There was a time, when, throughout the Island, neither on land nor in
the water, in field or forest, was there a woman to be found. Vain
things were plenty--there was the turkey, and the swan, and the blue
jay, and the wood-duck, and the wakon bird; and noisy, chattering,
singing creatures, such as the daw, and the thrush, and the rook, and
the prairie-dog, abounded--indeed there were more of each than was
pleasing to the ear--but of women, vain, noisy, laughing, chattering
women, there were none. It was, indeed, quite a still world to what it
is now. Whether it is better and happier, will depend much upon the
opinion men entertain of those, who have changed its character from
calm and peaceable to boisterous and noisy. Some will think it is much
improved by the circumstance which deprived the Kickapoos of their
tails--while others will greatly deplore its occurrence.
At the time of which I am telling my brother, the Kickapoos, and
indeed all red men, wherever found--and at that time there were none
but red men in the world--were furnished with long tails like horses
and buffaloes. It was very handy to have these appendages in a country
where flies were numerous and troublesome, as they were in the land of
the Kickapoos--tails being much more sudden in their movements than
hands, and more conveniently situated, as every body must see, for
whisking off the flies which light upon the back. Then they were very
beautiful things, these long tails, especially when handsomely painted
and ornamented, as their owners used to ornament them, with beads, and
shells, and wampum--and being intended as a natural decoration to the
creature, the depriving him of it may well have produced, as it did, a
great deal of sport and merriment among the other animals, who were
not compelled to submit to the deprivation. The fox, who is rather
impudent, for a long time after they were chopped off, sent to the
Kickapoos every day to enquire "how their tails were;" and the bear
shook his fat sides with laughter at the joke, which he thought a very
good one, of sending one of his cubs with a request for a "dozen spare
tails."
I have said, that throughout the land there were no women. There were
men--a plenty, the land was thronged with them--not born, but created
of clay--and left to bake in the sun till they received life--and
these men were very contented and happy. Wars were very few then, for
no one need be told that half the wars which have arisen have grown
out of quarrels on account of love of women, and the other half on
account of their maintenance. There was universal peace and harmony
throughout the land. The Kickapoos ate their deer's flesh with the
Potowatomies, hunted the otter with the Osages, and the beaver with
the Hurons; and the fierce Iroquois, instead of waking the wild shout
of war, went to the land of the Sauks and Ioways to buy wampum,
wherewith to decorate their tails. Happy would it have been for the
red men if they were still furnished with these appendages, and wanted
those which have been supplied in their place--women!
But the consequence which usually attends prosperity happened to the
Indians. They became very proud and vain, and forgot their creator and
preserver. They no more offered the fattest and choicest of their game
upon the _memahoppa_, or altar-stone, nor evinced any gratitude, nor
sung, nor danced in his praise, when he sent his rains to cleanse the
earth and his lightnings to cool and purify the air. When their corn
grew ripe and tall, they imputed it to their own good conduct and
management; when their hunt was successful, to their own skill and
perseverance. Reckoning not, as in times past, of the superintendence
of the Great Spirit over all things, they banished him altogether from
their proud and haughty hearts, teaching them to forget that there was
aught greater or more powerful than himself.
Though slow to anger, and waiting long before he remembers the
provocations he has received, the Great Spirit, in the end, and when
no atonement is made, always inflicts an adequate punishment for every
offence. Seeing how wicked the Indians had become, he said to his
Manitous: "It is time that the Kickapoos and other red men were
punished. They laugh at my thunders, they make mock of my lightnings
and hurricanes, they use my bounties without thanking me for them.
When their corn grows ripe and tall, instead of imputing its
luxuriance to my warm suns and reviving showers, they say, 'We have
managed it well;' when their hunt is successful, they place it to
account of their own skill and perseverance. Reckoning not, as in
times past, of my superintendence over all things, they have banished
me altogether from their haughty hearts, and taught themselves to
forget that there is aught greater and more powerful than the Indian."
So saying, he bade his chief Manitou repair to the dwelling-places of
the red men, and, to punish them for their wickedness, deprive them of
that which they most valued, and bestow upon them a scourge and
affliction adequate to their offences. The Spirit obeyed his master,
and descended to the earth, lighting down upon the lands occupied by
the Kickapoos. It was not long before he discovered what it was which
that people and the other Indians most valued. He saw, from the pains
they took in decorating their tails with gay paints, and beads, and
shells, and wampum, that they prized them above every other
possession. Calling together all the red men, he acquainted them with
the will of his master, and demanded the instant sacrifice of the
article upon which they set so much value. It is impossible to
describe the sorrow and compunction which filled their bosoms, when
they found that the forfeit for their wickedness was to be that
beautiful and beloved appendage. But their prayers and entreaties, to
be spared the humiliation and sacrifice, were in vain. The Spirit was
inexorable, and they were compelled to place their tails on the block
and to behold them amputated.
The punishment being in part performed, the Spirit next bethought
himself of a gift which should prove to them "a scourge and affliction
adequate to their offences." It was to convert the tails thus lopped
off into vain, noisy, chattering, laughing creatures, whose faces
should he like the sky in the Moon of Plants, and whose hearts should
be treacherous, fickle, and inconstant; yet, strange to relate, who
should be loved above all other things on the earth or in the skies.
For them should life often be hazarded--reputation, fame, and virtue,
often forfeited--pain and ignominy incurred. They were to be as a
burden placed on the shoulders of an already overloaded man; and yet,
a burden he would rather strive to carry than abandon. He further
appointed that they should retain the frisky nature of the material
from which they were made, and they have retained it to this day.
The Great Spirit, deeming that the trouble wherewith he had provided
the red man would not sufficiently vex and punish him, determined to
add another infliction, whose sting, though not so potent and irksome,
should be without any alleviation whatever. He sent great swarms of
musquitoes. Deprived of tails, by which flies could be brushed away at
the pleasure of the wearers, the Indians dragged out for a long time a
miserable existence. The musquitoes stung them, and their tails
teased them. The little insects worried them continually, and their
frisky companions, the women, were any thing but a cup of composing
drink. At length the Great Spirit, seeing how the poor Indians were
afflicted, mercifully withdrew the greater part of the musquitoes,
leaving a few as a memorial of the pest which had formerly annoyed
them. The Kickapoos petitioned that the women should also be taken
away from them, and their old appendages returned--but the Great
Spirit answered, that women were a necessary evil, and must remain.