| OCR Text |
Show ( 36 ) talked about ten minutes, and then returned with an answer· \vhicJ confirmed what he had said before. When they \Vere come nea1 enough to see c,·ery one of us read v to fiaht and even our squa\-v:l . I • h . I J 0 ' ;-~rmcu \Vlt pr~to s, th('y stopped, :llld imrncdiatcly began a ferocious " ·ar-dancc, wh1ch they ac ompanicd with ~he hide?us w~r-whoop, that tllade onr marrow bones shake, but without frwhtcrunp; us in ~~:on '?CJ ~encc of Waanntn:t's pcrst~asion o\ this being o~ly a m~ck~ry . We sat reildy ot~ our mules, wrth our frn g!:rs on the tri~~ers of our doublc-baJTclled nflcs, and upon Carrel's " ·urd "Fire!', all t he:;e fter~e and ~avage dancers would perhaps have rolled in the dust from whteh their heavy tr:ads had kickeu up a p;ray cloud, that ;!tould l1ave been outdone by~ a denser cloud of gunpowder smoke from our fire-arms. After th.cir. dance, they stared at us, quite arnazed and puzzled at our cool Hlddfcrence-which was indeed so relyirw upon \.Yaanataa's word, that Manuel had even dismounted and ~ade a l'ke.tch of the war-dane~ while it was going on, with the drawing of \;h1ch, h~ favour.ed our JOUrnal. Whereupon Waanataa, accortling to Carrels rnstructwns, made the following speech: "Mandans! you are great fools! You think that my white brothers fear ~ou beca.use you dance before them and let yonr war\~ ho~p. sound wto t.herr cars. You arc mistaken. They know that } ou a1 c poor ~~·etches, and the la~t one~ of your tribe, protected only by the R1ccarees. lf my wh1te b1·others will thev can shoot ~~u. all do.wn at once, like mad dogs! Therefore, b~·w~n=c! Do not (. ~Ctte th e i~: an~c~·! . Look at them! rr. you behave peaceably, they at e your frrends, for th ey h:rve come wrth peaceful intentions only ~~·go. t~1rou~l_1 the .l11dian country beyond the mountains, whcr~ they Ill JOin tlw1r white brothers. But you sec they arc ready to fight :~s l~rnve men and wa1:riors of their great Father, who has more wnr~ ~rots than. all the Indwns to:.rcther;-and he can avenae any wronrr ~?e to hrs children, if any of you, or other fools dare t~ attack therr~ ; .. ~nd ~vhat 1 say ! . Now go and tell that to your friends, the Ric-ateef · lf they will peaceably trade with their white friends, they 1• ay. 1ave blankets and other such goods, but no arms, in cxch:w l r VIctuals and an i1u als' feed. l have spoken"' gt: r \tV ~anata~'~ natural , c~o9uenee had the cles.in:d effect, and 1 hese crocrous "'aJ -dancers rew suddenly as tame as beaten dogs 1.,hr· th rew a w , 1 h · · '-· Y 3) err arms, an slowly appronched our company amon1.1 ~.:!~?'~they appeared as.humble. beggars. \Ve gave them son~e trifle~ f . c ~ve c.ould spare, lor nothrng, a11d bade them go ahead and int0~'. 1.1 t. E~ R1ccarees of our good intentions in passing throu)!.h their c JitOly. But \~· c never saw any of the latter Indians, 'vvho had ~~~bably dbeen. fn.e;htencd by the report of the Manda.ns on our ac- >re:~t, an rel~r~d out of our way; for we fou.ntl only the traces of a I At large vdl~ge, some days after our meetrng with the M<:tndaus hras~~L~tr t~e mrd_dle of December, we reached, at length, the N;~ I ·d Fllatte rr ve.r, along whose southern shore we would travel t ohw aI1 t" s .-~ ort fL Nam , mre.. A ccor <.1"I n g t o tl le map, we were now J. u::;t ifl e a 1 tuue o ew york Now we continued ou; march upwards, along the southern shore ( 37 ) of the Platte River, whose dirly-yellow water was not very agreeable for drinking, although good cnou rh for cooking and washing, which business was done by our excellent squa 's, to our· great comfort. Gaston's fancy or idea, to full in love \vith Ahiba~ll, and the uxample he set to his imitators, Arland and Urban, in getting married, was nuw, even better than at first, approved; although from rather selfish motives on our part. But we \<\ere also pleased with the company of the young ladies on account of their manifold iutcllectual charms, and the natural common sense which they occa- 1:\ionlllly exhibited, in judging of thitlg. they had never known before. Adt1m had, a long; time ago, laboured under the desire to hear an Indi:-~n mother's n1ourning song, at. the death or the corpse of her baby, which song, he had been told, was q11itc peculiar ami interestin( J· for guropcans and their descendants. He ~took this opportunity tu t~lct VYaanataa requt• ,t the sqnaws to favour us with such a song, hut Ahibah, Lea and Ota positively refused to colllply \\ ith there' 1uest, giving, q11ite naturally and freely. as a prevalent motive for heit· refusal, that any newly married wife, or even any youug and veL single squaw would become, in advance, her own infunticide by ~i nginf!; such a mourning song. "Well," saiJ l\1axle, with a shrewc.Jnes::; which was quite unnatural in him, and certaiuly inconsistent w ilh the feelings of his heart, "As Yonka will never marry any man, !d her comply vvith Adam's request; there can be no harm for her iu doint:; so." \Vaan3laa interpretell, with a passive indifferen ce, every W<.trd to Yonka, who could nol help caslillg a look of di::;pleasure at Maxie; whereupon the other squaws exch~lUJ!;C d some lively words with each olhcr, and then they spoke all tog,ether, at the same lime, to her, f: \·ident.lv for the purpose of persuading her not to comply \vith Adam's "' rcq11est, and rvlaxle's pretension, these nantes being rneulioncd several titnes iu th ir discussion, which Wa:lrll:ltaa would not i11terprct to us. But he s3id a few words to Yonka, who lisll:ncd to him wilh a SCI'iOUS countenance and downC:lSt eyes, t at grew dim <tv ith tears of disappointed love. While we were all sittin~ ilroullll in a painful silence, fur some minutes, she seemed to stru~~le, but at length to a~ree with her:;elf again, although she was u.nable to che~l· her tears, that gaYe a peculiar charm to the son~, wluch she sang tu broken setllcn,.e::;, immediately ttanslated by Waauataa. "Great Spi rit! listen to my plaintive cry !-I mourn anJ weep fll t' my uaby.-Look! how many tear~ drop from n1y eyes !-I ar~1 a pour molhcr, with a brolwll h~~art !-For thou ha::;l taken my darlw~ away from my mo~herly breast !-l\ly n;t?y's life b gau thro~tgh the t 'IH.ler breath of hllll \\'ho lo \ es me !-1 he cry of our· darlrnur was for me svvl:etet' thatl the ~ay voice of a meadow-lark in the spring! .l~at. ure i · now for me a valley of death all around!" Yonka ::;ang the Ja .-t scnten<~e particularly with a tremulous voice, hal moved a'it our hearts, and filled them with a f, iendly sympathy fur het· own ~rief, a11d Wa.an:Jt<la look.etl more serious than eve•·~ vrobably thinkin~ of Diora and Diaro, whose memory was to hi n a .double C;lUSe or grief. Every one of us, perhaps lVlaxle excepted, |
