-pink bells called twinflowers, because two blossoms, perfect +twins, always hang pendent from a single stem as slender as spun +glass, and these small bells scent the air with an odour as sweet as +heliotrope. Within the forest dim with perpetual twilight, one feels the +vastness of great spaces, the silence of great solitudes. + +Suddenly there bursts upon one, with all the up-bearing exhilaration of +a first sight of the sea, a scene which, once engraved upon the heart, +will remain forever. The trees part like a curtain drawn aside and the +distance opens magnificently. The intense blue of the cloudless sky +arches overhead, the royal waters of the lake flow blue and green with +the colours of a peacock's tail or the variegated beauty of an abalone +shell; sweeping upward from the shores are tall, timbered hills, so +thickly sown with pine that each tree seems but a spear of grass and the +whole forest but a lawn, and towering beyond, yet seeming very near in +the pure, white light, is a host of peaks silvered with the benediction +of the clouds--the deathless snow. The haze that tints their base is of +a shade one sometimes finds in violets, in amethysts, in dreams. Indeed, +these mountains seem to descend from heaven to earth rather than to soar +from earth towards heaven, so great is their sublimity. + +As one floats away on the lake the view changes. New vistas open and +close, new peaks appear above and beyond as though their legion would +never come to an end. Straight ahead two irregular, rugged mountains +with roots of stone emplanted in the water, rise like a mighty portal, +and between the two, seeming to bridge them, is a ridge called the +"Garden Wall." The detail of the more immediate steeps grows distinct +and we see from their naked crests down their timbered sides, deep +furrows, the tracks of avalanches which have rushed from the snow fields +of Winter, uprooting trees and crushing them in the fury of the mad +descent. A long, comparatively level stretch, not unlike a gun sight +set among the bristling, craggy summits, is the "Gunsight Pass," the +difficult way to the Great St. Mary's Lakes, the Blackfeet Glacier and +the wonderful, remote region on the Eastern slope of the range. Huge, +white patches mark glaciers and snow fields, for it is within these same +mountains that the Piegan (Sperry) and many others lie. And as we drift +on and on across the smooth expanse of water, the magic of it steals +upon our souls. For there is about the lake a charm apart from the +beauty of the waters and the glory of the peaks; of spirit rather than +substance; of soul-essence rather than earthly form. That mysterious +force, whatever it may be, rising from the water and the forest +solitudes and descending from the mountain tops, flows into our veins +with the amber sunshine and we feel the sweeping uplift of altitudes +heaven-aspiring that take us back through infinite ages to the Source +which is Nature and God. + +[Illustration: GLACIER CAMP] + +The good old captain of the little craft weaves fact and fancy into +wonderful yarns as he steers his launch straight for the long, +purplish-green point which is the landing. To him no ocean greyhound is +more seaworthy than his boat, and he likes to tell of timid tender-feet +entreating him to keep to shore when the lake was tumultuous with storm, +and how he, spurning danger, guided them all safely through the trough +of the waves. He keeps a little log wherein each passenger is asked to +write his name. The poor old man has a maimed hand, his eyes are filmy +with years and his gums are all but toothless, but it would seem that +nature has compensated him for his afflictions by concentrating his +whole strength in his tongue. He knows each landmark well, and gravely +points out to the credulous traveller, the highest mountain in the +world; calls attention to the 18,000 fathoms of lake depth whence no +drowned man ever rises, and other marvels, each the greatest of its kind +upon the circumference of the globe. There came a day soon after when +the lake chafed beneath a lashing gale and the little craft and her +gallant captain were dumped ingloriously upon the beach. But accidents +happen to the best of seamen, and the launch, after a furious expulsion +of steam, and much hiccoughing, was dragged once more into her place +upon the wave. + +Although there is evidence that Lake McDonald was long ago frequented +by some of the Indian tribes, it was not known to the world until +comparatively recent times. There are two stories of its discovery and +naming, both of which have a foundation of truth. The first is that Sir +John McDonald, the famous Canadian politician, riding across the border +with a party, cut a trail through the pathless woods and happening to +penetrate to the lake, blazed his name upon a tree to commemorate the +event, thus linking his fame with the newly found natural treasure. The +old trail remains--probably the virgin way into the wilderness. The +second story--which is from the lips of Duncan McDonald, son of Angus, +runs thus: He and a little band of Selish were crossing from their own +land of the Jocko into the country of the Blackfeet which lies East +of the Main Range, to recover some ponies stolen by the latter tribe, +when they came in view of this lake hitherto unknown to them. Duncan +McDonald, who was the leader or _partizan_, as the French-Canadians say, +blazed the name "McDonald" upon some pines along the shore. It matters +little who was actually the first to set foot on these unpeopled banks, +but it is a strange coincidence that the two pathfinders should have +borne the same name. + +The purplish-green point draws nearer, log cabins appear among the +trees, each one decorated with a bear skin hung near its door. This +is a fur trading center as well as a resort of nature lovers, and +upon the broad porch of the club house is a heap of pelts of silver +tip, black and brown bear, mountain lion and lynx, and from the walls +within, bighorn sheep and mountain goats' heads peer down. The trappers +themselves, quaint, old hunters of the wilderness, come out of their +retreats to trade. But even now their day is passing. With the advent +of outside life these characters, scarcely less shy than the game they +seek, move farther back into uncontaminated solitudes. They are the +last, lingering fragment of that old West which is so nearly a sad, +sweet memory, a loving regret. + +Each hour of the day traces its lapse in light and shadow on the lake, +until the sunset flowing in a copper tide, draws aureoles of golden +cloud over the white-browed peaks, transforming their huge and rugged +bulk into luminous light-giving bodies of faded roses and lavender. +As the evening wanes the mountains burn out in ashes of roses, still +lightened here and there upon their ultimate heights, with a glow as +faint as the memory of a dead love, and the living halo of the clouds +deepens into coral crowns. Then the lake becomes a vast opal, kindling +with fires that flash and die in the growing dusk. + +The dark forests that cloak the lake shores, are threaded with trails +each leading to some treasure store of Nature far off in the secrecy +of the hills. One of great beauty starts from the head of the lake, +beneath the shadow of the mountains, and overhangs the boisterous, +rock-rent torrent of McDonald's Creek. The narrow way is padded thick +with pine needles ground into sweet, brown powder which deadens the +least intrusive footfall, as though the whole wood were harkening to +the singing of the waters through the silence of the trees. Along the +trail are mosses of multitudinous kinds. The delicate star moss unfolds +its feathery points of green; a strange variety with thick, mottled +leaves grows like a full blown rose around decayed trees, and a small, +pale, gray-green trumpet-shaped moss rears hosts of elfin horns. Only +a skilled botanist could classify these rich carpets which Nature has +spread over the dead royalty of her forests, so that even in their death +there is resurrection; even in their decay, new life. Bluebells and +twinflowers, those delicate faery-bells of pink, sweet grass, pigeon +berry and many another blossom