CHAPTER XII.
THE REDSKINS.
We must now return to the Far West.
On the banks of the Rio Grande del Norte, about ten leagues' distancefrom the _presidio_ of San Lucar stood the _atepelt_, or temporaryvillage, of Des Venados.
The _atepelt_, a simple camp, like most of the Indian villages,consisted of about a hundred _callis_, or huts, irregularly groupednear each other.
Each _calli_ was built of about a dozen stakes driven into the ground,four or five feet high at the sides, and six or seven in the centre,with an aperture towards the east, for the master of the _calli_ tothrow water in the direction of the rising sun--a ceremony by whichthe Indians conjure the Wacondah to befriend their families during thecourse of the day just breaking.
These _callis_ were covered with bison hides sewn together, with a holein the centre to admit the exit of the smoke of the fires kindled inthe interior,--fires which equal in number the wives of the owner, eachwife having a right to a fire of her own.
The hides which formed the outer walls were carefully dressed,and painted of divers colours; the painting, by its extravagance,enlivening the aspect of the _atepelt._
The lances of the fighting men were planted upright in the ground infront of the entrance to the _calli._ These light lances, made offlexible reed, sixteen or eighteen feet long, and armed at one end witha long grooved iron, forged by the Indians themselves, are the mostredoubtable weapons of the Apaches.
The liveliest joy seemed to animate the _atepelt._ In some _callis_ thewomen were spinning the wool of their flocks with their spindles; inothers they wove those _zarapes_, so renowned for their fineness andthe perfection of the work, at looms of primitive simplicity.
The young people of the tribe, assembled in the centre of the_atepelt_,--a large open space,--were playing at _milt_ (an Indian wordsignifying "arrow") a singular game, to which the Indians are greatlyaddicted.
The players trace a large circle on the ground, into which they step,arranging themselves in two opposite rows. The leader of one row,holding a ball filled with air in the right hand, the leader of theother in the left, they throw their balls backwards with a motion whichbrings them in front again. The left leg is then lifted, the ballcaught and hurled at the opposite player, whose body it must touch,under penalty of losing a point. A thousand extravagant contortionsensue on the part of the latter, in order to avoid the ball: he stoops,he rises, bends himself backwards or forwards, jumps up where hestands, or bounds to one side. If the ball quits the ring, the firstplayer loses two points and runs after it; if, on the contrary, thesecond is struck, he must seize the ball and throw it back at hisopponent, whom it must hit, or he loses a point. The next in order, atthe opposite side of the ring, begins the game again; and so on, tillthe close of the sport.
One can understand what shouts of laughter arise from the grotesqueattitudes into which the players fall as the game goes on.
Other Indians of riper age, were gravely playing with curious packsof cards, made of squares of hide, coarsely painted with figures ofdifferent animals.
In a _calli_ larger and better painted than the other huts of the_atepelt_--the dwelling of the _sachem_, or principal chief, whoselances, ornamented at the foot with pieces of skin-dyed red, were thedistinguishing badge of power--three men, crouched round the embersof a fire, were, talking, heedless of the uproar without. They werethe Tigercat, the Zopilote, and the _amantzin_, or the sorcerer of thetribe.
The Zopilote was a half-breed, who had taken refuge with the Apacheslong ago, and been adopted by them. This man, every way worthy of thename he bore, was a wretch whose cold and malignant cruelty revoltedthe very Indians, who are themselves not delicate in matters of thiskind. The Tigercat had made this ferocious miscreant, who was devotedto him, prime-minister of his vengeance, and the docile instrumentof his will. His latest wife, to whom he had been married a year,had given birth to a boy that morning--hence the rejoicings of theIndians; and he had come to take the orders of the Tigercat--the greatchief of the tribe--with respect to the ceremonies usual on the likeoccasions.
The Zopilote left the _calli_, to which he speedily returned, followedby his wives and all his friends, one of whom held the infant in hisarms. The Tigercat, placing himself between the Zopilote and the_amantzin_ at the head of the party, led them towards the Rio Grandedel Norte.
The procession halted on the bank of the river; the _amantzin_ tooka little water in the hollow of his hand, and threw it into theair, muttering a prayer to _the Master of the life of men._ He nextproceeded to _the great medicine;_ that is, the newborn child, wrappedin his woollen swaddling bands, was five times plunged into the watersof the river, while the _amantzin_ repeated, in a loud voice:
"Master of life, look upon this young warrior with favourable eye;remove from him all evil influences; protect him, Wacondah!"
