COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES
NOW that we have learned about the serious part of camping, hiking and
woodcraft, about fire-building, cooking and axe work, we will leave the
long trail and the hard trail and dump our duffel bag in a recreation
camp, a Boy Scout camp, a Y.M.C.A. camp, or a school camp, and after we
have pitched our tent and arranged our cot to suit our own convenience
and everything is ship-shape for the night, it is time for us to get
busy on our "good turn" and do something for the crowd.
Like the great Boy Scout Movement, the council fire is also a product
of America. The council fires were burning all over this land when
Columbus discovered America. It was around the council fires that the
Indians gathered in solemn conclave to consult and discuss the affairs
of their tribes.
Originally the council ground was surrounded by a palisade; that is,
the fire was in the center of a circular fort. Around this fire the old
men of the tribe made their eloquent addresses; also around this fire
the warriors danced the scalp dance, the corn dance, the buffalo dance,
and all their various religious dances.
Later the Cherokee Indians changed the council fire into a barbecue,
where they roasted whole beefs in pits of glowing coals. This custom
was adopted by the politicians in Kentucky, and the Kentucky barbecues
became very famous; they were what might be called a by-product of the
old Indian council fires and a European feast combined. But in 1799 the
old Indian council fires became camp meetings, and around the blazing
fagots the pioneers gathered to engage in religious revivals. It was at
one of these meetings that Daniel Boone's great friend, Simon Kenton,
was converted and became a Methodist.
The camp meetings were originated by two brothers by the name of McGee.
Bill McGee was a Presbyterian, and John McGee a Methodist minister.
They came to Kentucky from West Tennessee. John McGee was such a great
backwoods preacher (a pioneer Billy Sunday) that he drew immense crowds
of buckskin-clad men, each of whom carried a cow's horn powder flask
and a long barreled rifle.
The small buildings used for churches in the pioneer settlements could
not hold the crowd, so they gathered around blazing council fires, and
from this beginning came the great religious revival which swept the
border with a wave of religious enthusiasm.
It is a far call back to the old Indian council fire, and the blazing
council fires of the pioneer camp meetings, but to-day all over this
land we are holding similar council fires, many of them conducted with
much ceremony, and not a few with religious fervor. The summer hotels
have their council fires; the great Camp Fire Club of America, composed
of all the famous big game hunters, have lately bought a tract of land
for the purpose of holding their council fires in the open, and the
writer interrupted the writing of this chapter to attend one of the
club's council fires. The military schools are holding council fires,
and everywhere the Boy Scouts have their council fires blazing; even
the girls have fallen in line, and this is as it should be. Therefore
it is time that some regular plan was made for these assemblies, and
some suggestion of ceremony and some meaning given to the council
grounds.
THE INDIAN ORIGINS
We have searched the legends of the Red Man for suggestions, and from
various sources have learned that the Indian had a general belief that
at the north there is a yellow or black mountain, at the east there is
a white mountain of light, at the south there is a red mountain, and at
the west there is a blue mountain. At the east and west there are also
holes in the sky, through which the sun comes to light us by day, and
through which the sun disappears so that we may sleep by night. That is
news to most of my readers, but not to the Red Men.
In the "Dawn of the World," Dr. C. Hart Merriam gives a collection of
"The Myths and Weird Tales told by the Mewan Indians of California,"
which are full of poetry and suggestions useful for the council fire
work.
It seems that when the white-footed mouse man, and some other of the
animal people, were trying to steal the sun, or the fire from which the
sun was made, the robin man, Wit-tab-bah, suspected these visitors to
be sort of German spies, and so he hovered over the fire, spreading his
wings and tail to protect it. Now if you don't believe this you look at
the robin's breast and you will see that he still carries the red marks
of the fire, which is proof enough for anyone; hence we will give the
fire-keeper for our council the name of Wit-tab-bah, the robin.
Since the north is presided over by the totem of the mountain lion, or
panther, we will give the officer occupying that court the Indian name
of the mountain lion, He-le-jah. The totem of the east is the white
timber wolf, Too-le-ze; the color of that court is white, representing
light. The totem of the south court is the badger; the color is red and
the Indian name is Too-winks. The color of the west court is blue and
the totem is the bear; Kor-le is the Indian name of the bear, and the
title of the officer presiding over the blue totem.
The golden or yellow court is the throne of the presiding officer, the
scoutmaster of the troop, the headmaster of the school, the gangmaster
of your gang, the campmaster of your camp, or the captain of your team.
The second in command occupies the white court, the third the red
court, and the fourth the blue court. If your council is a military
school the commandant occupies the yellow court, the lieutenant-colonel
the white court, the major the red court and the first captain the blue
court. Now that you have that straight in your heads we will proceed to
lay out the court.