beautiful in its strangeness, weave their +colour into gay patterns on the green; blend their fragrance with the +balsam sweetness of the woods. And all around, the stately pine trees +grow bearded with long, gray moss which marks their antiquity and +foretells their doom. The stream below, flowing between steep banks +that it has cut during centuries of ceaseless washing, raises its song +to a roar as it flings its swift current over a parapet of stone in a +banner of shimmering, white foam. Above, the water breaks in whirling +rapids and farther still is another fall. Towering in the distance is an +exalted peak, the father of this stream, whose snowy gift pours down its +perennial blessing into the clear tide of the lake. + +So it is, the streams that issue from the glaciers yield their pure +tribute to Lake McDonald, and all the trails, uncoiling their devious +and dizzy ways over the mountains, bring us back to these shores. And +every time that we return it breaks upon us with renewed freshness of +mood. It may be ridden by a wind that lashes it into running waves +of purple and wine colour, marked with the white foot-prints of the +gale. It may be still as the first thought of love, holding in its +broad mirror the bending sky and mountains peering into its secrecy. It +may be ephemeral with mist that dims the mountains into pale, shadowy +ghosts; or it may be like a voluptuous beauty glittering with jewels +and clad in robes of silken sheen; again, it may be Quakerish in its +pallid monotone. The changing cycle of the day and night each brings its +different gift of beauty, and likewise, the passing seasons deck the +mountains and the waters with a glory all their own, until, with martial +hosts of cloud, with banners streaming silver and emblazoned with +lightning-gleam, Winter spreads its garment of white upon the mystery of +the wild. Perhaps the lake is never so exquisite as then. At least it +seems so, as with closed eyes and passive soul, a memory undimmed arises +out of the past. + +It is night in the dead of Winter. The silence of deep sleep and +isolation is on the world. The snow has fallen like a flock of white +birds and the air has cleared to the degree of scintillating brilliance +that mocks the diamond's flash. The full moon is beneath a cloud and +its veiled light, filtering through the vapor, shows dimly the shadowy +waters and the wan peaks fainting far away. Then the cloud passes. The +moon leaps into the heavens and a flood of white light illumines the +water, the sky and the mountains, transforming the whole into a faery +scene of arctic splendour. It is as though the last breath of life had +vanished in that chaste frozen atmosphere, and the earth had become a +Palace of Dreams. + +And though that Palace of Dreams vanishes as dreams must, like a melting +snow crystal or a frosty sigh upon the night, there remains in our +hearts a yearning which shall bear us back to the reality of beauty +that rewards each pilgrim who returns to the deathless glory of the +mountain-married lake. + + + + +_ABOVE THE CLOUDS_ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ABOVE THE CLOUDS + + +Of all the trails in the McDonald country, there is none more travelled, +or more worthy of the toil than that which leads to the Piegan glacier. +From the moment we stand in expectant readiness in the little clearing +behind the log cabins comprising the hotel, a new phase of existence has +begun for us. So strange are the place and the conditions that it seems +we must have stepped back fifty years or more, into that West whose +glamour lives in story and song. Strong, tanned, sinewy guides who wear +cartridge belts and six-shooters, load grunting pack-horses and "throw" +diamond-hitches in businesslike silence. When at last all is ready, the +riders mount the Indian ponies or "cayuses"--Allie Sand, the yellow cow +pony; Babe, the slumbrous; Bunchie, but recently subdued, and Baldy, +nicknamed "Foolish" because of the musical pack of kettles, camp stoves +and sundries that jingle and jump up and down upon his back, lightening +the way with merriment for those who follow. With a quickened beating +of the heart, the good cheer and Godspeed of friendly voices ringing in +our ears, we take leave of the last haunt of civilization and strike out +into the virgin solitude of heaven-aspiring peaks. + +As the feeling of remoteness smites the spirit when we pass beyond +the railway station of Belton and follow in creaking wagons the +shadow-curtained road to the lake, so now it returns with stronger +impulse, calling to life new emotions begotten of the Wild. The +world-rush calms into the great stillness of untrodden places, the +world-voices sigh out in the murmuring breeze, the petty traffic of the +cities is forgotten in the soulful silence of the trees. And out of +this newly found affinity with the Nature forces, the love of adventure +thrills into being, together with the fine scorn of danger and the +resolve to do that which we set out to do no matter what the cost or the +peril. Here the "white feather" is the greatest badge of dishonour, and +he who fails through cowardice to win his goal is a man among men no +more. This spirit is the faint, far-off echo of the hero-bearing days of +the early West. + +Our guide is a stocky, little man of soldierly bearing, clad in khaki +suit and cow-boy hat, whom his fellows call "Scotty." He is brown +with exposure, smoothly shaven, and his keen, blue eyes are slightly +contracted at the corners from the strain of peering through vast +distances--a characteristic of men who follow woodcraft and hunting. +He rides ahead silently but for a rebuke to the slumbrous "Babe," such +as, "Go on, you lazy coyote," or a familiar, half-caressing remark to +Bunchie, the ex-outlaw, who is his favourite. Indeed, he, like most men +who have ridden the range, has the habit of talking to the ponies as +though they knew and understood. And who can be sure they do not? + +The forests begin as soon as the bit of clearing is passed, then +single file the little cavalcade moves on through huckleberry fields, +purplish-black with luscious, ripe berries, where bears come to feed +and fatten, where, also, thirsty wayfarers stop to eat the juicy fruit. +The pines clasp branches overhead in a lacy, broken roof whose pattern +of needle and burr shows in dark traceries against patches of blue sky +remote and far beyond. A thick, sweet shadow dappled now and again with +splashes of yellow sun tempers the air which presses its cool touch upon +our brows. On either hand a dense, even lawn of tender green fern and +mist-maiden covers the earth and through the silence sounds the merry +clamour of a stream. It ripples gaily along between wooded banks, +breaking into little crests of foam upon the rocks, showing through the +glassy medium of its waters, every stone and pebble of its speckled bed +polished and rounded by ceaseless flowing. The horses splash through +the creek and upon the opposite side begins anew the delicate lawn of +mist-maiden and fern, so freshly, tenderly green with the pale greenness +of things that live away from the sun, so ephemerally exquisite as to +embarrass coarse, mortal presence. It is a spot fit for fairies to dance +upon; fit for wood-nymphs and white hinds to make merry in; fit for the +flute-like melody of Pan to awake to dancing echoes as he calls the +forest sprites unto high revelry. + +A forest ranger joins us. He is tramping to the Gunsight Pass with his +axe upon his shoulder and his kit upon his back, to repair the trail to +the Great St. Mary's Lakes. + +The shades of brown and green, the shadow threaded with an occasional +strand of gold, are livened by crimson patches of Indian Paint Brush, +bluebells, white starry lilies called Queen's Cups, trembling feathers +of coral pink, sun-yellow and white syringa. Beneath the overhanging +verdure, around and upon the mossy rocks, the ever-present twinflowers +open their delicate petals and sweeten the air, and from clumps of +coarse grass rise cones of minute white blossoms, the bear-grass, one +of the most curious of the mountain flowers. This ranger knows the +common names of nearly all the plants, and at every