Part 23 (1/2)

Young Wampum sat erect then. He knew the tale was going to be a good one.

Teasingly, old Fire-Flower took an unnecessarily long time to ”light up,” but his two auditors were Indians, like himself, and had patience with his whims. Then the great hunter settled himself, and began his story by shaking his head, boastingly, and chuckling:

”It was two white men, and, as usual, they knew nothing, but they had good guns, and a fine canoe, and they paddled many days to get to the 'Indian Bush' to hunt. I was up there, across from the island in the river, when I first saw them, and their faces were paler than any paleface I ever saw before or since. It seems they had pulled up on the sh.o.r.e, built a little campfire to make their tea and to eat, when out of the bush arose a big black bear, gruffing and grunting and eating berries. When they saw it they gave a worse war-whoop than the Cherokees ever did. They reached for their guns, then started to shake and tremble as though the bush ague were upon them. 'He's chewing!' yelled one.

'He's chewing at us, he'll eat us alive.' But the other put on a face like a great brave. 'We'll kill him,' he said with great boasting.

'That's what we came for, to kill bears.' But just then the bear came towards them, still eating his berries. They were too scared to fire.

One just struck him over the head with his gun, then they both turned and made for the canoe. The blow made the bear angry as the Thunder G.o.d, and before they could push off sh.o.r.e the bear got his claws on the edge of the canoe, and away they all went sailing into midstream, the palefaces paddling for all their lives, and the black bear clinging on to the canoe. In their fright they had left their guns ash.o.r.e, and while one paddled, the other beat the bear's head with the paddle blade.

It was then that I first saw them. I stood on the sh.o.r.e with a very sickness from laughter in all my bones.” Here he ceased talking, for Fish-Carrier and Wampum had broken into such bursts of merriment that Fire-Flower was compelled to join them.

”Oh, that I could have seen them, that I could have seen it all!” moaned Fish-Carrier between gasps. ”That must have been a thing to make men laugh for many moons.” But Wampum said nothing; it was not the etiquette of his race that he should join in the talk of older men, unasked, but he, too, gulped down his uproarious laughter while Fire-Flower proceeded.

”The black bear was getting the best of them, for the beating on the head maddened him. He began to climb up the edge of the canoe, and his great weight was beginning to overbalance it. I called to them, but as I do not speak the white man's language, they did not understand. Fear gripped at their hearts, and, as the bear climbed into the canoe, they leaped into the river and swam for sh.o.r.e, while the canoe drifted slowly down stream, the big black bear seated proudly within it like some great brave who had scalped his enemies.”

Another outburst of mirth shook his listeners.

”I am an old man,” continued Fire-Flower, ”but I have never seen anything which made me laugh so hard, so long, so loud. The palefaces swam back to their camp and their guns, calling out to me over and over to save their canoe for them. So I put out in my own dugout and gave chase. I caught their canoe, overturned it, and into the water rolled the bear. Then as he came at me, catching my canoe in his big claws, I just drowned him the old Indian way.”*

[*The above incident really occurred on the Grand River, about the year 1850, the writer's father having witnessed it.]

More laughter greeted this. Then young Wampum made bold to speak. ”My uncle,” he addressed Fire-Flower, ”I am but a boy, only beginning to hunt, though the great braves have been kind in giving me praise for what I have done already, but I am full of ignorance when compared to you and the great hunters; so, to help me in the days to come, will you not tell me how you drowned the bear, for I do not know all these things?”

”A fine boy, Wampum is. He knows whom to ask advice and learning from,”

said Fire-Flower pompously, greatly pleased at the boy's flattery. ”It is an easy thing to do, to drown a bear,” he said. ”The frailest canoe is safe even in the clutches of the fiercest. Just lay your paddle lightly across the bear's neck, back of his ears. He will at once catch at it each side with his claws, and he will pull, pull his own head under water. The more he struggles the deeper he sinks.”

”Yes, that is the Indian fas.h.i.+on of killing a bear in midstream,” echoed Fish-Carrier, ”and it is a great thing for a hunter to know.”

”Thank you for telling me,” said the boy, rising to take his leave. ”I value all this wisdom I can learn from my own people.”

”And where do you go now, Wampum?” asked Fire-Flower. ”Will you not stay and learn more wise things? You are brave, and we like you to hear us talk.”

”And your talk is good,” replied the boy, smiling. ”You make me feel like the laughing loon bird, when you tell your tales and smile and laugh yourselves. But I must leave you. I am to drive the missionary to-day. He goes to the Delaware line once more.”

”Ha! The Delawares!” sneered old Fire-Flower. ”I like not those Delawares. They wors.h.i.+p idols. It is not good to dance around idols.”

”Not good,” again echoed Fish-Carrier.

”Still the Delawares are not really bad people,” said Wampum. ”I don't like their hideous idol, and some day I hope to see it cut down,” he added earnestly.

”Then it will be a brave man who will do it,” a.s.serted Fire-Flower. ”The Delawares are a fierce tribe. Their eyes are too black. They cannot be trusted. We Mohawks are brave, but I know of none who would dare cut down that idol.”

”I hope the Black Coat* won't try it himself,” said Fish-Carrier.

”He is a good man. I don't want to see the Delawares kill him.”

[*The Indians call missionaries ”The Black Coats.”]

”He certainly _will_ try it himself,” said Wampum. ”His heart is set on turning the dark Delaware to his Christianity.”

Fire-Flower sneered. ”How little those white men know, even such great white men as the Black-Coat!” he remarked loftily. ”He thinks because the Mohawks all turned to his Christianity, that he can get the dark Delawares. He seems to think there is small difference in Indians, that they are all alike. He does not know that we Mohawks despise the Delawares because they wors.h.i.+p idols. Before we were Christians we wors.h.i.+pped the Great Spirit, the G.o.d of all good, but _never_ idols.