Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER NINE.

  In the remarks which I am about to make relative to the Shoshones, I mayas well observe that the same observations will equally apply to theComanches, Apaches, and Arrapahoes, as they are but subdivisions andoffsets from the original stock--the Shoshones. The Wakoes, who havenot yet been mentioned, or even seen, by any other travellers, I shallhereafter describe.

  I may as well here observe, that although the Shoshones are always atpeace with the Comanches and Apaches, they had for a long while been atwar with their descendants, the Arrapahoes, as well as the whole of theDacotah and Algonquin tribes, as the Crows and Rickarees, Black-feet,Nez-perces, and others.

  First, as to their religion--a question highly interesting, and perhapsthrowing more light upon their origin than can be collected fromtradition, manners, and customs. From my knowledge of the Indians, Ibelieve them, if not more religious, most certainly to be moreconscientious, than most Christians. They all believe in one God--Manitou, the author of good, and worship him as such; but believing thathuman nature is too gross to communicate with the Arbitrator of allthings, they pray generally through the intervention of the elements oreven of certain animals, in the same manner that the Catholics addressthemselves to their saints.

  The great Manitou is universal among this family and indeed among allthe savage tribes of North America. The interceding spirit alonevaries, not with the tribe and nation, but according to individualselection. Children are taught to know "Kishe Manito" (the Almighty),but no more. When the boy is verging upon manhood, he selects his ownpersonal deity, or household god, which is made known to him in hisdreams. When he states his intention of seeking the spirit, the parentsof the young man order him to fast for three days; then they take awayhis bow and arrows, and send him far into the woods, the mountains, orthe prairies, to wait for the visitation.

  An empty stomach and inaction in the lone wilderness are certain toproduce reveries and waking dreams. If the young man is thirsty, hethinks of water; of fire or sunshine, if he feels cold; of buffalo orfish, if he is hungry. Sometimes he meets with some reptile, and uponany one of these or other natural causes or productions, his imaginationwill work, until it becomes wholly engrossed by it.

  Thus fire and water, the sun or the moon, a star, a buffalo, or asnake--any one of them, will become the subject of his thoughts, andwhen he sleeps, he naturally dreams of that object which he has beenbrooding over.

  He then returns home, engraves upon a stone, a piece of wood, or a skin,the form of this "spirit" which his dream has selected for him, wears itconstantly on his person, and addresses it, not as a god, but as anintercessor, through which his vows, must pass before they can reach thefearful Lord of all things.

  Some men among the Indians acquire, by their virtues and the regularityof their lives, the privilege of addressing the Creator without anyintervention, and are admitted into the band, headed by the masters ofceremonies and the presidents of the sacred lodges, who receiveneophytes and confer dignities. Their rites are secret; none but amember can be admitted. These divines, as of old the priest of Isis andOsiris, are deeply learned; and truly their knowledge of natural historyis astonishing. They are well acquainted with astronomy and botany, andkeep the records and great transactions of the tribes, employing certainhieroglyphics, which they paint in the sacred lodges, and which none buttheir caste or order can decipher.

  Those few who, in their journey in the wilderness, have "dreamt" of asnake and made it their "spirit," become invariably "Medecines." Thisreptile, though always harmless in the western countries (except in someparts of the mountains on the Columbia, where the rattle-snake abounds),has ever been looked upon with dread by the Indians, who associate itwith the evil spirit. When "Kishe Manito" (the good God) came uponearth, under the form of a buffalo, to alleviate the sufferings of thered man, "kinebec" (the serpent), the spirit of evil, gave him battle.This part of their creed alone would almost establish their Brahminicorigin.

  The "Medecine" inspires the Indian with awe and dread; he is respected,but he has no friends, no squaws, no children. He is the man of darkdeeds, he that communes with the spirit of evil: he takes his knowledgefrom the earth, from the fissures of the rocks, and knows how to combinepoisons; he alone fears not "Anim Teki" (thunder). He can cure diseasewith his spells, and with them he can kill also; his glance is that ofthe snake, it withers the grass, fascinates birds and beasts, troublesthe brain of man, and throws in his heart, fear and darkness.