The author is aware of the fact that the general reader may be more
interested in scout camping, summer camping, and recreation camps than
in real wilderness work, but he has tried to impress upon the boys
and girls, too, for that matter, the fact that the knowledge of real
wilderness work will make even the near-at-home camping easier for
them, and very much more interesting; it will also cause them to enjoy
the council fire better and have a greater appreciation for everything
pertaining to outdoor life. The wilderness campfire over which the
solitary explorer or hunter hovers, or around which a group of hunters
assemble and spin their yarns, magnified and enlarged to a big blazing
fire becomes the council fire around which gather all the members of
a recreation camp, the pupils of an outdoor school, a troop or many
troops of Boy Scouts; therefore we have given the council fire serious
study, because the most inconvenient as well as the most romantic place
to talk is at
[Illustration: 367, 368, 370, 373, 382, 389]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: 362, 363, 364, 365, 366
HOW TO LAY OUT A COUNCIL GROUND]
THE COUNCIL FIRE
There could be no more impractical plan for a place to speak than a
circle with a big fire in the middle of it, and that is the plan of all
the council grounds. The audience must be seated on the circumference
of the circle, and the Master of Ceremonies must stand necessarily
with his face to the fire and his back to part of his audience, or his
back to the fire and consequently also to the part of the audience on
the other side of the fire. Having had occasion over and over again
to address the scouts at a council fire, the writer has had all the
discomforts impressed upon him many times. As a rule, the boys are
enthusiastic, and so are the men, and the enthusiasm is most often
displayed by the size of the fire; the bigger the fire the greater the
delight of the boys and the more difficult the position of the orator
or Master of Ceremonies. All this may be overcome, however, if in place
of a circle the council grounds are laid out in an oval or an ellipse,
and the fire-place located near one end of the ellipse (Fig. 371).
HOW TO DESCRIBE AN ELLIPSE
After you have decided upon the size of your council grounds, drive two
stakes A and B (Figs. 363 and 365) firmly into the ground; then take a
cord, clothesline, or some kind of twine (Fig. 362), and tie the ends
together, thus forming a loop (Fig. 363); put the loop over the two
stakes A and B; next make a marker stake C (Fig. 366), and with it draw
the slack of the line taut as in Fig. 364. The ellipse is marked out as
in Fig. 365. This is done by taking firm hold of the top of the stake
and using care to keep the line taut while the marker walks around the
ground scratching the earth with the point of the marking stick, and
allowing the cord to slip smoothly across the stick while the marking
is being done (Fig. 364).
WHAT IS AN ELLIPSE?
An ellipse might be called a flattened circle. If you take a tin can
and press the two sides of the open end of it inwards, it will form
an ellipse. The dictionary says that an ellipse is a conic which
does not extend to infinity and whose intersections with the line of
infinity are imaginary. Now that is a very lucid explanation! I hope
you understand it, it is so simple, but it is just like a dictionary to
say such terrible things about a harmless ellipse. To tell the truth, I
thought I knew all about an ellipse until I read this explanation; but
never mind, we know what it looks like and if we do not know what it
is, we do know that there are a lot of things besides ellipses that do
not extend to infinity, and we also know that an ellipse is a practical
form for a council fire in spite of the hard names the dictionary calls
it. This oval is really shaped like the body of a theatre and it gives
the audience a chance to see what is doing on the stage, and the people
on the stage a chance to see and address the audience.
HOW TO DIVIDE THE COUNCIL FIRE GROUND
This infinity talk has suggested to us a good idea, so we must thank
our highbrow dictionary while we lay our council ground out with the
major axis (the longest diameter) extending due north and south, and
the minor axis (the shortest diameter) extending due east and west,
like any other well regulated council or lodge, and we will put the
fire-place near the southern end S (Fig. 371), while around the ellipse
we will arrange the seats, which may be of logs or stumps or sections
of logs set up on end, as I used in one of my camps, or the seats may
be rough plank benches, or they may be ponchos spread upon the ground
with the shiny side down to keep the dampness from the audience as it
squats tailor-fashion upon the ponchos.
THE FOUR COURTS
Are composed of shacks, such as are shown by Fig. 367. He-le-jah
(Fig. 371), being the Court of Knowledge, is the only court having
an elevated platform, or pulpit, or speaker's stand (Fig. 368). On
each side of each court there should be a torch; Fig. 369 is what we
will call the camp meeting torch; Fig. 370 is what we will call the
steamboat torch; it must be made by a blacksmith. It is an iron basket
supported by iron chains, hung down from an iron band at the top of a
staff; the latter is shod with an iron point so that it may be thrust
into the ground. These fire baskets I have used with success in one
of my camps. But homemade torches are to be preferred (see Fig. 369).