turn new varieties +spring up. He stops to gather each kind of bloom until we have a great +bouquet--a _potpourri_ of all the floral beauty of the multitudes that +people our path. + +The way is very fair, ministering to the senses; troops of new, +forest forms and colours pass before the eye, the mingled sweets of +the flowers, the pungent mould and balsam of spruce and pine breathe +sensuously into the nostrils, and the fingers of the wind caress and +soothe as they pass. Through the voiceful silence, sounds that are on +the borderland between fancy and reality, thrill for a moment, then are +lost in the grand chorus of trees and rushing rivers. A stream of volume +and velocity flowing through a deep gorge falls twice in its downward +rush. These two falls, the Wynona and Minneopa, flash great, white +plumes among steeps of green forest. + +With sharp descent and stubborn climb, the trail, that seems the merest +thread, untangles its skein and leads, at length, into a small basin +partly enclosed within sheer, naked rock-walls, whence three delicate +silver streams trickle down and join the creek that waters a little +park. Beyond, the peaks loom up masterfully, sheathing their icy lances +in the clouds. High over the lip of the mighty rock-wall, rising like +the giant counterpart of an ancient battlement, lies the glacier. Up +that precipitous, overhanging parapet we must make our way, but where +the footing or how the ascent is to be won, fancy cannot fathom, for +it would seem no living thing save a mountain goat, a bighorn sheep +or an eagle could scale this stronghold of Nature. Across the basin, +where there is a gentler slope, the mountain side is dotted with groups +of tall, spire-like pines. The level meadow is grassy and shaded with +small spruce of the size of Christmas trees. And in this peaceful spot, +girt with grim, challenging steeps, the tinkle of the stream sounds +pastorally sweet, while the more distant and powerful roar of the three +tumbling streams chants a solemn undertone to the merry lilt. + +Here the camp is made. A fire crackles gaily and our tents are +pitched beneath the trees. Suddenly a shadow falls,--dimly, almost +imperceptibly. The sun has gone. It is only six o'clock in mid-summer, +but so lofty are the barrier-heights that even now we are in a world of +shade,--shade of a strangely luminous kind, hinting of ruddy lights that +are obscured but not quenched. Through the quiet, echo the whistle of +the marmot, the metallic whirr of contentious squirrels going off like +small alarm clocks, and the mellow, drowsy note of bells ringing to the +rhythmic crop of browsing ponies. So the long beautiful twilight settles +over the mountains until the sounds are stilled save the tinkling bells +and the water-voices singing their ceaseless song. The forest sleeps. +Long, mystical fancy-bearing moments and tens of moments pass, and +something of awe closes down with the gloaming. Then through the dim, +monkish grey shadow pulses a red-gold stream of light that runs in long, +uneven streamers across the face of the grim, dark walls, transfiguring +them into radiant shapes of living golden-rose. In that effulgence +of glory, lost peaks gleam for a second out of the dusk and vanish +into nothingness again, snowy diadems flash into being and fade like +a dream. The life-blood of the day ebbs and flows, sending out long, +slender fingers to trace its fleeting message on the rocks, then with a +deepening, crimson glow it flickers and is fled. Night settles fast and +the flare of the camp fire, shedding its spark-spangles in brilliant +showers, reclaims one little spot from the devouring blackness. It is +a magical thing--this campfire, and the living ring around it is an +enchanted circle. Perhaps its warmth penetrates even to the heart, +or perhaps the bond of human fellowship asserts itself more strongly +when only the precarious, flamboyant fire-light, leaping and waning, +throwing forth a rain of sparks, or searing grey with sudden decline, +separates our little group from utter desolation. Whatever the charm may +be, it falls upon us all, and with eyes fixed on the ember-pictures or +raised to the starry skies, we listen to tales of the long ago and of +a present as unfamiliar as the past. The reserve of our guide is quite +broken and he tells in a low, reminiscent voice, of wonder-spots in the +range,--for he knows its every peak and gorge,--of the animals that +dwell in its solitary recesses and of how the Piegan Glacier got its +name. + +The Piegan Indians are a branch of the Blackfeet tribe, and in the +early days they were almost as noted horse raiders as the Absarokes who +flourished near the Three Tetons, in the country of the Yellowstone. +Back and forth across the passes they came and went in their nefarious +traffic, secure from pursuit among the horns of these lonely heights. +The vicinity of the eternal ice-fields, probably this little basin +itself, sheltered the shadowy bands, and thus the glacier became known +by their name. Still, you may look in vain on the maps for Piegan +Glacier; you will find it called Sperry instead. The old name was +discarded for that of a Professor who spent some weeks exploring its +crevasses and under whose supervision a corps of college students spent +a part of one summer's vacation, building the glacier trail. Yet there +are those who love the old names as they love the traditions for which +they stand, and to them the glacier will forever bear the time-honoured +title of these Indians who have long since disappeared from its +solitudes. + +As the hours pass we draw from our guide and story-teller something +of himself. Little by little, in fragmentary allusions and always +incidentally, during that even-tide and the days following, we learn +thus much of his life. He was born in those troublous days of Indian +fighting on the frontier, shortly after his father, an army officer, +was ordered out on campaign against the Sioux. When he was but a few +weeks old word came to his mother that her husband had been killed, +and she, sick and heart-broken, died, leaving besides this infant one +other boy. The two children were left to the care of the officers at +Fort Kehoe, but they were separated while both were so young that they +did not realize the parting nor remember each other. Our guide became +the ward of a lieutenant who had been a friend of his father. He played +among the soldiers and Indian scouts at the Fort until he came to the +age when he felt the desire to learn, then he went East to school, +afterwards to college, always returning in the summer to ride the range +or to lose himself in the mountains. And when the college days were done +that old cry of the West, that old craving for the life that knows no +restraint nor hindering bonds, beckoned him back inevitably as Fate. +Again and again he had gone forth on the world's highway, once to serve +in Cuba in the war with Spain, where in a yellow-fever hospital he met +for the first time his older brother, who even then was dying of the +pestilence, but always he returned to the freedom of the wilderness. +He is a type in himself, who belongs to the time of Lewis and Clark, +rather than to this century--a man who lives too late. And there is +about him, for all his carefree indifference to the world, something +of indefinable pathos. He is quite alone--he has no kinsfolk and few +friends. He is a man without a home but the forests, who has renounced +human companionship for the solitudes, without a love but the mountains, +to whom the greatest sorrow would be the knowledge that he might never +look upon them again. + + * * * * * + +A cloud, heavy with rain, drifts across the sky, and big, cool drops +splash with a hissing noise in the fire, upon our upturned faces, upon +the warm, flower-sown earth which exhales, like incense, the odours +of sun-heated soil and summer shower. The bright flames deepen to a +blood-red glow and ashes gather like hoar frost on the cooling logs and +boughs. The circle around the fire disperses to seek the narcotic gift +breathed by the pines, sung as a lullaby by the voices of trees and +streams. + +The start for the glacier is made while the day is