At the termination of this part of the ceremony, the processionreturned to the _atepelt_, and arranged itself in a circle in frontof the Zopilote's _calli_, at the entrance of which lay a youngmare on her back, with her four feet tied together. A new _zarape_was stretched under the belly of the animal, on which relations andfriends deposited, one after the other, the gifts intended for thechild--spurs, arms, and clothing. The Tigercat, out of friendship forthe Zopilote, had consented to act as godfather to the infant. Heplaced it in the midst of the various gifts which filled the _zarape_.
Then the Zopilote seized his scalping knife, opened at one slash theflanks of the mare, tore out the heart, and gave it, bleeding as itwas, to the Tigercat, who made a cross with it on the forehead of thechild, addressing him thus:
"Young warrior of the tribe of Apache-Bisons, be brave and cunning. Iname thee _Mixcoatzin_--Cloud-Serpent."
The father took the child, and the chief, raising the bleeding heartabove his head, shouted thrice:
"Long live the Cloud-Serpent!"
The cry was enthusiastically repeated by the bystanders. The _amantzin_then commended the child to the Spirit of Evil, praying him to make theyoung warrior brave, eloquent, and cunning; terminating his prayer inthese words, which found an ardent response in the hearts of all thosefierce beings:
"Above all, may he never be a slave!"
Thus terminated the ceremony: every religious rite had been performed.The poor mare, the victim of this stupid superstition, was cut intopieces; a great fire was kindled; friends and relations took theirseats at a feast, which was intended to last until nothing was left ofthe mare.
The Zopilote was about to seat himself, and feast with the others;but, at a sign from the Tigercat, he followed the great chief tohis _calli_, where they once more took their seats by the fire. The_amantzin_ was also with them.
The Tigercat waved his band to his wives, who left the _calli_, andafter a short meditation, spoke as follows:
"I trust my brothers, and my heart opens before them like a_chirimoya_" (a kind of American pear), "to show them my secretthoughts: I have sorrowed for many days."
"My father sorrows for his son Stoneheart," said the _amantzin._
"No; I care not where he is now; I can find him again when I wanthim. But I have a secret mission to confide to a safe man. Till thismorning, I hesitated to open my heart to you."
"Let my father speak; his sons listen."
"To hesitate longer would be to compromise things sacred. You will tohorse, Zopilote; I have no words for you: you know where I send you.Induce these men to aid our enterprise; it will be a notable service."
"I will do it. Do I go at once?"
"Without delay."
"In ten minutes I shall be far hence;" and, saluting the chiefs, hewent out.
A few minutes later, the sound of a horse's hoofs fading away in thedistance announced his departure.
Tigercat gave a sigh of satisfaction.
"Let my brother, the _amantzin_ open his ears," said he. "I am aboutto leave the _atepelt_, I hope to be back tonight; but my absence maybe for two or three days. I leave my brother in
my stead and place;he will command the warriors, and will forbid them to go far from thevillage, or approach the frontiers of the palefaces. It is importantthat the Gachupinos (Mexicans) should not learn that we are so nearthem; to do so would mar our plan. Does my brother understand?"
"The Tigercat has no forked tongue; the words breathed from his mouthare clear. His son understands."
"Good. I can go in peace: my brother will watch over the tribe."
"I will obey the orders of my father. If he is absent many suns, hewill not have to reproach his son."
"Ugh! My son's words lift the skin that covered my heart and filled itwith sorrow. The Master of Life watch over him! I go."
"Ugh! My brother is a sage warrior. The Wacondah will protect him onhis road; he will succeed."
The two men gravely saluted each other. The _amantzin_ remained by thefire; the chief departed.
It is probable that, if the old _sachem_ had remarked the expression ofknavish hate on the face of the sorcerer at the moment they parted, hewould not have quitted the village.
As the Tigercat threw himself into the saddle with a lightness hardlyto be expected at his years, the sun disappeared behind the mountains,and night enveloped the prairie.
The old man, without seeming to care for the darkness, pressed hishorse with his knees, gave him his head, and galloped off.
The sorcerer, with bent person and head stretched forward, listenedanxiously to the lessening sound of the chief's rapid course. When allwas still again, he raised himself erect, a smile of triumph playedacross his thin and livid lips, and he uttered triumphantly the words,"At last!"--a summary of the thoughts secreted in his heart.
Then he arose, left the _calli_, seated himself a few paces from it,crossed his arms over his chest, and chanted, in a deep bass and amournful and monotonous rhythm, the Apache lament, beginning with thefollowing verse, which we reproduce as a specimen of the language ofthis barbarous people:
"El mebin ni tlacaelanteyTuz apan Pilco payentzinAncu maguida coaltzinAy guinchey ni polio menchey."
