CHAPTER V
PLAY AND COUNCIL
Henry was still a prisoner in the lodge when the purification ofTimmendiquas was finished. He had been permitted to go forth now andthen under a strong guard, but, no matter how closely he watched, notthe slightest chance of escape presented itself. He saw the renegadesabout, Braxton Wyatt among them, but none of these men spoke to him. Itwas evident to him, however, from the respectful manner in which theWyandots treated Girty that he had great influence among them.
The warriors seemed to be in no hurry about anything. The hunters werebringing in plenty of game, and the village life went forward merrily.But Henry judged that they were merely waiting. It was inconceivablethat the Wyandots should remain there long in peace while the Indianworld of all that great valley was seething with movement.
Timmendiquas came to see him at the end of the sixth day ofpurification, and treated him with the courtesy due from a great chiefto a distinguished prisoner.
"Have our warriors been kind to you?" he asked.
"They have done everything except let me slip away," replied Henry.
Timmendiquas smiled.
"That is the one thing that we do not wish," he said. "They think as Ido that you are fit to be a Wyandot. Come, I will loose your hands, andtogether we will see our young men and young women play ball."
Henry was not at all averse. Both his nature and his long but friendlycaptivity in a far northwestern tribe made him have a keen sympathy withmany traits in the Indian character. He could understand and like theirsports.
"I'll go gladly, White Lightning," he said. "I don't think you need askme to give any promise not to escape. I won't find any such chance."
The chief smiled with pleasure at the compliment, undid the bonds, andthe two walked out into the brilliant sunshine. Henry felt at once thatthe village was tingling with excitement. All were hurrying toward awide grassy meadow just at the outskirts of the village, and themajority of them, especially the young of either sex, laughed andchattered volubly. There was no restraint. Here among themselves theIndian repression was thrown aside.
Henry, with the shadow of great suffering and death over him, felt theirthrill and excitement. The day was uncommonly fine, and the setting ofthe forest scene was perfect. There was the village, trim and neat inits barbaric way, which in the sunshine was not an unpleasant way, withthe rich meadows about it, and beyond the great wilderness of heavy,circling dark green.
All were now gathered at the edge of the meadow, still laughing,chattering, and full of delight. Even the great Timmendiquas, redknight, champion and far-famed hero at twenty-five, unbent andspeculated with keen interest on the result of the ball game, now aboutto be played. Henry felt his own interest increasing, and he rubbedshoulders with his old friends, Heno the Thunder, Anue the Bear, andHainteroh the Raccoon. The gallant Raccoon still carried his arm in asling, but he was such a healthy man that it would be well in anincredibly brief period, and meantime it did not interfere at all withhis enjoyment of a ball game.
The meadow was about a hundred yards wide and a hundred and fifty yardslong. The grass upon it was thick, but nowhere more than three or fourinches in height. All along the edges of the longer sides, facing eachother, stakes had been driven at intervals of six feet, and amid greatcheering the players formed up on either side next to the line of thestakes.
But all the players on one side were women, mostly young, strong, andlithe, and all the players on the other side were men, also mostlyyoung, strong and lithe. They wore no superfluous garments, althoughenough was left to save modesty, and young braves and young squaws alikewere alert and eager, their eyes flushing with excitement. There were atleast one hundred players on each side, and it seemed a most unequalmatch, but an important proviso was to come.
Timmendiquas advanced to the edge of the meadow and held up his hand.Instantly all shouting, cheering, and talking ceased, and there wasperfect silence. Then old Heno, holding in his hand a ball much largerthan the modern baseball, but much smaller than the modern football,advanced gravely and solemnly into the meadow. The eyes of two hundredplayers, young warriors and young girls were intent upon him.
Old Thunder, despite his years, was a good sport and felt the importanceof his duty. While all were watching him, and the multitude did no morethan breathe, he walked gingerly over the grass, and with a keen old eyepicked out a point that was equally distant from the long and shortsides of the parallelogram. Here he stood gravely for a few moments, asif to confirm himself in the opinion that this was the proper place, andextended his right arm with the big ball lying in the open palm.
There was a long breath of excitement from players and spectators alike,but Big Thunder was a man of experience and deliberation who was not tobe hurried. He still held his right arm extended with the big ball lyingin the open palm, and then sent a warning look to each hundred, first tothe men and then to the women. These two sides were already bent farover, waiting to jump.
The stakes, the field, the positions of the players were remarkably likethe modern game of football, although this was wholly original with theIndians.