young. Pack horses +and camp are left behind and with the guide leading the way, the +tortuous climb is begun. Sheer as those rock-walls seemed to be, there +is a footing for the careful ponies, as from narrow ledge to ledge +they turn and zigzag up the mountain-face; and naked as those steeps +appeared, they are animated with frisking conies and marmots, and hidden +among the stones are rarely exquisite flowers. Here the mountain lilies +grow, blossoms with brown eyes in each of their three white petals, +covered with soft, silvery fur which makes them seem of the texture +of velvet. These lilies are somewhat similar to the Mariposa lily of +the California Sierras. The ground-cedar, a minute and delicate plant; +strange varieties of fern and moss, and everchanging, unfamiliar +flowers appear as we ascend, until, wheeling dizzily hundreds of +feet above the basin upon the slight and slippery trail, with things +beneath dwarfed by distance into a pigmy world and things above looming +formidably, the increasing altitude shears the rocks and leaves them +bare and grim. The air grows sharp with icy chill, great billowy, +low-trailing clouds drag over the mountain-tops, down the ravines and +float in detached banners in free spaces below. Broad stretches of snow +lie ahead. The painstaking ponies pick their way across them, for it is +fifteen feet down to solid ground. Sluggish streams creep between banks +crusty with old ice, and pretty falls, broken into lacy meshes of foam, +cascade down a parapet of rock and baptize us as we pass. In this spot +the stone wall has been worn into a grotto where the water plays as in a +fountain. From every little fissure ferns dart their long green lances +and feathery fronds, and the rocks are grown over with moss. + +From our eyrie we look down into a small lake called Peary's, sunk +within dark and desolate cliffs, shattered and ground down into +fantastic forms. It is but partly thawed and its cold, blue-green centre +is enclosed in opaque, greenish-white ice and drifts of snow. Indeed +snow is everywhere in broken drifts--in the furrowed mountain-combs +and along the level in smooth white stretches. Close to the margin of +the ice-sealed shores is a grotesque, sapless, scrubby vegetation, +as strange in its way as the brilliant-hued waters or the rocks that +impress us with huge antiquity and elemental crudeness, as though we +stood face to face with Earth's infancy, close in the wake of ebbing, +primeval seas. But for all the savage roughness and arctic chill this is +a scene to cherish and remember--the blue cup of heaven, flecked with a +thistledown of clouds, the black menace of shivered rock-crests, the +dazzle of the snow and the darkly beautiful waters that are neither blue +nor green yet seemingly of both colours, held fast in the circle of +cold, pale ice. + +Above this lake, down an overhanging wall, are more little falls, indeed +the whole country is interlaced with them as though the life-blood of +the mountains flowed in silver veins upon the surface. Within the hollow +over the stone barrier lies Nansen's Lake, even more frigid in its +ice-sheath, more palely green in the little patch of water which the +sun has laid bare. And although the mountains soar tremendously, yet +ever and anon the course lies upward over the frowning brows, over the +very crowns of the Range, until the high peaks, stripped of atmospheric +illusion, stand stark and naked to the gaze. There is in this sudden +intimacy with the fellows of the clouds, the veiled lords of upper air, +an awe which we feel before powers incomprehensible. + +At last the trail ceases; overhead are cliffs no horse could climb. +The guide ties the ponies, and with a stout rope clambers ahead up a +smoothly sculptured parapet. We follow him and find ourselves on a +bleak waste which leads to a small basin, strewn with great boulders +and lesser rocks, dark and of the colour of slate. Growing upon these +rock-heaps are masses of flowering moss starred by tiny pink buds and +blossoms, or white spattered with the crimson of heart's blood. And now +the guide begins to whistle--a long, plaintive note which is answered +presently by a similar sound and a shrill, infantile treble, cheeping, +cheeping among the stones. Then from the security of her home a +Ptarmigan, or Arctic Grouse, hops into the open with her family of five +chicks jumping on her patient back, and tumbling, the merest puff-balls, +at her feet. She chirps softly to them, proud and dignified in her +maternity, ever watchful of her pretty little brood. She is dressed in +Quakerish summer-garb of mottled grey, the feathers covering her to the +utmost extremity of her toes. Once the winter snows descend, these birds +become as white as the frigid regions which they inhabit. Ordinarily +they are very wild, but this little mother, knowing only friendliness +from human visitors, comes forth trustfully with her beloved young, +suffers them to be handled and caressed and she, herself, with wings +dropped in the semblance of a pretty courtesy, jumps into the hand of +the guide, and from that perch feeds daintily on the pink and white buds +of the moss, as fragilely lovely as the snowflakes to which they appear +strangely akin. Indeed, the bird, the flowers and the environing snow +all seem more of the cloud-land than of the earth. + +But there is a sequel to the story of this little grouse, which is, +unhappily, a tragedy. Not long after she greeted us, giving an air of +friendliness to the forbidding, wind-swept rocks, a Tyrolese came +hunting through the mountains. He made his camp near the home of the +Ptarmigan and her little ones, and one day when the guide came calling +to her there was no answer but the empty whistling of the wind. He +called again and again; he searched among the crags and the rock-heaps, +then he came upon the ashes of a camp-fire and the mottled feathers +and silken down of the Ptarmigan and her chicks. She had been betrayed +at last by her trustfulness, and she and her brood had been cruelly +sacrificed to the blood-lust and appetite of that enemy of poor dumb +things--the man with the gun. + + * * * * * + +From the mossy basin of the Ptarmigan we climb with ropes up a broken +escarpment and there upon the very lip of the glacier are blossoms so +unearthly in form and colour as to seem the merest ghosts of flowers. +One is a dark, ocean-blue bell and another an ashen-green thing furred +over with a beard as soft and colorless as a moth's wing. From +this eminence a stormy, wind-tossed little lake, the Gem, flashes +angrily-bright waters beneath snow splashed, wonderfully stratified +peaks, and there, through a gateway in the mountains, spreading out in +a vast plateau of white, lies the glacier, undulating in frozen waves +like a polar sea. Even under its shroud of snow one can trace its course +by the seams and wrinkles of a congealed current. It is flanked on all +sides by the savage, beetling peaks marshalled in endless ranks like +the spears and unsheathed lances of war-gods in their domain midway +between earth and heaven. Out across the death-white pallor of snow, in +the death-chill of the ice-fields, we strike out slowly, cautiously, +for the surface of the ice, now hidden by snow, is cleft by crevasses +even to the mountain's core, and a misstep, a fall into their depths +would be doom. Far away over the white stretches, a gaunt, spectral +coyote watches our painful progress. On and on we go by a tusk-like +peak, the "Little Matterhorn," and ever on to a point where the giant +panorama unfolds its mountain-multitudes, its barricaded lakes, and the +echo breaks into a chorus that peals out as though each separate crest +were possessed of a brazen tongue. These grimly naked heights, split and +rent with elemental shocks and the resistance to huge forces, are the +cradle of the lightning and the thunder-bolt, the citadel whence the +storm-hosts ride down on blackwinged clouds upon the world. And even now +phantom troops of clouds come gliding up out of the moist laps of the +valleys, out of lakes and streams, passing in shifting wraith-shapes +over the mountains, spreading their filmy scarfs across the sky until +the livid