Logan had brought the two captive children directly to Shauane-Town. As
they were too young to effect their escape, they were allowed to wander
at will in and around the village, where they played with and were
treated as the native children.
A week after his return, at a tribal council he referred to the massacre
of his family at the mouth of Yellow Creek, spoke of his present
loneliness and asked to adopt the two children as his own, saying: "* *
* They are so young they will soon forget their own people and language
and I shall bring them up as my own children." His request having been
granted the two children were brought before the council.
The adoption of the girl was quite simple; she was stripped of her
clothing and sent out naked to play with the other little girls. The
boy's adoption was more formal. After being stripped he was seated in
the center of the council; two old squaws, called in for the purpose,
deliberately plucked out his curls, strand by strand, until only the
scalp lock was left; a small tuft, three inches in diameter on his
crown, which was stiffened and discolored with an ointment of graphite
and bear grease, then certain tribal designs were painted upon his body
with the juice of the puccoon root. This completed the ceremony.
They were just sending him out, when a very old and highly respected
medicine man, the chief priest of the nation, and to whom were
attributed occult powers of a high order; came into the council hall and
walking over to the boy, stooped and removed from his neck a gold chain
to which was attached a cross of ebony and pearl; this he examined
carefully. Then turning to the council he said: "This child is of the
sacred priesthood. He has the look in his face and eyes and his body is
without blemish, as is required by the order. Let no one do him harm or
cross his will, because in what he does he will be guided by the Great
Spirit. The night before Logan brought him I saw the boy in a dream and
was told of his coming and his mission. It is one of peace. He will be
the friend of all men; of Long Knives and Indians alike. He does not
know your language and will be carried home by Logan before the flying
of the cahonks or the first snow-fall. By then he will speak your tongue
as well as your own children and will never forget a word. It is the
will of the Great Spirit. In proof that what I say is true, as he steps
over the threshold of your council lodge he will drop as one dead; and
for some days will lie in coma. When this passes he will not speak the
language of the Long Knives so long as he remains with you. You will see
in him many things that are strange; because his are a mind and spirit
that see where yours cease seeing."
After mumbling certain incantations which no one understood, he drew
from his girdle a case made from a hollow bone and taking from it
needles of fish bone and certain pigments; tattooed upon the chest of
the boy an enlarged likeness of the cross he wore; and beneath it
pricked the tribal sign of the Mingo priesthood. All this the little boy
endured without outcry, though his face was ashy pale and his colorless
lips moved in prayer.
Then the priest took from his own waist a girdle of wampum of unusual
pattern and fastened it about the waist of the boy and extending his
hands above the boy's head, murmured yet more of his incantations. Then
indicating the ceremony was completed, walked away.
The boy was told to go to his lodge. As he stepped over the threshold he
dropped apparently lifeless; and no wonder; he had been subjected to a
terrible strain and his blood was filled with impure pigments.
He was carried by Logan to their lodge and placed upon a pallet of deer
skins. An old woman was called to attend him. He lay in a deep sleep
until sundown, when he sat up and was given food and drink. A few
minutes later he dropped back into unconsciousness which lasted for
eighteen hours; at the end of which time, rousing from his torpor, he
walked 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 a
great blotch of blood on a statue of white marble. He returned to his
pallet, smiled at Dorothy and after eating slept again.
For several days he was in a stupor and slept much of the time. At the
end of a week the tattooed marks were no longer inflamed and he had
recovered.
Not far from the village on the brow of a hill was a green mound, which
rumor said was a place of burial; though the Indians knew not what
people 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 fires
and because of superstition, never visited except for that purpose.
John Calvin, who was the only child in the village permitted to go where
he pleased, even to the council lodge and that of the medicine man, each
day climbed to the summit and for an hour or more sat upon the signal
rock, scarcely moving, lost in dreams or visions. The whole tribe
watched him with superstitious awe.
Rumor of the child's strange conduct spread throughout the Mingo nation
and fierce, wild chiefs and warriors would watch him seated in silence
upon the mound and as he walked about the village deferentially made
room for him. They said: "The boy is so different from other Long
Knives, he says nothing, they talk all the time."
Dorothy grew half afraid of her old playmate, who when she spoke to him
in English answered by a word or two in the Mingo tongue if he answered
at all, having very quickly picked up a few common words. When he was
not alone upon the mound they would go to the playground of the children
and listen to and watch them. It was thus they learned to speak the
language, he very quickly and Dorothy more slowly. In a little while
they 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 to
three posthumous children, one of whom was the Prophet. Dorothy grew
very fond of the three little babies and spent much of her time playing
the part of nurse to them.
Tecumseh, a brother of the three babies, was of the same age and a
playfellow of the prisoners. Between them a friendship grew up, which
lasted until he was killed at the battle of the Thames.
These Indian children were of the family or totem of the Panther. The
name Tecumseh for a while was applied to all the male children of the
family and meant flying across. When John Calvin was dedicated to the
priesthood, he was adopted into their family instead of Logan's; and
under 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 Indian
children. It seemed they were beginning to forget their own people. They
were 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 fawn
closely pursued ran to John Calvin, who put his arms about it and would
not let it be killed. After the hunters left he turned it loose.
When the weather grew frosty they were dressed in doe skin clothing and
moccasins, ornamented as those of a chief's children; and slept on a
bear skin wrapped in a vividly colored blanket, purchased from a French
trader at Chicasaw Falls.
One morning in early November they were roused from sleep by Logan and
told they were to be carried home across the great mountain. Many of the
tribe gathered to see them off. Tecumseh gave John a bow, quiver and
arrows and to Dorothy beaded moccasins. The priest took the old girdle
from around him and in its place substituted a new one; which in sign
language recited that he had been adopted into the family of the Panther
and belonged to the Mingo priesthood. He was told to preserve and wear
it and that no Indian henceforth would harm him.
The children were placed upon a doe skin pallet in the bottom of the
canoe; then Logan and the two Indians who had helped kidnap them took
their seats in the canoe, which, shoved from the shore, glided out into
the river, and was soon paddled out of sight around a bend of the river;
their Indian friends standing on the bank and watching until it
disappeared.
Twelve days later they reached the head of canoe travel on the Kanawha
and rested for the night. The next morning at first light, Logan with
the two children, leaving the two Indians, traveled eastward along a
narrow trail, following the stream until it became a mountain torrent,
dashing in spray over boulders and down declivities. At night they slept
at its very head under an overhanging cliff, from the foot of which the
river'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 home
and below in the Valley, the church and school house of the settlement.
Richard Cameron was milking the cows. He saw Jerry run up the mountain
path and heard several glad, sharp barks. He looked up and saw an
Indian, whom he recognized as Logan, and accompanying him two small
Indian 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 the
gate. In a short while Captain Campbell came out and cordially though
formally greeted him. He remained some weeks a welcome guest.
Mrs. Campbell was too happy to sleep soundly that night. Sometime after
midnight, she heard the "Cahonk, cahonk" of the wild geese flying
southward, the first of the season.