Chapter 4: High Bluffs
Wolf Eyes looked into the door of his house. He saw the eyes of three new additions. He backed out and laid his unassembled war club beside the door; then he went back inside. He went to Waving Willow and said, “Looks like we have company.”
“Yes,” she said, “aren’t they beautiful?”
He said, “Yenh, and hungry.”
Waving Willow said, “I gave them some cornbread treat, a little while ago, but I guess they have finished it now.”
He said, “They still look hungry to me, have you got any more?”
“Yenh,” she said.
She prepared it and gave it to Wolf Eyes. He took it over to the children and bent down, hiding the treat behind his back. The children looked frightened at the tall warrior. Wolf Eyes smiled a big smile and took his hands from behind his back and held out three pieces of the treat. The children quickly lost their fear. He handed a piece to each one.
Turning to Waving Willow, he asked, “Do you have any tea made?”
She took three cups out of storage, brought them to him. As he held the cups, she poured. It was a weak sassafras tea sweetened with honey.
“What did Loot and Fire Cub have to say about these children?” he asked.
Waving Willow answered, “Only that they survived the massacre at Nunnimingo. They were saved by a woman named Three Baskets, who stayed behind to help move some injured people.
He turned back to the children and patted them on the head and gave them another big smile. “I will go talk to Loot and Fire Cub to see if I can find out more,” he said. Turning, he disappeared out the door.
He found Loot and Fire Cub down by the creek, fishing.
“Hilito, Fire Cub. Hilito, Loot,” he said. “Tell me all you know about the children and Three Baskets, and what is going on at the river.”
Loot and Fire Cub gave Wolf Eyes all of the particulars about what had happened at the river. They even told him about the wolf pack.
They were sitting there, and Loot stepped into the water. With his lance raised, he became very still and stood there, motionless, for about ten minutes. He did not move a muscle. Fire Cub and Wolf Eyes were silent too.
Slash! With a furious thrust the lance flew down into the water. Loot grabbed hold of the shaft and held it there for about a minute. Then he slid his hand down the shaft into the water and grabbed hold of his prey. He stayed there for a second to make sure he had a good hold on it, and then brought it up. Still holding the spear in it and with one hand under the bottom of the fish, he raised it up out of the water. It was a three-pound channel catfish that was still thrashing its tail. He got it to the bank and ran a stringer of bone and sinew through its lower lip.
Loot asked,” Wolf Eyes, would you take this to Waving Willow to prepare for us? If you will, we can stay here and fish some more.”
Wolf Eyes said, “Yenh, catch some more, and we will all eat fish tonight.”
He took the fish and stood up, admiring it. “Good nunni” (fish), he said.
“Good, catch us some more of them.”
He turned as Loot and Fire Cub were both wading back out into the water. Wolf Eyes went back to his house to deliver his fish, and to also talk to Waving Willow about preparing himself to go on the reconnoiter mission. This would not be a hunting trip, but a dangerous mission that would involve getting close to the enemy.
Later in the afternoon, the runner from the river came into the village. He went to the chief and asked for help getting the injured back to camp. The chief sent immediate help to grant this request. Then Wolf Eyes and the chief questioned the runner about what was going on at the river.
Wolf Eyes went to see the aliktce (medicine man) to have him work his magic and make black tea. A black drink made from the yaupon holly berries was used to purify the body of evil spirits. The medicine man brought Wolf Eyes into his house and set him in the middle of a room on a low stool. On the walls were strange, small torches that put out low light. Hanging down from the middle of the ceiling was a stuffed crow that had a headdress of red feathers. His wings were pulled forward to cover his face. There were masks hanging on the wall that looked into the room from four directions. A figure came into the room with a robe of deer and panther skin that covered his body and a gourd rattle in his hand. He had rattles on his knees that made noise as he danced. He danced around Wolf Eyes three times, counter to the motion of the sun, and shook the rattle as he went. Then he disappeared into the back room. The aliktce came back into the room and motioned Wolf Eyes out of the door.