expanse of snow, showing colourlessly in the grey light, +brings to one a vivid picture of the ice-age, of a frozen world and the +cold, pitiless illumination of a burnt-out sun. + +[Illustration: GEM LAKE] + +Fine, pricking points of snow cut with the sharpness of needle-thrusts; +the wind whips through the bleak gaps in the Range and over the glacier, +gathering cold and speed as it comes. A chilling numbness deadens our +feet and hands. So, wind-buffeted, storm-driven, with the trumpeting +gale in our ears, we turn back from the kingdom where Winter is +unbroken, and descend through alternate shadow and sun into the blooming +beauty, into the golden Summer that swims in the world below, whence +snow and cold are only hinted of in a white-breasted, mountain-kissing +cloud. + + + + +_THE LITTLE SAINT MARY'S_ + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LITTLE SAINT MARY'S + + +Perhaps the most sublime sweep of view within the entire Range is +gained from the summit of Mount Lincoln. To accomplish this ascent it +is necessary to leave the tortuous "switch-back" trail in full view of +Gunsight Pass and strike out over a trackless mass of shattered rock, +upward toward the peak. The way is steep and difficult, the footing +slippery and insecure. The muscles strain to quivering tension, the +breath comes in gusty sighs and still the mighty heap of dull rose and +green rock rears its jagged crest against the throbbing sky. But even +if the climb were tenfold longer and the goal tenfold harder to win, it +would be a faint-hearted seeker after the beautiful who would hesitate +to make the sacrifice of toil for the magnificent reward that awaits him. + +The rugged pedestal of stone that crowns the peak, drops almost +precipitately three thousand six hundred feet, and directly below, +in a gorge formed by this and a second chain of lofty mountains, lie +two jade-green lakes, the Little Saint Mary's, joined by a slender, +far-leaping waterfall. So immense is the distance, that this fall, +spanning the seventeen hundred feet between the upper and lower lakes, +does not break the brooding quiet with the whisper of an echo. The +slim, white column parts upon the rocks into a diamond shape, and when, +happily, the sunshine catches in its spray, it becomes a tangle of +rainbows. But now, it unfolds its silver scarf silently, colourlessly +as a ghost, and the green lake, so far below, receives the pouring tide +with never a ripple to mar its smooth surface. The shadow gathers in the +gorge and along the mountains, the pines are darkly green and in sharp +contrast, the unmelted snow fields lie pale and gray-white to the very +rim of the lakes forming a setting as of old silver. After the first +shock of that sublimity has left the senses free of its thrall, a vast +panorama unfolds, dominated by the majesty of mountain-lords flanked and +crowded by range upon range of others, rising in lessening undulations +to the horizon's rim, as though a sea whose giant billows strove to +smite the sky in the throes of an awful storm, were suddenly transformed +to stone. + +In the crushing might of these great spaces, peering over the brink +of the mountain top into the bosom of the smooth, still lakes as +coldly beautiful as an emerald's heart, that half-mad idea of +self-annihilation clutches at the mind. Perhaps it is the exhilarating +leap of the waterfall that tempts one, or perhaps the hypnotic charm +of the deep-set, jewel-bright pools, or perhaps some unguessed +secret of gravity which impels the tottering atom into the depths of +life-absorbing space. It is the same terrible, savage joy, the magnetism +of elemental force which we feel as we stand on the brink of the Grand +Cañon of the Yellowstone, with the glorious, brave call to death crying +from the water voices, while the whisper of life sounds sweetly from the +vocal winds of heaven. + +And even as we gaze, the sun's light dies and the world is ashen pale. +Suddenly over the distant ranges, storm clouds come trooping in black +hosts. A heavy silence falls, broken now and again by the boom of +thunder and the frightened cry of shelter-seeking birds. Perched upon a +point of rock, silhouetted against the sky, a bighorn sheep watches the +gathering tempest, unmindful of the muttering thunder and the ominous +glow of lightning kindling in the sable-winged array. There is something +noble about him as he turns his crest upward to bear the onslaught of +the blast. The purple of the mountains overhanging the lake deepens +to black--the blue-black of a clear, night sky--and the snow filling +the ravines lies passionless and white as death. Beneath the driving +storm-banners, a luridly vivid light casts its reflection upon the earth +in a gilded path, revealing the smallest detail of valley and height +before the darkness wraps them in its mantle. The Kootenais for one +brief instant shine like towers of brass and a pallid mist overhanging +an arm of the remote Flathead Lake becomes a golden fleece, then the +garish glare passes and mystery and shadow settle down. Violet tongues +of lightning dart from the trailing clouds, the martial fifing of the +wind makes shrill music through the bleak cairns and empty wastes, and +great, splashes of rain fall fragrantly, refreshingly upon the warm +ground. But in all the tumult, the cold, jade-green lakes lie unshaken, +calm. So truly are they the mountains' brides, held securely in their +embrace of stone, that not even the wild riding of the gale nor the +shivering thunderbolt disturbs their untroubled depths, while their +champions, the peaks, in helmets of pale ice do battle with the elements. + +The deafening cannonade becomes fainter, the sword-thrust of lightning +strikes at other quarry, and the storm, with torn banners dragging low +down the mountain sides, like routed hosts in retreat, follow the wake +of the thunder, the lightning and the tempest-ridden wind. And as the +sun shines forth from the heavens a transformation beams like a blessing +from every crag and rock. Still wet with the summer rain, they take on +strangely beautiful hues of sparkling rose colour, and green like that +of the mother ocean, and the naked, glacier-ground escarpments reveal +the exquisite illuminations wrought in flowing, multi-colored bands, in +subtle shade and wordless rune, of the record book wherein is writ the +history of æons. + +Through the dazzle of the sun the sea of mountains re-appears, a flowing +tide of purple billows growing more ethereally blue in the distance +until they seem but the azure shadow of heaven. And far beneath in the +deep, dark gorge, cool with perpetual shade, flanked by mighty mountain +walls, are the polished jade-green lakes and the fall, spinning its +endless silver skein into the untroubled waters below. + + + + +_TRACK OF THE AVALANCHE_ + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE TRACK OF THE AVALANCHE + + +The trail to Avalanche Basin starts from the shores of Lake McDonald +and plunges almost immediately into forests mysterious with primeval +grandeur. Perhaps their denseness is the reason for the wealth of +rank-growing weed and shrub that forms one vast screen beneath the +spreading branches of pine, tamarack and kingly cedar trees. Whether +this is the cause or not, the trail is richer in vegetation than +any other that lays open the secrets of the forest's heart. Tall, +juicy-stalked bear-weed, devil's walking cane, prickly with venomous +thorns, slim, graceful stems of wild hollyhock crowned with pale, +lavender blossoms, and broad-leafed thimble berry, bearing fragile, +crapy-petalled flowers, weave their verdure into a tangled mass. An +occasional path crushed down freshly shows where a bear has lately been, +for these lavish brakes are a haunt of the three varieties that dwell +in the surrounding mountains--the black, the brown and the silver tip, +or grizzly. Strange sounds come up out of the silence, borne through +dim, dark vistas where shy things peep and dry twigs snap under careful, +stealthy tread. A woodpecker drums resonantly on the bole of a tree; +shrill, elfin music quavers with reedy sweetness from the security of +dense thickets. A haunting spell steals over the heart and