The eyes of old Heno came back from the players to the ball lying in thepalm of his right hand and regarded it contemplatively a moment or two.Then the fingers suddenly contracted like lightning upon the ball, andhe threw it high, perfectly straight up in the air, at the same timeuttering a piercing shout.
Henry saw that the ball would fall almost where Heno stood, but the oldwarrior ran swiftly away, and the opposing sides, men and women, made adash for it before it fell. The multitude, thrilled with the excitement,uttered a great shout, and bent forward in eagerness. But no one--not aplayer--encroached upon the meadow. Warriors as guards stalked up anddown, but they were not needed. The discipline was perfect. Henry by theside of Timmendiquas shared in the general interest, and he, too, bentforward. The chief bent with him.
Young warriors and young girls who made a dash for the ball were aboutequal in speed. Wyandot women were not hampered by skirts, and forestlife made them lithe and sinewy. Both were near the ball, but Henry yetsaw nothing to tell which would reach it first. Suddenly a slim brownfigure shot out from the ranks of the women, and, with a leap, reachedthe ball, when the nearest warrior was yet a yard away.
There was a great cry of applause, as the girl, straightening up,attempted to run with the ball through the ranks of the men, and throwit between the stakes at their side of the field. Two warriors promptlyintercepted her, and now Henry saw why the match between girls andwarriors was not so unequal as it had appeared at first. When thewarriors intercepted the girl she threw the ball over their heads and asfar as she could toward the coveted goal posts. Three warriors ran forit, but the one who reached it kicked it with all his might back towardthe goal posts of the girls. It fell into a dense throng there, and agirl promptly threw it back, where it was met by the returning kick of awarrior. The men were allowed to use only their feet, the girls coulduse both hands and feet. If any warrior touched the ball with his handshe was promptly put off the field by the umpires, and the ball wasrestored to its original position.
The match, well balanced, hotly contested, swayed back and forth. Nowthe ball was carried toward the women's goal, and then toward the men.Now all the two hundred players would be in a dense throng in thecenter, and then they would open out as some swift hand or foot sent theball flying. Often the agile young squaws were knocked down in the hurlyburly, but always they sprang up laughing.
All around the field the people cheered and laughed, and many began tobet, the wagers being mostly of skins, lead, powder or bright trinketsbought at the British posts.
For over a half hour the ball flew back and forth, and so far as Henrycould see, neither had gained any advantage. Presently they were allpacked once more in a dense throng in the center of the field, and theball was invisible somewhere in the middle of the group. While the crowdwatched for its reappearance all the shouting and cheering ceased.
The
ball suddenly flew from the group and shot toward the goal posts onthe side of the women and a stalwart warrior, giving it another kick,sent it within ten yards of victory for the men.
"Ah, the warriors are too strong for them," said White Lightning.
But he spoke too soon. There was a brown streak across the grass, andthe same girl who had first seized the ball darted ahead of the warrior.She picked up the ball while it was yet rolling and ran swiftly backwith it. A warrior planted himself in her way, but, agile as a deer, shedarted around him, escaped a second and a third in the same way, andcontinued her flight toward the winning posts.
The crowd gave a single great shout, subsiding after it into abreathless silence.
"The Dove runs well," murmured Timmendiquas in English.
Henry's sympathies were with her, but could the Dove evade all thewarriors? They could not touch the ball, but they might seize the girlherself and shake her until the ball fell from her hands. This, in fact,was what happened when an agile young warrior succeeded in grasping herby the shoulder. The ball fell to the ground, but as he loosed her andprepared to kick it she made a quick dive and seized it. The warrior'sfoot swung in the empty air, and then he set out after the flying Dove.
Only one other guard was left, and it was seen that he would intercepther, but she stopped short, her arm swung out in a curve, and she threwthe ball with all her might toward the goal posts. The warrior leapedhigh to catch it, but it passed six inches above his outstretchedfingers, sailed on through the air, cleared the goal posts, and fell tenfeet on the other side. The Dove had won the game for her side.
The crowd swarmed over the field and congratulated the victorious girls,particularly the fleet-footed Dove, while the beaten warriors drew offin a crestfallen group. Timmendiquas, with Henry at his side, was amongthe first to give approval, but the renegades remained in their littlegroup at the edge of the field. Girty was not at all pleased at the timeconsumed by the Wyandots in this game. He had other plans that he wishedto urge.
"But it's no use for me to argue with them," he said to Braxton Wyatt."They're as set in their ways as any white people that ever lived."
"That's so," said Wyatt, "you're always right, Mr. Girty, I've noticed,too, since I've been among the Indians that you can't interfere with anyof their rites and ceremonies."
