Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant

by Mathew Joseph Holt

  CHAPTER VI.--The Children.

  Logan had brought the two captive children directly to Shauane-Town. Asthey were too young to effect their escape, they were allowed to wanderat will in and around the village, where they played with and weretreated as the native children.

  A week after his return, at a tribal council he referred to the massacreof his family at the mouth of Yellow Creek, spoke of his presentloneliness and asked to adopt the two children as his own, saying: "* ** They are so young they will soon forget their own people and languageand I shall bring them up as my own children." His request having beengranted the two children were brought before the council.

  The adoption of the girl was quite simple; she was stripped of herclothing and sent out naked to play with the other little girls. Theboy's adoption was more formal. After being stripped he was seated inthe center of the council; two old squaws, called in for the purpose,deliberately plucked out his curls, strand by strand, until only thescalp lock was left; a small tuft, three inches in diameter on hiscrown, which was stiffened and discolored with an ointment of graphiteand bear grease, then certain tribal designs were painted upon his bodywith the juice of the puccoon root. This completed the ceremony.

  They were just sending him out, when a very old and highly respectedmedicine man, the chief priest of the nation, and to whom wereattributed occult powers of a high order; came into the council hall andwalking over to the boy, stooped and removed from his neck a gold chainto which was attached a cross of ebony and pearl; this he examinedcarefully. Then turning to the council he said: "This child is of thesacred priesthood. He has the look in his face and eyes and his body iswithout blemish, as is required by the order. Let no one do him harm orcross his will, because in what he does he will be guided by the GreatSpirit. The night before Logan brought him I saw the boy in a dream andwas told of his coming and his mission. It is one of peace. He will bethe friend of all men; of Long Knives and Indians alike. He does notknow your language and will be carried home by Logan before the flyingof the cahonks or the first snow-fall. By then he will speak your tongueas well as your own children and will never forget a word. It is thewill of the Great Spirit. In proof that what I say is true, as he stepsover the threshold of your council lodge he will drop as one dead; andfor some days will lie in coma. When this passes he will not speak thelanguage of the Long Knives so long as he remains with you. You will seein him many things that are strange; because his are a mind and spiritthat see where yours cease seeing."

  After mumbling certain incantations which no one understood, he drewfrom his girdle a case made from a hollow bone and taking from itneedles of fish bone and certain pigments; tattooed upon the chest ofthe boy an enlarged likeness of the cross he wore; and beneath itpricked the tribal sign of the Mingo priesthood. All this the little boyendured without outcry, though his face was ashy pale and his colorlesslips moved in prayer.

  Then the priest took from his own waist a girdle of wampum of unusualpattern and fastened it about the waist of the boy and extending hishands above the boy's head, murmured yet more of his incantations. Thenindicating the ceremony was completed, walked away.

  The boy was told to go to his lodge. As he stepped over the threshold hedropped apparently lifeless; and no wonder; he had been subjected to aterrible strain and his blood was filled with impure pigments.

  He was carried by Logan to their lodge and placed upon a pallet of deerskins. An old woman was called to attend him. He lay in a deep sleepuntil sundown, when he sat up and was given food and drink. A fewminutes later he dropped back into unconsciousness which lasted foreighteen hours; at the end of which time, rousing from his torpor, hewalked to a brook, where he bathed, removing all the grease and pigment.The tattooed cross and Mingo tribal signs stood out upon his body like agreat blotch of blood on a statue of white marble. He returned to hispallet, smiled at Dorothy and after eating slept again.

  For several days he was in a stupor and slept much of the time. At theend of a week the tattooed marks were no longer inflamed and he hadrecovered.

  Not far from the village on the brow of a hill was a green mound, whichrumor said was a place of burial; though the Indians knew not whatpeople had made or used it. As the view from its summit was extensive,the timber having been burned away, the mound was used for signal firesand because of superstition, never visited except for that purpose.

  John Calvin, who was the only child in the village permitted to go wherehe pleased, even to the council lodge and that of the medicine man, eachday climbed to the summit and for an hour or more sat upon the signalrock, scarcely moving, lost in dreams or visions. The whole tribewatched him with superstitious awe.