turns the +mind to thoughts of sirens, water sprites, and Piping Pan, for in spite +of generations of culture, somewhat of that ancient worship of the Wild +is revived in us when we are in the virgin woods. The hypnotic charm of +the great silence and solitude possesses us and there comes a feeling +as of memory of half-forgotten things lived in a dream,--or was it +reality? The inarticulate voices of the past come calling in sylvan +melody out of the closed lips of the centuries, re-awakening the life of +our forebears and revealing to us a fleeting glimpse of something which +we cannot define or understand. In this spell of the wilderness we not +only feel the emotion of young world-life and race-childhood, but that +of our own more personal childhood when the pursuit of a butterfly or a +flower winged our feet and warmed our hearts. It may be the scent of a +familiar shrub, the flight of a bird, or even the shimmer of dew that +brings us afresh, for a moment, that gaily painted memory which the +years may dim but never quite obliterate. + +The trail is dark with shadow,--the awe of the woods,--roofed with +boughs and so still that we seem to hear the breathing of the trees. +A sudden turn unfolds a little lake, bright with a living pattern of +lily-pads, bursting buds and golden water-lilies. Through a rift in +the pines the distant mountains appear; then the green tide of branches +flows together and there is nothing but silence and shadow and the +forest. The woods deepen. Low, bushy maples grow among the pines, +Colorado spruce sheds its silver sheen amidst the more somber foliage, +and towering high above the loftiest pines and tamaracks, of magnificent +circumference and sweep of limb, are the cedars, the Lords of the +Forest. Off to one side of the trail, among the thick-sown trees, is a +giant boulder completely covered with moss, a throne fit for Pan. The +pines around it are of goodly size, yet they sprang and grew, perhaps +centuries after that huge stone came hurtling downward in a great +avalanche, or was borne from the mountain tops by the slow progress of a +glacier. + +Again the forest pageant changes. There are groves of pine stricken +with hoary age, bearded like patriarchs with long, pendent streamers +of colourless moss; then comes a young growth of pine, fore-doomed to +early death which already shows in the bronze of premature decay. It is +a beautiful spot, nevertheless, balsam-sweet and strewn with needles +that nurture violets of yellow and purple, twin flowers and Queen's Cups. + +There is a sound like wind among the trees though not a branch stirs, +and presently there bursts into view a sight of wild, exhilarating +grandeur. A swift, tumultuous stream rushing down a steep, narrow +channel, clean-cut as a sabre stroke, dashes headlong into a +rainbow-ridden fall. The volume of water is churned into a passion of +swirling foam that flings its light mist heavenward to descend again in +rain. Ferny, mist-fed, moss-grown banks slope gently to the declivity +and over smooth, emerald cushions, lacy leaf and trailing boughs, tiny, +crystal drops, glinting prismatic hues, tremble and pass away. The air +is very sweet with a new and unfamiliar fragrance, and amidst the moss, +half hidden beneath grosser leaf and protruding root, is a flower, the +loveliest of all the lovely woodland host. It is a small, snowy blossom +of five petals and a golden heart, growing on a slender stem from a +cluster of glossy, earth-clinging leaves, and as though to hide its +chaste, shy beauty, the modest flower turns its face downward towards +the ground. Its scent is strong and heavy like that of the magnolia. The +guide, who travels the mountains over from the earliest budding to the +ultimate passing of the flowers, has never seen this stranger blossom +before, and we find it on no other trail. It was unknown, unnamed, so we +call it the Star of the Mountains and leave it blooming in the secrecy +of that elfin dell. + +Above the thunder of the fall sounds a slight, shrill bird note and +through the clouds of spray darts a little brown bird, dipping almost +into the boiling current, rising upward with a graceful swell and a +wild, free lilt, perching finally on a tiny point of rock just over the +shock and roar of the flood. This strange little winged sprite is a +water-ouzel who makes her home and raises her young upon these insecure, +spray-drenched walls, with the water-challenge pealing its menace and +breathing its chill on her nest. She and her kind haunt the lonely +mountain creeks and rivers, seeking some fall or cataract that flings +its spray and sings its song to the silent, ice-imprisoned world. Once +the mating season is over and the young are fledged, each bird takes its +solitary flight and becomes a veritable spirit of the woodland streams. + +The dense forests become broken and sheer cliffs rise to stupendous +heights. Upon their sharp and slender pinnacles wild goat and bighorn +sheep dwell, and in passing we see a goat so far away on those dizzy +steeps that he seems the merest patch of white. Through this gorge, +between the mountains, are deep hewn furrows where year after year, +century after century, the burden of ice from the peaks descends in +avalanches. In the Spring when the first thaw begins, a deafening roar +like a cannonade heralds the furious onslaught of ice and snow. At such +times the Avalanche Trail is a dangerous way to travel, and even now a +distant booming reminds us that the mountain forces are never idle, that +in their serenity there is force, in their mystery there is still the +energy of creation. + +Through this narrow passage between overhanging crags, the trail +continues until, bearing upward, it suddenly crosses a pretty, +milky-hued stream, and thence to a hill-side overlooking a sheet of +water opaque and pearly white, in a setting of dark-browed woods. It +is Avalanche Lake. The water is perfectly calm, not a breath of air +rustles the slightest leaf, but there is no reflection of throbbing, +blue sky, of green woods or purple mountains--it does not thrill to the +passion of the Summer, flash back azure and gold and picture in its +responsive heart the glories of earth and heaven. Because of this, it is +different from all the other lakes of these mountains and the shell-like +whiteness of its surface, pallidly beautiful as a great pearl, has a +peculiar beauty none the less striking for its strangeness. The cause +of the milkiness of these waters seems at first without satisfactory +explanation, but as we examine them more closely we see that they are +charged with infinite multitudes of tiny air bubbles, and every stream +that feeds the lake, having fallen from enormous heights, is likewise +full of infinitesimal air beads. On the other hand, some contend that +the water, pouring down from the glacier is white with particles of +finely pulverized rock. + +Pushing straight past the lake, through almost impenetrable thickets +of whipping willows that fight like live things to guard from vandal +footsteps what lies beyond, the journey reaches its climax in Avalanche +Basin. There, in that vast amphitheatre sculptured from the living rock +by glaciers, carved and scarred by innumerable avalanches descending +through the ages, overhung by the Piegan ice fields, six silver streams +leap the full height of the great rock walls. The falls seem to melt +away before they touch the reality of earth, veritable spirits, born of +the snowdrift and the sun; white ghosts spending themselves in spray to +reascend into the clouds. + +[Illustration: ON THE TRAIL TO MT. LINCOLN] + +A rich growth of green grass, coloured with broad splashes of Indian +Paint Brush, covers the sloping floor of the basin. Standing on its +extreme elevation upon a platform of rock, and thence overlooking the +country that lies ahead, the scene is one of uplifting majesty. Below, +within the sombre circle of the pines, is the lake, palely fair as a +white sea shell or a milk opal whose latent colours never quite shine +forth from its cloudy depths. Farther still, is the gorge, opening +like a gateway into the region of the avalanche, and farther still, +is Heaven's Peak, mingling with the