  The Shoshone women, as well as the Apache and Arrapahoe, all of whom areof the Shoshone race, are very superior to the squaws of the EasternIndians. They are more graceful in their forms, and have more personalbeauty. I cannot better describe them than by saying that they havemore similitude to the Arabian women than any other race. They are veryclean in their persons and in their lodges; and all their tribes havingboth male and female slaves, the Shoshone wife is not broken down byhard labour, as are the squaws of the eastern tribes; to their husbandsthey are most faithful, and I really believe that any attempt upon theirchastity would prove unavailing. They ride as bravely as the men, andare very expert with the bow and arrow. I once saw a very beautifullittle Shoshone girl, about ten years old, the daughter of a chief, whenher horse was at full speed, kill, with her bow and arrow, in the courseof a minute or two, nine out of a flock of wild turkeys which she was inchase of.

  Their dress is both tasteful and chaste. It is composed of a looseshirt, with tight sleeves, made of soft and well-prepared doe-skin,almost always dyed blue or red; this shirt is covered from the waist bythe toga, which falls four or six inches below the knee, and is madeeither of swan-down, silk, or woollen stuff; they wear leggings of thesame material as the shirt, and cover their pretty little feet withbeautifully-worked mocassins; they have also a scarf, of a fine richtexture, and allow their soft and long raven hair to fall luxuriantlyover their shoulder, usually ornamented with flowers, but sometimes withjewels of great value; their andes and wrists are also encircled bybracelets; and indeed to see one of these young and graceful creatures,with her eyes sparkling and her face animated with the exercise of thechase, often recalled to the mind a nymph of Diana, as described byOvid.

  [The Comanches women very much resemble the common squaws, being shortand broad in figure. This arises from the Comanches secluding thewomen, and not permitting them air and exercise.]

  Though women participate not in the deeper mysteries of religion, someof them are permitted to consecrate themselves to this divinity, and tomake vows of chastity, as the vestals of Paganism or the nuns of theCatholic convents. But there is no seclusion. They dress as men,covered with leather from head to foot, a painting of the sun on theirbreasts. These women are warriors, but never go out with the parties,remaining always behind to protect the villages. They also live alone,are dreaded, but not loved. The Indian hates anything or any body thatusurps power, or oversteps those bounds which appear to him as naturaland proper, or who does not fulfil what he considers as their intendeddestiny.

  The fine evenings of summer are devoted, by the young Indian, tocourtship. When he has made his choice, he communicates it to hisparents, who take the business into their bands. Presents are carriedto the door of the fair one's lodge; if they are not accepted, there isan end to the matter, and the swain must look somewhere else; if theyare taken in, other presents are returned, as a token of agreement.These generally consist of objects of women's workmanship, such asgarters, belts, mocassins, etcetera; then follows a meeting of theparents, which terminates by a speech from the girl's father, whomentions his daughter as the "dove," or "lily," or "whisper of thebreeze," or any other pretty Indian name which may appertain to her.She has been a good daughter, she will be a dutiful wife; her blood isthat of a warrior's; she will bear noble children to her husband, andsing to them his great deeds, etcetera, etcetera. The marriage-dayarrives at last; a meal of roots and fruits is prepared; all are presentexcept the bridegroom, whose arms, saddles, and prope
rty are placedbehind the fair one. The door of the lodge is open, its threshold linedwith flowers; at sunset the young man presents himself; with greatgravity of deportment. As soon as he has taken a seat near the girl,the guests beg in eating but in silence; but soon a signal is given bythe mothers, each guest rises, preparatory to retiring. At that moment,the two lovers cross their hands, and the husband speaks for the firsttime, interrogatively:--"Faithful to the lodge, faithful to the father,faithful to his children?" She answers softly "Faithful, ever faithful,in joy and in sorrow, in life and in death"--"Penir, penir-asha, sartirnu cohta, lebeck nu tanim." It is the last formula,--the ceremony isaccomplished. This may seem very simple and ridiculous; to me itappeared almost sublime. Opinions depend upon habits and education.