“Wolf Eyes has good spirits,” he said.
He told Wolf Eyes that he would make the black tea. Then the aliktce went back inside his house, leaving Wolf Eyes standing there.
Wolf Eyes turned and started back to Waving Willow’s house. He was thinking, the magic of the aliktce would help me with the Ghost Spirit. I will go and finish my war club – then start the preparation.
When he got to Waving Willow’s house, he picked up the parts to his club. Then he walked toward the meeting square, the place where the ceremonies of great importance were held. He was going there just to have some shade and to sit on the bench and finish his club. He needed a little privacy.
On the way to the square he passed by the construction site of a new corncrib. The braves were setting the poles in the ground, four of them, about sixteen feet in height above the ground. The poles were set at the four corners of a square that had sides about ten feet long.
“Hilito, Running Bear, Red Bird, Big Hatchet, ” he called.
And the braves called back, “Hilito, Wolf Eyes.”
Wolf Eyes complimented them on their swift work. He knew that they had not been working there very long.
He came to the square, and finding a seat in the shade, started lashing the stone head to the handle of the club. There was a groove in the head that just fit the handle, and he had a piece of wood to go around the other side of the stone. The two pieces locked together and held the stone firmly. He applied lashings to the handle above and below the stone. Then he had some powder that he had made from the scum of fish scales that he mixed with water and made a thick paste. He applied this over the bindings. He found a place that he could hang it up, so that it could dry. He had his mark on it, so that anyone who came by would know to whom it belonged. He did not have to worry about anyone taking it. The Indians had an honor system that was second to none.
Anyone caught stealing from another would get severe punishment from the victim’s kin or the victim himself. The thought that it would be stolen was unthinkable and out of the question.
He went back to Waving Willow’s house and entered. The children were playing with dolls in the floor. They were so focused on their play that they did not even look up. Waving Willow slapped her hands together, and the children came to attention. She made them get into the corner of the room, after they acknowledged Wolf Eyes. They turned to him and bowed, and he returned a smile. He went to Waving Willow and put his arms around her, from behind. She was making a meal in the area of the fire. He gave a little hug and then let go. She turned, looked and smiled.
Then he said, “ I’ll eat, then I must go.”
She didn’t say anything, just acknowledged his statement with a nod.
The meal was a soup made from the fish, tuber roots, green corn and hominy, boiled in a ceramic pot that had been put in the coals of the fire. The stew had been started earlier that day and had been simmering in the pot for hours. She had added different ingredients all through the day. The Indians loved their stews. There was bread also. Waving Willow had fixed a big meal for two reasons: One, to honor the new guests who were starved to death and also for Wolf Eyes, because he was leaving on a mission soon.
After he ate, Wolf Eyes complimented Waving Willow on the meal. She came to him and gave him a hug, and they kissed. She tried to smile, but had to force it.
He said, “I will have the Spirit of th
e Wolf, do not worry. It will be a long time before we see peace again. But we will have good times in the future, so it is useless to worry about tomorrow.”
Waving Willow said, “May the Great Spirit shine his sun on you. May the Moon Spirit watch over you at night. And may the Spirit of the Wolf watch over you in battle. And may the Spirit of the Wind bring you back to me.”
There was one more lingering embrace, and then Wolf Eyes departed.
He fully armed himself and left the village to find some solitude where he could prepare himself for receiving the Spirit of the Wolf.
Outside the village, he went to the creek and dove into the water. He swam across to the other side. This was always the first step, the cleansing of the body with water.
He climbed out of the creek and took a trail that went toward the Mountain of High Bluffs. He had been there many times as a young warrior and as a seeker of the spirits. It was the place where the Wind Spirit lived, and he would seek his presence.
He began to trot at a pace faster than walking. The forest was deep and dark as he headed toward the mountain. He still had several hours of daylight left. He picked up the pace a little more as his legs began to loosen up. He jumped a stream that ran down from the mountain. Its gurgling water had a sound of peace. That is what he would find on the mountain. He would find a resolve and a calming force that would be a cleansing of his being, and then his being would be prepared for the ceremony of the Wolf Spirit.