cloudless sky. The strata on these +mountains laid bare as though but yesterday they were rent asunder, flow +in undulating ribbons of colour varying from red-violet to dull, antique +gold. But between the quivering sky of Summer and the warm, flower-sown +earth, is a ghostly tide of purple haze, an amethystine shadow which +touches every rock and tree and peak with magical illusion. And through +that veil, as through enchantment, each rock, each tree, each peak is +transfigured and for a brief hour is given a semblance of the divine. +The gorge is filled with flowing purple, the glorified gateway might be +Heaven's Gate, even as the dominant mountain, royal in the thickening +blue distance, is Heaven's Peak. + +Here the sordid world seems to melt away; the sunshine has got into our +blood and the transfiguring haze has penetrated even to our hearts. +We seem so intimately a part of this mighty, primeval place where the +infinity of the past and the infinity of the future are married in one +great mystery, that we dare to listen for secrets of the one from the +chant of the falls; to lift the veil of circumventing blue and peer into +the other. So, standing upon that rock platform, from the reality of the +present we speed our souls into the ideality of Time's poles. Though the +song of the water-voices that have sung æons, rings in our ears, and the +living letter of the world-book is shown in the mountain's open page, +we may not know the portent of either message. And though we gaze with +seeking vision through the shadow into the ultimate blue above, the haze +draws its protecting garment thicker, closer about the treasure-house of +Nature, and the sun darts amber lances earthward to blind aspiring eyes. +So we pass humbly upon our way, the water-voices singing in our ears, +the arch of Heaven trailing its garment over earth, still guarding the +riddle of the future in its azure keep. + + + + +_INDIAN SUMMER_ + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +INDIAN SUMMER + + +After the Summer's ripe maturity has vanished with the first autumnal +storm, there steals over the world a magical Presence. It has no place +in the almanac; it comes with a flooding of amber light and a deepening +of amethyst haze; it plays like a passing smile on the face of the +universe and like one, vanishes with the stern rebuff of the wintry +blast. What jugglery the sun and earth and the four winds of heaven have +wrought no mortal man can tell, but certainly by some divine alchemy +the deadening blight is turned into gold, and upon the lap of the +world there lies, instead of the appointed Fall, a changeling season, +the faery-child of Nature, illusive, fleeting as a flock of yellow +butterflies, a shimmer of radiant wings--the Indian Summer! + +The whole earth is under the spell of the mad, sweet witchery. The +forests are decked in a gay masquerade, too glorious to be real, and +our own sober senses are half-mastered by the delusion that the dead +Summer is come to life again. In open places where the fingers of the +sun still warm the moist ground, absent-minded bluebells, strawberries +and yellow violets bloom on forgetful that they should already be taking +their winter's rest. And it is strange with what pleasure we seize upon +these fragile blossom-friends; with what childish joy we caress their +pale petals so soon to be laid low. Yet in the warm air lurks a hidden +sting, the bittersweet of sun and frost; in the very effulgence of life +is the foreshadowing of death. Already on the heights streamers of cloud +gather, leaving in their wake the dazzle of fresh snow. And beneath +these low-streaming clouds, slanting earthward in broad, down-pouring +rays, is a pure white light upon the mountains. The light on the +mountains! What a revelation it is! The windows of heaven are flung open +and the celestial beams of Paradise illumine God's Cathedral Domes, the +peaks, for a brief space before sky-wrought vestments of snow cover the +altar of His Sanctuaries. + +The trails of yesterday are barred. For prudence sake we must keep to +the low country or risk the fate of being "snowed in." Therefore we +choose the Kintla Road and Camas Creek, where a large band of moose +roams in the forest solitudes, hoping to reach Quartz Lakes near the +Canadian line before we shall be driven back by the cold. The pine-sweet +air fills us with the very spirit of the woods as we strike out over +the gilded trail through forests transfigured into a welter of gorgeous +hues, past deep-cleft ravines purple as the heart of a violet, to dim +lilac mountains that melt into the blue. What is it that is mystical, +spiritual, if you will, in this colour of violet? It is not like the +robust, tangible green of the trees, the definite reality of the +flowers' multi-coloured petals. We cannot lay our hands upon it any more +than we can grasp a sunbeam, for like hope deferred, it lies forever +beyond our reach. We see it unwind its royal haze through gorge and +forest; we watch it fade into pale lavender on the ultimate pinnacles +of the range, but if we follow it what do we find? Mere yawning cleft +or greenwood grove or jagged strata of dull rock. Where is the subtle +violet, the dim dream lavender? Fled as subtly as the shadow of a wing! +Perhaps it _is_ a shadow of the divine, the soul-essence common to man +and the flower at his feet, the dumb, stone mountains, the living air +and the heaven that embraces all in its enduring keep. + +We pass into the deep, unbroken shadow of virgin woods where bushes burn +with crimson rosehips, the thimbleberry shines in its autumn garb of +yellow, the tamarack gleams golden among its somber brethren, the pines, +and strange, bright shrubs set us forever guessing. We emerge into a +billowing field of wild hay, fringed with trees, above which we can see +the metallic sharpness of the mountains. Shining over all impartially, +shedding its glory upon our souls, is the dominant sun whose broad rays +break into a mist of ruddy gold. Again we dip into eternal shadow, the +horses' hoofs sound with a dull cluck as they sink in and are lifted +from the soft mold. Often we are startled by the sudden whirr of wings +as frightened grouse fly to shelter. Fungus thrusts evil, flame-coloured +tongues from the damp, sweet soil and a marvelous variety of moss +and lichen trace their patterns on logs, tree stumps and upon the +wind-thrown forest trees that toss their gnarled roots high above our +heads in an agony of everlasting despair. We splash through Dutch Creek, +Camas Creek and many another, and as we pause to eat a frugal midday +meal on the banks of one of these, we find upon a trailing limb, a dying +butterfly. Poor little sprite of yesterday! Its bright wings palpitate +feebly and it suffers us to take it in our hands without making an +effort to escape. The last of its gay brethren, the blossom-lovers, +its hour is come and with its final strength it has fluttered to this +friendly leaf to die. So, very gently we put it back upon its chosen +resting place, leaving it to join ghostly bright winged flocks in the +sunshine of some immortal Arcady. + +From a high ridge which falls away abruptly into a water-hewn declivity, +we look through broad, open vistas far below at the North Fork of +the Flathead River. The stream takes its way between banks of fine +gray pebbles, parting now over a sandy bar in slender green ribbons, +then uniting in one broad current, again separating to curl in white +foam-frills around a boulder or little island. Mild and limpid as the +river now appears there is evidence of its flood-tide fury in uprooted +trees and livid scars along its banks. Working silently and secretly +near the water's edge is a beaver. We can scarcely distinguish him as +he toils patiently, bringing to our minds the old Selish legend that +the beavers are a fallen tribe of Indians, doomed by the Great Spirit +to expiate an ancient wrong by constant labor in their present shape. +But some day after the appointed penance, the Indians believe that the +beavers will resume the form of men and come into their own again. + +For two days we ride farther and farther into the wilderness, camping +by night and taking up the