  The husband remains a whole year with his father-in-law, to whom belongsby right the produce of his hunting, both skins and flesh. The yearexpired, his bondage is over, and he may, if he wishes it, retire withhis wife to his own father's, or construct a lodge for his own use. Thehunter brings his game to his door, except when a heavy animal; thereends his task; the wife skins and cuts it, she dries the skin and curesthe meat. Yet if the husband is a prime hunter, whose time is precious,the woman herself, or her female relations, go out and seek the gamewhere it has been killed. When a man dies, his widow wears mourningduring two or four years; the same case happens with the male widower,only his duties are not so strict as that of a woman; and it oftenhappens that, after two years, he marries his sister-in-law, if there isany. The Indians think it a natural thing; they say that a woman willhave more care of her sister's children than of those of a stranger.Among the better classes of Indians, children are often affianced toeach other, even at the age of a few months. These engagements aresacred, and never broken.

  The Indians in general have very severe laws against murder, and theyare pretty much alike among the tribes; they are divided into twodistinct sections--murder committed in the nation and out of the nation.

  When a man commits a murder upon his own people, he runs away from histribe, or delivers himself to justice. In this latter case, the nearestrelation of the victim kills him openly, in presence of all thewarriors. In the first case, he is not pursued, but his nearestrelation is answerable for the deed, and suffers the penalty, if by agiven time he has not produced the assassin. The death isinstantaneous, from the blow of a tomahawk. Often the chief willendeavour to make the parties smoke the pipe of peace; if he succeeds,all ends here; if not, a victim must be sacrificed. It is a stern law,which sometimes brings with its execution many great calamities.Vengeance has often become hereditary, from generation to generation;murders have succeeded murders, till me of the two families has desertedthe tribe.

  It is, no doubt, owing to such circumstances that great families, orcommunities of savages bearing the same type and speaking the sametongue, have been subdivided into so many distinct tribes. Thus it hasbeen with the Shoshones, whose emigrant families have formed theComanches, the Apaches, and the Arrapahoes. The Tonquewas have sincesprung from the Comanches, the Lepans and the Texas from the Apaches,and the Navahoes from the Arrapahoes. The Texas are now extinct.Formerly there was a considerable tribe of Indians, by the name ofTexas, who have all disappeared, from continual warfare. Among theNadowessies or Dahcotahs, the subdivision has been still greater, thesame original tribe having given birth to the Konsas, the Mandans, theTetons, the Yangtongs, Sassitongs, Ollah-Gallahs, the Siones, the WallahWallahs, the Cayuses, the Black-feet, and lastly the Winnebagoes.

  The Algonquin species, or family, produced twenty-one different tribes;the Micmacs, Etchemins, Abenakis, Sokokis, Pawtucket, Pokanokets,Narragansets, Pequods, Mohegans, Lenilenapes, Nanticokes, Powatans,Shawnees, Miamis, Illinois, Chippewas, Ottawas, Menomonies, Sacs, Foxes,and the Kickapoos, which afterwards subdivided again into more than ahundred nations.

  But, to return to the laws of murder:--It often happens that the nephew,or brother of the murderer, will offer his life in expiation. Veryoften these self-sacrifices are accepted, principally among the poorerfamilies, but the devoted is not put to death, he only loses hisrelationship and connection with his former family; he becomes a kind ofslave or bondsman for life in the lodges of the relations of themurdered.

  Sometimes, too, the guilty man's life is saved by a singular and veryancient law; it, however, happens but rarely. If the murdered leaves awidow with children, this widow may claim the criminal as her own, andhe becomes her husband nominally, that is to say, he must hunt andprovide for the subsistence of the family.