A hand torch (Fig. 373) may be made of pine, spruce or cedar slivers
and used for processions entering the council grounds; this gives a
thrilling effect.
In the diagram (Fig. 370), the staff is short, but it should be long
enough to place the torch as high above the ground as a chandelier is
above the floor at home. Fig. 372 shows the method of piling up the
wood for the council fire. The kindling wood is first placed upon the
ground ready to light at a moment's notice; over that the heavy wood is
piled, as shown in the diagram. This fire should never be lighted with
a match; that is terrible bad form. The use of flint and steel or a
rubbing stick to make fire is the proper ceremony for such occasions.
Fig. 374 shows how to make a fire box of sticks. This is an aeroplane
view of a fire box, that is, a view from above, looking down upon it.
This box should be filled with sand, clay or dirt, upon which the fire
is built. Fig. 375 and Fig. 376 show you how to lash the framework
together. Fig. 377 shows how to put up the framework. Fig. 369 is the
finished torch.
The idea of this torch is to have the light above the heads of the
campers. The trouble with a fire upon the ground is that while the
flames give light they also hide part of the crowd, and the smoke is
always in someone's face. This elevated torch is a brand new idea for
this purpose. It will be adopted all over the country and credited to
all sorts of sources and people, but you must remember that it was
designed for the readers of this book.
If milled lumber is used in building the shacks for the four courts,
it should be camouflaged with paint or stain so as to look rustic. It
may be roofed with boards and the boards covered with tar paper, or any
of the modern roofing materials to be had, but in that case the roof
should be camouflaged by laying poles over the top of it, or, if poles
are not available, covering the top with sods.
You see the idea is this: we are having a COUNCIL FIRE--not something
else--and we want the thing to look wild and rustic because that is
part of the game, and if we are compelled to go to the lumberyard for
our material, which most of us will have to do, then we must conceal
this fact as far as possible by camouflage. In front of the South Court
on Fig. 371 is the fire-place made of flat stones set in the earth.
COUNCIL FIRE CEREMONIES
On entering the council grounds always enter from the east, salute
Too-le-ze, the white wolf, then go across the Ghost Walk with the
sun to the West Court, and salute Kor-le, the bear; about face and
march back to the South Court and salute Too-winks, the badger; then
about face and march up and salute He-le-jah, the panther; remain
standing at salute until He-le-jah who is the commanding officer, gives
you permission to retire, or gives you orders what to do; then go back,
always moving along these walks like a soldier, to your seat.
[Illustration: 374, 375, 376, 377
DETAILS OF CAMP MEETING TORCH STAND & SAND BOX]
On Sundays the council ground is a splendid place for holding
religious services. On such occasions the minister sits in the Court
of Knowledge, the North Court on the right-hand side of the presiding
officer, and the two torches in the daytime are replaced by flags or
banners. The one on the right-hand side of the presiding officer must
be Old Glory, the one on the left the flag of the school, the troop or
the club to which the council fire belongs.
The center of the council fire may be occupied by a "Liberty Pole,"
which is the good old American name for the flag pole, from which Old
Glory flies. Never forget to respect the colors and greet them with
the greatest ceremonial deference, for those colors possess a magic
quality; they represent to you everything that is grand, noble and
inspiring, and if you have any other kind of thoughts, this country is
no place for you. Remember that the council fire is American, and we
are proud to be called Americans.
The walk, or path from the east to the west is the Ghost Walk, or the
Spirit's Walk; it is the path which Indians believe the spirit takes
after leaving the body, an idea which was consciously or unconsciously
adopted by our brave boys during the recent war and it explains what
they meant when, with bowed heads, they reported that their bunky, pal
or friend had "gone West."
The Western Court has the totem animal of the black bear; the color of
the court, however, is not black but blue, blue from the blue Pacific;
the totem object is a blue mountain.
The walk from the south to the north is the Path of Knowledge; anyone
traveling that trail is seeking further knowledge of the benefits of
woodcraft, nature and the big outdoors; the totem animal of the North
Court is the American panther, cougar or mountain lion; the color of
the North Court is yellow or black, the latter representing the long
arctic night.
The Southern Court has the badger for its totem animal, and the red
mountain for the totem object; red is its totem color.
Thus we have white for the totem color of the east, meaning light,
peace and purity; red for the south, meaning violence, disturbance,
auction, danger, revolution, love and life. This color is both
stimulating and disturbing to man, animal and plant.