trail with the early dawn. And as we +penetrate deeper into the wild the pageant changes only to become +more sublime. Clumps of slenderly graceful silver poplars with gray, +satin-smooth boles and branches that burst into a shower of golden +leaves, shed glory upon our way. Dense woods of yellow pine whose giant +trunks hold all the shades of faded rose, and silvery-green Colorado +spruce overshadow us and once we find ourselves in a grove of yellow +tamarack hung with streamers of black moss. Years upon years ago a +forest fire whose fury was nearly spent had scorched these trees with +its hot breath, changing the feathery moss into flowing streamers of +black--veritable mourning weeds--which contrast sharply with the golden +foliage. Even now it is easy to fancy that the fire still burns and each +tall tamarack is a pillar of living flame. + +The nights are no less wonderful than the days. The melon-coloured +harvest moon floats high in the blue-black heavens, touching the +priestly trees with its white rays. We sit beside our camp fire +listening to the crackle of dry twigs beneath a cautious tread, the +occasional whistle of a stag and the ominous note of an owl hooting +among the pines. Sometimes we fancy that green and amber eyes burn the +darkness, and we cling close, close to the primal birthright of the +race--the flaming brand--which raises its bright barrier now as in the +age of stone, between mankind and the predatory beasts of the wild. The +wooded hosts seem to press down with stifling persistence upon us and an +indefinable terror creeps into our hearts, the inherent fear of man, the +atom, of Nature, the fathomless, the unknown. + +As these nights wear on and we lie upon our couches of fragrant cedar +boughs, up out of the gulf of silence the lean-flanked coyotes howl to +the moon, and later still, when the pale disc dips beneath the horizon +and the shrouded secrecy of before-dawn steals, like a timid ghost, +out of the Infinite, the trees find tongue and murmur together though +there is no wind and the stream sings with a music as of hidden bells. +Strange, elfin sounds, the merest echo of a whisper thrill out of the +quiet and sigh into silence again. A faint patter-patter as of falling +thistledown is heard constantly, insistently, inevitably. Can it be the +beat of gossamer wings, the trip of faery feet as the woodland sprites +hang the grass, the leaves, the finest-spun thread of cobweb with beads +of dew, and trim the dark pines, like Christmas trees, with tinsel frost? + +Truly the pale morning light breaks upon a transformed and enchanted +world. Silver filigree adorns the most commonplace limb and twig. Each +pine needle twinkles with a gem giving forth rainbow-hued rays beneath +the first steel-cold beams of the sun. The thorn-apple, whose wine-red +branches are furred with a white beard, is etherealized into delicate +pastel shades of lavender and mauve by a film of hoar frost. Ragged +streamers of fantastic mist-shapes rise and float heavily through the +moist air, obscuring, then revealing stretches of stream-laced woods +and finally rolling away in lessening vapour into the lingering dusk +of ravines. There is a mighty scene-shifting of Nature in progress. The +night phantoms, the colourless dawn-shapes are hurried off, while the +sun, riding high in the deepening blue, touches stream and tree and peak +with the illumination of the new day. + +As we wander about breathing the balsam sweetness of the pine-breath +of the new dawn, we make curiously interesting discoveries. By an +unfortunate accident we roll a hollow log over and uncover a squirrel's +winter larder of small pine cones, and at the same time we hear above +our heads, in trees so lofty that we cannot penetrate the dense +canopy of interlocked limb, the domestic troubles of a pair of these +contentious little forest folk. In high treble voices they quarrel and +dispute in a perfect hysteria of rage. Upon the damp trail near camp we +find large, cloven hoof prints too big for those of a deer, so probably +our mysterious visitor of the evening before was no less a personage +than a lordly moose. + +We linger on heedlessly, much the same as the absent-minded flowers, +clinging as desperately to the woodland as the dying butterfly, +deceiving ourselves into the half-belief that Winter is far away. The +air is still warm and the light shines on the mountains. And that light +lures us on by its thrall to higher altitudes. Down the gorges the snow +gathers in deepening drifts and the utmost peaks are white as carven +ivory. Still we resolve to make one brave dash for the Quartz Lakes, +set one above the other in a chain among sheltering cañons and flanking +cliffs. Under the inspiration of the camp fire we discuss the morrow's +journey. How splendid it will be to race with the sun; to dare the +sudden blizzard that might cut off our retreat, for one brief glimpse of +that Upper World we have grown to love with a passion akin to madness. +But even as we speak a shadow falls, and looking upward we see that a +gray moth-wing of cloud hides the moon. Surely it is a passing vapour, +the merest mist-breath exhaled by the languid night. But no! darker and +heavier it unrolls. Wraith shapes glide out from the black mass until +the stars are dead and the deep blue dome of heaven is shrouded by an +impenetrable pall. That night the heavy rain drops beat a tattoo on the +tent and the mournful pines weep the sorrow of ages. + +Undaunted we take up the trail, assuring ourselves that soon the fickle +weather will be fair again. Occasionally a patch of clear blue shows +through the broken flock of hurrying clouds and a wan sun ray steals +down for a moment to kiss the woods goodbye. The forests are already +drenched and each bough that strikes us pours upon us a little flood of +rain. The trees line up in somber walls and as the storm settles into a +steady downpour, between their dark fringes flows a narrow, ashen stream +of sky. Through the brooding shadow tamaracks kindle, silver poplars +huddle together with quivering aureoles of gold, and the austere dusk +beneath their boughs is lighted with yellow-leafed thimbleberry, glowing +like sunbeams. It seems as though the foliage of those receptive trees +and shrubs has absorbed the summer sun to give it forth again when the +world should be cloaked in shadow. So complete is the illusion that +oftentimes, as a shaft of light gleams through the tree tops, we cry +exultantly: + +"The sun is shining!" + +In another second we see that it is but the tamaracks burning like tall, +yellow candles through the autumnal gloom, shedding their blessed gift +of light to cheer us on our way. + +When we gain the lower Quartz Lake, a deep green sheet of water bordered +by wooded shores, the heavy clouds drag low and a rainbow arches the +lake. We halt, uncertain, raising our eyes questioningly to the heights +beyond that frown blackly through the tattered tapestry of the clouds. +The mountains are angry! Very reluctantly, sorrowfully, we turn to +retrace our steps, thinking of future seasons of sun and warmth and +other quests of the sublime that shall end in triumph. At each gust the +shearing wind despoils the silver poplars of their crowns until the +naked branches leap wildly in a fantastic dance of death. + +The changeling season, the faery-child of Nature has fled as +mysteriously as it came--fled like a flock of yellow butterflies into +some ethereal region to await its perennial resurrection. Dull Autumn +settles drab as a moth upon the saddened world and the light has died +from the mountains. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Simple typographical errors were corrected. + +Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant +preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. + +This book uses both "leggins" and "leggings". + +Reference to page 90 in the List of Illustrations should be to page 116. + +Page 206: "complete, In Maximilian's" is printed with a comma in the +book and unchanged here. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Trails Through Western Woods, by +Helen Fitzgerald Sanders + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42527 *** |