  When the murderer belongs to a hostile tribe, war is immediatelydeclared; if, on the contrary, he belongs to a friendly nation, thetribe will wait three or four months till the chiefs of that nation cometo offer excuses and compensation. When they do this, they bringpresents, which they leave at time door of the council lodge, one sideof which is occupied by the relations of the victims, the other by thechiefs and warriors of the tribe, and the centre by the ambassadors.One of these opens the ceremony by pronouncing a speech of peace, whileanother offers the pipe to the relations. If they refuse it, and thegreat chief of the tribe entertains a particular regard for the othernation, he rises and offers himself to the relations the calumet ofconciliation. If refused still, all the children and babes of themurdered one's family are called into the lodge, and the pipe passed athird time in that part of the lodge. Then if a child even two or threemonths old touches it, the Indians consider the act as a decision of thegreat Master of Life, the pipe goes round, the presents are carried in,and put at the feet of the plaintiffs. When, on the contrary, thecalumet passes untouched, the murderer's life alone can satisfy thetribe.

  When the chiefs of the tribe of the murderer leave their village to comeand offer excuses, they bring with them the claimed victim, who is wellarmed. If he is held in high estimation, and has been a good warriorand a good man, the chiefs of his tribe are accompanied by a greatnumber of their own warriors, who paint their faces before entering thecouncil lodge; some in black with green spots, some all green (the pipeof peace is always painted green).

  The relations of the murdered man stand on one side of the lodge, thewarriors of the other tribe opposite to them. In the centre is thechief, who is attended by the bearer of the pipe of peace on one side ofhim, and the murderer on the other. The chief then makes a speech, andadvances with the pipe-bearer and the murderer towards the relatives ofthe deceased; he entreats them, each man separately, to smoke the pipewhich is offered by the pipe-bearer, and when refused, offered to thenext of the relatives.

  During this time the murderer, who is well armed, stands by the chief'sside, advancing slowly, with his arrow or his carbine pointed, ready tofire at any one of the relations who may attempt to take his life beforethe pipe has been refused by the whole of them. When such is the case,if the chiefs want peace, and do not care much for the murderer, theyallow him to be killed without interference; if, on the contrary, theyvalue him and will not permit his death, they raise the war-whoop, theirwarriors defend the murderer's life, and the war between the two tribesmay be said to have commenced.

  Most usually, however, the pipe of peace is accepted, in preference toproceeding to such extremities.

  I will now mention the arms and accoutrement of the Shoshone warriors,observing, at the same time, that my remarks refer equally to theApaches, the Arrapahoes, and the Comanches, except that the great skillof the Shoshones turns the balance in their favour. A Shoshone isalways on horseback, firmly sitting upon a small and light saddle of hisown manufacture, without any stirrups, which indeed they prefer not tohave, the only Indians using them being chiefs and celebrated warriors,who have them as a mark of distinction, the more so that a saddle andstirrups are generally trophies obtained in battle from a conqueredenemy.

  They have too good a taste to ornament their horses as the Mexicans theCrows, or the Eastern Indians do; they think that the natural grace andbeauty of the animal are such that any thing gaudy would brea
k itsharmony; the only mark of distinction they put upon their steeds (andthe chiefs only can do so) is a rich feather or two, or three quills ofthe eagle, fixed to the rosette of the bridle, below the left ear; andas a Shoshone treats his horse as a friend, always petting him, cleaninghim, never forcing or abusing him, the animal is always in excellentcondition, and his proud eyes and majestic bearing present to thebeholder the beau ideal of the graceful and the beautiful. The elegantdress and graceful form of the Shoshone cavalier, harmonises admirablywith the wild and haughty appearance of the animal.