The trail was good. It was a path that was well worn. It turned up now in a steeper grade. Still, he ran, legs churning and the heart pumping. He ran under large oak trees that lined the path with high canopies. The gray squirrels barked as he ran past them. He jumped a log that had been lying in the path ever since he was a boy. The wind was in his face, cooling him and invigorating his soul.
He ran on for a long time. Miles passed under his feet. He was climbing higher and higher. The air had a different smell up here. There was a freshness that took his spirit into another place.
He could see the bluffs now, and as he neared its base, he ran on. He got to the bluff and ran along the bottom of it for a long while. The rock face must be a hundred feet high, he thought. There was a fissure that split the rock face and formed a pathway up into the rocks. The path floor was covered with a layer of brown oak leaves that had fallen before last winter.
Now he climbed up the steep path. His bow and arrows hung over his left shoulder. His knife was in his belt. His war club was on his right shoulder, and last but not least was his medicine bag on his belt. His hands were free to brace himself between the two rock faces of the fissure. His legs pumped, like running up a long staircase, until he was at the top.
Now he was there. He was on top. He turned and looked out over the distant landscape. He could see the village far below. The Spirit of the Wind had an evident presence here. He could see the buzzards circling in the distance. Below him, he could hear and see the hawk as it flew along the base of the mountains and then out toward the cornfields.
The Spirit of the Sun was shining its rays down on him. He closed his eyes and soaked in its warmth. He sat down on the rock surface of the bluff and lay back. The rock was warmed by the sun, and now it was warm and pleasant to him. He was here and the place was in him. He was a part of its spirit. A trance came over him, produced by the rays of the sun and the power of the wind. He was here, and then he was somewhere else at the same time. His spirit had found a higher place; he was at one with the earth.
He lay there for a long while – feeling and not feeling, hearing and not hearing, thinking and not thinking. His eyes closed, and yet he was seeing. His soul and spirit were being purged, cleansed, and cleared. He was entranced by the spirit of the natural earth.
Back in the village, Red Talon came in with Three Baskets and the injured. The injured were brought to the square, and it was decided where they would stay the night. The badly injured were taken to the house of the aliktce to begin treatment for their wounds. Three Baskets came to the house of Waving Willow for the night. The children were glad to see her, even though she was not their mother.
The next day, things began to settle out even more. With the three children staying with Waving Willow, it was decided that Three Baskets would move next door to the house of Grazing Fawn. It would help out since Grazing Fawn had an elderly grandmother that was very ill. They needed someone to help take care of her.
Something else happened that day. Red Talon inquired of his sister, Waving Willow, about the clan and marital status of Three Baskets. He was unmarried and had been looking outside the village for a wife. There were single women in the village, but most of them were in the same clan as him and his sister, which meant they were not available for him. Two people of the same clan were not allowed to marry each other.
Back on the mountain the presence of the spirits had come to Wolf Eyes. He had been on top of the bluff in the sun, then in the moonlight and always in the ever-present wind.
Then came the next day and the next. Here, he stayed in this state for three days; in a state not induced by any drug, but by the shear will of the spirits. He was in commune with them – The Spirit of the Sun, the Spirit of the Moon and the Spirit of the Wind.
Then the time was ended. He was brought back by the Spirit of the Hawk as it flew in circles over him. It was calling him back with the peee sound that hawks make when they are hunting. It hovered there, its forward motion stalled by the blowing wind that rose up from the valley and over the top of the bluff.
“I see you, Hawk, and I feel your spirit. And you are telling me that it is time to go.”
He got up and gathered up his gear, putting the bow and the quiver of arrows on his left shoulder. The war club he wore on his right shoulder, the knife in its sheath, and the medicine bag in his belt.
Wolf Eyes began the climb down the mountain – his mind and body now ready for the conquest.