TROUBLE came to a village of the Oneidas. From the north a band of red
men who had listened to the bad spirits came upon the peaceful village,
and, with murder and plunder in their hearts, spread destruction around
them like the wild chase of the forest fires. The homes of the Oneidas
were deserted and made desolate, and the women and children were hurried
away to the rocks and hills for refuge and were guarded by the warriors.
For many days and nights the attacking party vainly tried to find the
trail of the people they had driven from their homes. The Great Spirit
had passed his hands over the forest and the trail of the Oneidas was not
discovered by the savage Mingoes.
But the Oneidas were almost without food, and over the tops of the trees
and along the face of the almost inaccessible cliff came hunger and death
to their hiding place. The warriors and sachems sat long at the council,
but their eyes were heavy and they could find no path that would lead
them from their trouble. To try to escape from their refuge would expose
them to capture and slavery at the hands of their foes. To remain where
they were meant starvation and death.
Then the little maiden, Aliquipiso, came to the warriors and sachems and
told how the good spirits had come to her sleeping under the trees, and
had shown her where from the side of the high bluff on which her people
were hiding huge rocks could be rolled into the valley below in such a
manner as to strike down the very trees there. The good spirits also told
her to lead the foes of the Oneidas to the spot and bade her go upon the
mission that she might deliver her people from their danger. The warriors
and sachems listened to the unfolding of the plan with wonder, and when
Aliquipiso had finished, the chief brought forth rich strings of white
wampum and put them about her neck, saying that she was the princess
of all the nation and beloved of the Great Spirit. When the night came
the little maiden left her people quietly and without faltering, and
disappeared in the darkness.
In the morning watchful scouts of the Mingoes found a little girl
wandering as if lost in the forest. They hurried away with her to the
dismantled village where she had been so happy with her fellows and at
once commenced to torture her, hoping to extort the secret of the hiding
place of her people. With a fortitude that won the admiration of her
captors, Aliquipiso resisted the torture for a long time, but finally
told the cruel tormentors that when the darkness came she would lead them
to the hiding place of the Oneidas.
Night came again, and the exultant Mingoes started on the trail they
believed would lead them to the camp of the Oneidas. Aliquipiso led the
way, but she was in the grasp of strong warriors who were ready with
poised weapons to take her life at the first evidence of a betrayal.
Through many paths and windings, slowly and craftily, crept the Mingoes
until they were near the overhanging precipice of granite. Then
Aliquipiso signaled to the warriors to come close around her, as though
she were about to roll back the huge mountain wall and disclose to them
those whom they pursued. When they had crowded to her side she suddenly
lifted her voice in a piercing cry of warning--a signal of death. She
knew that above them the sleepless sentries of the starving Oneidas were
holding great bowlders poised upon the brink of the precipice.
Her captors had scarcely time to strike her lifeless to the ground before
the rocks rushed with terrible force down the side of the mountain,
catching and crushing the entrapped warriors like worms under the foot of
a mighty giant.
Aliquipiso, brave maiden of the Oneidas, was mourned by her people many
suns. The Great Spirit changed her hair into woodbine, which the red men
called "running hairs," and sent it over the earth as a protector to
old trees. From her body sprang the honeysuckle, which was known to the
Indians as "the blood of brave women."