  The Shoshone allows his well-combed locks to undulate with the wind,only pressed to his head by a small metal coronet, to which he fixesfeathers or quills, similar to those put to his horse's rosette. Thiscoronet is made either of gold or silver, and those who cannot afford touse these metals make it with swan-down or deer-skin, well prepared andelegantly embroidered with porcupine-quills; his arms are bare and hiswrists encircled with bracelets of the same material as the coronet; hisbody, from the neck to the waist, is covered with a small, soft,deerskin shirt, fitting him closely without a single wrinkle; from thewaist to the knee he wears a many-folded toga of black, brown, red, orwhite woollen or silk stuff, which he procures at Monterey or St.Francisco, from the Valparaiso and China traders, his leg from the ankleto the hip is covered by a pair of leggings of deer-skin, dyed red orblack with some vegetable acids, and sewed with human hair, which hangsflowing, or in tresses, on the outward side; these leggings are fasteneda little above the foot by other metal bracelets, while the foot isencased in an elegantly finished mocassin, often edged with smallbeautiful round crimson shells, no bigger than a pea, and found amongthe fossil remains of the country.

  Round his waist, and to sustain the toga, he wears a sash, generallymade by the squaws out of the slender filaments of the silk-tree, aspecies of the cotton-wood, which is always covered with long threads,impalpable, though very strong. These are woven together, and richlydyed. I am sure that in Paris or in London, these scarfs, which arefrom twelve to fifteen feet long, would fetch a large sum among theladies of the haut ton. I have often had one of them shut up in my handso that it was scarcely to be perceived that I had any thing enclosed inmy fist.

  Suspended to this scarf, they have the knife on the left side and thetomahawk on the right. The bow and quiver are suspended across theirshoulders by bands of swan-down three inches broad, while their longlance, richly carved, and with a bright copper or iron point, is carriedhorizontally at the side of the horse. Those who possess a carbine haveit fixed on the left side by a ring and a hook, the butt nearly close tothe sash, and the muzzle protruding a little before the knee.

  The younger warriors, who do not possess the carbine, carry in its steada small bundle of javelins (the jerrid of the Persians), with which theyare very expert, for I have often seen them, at a distance of ten feet,bury one more than two feet deep in the flanks of a buffalo. Tocomplete their offensive weapons, they have the lasso, a leather ropefifty feet long, and as thick as a woman's little finger, hanging fromthe pommel of their saddles; this is a terrible arm, against which thereis but little possibility of contending, even if the adversary possess arifle, for the casting of the lasso is done with the rapidity ofthought, and an attempt to turn round and fire would indubitably sealhis fate: the only means to escape the fatal noose is, to raise thereins of your horse to the top of your head, and hold any thingdiagonally from your body, such as the lance, the carbine, or any thingexcept the knife, which you must hold in your sight hand, ready for use.

  The chances then are: if the lasso falls above your head, it must slip,and then it is a lost throw, but if you are quick enough to pass yourknife through the noose, and cut it as it is dragged back, then theadvantage becomes yours, or, at least is equally divided, for then youmay turn upon your enemy, whose bow, lance, and rifle, for the bettermanagement of his lasso, have been left behind, or too firmly tied abouthim to be disengaged and used in so short a time. He can only opposeyou with the knife and tomahawk, and if you choose, you may employ yourown lasso; in that case the position is reversed; still the conquestbelongs to the most active of the two.

  It often happens, that after having cut the lasso and turned upon hisfoe, an Indian, without diminishing the speed of his horse, will pick upfrom the ground, where he has dropped it, his rifle or his lance; then,of course, victory is in his hands. I escaped once from being lassoedin that way. I was pursued by a Crow Indian; his first throw failed, sodid his second and his third; on the fourth, I cut the rope, andwheeling round upon him, I gave chase, and shot him through the bodywith one of my pistols. The noose at every cast formed such an exactcircle, and fell with such precision, the centre above my head, and thecircumference reaching from the neck to the tail of my horse, that if Ihad not thrown away my rifle, lance, bow, and quiver, I shouldimmediately have been dragged to the ground. All the western Indiansand Mexicans are admirably expert in handling this deadly weapon.