  Rumor of the child's strange conduct spread throughout the Mingo nationand fierce, wild chiefs and warriors would watch him seated in silenceupon the mound and as he walked about the village deferentially maderoom for him. They said: "The boy is so different from other LongKnives, he says nothing, they talk all the time."

  Dorothy grew half afraid of her old playmate, who when she spoke to himin English answered by a word or two in the Mingo tongue if he answeredat all, having very quickly picked up a few common words. When he wasnot alone upon the mound they would go to the playground of the childrenand listen to and watch them. It was thus they learned to speak thelanguage, he very quickly and Dorothy more slowly. In a little whilethey were playing with the Indian children, usually on or in the river;and both soon learned to swim and to paddle about in small canoes.

  While they were prisoners at Shauane-Town the widow of Pukeshirrwan,whose husband was killed in the battle of Point Pleasant, gave birth tothree posthumous children, one of whom was the Prophet. Dorothy grewvery fond of the three little babies and spent much of her time playingthe part of nurse to them.

  Tecumseh, a brother of the three babies, was of the same age and aplayfellow of the prisoners. Between them a friendship grew up, whichlasted until he was killed at the battle of the Thames.

  These Indian children were of the family or totem of the Panther. Thename Tecumseh for a while was applied to all the male children of thefamily and meant flying across. When John Calvin was dedicated to thepriesthood, he was adopted into their family instead of Logan's; andunder the cross on his breast was inscribed the sign of the Panther.

  The young prisoners throughout the summer into mid-September ran naked,grew dark of skin and lapsed into the habits and speech of the Indianchildren. It seemed they were beginning to forget their own people. Theywere even taken with a hunting party into the country south of the "Oyo"into the land Kentucke, given in Charlevoix's map of New France as the"Pays du Chouarrons" (Land of the Shauanese). Here while hunting, a fawnclosely pursued ran to John Calvin, who put his arms about it and wouldnot let it be killed. After the hunters left he turned it loose.

  When the weather grew frosty they were dressed in doe skin clothing andmoccasins, ornamented as those of a chief's children; and slept on abear skin wrapped in a vividly colored blanket, purchased from a Frenchtrader at Chicasaw Falls.

  One morning in early November they were roused from sleep by Logan andtold they were to be carried home across the great mountain. Many of thetribe gathered to see them off. Tecumseh gave John a bow, quiver andarrows and to Dorothy beaded moccasins. The priest took the old girdlefrom around him and in its place substituted a new one; which in signlanguage recited that he had been adopted into the family of the Pantherand belonged to the Mingo priesthood. He was told to preserve and wearit and that no Indian henceforth would harm him.

  The children were placed upon a doe skin pallet in the bottom of thecanoe; then Logan and the two Indians who had helped kidnap them tooktheir seats in the canoe, which, shoved from the shore, glided out intothe river, and was soon paddled out of sight around a bend of the river;their Indian friends standing on the bank and watching until itdisappeared.

  Twelve days later they reached the head of canoe travel on the Kanawhaand rested for the night. The next morning at first light, Logan witht
he two children, leaving the two Indians, traveled eastward along anarrow trail, following the stream until it became a mountain torrent,dashing in spray over boulders and down declivities. At night they sleptat its very head under an overhanging cliff, from the foot of which theriver's first waters gurgled forth.

  Mid-afternoon of the next day they crossed the divide through the pass;and from a projecting rock on the eastern slope saw again their own homeand below in the Valley, the church and school house of the settlement.

  Richard Cameron was milking the cows. He saw Jerry run up the mountainpath and heard several glad, sharp barks. He looked up and saw anIndian, whom he recognized as Logan, and accompanying him two smallIndian children.

  The children ran forward, the dog barking and frisking at their heels.When they were near they called out: "Hello, Richard! Hello, Mr. Mason!"and together they all ran to the house.

  For the moment Logan was forgotten. He seated himself on a log near thegate. In a short while Captain Campbell came out and cordially thoughformally greeted him. He remained some weeks a welcome guest.

  Mrs. Campbell was too happy to sleep soundly that night. Sometime aftermidnight, she heard the "Cahonk, cahonk" of the wild geese flyingsouthward, the first of the season.