[I have lost my _tlacaelantey_ in the country of Pilco. Oh, murderousknives, which have changed him into shades and flies!]
As the sorcerer went on with his song, his voice became by degreeslouder and more confident. In a short time, warriors, wrapped in theirbison robes, issued from several of the huts, and, with furtive steps,approached the sorcerer, and entered the _calli._ At the close of thelament, the sorcerer rose, ascertained that no other person was comingtowards him, that no laggard was loitering at his call, and in his turnentered the _calli_, to join those whom he had convoked thus singularly.
There were twenty men in all; they stood silent and motionless, likebronze statues, round the fire, whose flames, revived by the draughtcaused by their entrance, threw sinister shadows over their stern anddetermined features. The _amantzin_ placed himself in the midst, andsaid:
"Let my brothers sit at the council fire."
The warriors squatted down in a circle.
The sorcerer then took from the hands of the _hachesto_, or publiccrier, the great calumet, the bowl of which was of red clay, and thetube six feet long, of aloes wood, garnished with feathers and hawks'bells. He filled it with a washed tobacco, called _morriche_, whichis never used except upon great occasions, lighted it with a medicinestick, and having drawn a long breath of more than a minute, anddischarged the smoke through mouth and nose, presented the calumetto the warrior on his right. The latter followed his example; andthe calumet passed thus from hand to hand, till it returned to the_amantzin._
The latter shook the ashes into the fire, muttering, in a low voice, afew unintelligible words; after which, be restored the calumet to the_hachesto_, who went out to watch, in order to ensure secrecy to thedeliberations of the council.
There was a long silence; the profoundest calm brooded over thevillage; no sound disturbed the tranquillity of the _atepelt;_ and onemight have thought oneself a hundred leagues from a human dwelling.
At length the _amantzin_ rose, cast a searching look over the assembly,and spoke.
"Let my brothers open their ears," he said in measured tones. "Thespirit of the Master of Life has entered into my body; it is hewho dictates the words which spring from my lips. Chiefs of theBison-Apaches! The spirit of your ancestors has ceased to animate yoursouls. You are no longer the terrible warriors, who declared war,without truce or mercy, against the palefaces--those cowards, andhateful despoilers of your hunting grounds; you are only antelopes, whofly with faltering feet from the distant sound of an _erupha_ (gun) ofthe palefaces; you are old women, to whom the _Yorris_ (Spanish) givetheir petticoats; your blood no longer runs bright in your veins,and a skin stretches over your heart and covers it completely. You,formerly so brave and terrible, have made yourselves the coward slavesof a dog of a paleface, who chases you like frightened rabbits, andholds you trembling under his eye. Thus speaks the Master of Life. Whatdo you answer, warriors of the Apaches?"
He ceased, and waited for one of the chiefs to take up the word. Duringthis insulting speech, a tremor of indignation agitated the Indians; itwas only by great efforts they obtained the mastery over their passion.But when the _amantzin_ ceased, a chief rose.
"Is the sorcerer of the Apaches-Bisons mad," said he in a voice ofthunder, "that he should speak thus to the chiefs of his nation? He whocounts the foxes' tails attached to our heels will see if we are women,and if the courage of our ancestors is dead in our hearts. What if theTigercat is a paleface?--His heart is Apache. The Tigercat is wise; hehas seen many things; the counsels he gives are good."
The _amantzin_ smiled with disdain.
"My brother the White-Eagle speaks well; it is not for me to answerhim."
He struck his hands thrice. A warrior appeared.
"Let my brother," said the _amantzin_ to him, "tell the council themission with which he was charged by the Tigercat."
The redskin advanced to the circle, and bowed low before the chiefs,who were all gazing at him.
"The Tigercat," spoke a deep and mournful voice, "had ordered theBlack-Falcon to form an ambush with twenty warriors on the path of thepalefaces, whom Stoneheart pretended to guide to their big stone huts.The Black-Falcon followed the palefaces a long time in the prairie.Their trail was clear; they had no arms; nothing seemed more easy thanto seize them. An hour before the time fixed for the attack, Stoneheartappeared alone in the camp of the warriors. The Black-Falcon receivedhim with the signs of friendship and praise, because he had abandonedthe _Yorris._ But Stoneheart replied, that Tigercat forbade the attackon the palefaces, and, throwing himself on the Black-Falcon, thrustthe knife into his heart; while the _Yorris_, who had stolen upon thecamp, surprised the warriors, and massacred them with _eruphas_ givenby Tigercat himself. This treachery was done to put Black-Falcon out ofhis path, whose fame he envied. Twenty warriors followed the war path;six returned with me to the _atepelt:_ the others have been slain bythe Tigercat. I have said."