He spoke in a deferential tone, as if he acknowledged his master intreachery and villainy, and Girty received it as his due. He wascertainly first in this group of six, and the older ones, Blackstaffe,McKee, Eliot, and Quarles, recognized the fact as willingly as didBraxton Wyatt.
The crowd, the game finished, was dissolving, and Girty at the head ofhis comrades strolled toward Timmendiquas, who still had Henry at hisside.
"Timmendiquas," he said in Wyandot, "beware of this prisoner. Althoughbut a boy in years, he has strength, courage and skill that few men,white or red, can equal."
The eyes of the young chief, full of somber fire, were turned upon therenegade.
"Since when, Girty," he asked, "have the Wyandots become old women?Since when have they become both weak and ignorant?"
Girty, bold as he was, shrank a little at the stern tone and obviouswrath of the chief.
"I meant nothing wrong, Timmendiquas," he said. "The world knows thatthe Wyandots are both brave and wise."
White Lightning shrugged his shoulders, and turned away with hisprisoner. Henry could understand only a word or two of what they said,but he guessed its import. Already skilled in forest diplomacy, he knewthat it was wisdom for him to say nothing, and he walked on with WhiteLightning. He watched the chief with sharp side glances and saw that hewas troubled. Two or three times he seemed on the point of sayingsomething, but always remained silent. Yet his bearing towards Henry wasmost friendly, and it gave the captive boy a pang. He knew the hope thatwas in the mind of White Lightning, but he knew that hope could nevercome true.
"We do not wish to make you suffer, Ware," he said, when they came tothe door of Henry's prison lodge, "until we decide what we are to dowith you, and before then much water must flow down Ohezuhyeandawa (TheOhio)."
"I do not ask you to do anything that is outside your customs," saidHenry quietly.
"We must bind you as before," said Timmendiquas, "but we bind you in away that does not hurt, and Heno will bring you food and water. But thisis a day of rejoicing with us, and this afternoon our young men andyoung maids dance. You shall come forth and see it."
Henry was re-bound, and a half hour later old Heno appeared with food,meat of the deer and wild turkey, bread of maize, and a large gourdfilled with pure cold water. After he had loosened Henry's wrists thathe might eat and drink he sat by and talked. Thunder, with furtheracquaintance, was disclosing signs of volubility.
"How you like ball game?" he asked.
"Good! very good!" said Henry sincerely, "and I don't see, Thunder, howyou could throw that ball so straight up in the air that it would comedown where you stood."
"Much practice, long practice," said the old man modestly. "Heno beenthrowing up balls longer by twice than you have lived."
When the boy had finished eating, old Heno told him to come with him asthe dance was now about to begin, and Henry was glad enough to escapeagain from the close prison lodge.
The dancers were already forming on the meadow where the ball game hadbeen played, and there was the same interest and excitement, althoughnow it was less noisy. Henry guessed from their manner that the dancewould not only be an amusement, but would also have something of thenature of a rite.
All the dancers were young, young warriors and girls, and they facedeach other in two lines, warriors in one and girls in the other. As inthe ball game, each line numbered about a hundred, but now they were intheir brightest and most elaborate raiment. The two lines were perfectlyeven, as straight as an arrow, the toe of no moccasin out of line, andthey were about a rod apart.
At the far end of the men's line a warrior raised in his right hand adry gourd which contained beads and pebbles, and began to rattle it in anot unmusical way. To the sound of the rattle he started a grave andsolemn chant, in which all joined. Then the two lines, still keepingtheir straightness and evenness, danced toward each other slowly andrhythmically. All the time the song went on, the usual monotonous Indianbeat, merely a rising and falling of the note with scarcely anyvariation.
The two lines, still dancing, came close together, and then both bentforward until the head of every warrior touched the head of the girlopposite him. They remained in this position a full half minute, and ayoung warrior often whispered sweet words in the ear of the girl whosehead touched him. This, as Henry learned later, was the wooing orcourting dance of the Wyandots.
Both sides suddenly straightened up, uttered a series of loud shouts,and began to dance back toward their original position, at the same timeresuming the rising and falling chant. When the full distance wasreached they danced up, bowed, and touched heads again, and thisapproaching or retreating was kept up for four hours, or until the sunset. It became to Henry extremely monotonous, but the Indians seemednever to tire of it, and when they stopped at darkness the eyes of allthe dancers were glowing with pleasure and excitement.