  Before the arrival of the Prince Seravalle, the Shoshones had bucklers,but they soon cast them aside as an incumbrance; the skill which waswasted upon the proper management of this defensive armour being nowapplied to the improved use of the lance. I doubt much, whether, in thetournaments of the days of chivalry, the gallant knights could show totheir lady-love greater skill than a Shoshone can exhibit when fightingagainst an Arrapahoe or a Crow.

  [The Crows, our neighbours, who are of the Dacotah race, are alsoexcellent horsemen, most admirably dressed and fond of show, but theycannot be compared to the Shoshones; they have not the same skill, and,moreover, they abuse and change their horses so often that the poorbrutes are never accustomed to their masters.]

  But the most wonderful feat of the Shoshone, and also of the Comancheand Apache, is the facility with which he will hang himself alongsidehis horse in a charge upon an enemy, being perfectly invisible to him,and quite invulnerable, except through the body of his horse. Yet inthat difficult and dangerous position he will use any of his arms withprecision and skill. The way in which they keep their balance is verysimple; they pass their right arm, to the very shoulder, through thefolds of the lasso, which, as I have said, is suspended to the pommel orround the neck of the horse; for their feet they find a support in thenumerous loops of deer-skin hanging from the saddle; and thus suspended,the left arm entirely free to handle the bow, and the right one verynearly so, to draw the arrow, they watch their opportunity, and unlesspreviously wounded, seldom miss their aim.

  I have said that the Shoshones threw away their bucklers at theinstigation of the Prince Seravalle, who also taught them the Europeancavalry tactics. They had sense enough to perceive the advantage theywould gain from them, and they were immediately incorporated, as far aspossible, with their own.

  The Shoshones now charge in squadrons with the lance, form squares,wheel with wonderful precision, and execute many difficult manoeuvres;but as they combine our European tactics with their own Indian mode ofwarfare, one of the most singular sights is to witness the disappearancebehind their horses, after the Indian fashion, of a whole body ofperhaps five hundred horse when in full charge. The effect is moststrange; at one moment, you see the horses mounted by gallant fellows,rushing to the conflict; at a given signal, every man has disappeared,and the horses, in perfect line appear as if charging, without riders,and of their own accord, upon the ranks of the enemy.

  I have dwelt perhaps too long upon the manners and habits of thesepeople; I cannot help, however, giving my readers a proof of theknowledge which the higher classes among them really possess. I havesaid that they are good astronomers, and I may add that their intuitiveknowledge of geometry is remarkable. I once asked a young chief what heconsidered the height of a lofty pine. It was in the afternoon, aboutthree o'clock. He walked to the end of the shadow thrown by thepine-tree, and fixed his arrow in the ground, measured the length of thearrow, and then the length of the shadow thrown by it; then measuringthe shadow of the pine, he deducted from it in the same propor
tion asthe difference between the length of the arrow, and the length of itsshadow, and gave me the result. He worked the Rule of Three withoutknowing it.

  But the most remarkable instance occurred when we were about to cross awide and rapid river, and required a rope to be thrown across, as a stayto the men and horses. The question was, what was the length of therope required; i.e., what was the width of the river? An old chiefstepped his horse forward, to solve the problem, and he did it asfollows:--He went down to the side of the river, and fixed upon a spotas the centre; then he selected two trees, on the right and left, on theother side, as near as his eye could measure equidistant from where hestood. Having so done, he backed his horse from the river, until hecame to where his eye told him that he had obtained the point of anequilateral triangle. Thus, in the diagram, he selected the two trees,A and B, walked back to E, and there fixed his lance. He then fell backin the direction E D, until he had, as nearly as he could tell, made thedistance from A E equal to that from E D, and fixed another lance. Thesame was repeated to E C, when the last lance was fixed. He then had aparallelogram; and as the distance from F to E was exactly equal to thedistance from E to G, he had but to measure the space between the bankof the river and F, and deduct it from E G, and he obtained the width ofthe river required.

  I do not think that this calculation, which proved to be perfectlycorrect, occupied the old chief more than three minutes, and it must beremembered that it was done in the face of the enemy: but I resume myown history.