This astonishing revelation created a stern silence of amazement andrage. It was the calm that harbours the tempest. The chiefs looked fromone to the other with eyes of wrath.
Of all races, the redskins are the most remarkable for the rapiditywith which their moods change, and are most easily led away by feelingsof rage. The _amantzin_ was aware of this; therefore he was sure ofhis triumph, after the terrible impression made by the recital of thewarrior.
"Ugh!" said he, "What do my brothers think now of the counsels of theTigercat? Does the White-Eagle still think he has the heart of anApache? Who will avenge the death of the Black-Falcon?"
Most of the chiefs rose at once, brandishing their scalping knives.
"The Tigercat is a thieving dog, and a coward!" they shouted. "TheApache warriors will tie his scalp to their girdles."
Only two or three of the _sachems_ attempted to protest; they knew the_amantzin's_ inveterate and long-standing hatred of Tigercat; they knewthe knavish character of the sorcerer; and suspected that, in thisaffair,
the truth had been disguised and garbled in order to serve thevengeance of the man who had vowed the death of a foe whom he wouldnever dare to face openly.
But the voices of these chiefs were soon stifled by the clamorousire of the other Indians. Renouncing, for the present, a uselessdiscussion, they withdrew from the circle, and grouped themselves ina corner of the _calli_, resolved to remain the impassive, if notindifferent, witnesses of the resolutions to be taken by the council.
The Indians are grown-up children, who lash themselves into fury withthe sound of their own words and, when excited by their passions,forget all prudence and moderation.
However, in the present case, although they felt the fiercest desireto avenge themselves on the Tigercat,--whom at this moment theyhated so much the more because they had loved and respected him sohighly,--although the most violent measures were proposed against him,still it was not without some degree of hesitation that they proceededto act against their aged chief. The reason was simple enough: theseprimitive beings recognised only one kind of superiority,--that ofbrute strength; and the Tigercat, in spite of his great age, enjoyedamong them a reputation for strength and courage, too well establishedfor them not to look forward with a certain degree of fear to theconsequences of the action they meditated.
The _amantzin_ tried in vain, by all the means in his power, toconvince them how easy it would be to seize Tigercat on his returnto the village. The sorcerer's project was excellent; if the chiefschose to avail themselves of it, it would be impossible to fail. Theplan was this: the Apaches were to feign ignorance of the death ofthe Black-Falcon; they were to receive him on his return with thegreatest protestations of joy, in order to lull the suspicions hemight entertain, and seize him while he slept; they were to bind himsecurely, and tie him to the torture stake. One sees that the plan wasextremely simple; but the Apaches would not listen to it, so great wasthe dread they felt for their foe.
Finally, after a discussion which lasted the greater part of the night,it was definitely settled that the tribe should strike their camp, andbury themselves in the desert, without troubling themselves with anyfurther thought of their old leader.
But just at that moment the dissentient chiefs who, up to that time,had taken no part in what was going on, left the corner of the _calli_to which they had retired, and one of them, called Fire-Eye, takingup the word in the name of his companions, observed that those of the_sachems_ who wished to depart might do so, but could not impose theirwill on others; that the tribe had no great chief legally chosen; thateach was at liberty to act as he pleased; and that, as for themselves,they were resolved not to repay with black ingratitude the eminentservices the Tigercat had rendered the tribe for many years past; andthey would not quit the village before his return.
This determination gave great anxiety to the _amantzin_, who vainlysought to overcome it: the chiefs would listen to nothing, and adheredfirmly to their determination.
At sunrise, by order of the sorcerer, who already acted from that timeforward as if he was the recognised grand chief of the tribe, the_hachesto_ summoned the warriors to the open space of the village,by the ark of the first man, and orders were given to the women topull down the _callis_, and harness and load the dogs, that theymight depart as soon as possible. The order was promptly executed;the pickets were drawn, the bison hides folded, household utensilscarefully packed, and placed on sledges, to be drawn by the dogs.
But the dissentient chiefs had not been idle on their side: they hadmanaged to win over to their opinion several renowned warriors of thepeople, so that only about three-quarters of the tribe prepared toemigrate, while the other quarter remained stoical spectators of thearrangements for travel which were going on before them.
At last the _hachesto_, at the order of the _amantzin_, gave the signalto march.
Then a long line of sledges drawn by dogs, and of women laden withchildren, quitted the village, escorted by a numerous band of warriors,and was soon winding its way, like a great serpent, through the prairie.
When their brothers had disappeared in the depths of the wilderness,the warriors who had remained faithful to the Tigercat assembled todeliberate on the measures to be taken until his return.