It was quite dark when Henry returned to the lodge for the second timethat day, but this time old Heno instead of Timmendiquas was his escortback to prison.
"Play over now," said Heno. "Great work begin to-morrow."
The old man seemed to be full of the importance of what he knew, andHenry, anxious to know, too, played adroitly upon his vanity.
"If any big thing is to be done, I'm sure that you would know of it,Heno," he said. "So they are to begin to-morrow, are they?"
"Yes," replied Heno, supposing from Henry's words that he had alreadyreceived a hint from Timmendiquas. "Great chiefs reach here to-night.Hold council to-morrow."
"Ah, they come from all the tribes, do they not?" said Henry, guessingshrewdly.
"From all between Ohezuhyeandawa (The Ohio) and the Great Lakes and
fromthe mountains to Yandawezue (The Mississippi)."
"Illinois, Ottawas, Miamis, Shawnees, and Delawares?" said Henry.
"Yes," said Heno, "Illinois, Ottawas, Miamis, Shawnees, and Delawares.All come to smoke pipes with the Wyandots and hear what we have to say.We small nation, but mighty warriors. No Wyandot ever coward."
"That is true," said Henry sincerely. "I've never heard of a Wyandot whoflinched in battle. My people think that where one Wyandot warrior walksit takes two warriors of any other tribe to fill his footprints."
Old Heno smiled broadly.
"Maybe you be at council to-morrow," he said. "You make good Wyandot."
"Maybe I could," said Henry to himself, "but it's certain that I neverwill."
Old Heno withdrew, still smiling, and Henry was left alone in thedarkness of the prison lodge, full of interest over what was to occur onthe morrow, and anxious that he might be present to see. He knew thatthe conference of the chiefs would be concerning the new war onKentucky, and now he was not so anxious to escape at once. A week laterwould be better, and then if the chance came--he never faltered in hisbelief that it would come--he could carry with him news worth the while.The young chief, Timmendiquas, was a man whom he admired, but,nevertheless, he would prove a formidable leader of such a coalition,the most dangerous to the white people that could be found.
Henry listened again for the song among the leaves that had the power tofill him with hope, but he did not hear it. Nevertheless, his couragedid not depart, and he felt that the longer the Wyandots waited todispose of him the better were his chances.
Heno came the next morning with his breakfast and announced that all thechiefs of the Ohio Valley had arrived and were now in conference in thecouncil house.
"They talk later outside," he said, "and maybe Timmendiquas let you comeand hear wise words that great chiefs say."
"I'd like to hear," said Henry. "I know that the Indians are greatorators."
Heno did not reply, but Henry had divined that he was susceptible toflattery. He understood, too, that it was the policy of White Lightningto impress him with the skill and power of the tribes. So he waitedpatiently.
Meanwhile fifty famous chiefs representing all the great nations of theOhio Valley sat in the temporary council house of the Wyandots, thesmallest but the wisest and bravest tribe of them all. They were mostlymen of middle age or older, although two or three were nearly, but notquite, as young as Timmendiquas himself. This chief was at once theyoungest, the tallest, and the handsomest man present. They sat in rows,but where he sat was the head of the council. All looked toward him.
Every chief was in his finest dress, moccasins, leggings, and huntingcoat of beautifully tanned deerskin, with blanket of bright color loopedgracefully over the shoulder. In one of the rows in a group sat the sixrenegades, Girty, Blackstaffe, McKee, Eliot, Quarles, and Braxton Wyatt.Every man was bent forward in the stooped formal attitude of one wholistens, and every one had the stem of a pipe in his mouth.
In one group sat the chiefs of the Ottawas, the most distant of thetribes, dwellers on the far shores of Lake Huron, sometimes fish-eaters,and fugitives at an earlier day from the valley of the Ottawa River inCanada, whence they took their name. The word "Ottawa" in their languagemeant "trader," and they had received it in their ancient home becausethey had ideas of barter and had been the "go betweens" for othertribes. They worshiped the sun first and the stars second. Often theyheld festivals to the sun, and asked his aid in fishing and hunting.They occupied a secondary position in the Ohio Valley because they werenewer and were not as fierce and tenacious in war as the older tribes.Ottawa chiefs did not thrust themselves forward, and when they spoke itwas in a deprecatory way.
Next to the Wyandots were the Illinois, who lived in the valley of theIllinois and who were not numerous. They had been beaten often in tribalwars, until their spirit lacked that fine exaltation which meansvictory. Like the Ottawas, they felt that they should not say much, butshould listen intently to the words of the chiefs who sat with them, andwho represented great warrior nations.
