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Show 398 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF " I should certainly take my warriors," I replied, " and go and avenge your loss." "That is just what I was going to do for your relatives, friends, and nation. Now punish me if I have done wrong." I had nothing to say in answer, and my head again fell-the spell was not yet broken. The Crow Belt, an old and crafty brave, whispered to a young warrior, who rose in silence, and immediately left the fort. Mrs. Tulleck shortly presented herself, and commenced tantalizing the Crows. "What are your warriors waiting for, who have been thirsting so many suns to kill the whites? You have been brave for a long while; where is all your bravery now? The gates are set wide open, and only three have joined the few whites whom you thirsted to kill; why don't you begin? What are you afraid of?" She continued in this aggravating strain, the warriors hearing it all, although they did not appear to notice her. The woman's voice was agreeably relieved by tones uttered outside the gate, which at that moment fell upon my ear, and which I readily recognized as the voice of Pine Leaf. She was haranguing her warriors in an animated manner, and delivering what, in civilized life, would be called her valedictory address. " Warriors ! " she said, " I am now about to make a great sacrifice for my people. For many winters I have been on the war-path with you; I shall tread that path no more; you have now to fight the enemy without me. When I laid down my needle and my beads, and took up the battle-axe and the lance, my arm was weak; but few winters had passed over my head. My brother had been killed by the enemy, and was gone JAMES P. BECKWOUR'fH. 399 to the hunting-ground of the Great Sp~rit. . I s_aw him in my dreams. lie would be~kon !or hts stster_ to come to him. It was my heart s desue to go to h1m, but I wished first to become a warrior, that I might avenge his death upon his foes before I went away. " I said I would kill one hundred foes before I married any living man. I have more than kept my word, as our o-reat chief and medicine men can tell you. As my ar~ increased in strength, the enemy learned to fear me. I have accomplished the task I set before me; henceforward I leave the war-paths of my people; I have fought my last battle, and hurled my last lance; I am a warrior no more. " To-day the Medicine Calf has returned. He has returned angry at the follies of his people, ~nd they fear that he will ao-ain leave them. They beheve that he loves me, and ~hat my devotion to him will attach him to the nation. I therefore bestow myself upon him; perhaps he will be contented '''ith me, and will leave us no more. Warriors, farewell ! " She then entered the fort, and said, "Sparrow hawks, one who has followed you for many winters is about to leave your war-path forever. When have you seen Bar-chee-am-pe shrink from the charge? You have seen her lance reel with the blood of the enemy more than ten times ten. You know what her vow was, and you know she has kept her word. Many of you have tried to make her break her word, which you knew she had passed to the Great Spirit when she lost her brother. But you found that, though a woman, she had the· heart of a warrior. "Do not turn your heads, but listen. You have seen that a woman can keep her word. During the many winters that I have followed you faithfully in J |