Perhaps when we read of the turmoil that is constantly disturbing our
southern border, we may think that the Indians had a knowledge of
the real meaning of red when they made the totem of the south a red
mountain. Red is the ruling color, the king of color, the dominant
color, the strong color, and symbolizes the blossoming of plants and is
the color of berries and fruit. Red tints the spring leaves and stains
the fall leaf. In the spring the thickets and tree trunks are tinged
with red; they are blushing, so to speak, as Ruskin says, "in order to
show the waiting of love." Red is emphatically a masculine color, a
MAN'S COLOR.
Blue is a feminine color; it stands for sentimental affections, blue
light has a depressing effect and creates nervousness.
Black is the ogre among colors; it devours every other color; sometimes
the North Court is black; black stands for war and death, and yet the
path to the north is the path of knowledge. It may be that some of
the Indians used black for the north because they may have noted that
climate affects the color of birds and animals. According to Frank
Chapman, the famous ornithologist at the Museum of Natural History
in New York, the animals of the humid climate of the northwest are
especially dark in color.
If you use yellow for the north color, yellow means laughter and mirth.
Notwithstanding the fact that we use yellow as a sign for contagious
disease, women suffragists and cowardice, a yellow light makes a
gathering cheerful and merry; so in approaching the North Court you may
sing.
The Indian names for the four courts are Too-le-ze, the east, for
the south Too-winks, for the west Kor-le, and for the north Kon-win.
He-le-jah is the Indian name for the panther or mountain lion that
guards the north mountain.
Now then you have the symbolism; in other words, know what these things
stand for, and that will give a meaning to your ceremony around the
council fire. Since red means life and black means death, possibly
the Indians have placed a deep significance on the path from the Red
Court to the Black Court, from life to death! when they call it the
Path of Knowledge. At any rate, we will take it as we find it and adapt
ourselves to the suggestions these meanings give us.
We will claim that colors are the spirits, fairies or what not who
govern the council fire. Wit-tab-bah is the name of the fire itself
or the fire-place. When the fire is built, placed near the Southern
or Red Court, it gives the chief, the captain, the superintendent, or
the scoutmaster, who occupies the North Court, a space in front of him
big enough to accommodate his audience. The real way to illuminate, or
light up, the council grounds is by having
TORCH FIRES
Erected at each of the four courts. These fire torches at the four
courts, if kept replenished with dry wood, will light up the council
grounds and give a most picturesque and wild appearance, and at the
same time will not interfere with the ceremonies nor will they scorch
the back or face of the speaker. Wit-tab-bah may be used on occasions
when the crowd is not large.
No council fire anywhere within the borders of the United States should
open without the pledge to the American flag, and the reciting in
unison by all present of the American creed. (See page 268.)
The council should close with the singing of "America." Especially
should these ceremonies be gone through with when the assembly is
composed of many young people, because what George Washington said in
his farewell address is as true to-day as it was a hundred years ago.
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influences I conjure you to
believe me, fellow citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought to
be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign
influence is one of the most powerful foes of republican government."
There is no reason why we should not have a lot of fun at the council
fires, and at times it may even be riotous fun, but always American
fun, and the patriotic spirit should never for a moment be forgotten,
nor yet the poetic spirit which links us up in bonds of sympathy with
all created things so that we may, with seriousness, recite the
INDIAN INVOCATION
O Great Mystery, we beseech thee.
That we may walk reverently
Beneath Lah-pah our brothers, the trees.
That we may step lightly
On Kis-so our kinsmen, the grasses.
That we may walk lovingly
Over Loo-poo-oi-yes our brothers, the rocks.
That we may rest trustfully
Where the O-lel-le bird sings--
Beside Ho-ha-oe, the talking waters.
or this,
Weave for us, O Great Mystery,
A bright blanket of wisdom;
Make the warp the color of Father Sky,
Let He-koo-las, the sun-woman.
Lend her bright hair for the weft.
And mingle with it the red and gold threads of evening.
O Great Mystery; O Mother Earth! O Father Sky!
We, your children, love the things you love;
Therefore, let the border of our blanket
Be bending Ku-yet-tah, the rainbow.
And the fringe be glittering Nuk-kah, the slashing rain.
or with abandon we may sing, or chant the song of the elves,
[F]Oh, we are the fays, oh, we are the elves.
Who, laughing at everything, laugh at ourselves.
If Fortune's wheel is broke.
Why, we can put a spoke in it.
Misfortune hits no stroke,
But we can put a joke in it.
The owl can do our thinking.
As he sits awinking, blinking.
We act from intuition,
Fun and mischief is our mission;
Solemn duty, we have none of it.
What we do is for the fun of it;
Fun is none too light to prize,
Thought is naught but fancy's flight.
Folly's jolly, wit is wise,
Laughter after all is right.
FOOTNOTE:
[F] From unpublished verses by Captain Harry Beard.