Next to the Illinois were the Delawares, or, in their own language, theLenni Lenape, who also were an immigrant race. Once they had dwelt muchfarther east, even beyond the mountains, but many warlike tribes,including the great league of the Iroquois, the Six Nations, had madewar upon them, had reduced their numbers, and had steadily pushed themwestward and further westward, until they reached the region now calledOhio. Here their great uncles, the Wyandots, received them withkindness, told them to rest in peace and gave them extensive lands, finefor hunting, along the Muskingum River.
The Lenni Lenape throve in the new land and became powerful again. Butnever in their darkest days, when the world seemed to be slippingbeneath their feet, had they lost the keen edge of their spirit. Thewarrior of the Lenni Lenape had always been willing to laugh in the faceof flames and the stake, and now, as their chiefs sat in the council,they spoke often and they spoke boldly. They feared to look no one inthe face, not even the far-famed Timmendiquas himself. They were ofthree clans: Unamis, which is the Turtle; Unaluchtgo, which is theTurkey; and Minsi, the Wolf. Minsi was the most warlike and always ledthe Lenni Lenape in battle. Chiefs of all three clans were present.
Next to the Lenni Lenape were the valiant Shawnees, who held all thevalley of the Scioto as far west as the Little Miami or Mud River. Theyhad a record for skill and courage that went far back into the mists ofthe past, and of all the tribes, it was the Shawnees who hated thewhites most. Their hostility was undying. No Shawnee would ever listento any talk of peace with them. It must be war until the white vanguardwas destroyed or driven back over the mountains. So fearless were theShawnees that once a great band of them, detaching from the main tribe,had crossed the Ohio and had wandered all the way through the southerncountry, fighting Chickasaws, Creeks, and Choctaws, until they reachedthe sea, more than a thousand miles from their old home. A cunningchief, Black Hoof, who could boast that he had bathed his feet in thesalt water, had led them safely back more than twenty years before, andnow this same Black Hoof sat here in the council house of the Wyandots,old and wrinkled, but keen of eye, eagle-beaked, and as shrewd anddaring as ever, the man who had led in an almost unknown border exploit,as dangerous and romantic as the Retreat of the Ten Thousand.
The Shawnees claimed--and the legend was one that would never die amongthem--that they originated in a far, very far, land, and that they weredivided into 12 tribes or sub-tribes. For some cause which they hadforgotten the whole nation marched away in search of a new home. Theycame to a wide water that was bitter and salt to the taste. They had nocanoes, but the sea parted before them, and then the twelve tribes, eachwith its leader at its head, marched on the ocean bottom with the wallof waters on either side of them until they reached a great land whichwas America. It is this persistent legend, so remarkable in itssimilarity to the flight of the children of Israel from Egypt, even tothe number of the tribes, that has caused one or two earlier westernwriters to claim that the Shawnees were in reality the Ten Lost Tribesof Israel.
Next to the Shawnees were the Miamis, more numerous perhaps, but notmore warlike. They lived along the rivers Miami and Maumee and weresubdivided into three clans, the Twigtees, the Weas, and thePiankeshaws. Chiefs of all three clans were present, and they couldcontrol many hundreds of warriors.
The Wyandots, who lived to the eastward in Ohio, held themselves backmodestly. They were a small tribe, but the others often called them "TheNation-That-Never-Knew-a-Coward," and there was no reason for them topush themselves forward. When the time came for a Wyandot chief to speakthe time would come for the others to listen. They did speak, andthroughout that morning the great question was argued back and forth.Girty and Blackstaffe, the second of the renegades in influence,sometimes participated, and they were listened to with varying degreesof respect, according to the character of the advice they gave. Thesewhite men, with their cunning and knowledge of their own people, were ofvalue, but once or twice w
hen they spoke the lips of some of the youngerchiefs, always including Timmendiquas, curled with scorn.
At noon they came forth from the council house, and Timmendiquas,accompanied by Heno, went to the lodge in which Henry was confined. Henocarried particularly tempting food to Henry. Besides venison and turkey,he brought maple sugar and hominy with a dressing of bear's oil andsugar.
Henry had become used to Indian food long since, and he ate with relish.Timmendiquas stood by, regarding him attentively.
"You are a strong and valiant foe, Ware," he said at length. "I fightagainst the white people, but I do not dislike you. I wish, then, thatyou would come forth and see the great council of the allied tribes inthe meadow. The council of the chiefs was held this morning. Thisafternoon we lay the matter before all the warriors."
"I'll come gladly," said Henry.