‘The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.’
PSA. lxxiv, 20
The night that followed this conversation, Jyanough passed in Terah's
lodge, and he nursed his suffering relative with gentle patience. But
he saw no signs of recovery, although the women and the Cree Powows
assured him that the fatal disease was driven away by Tisquantum's
powerful incantations, and that, when the sun rose, he would see the
spirit of Terah revive. So had the conjuror declared; and so these
misguided heathens believed. But when the first beams of opening day
entered the door of the lodge, which was set open to receive them, and
fell on the dark and pallid features of the aged sufferer, Jyanough
could no longer be deceived into hope. He saw that his revered uncle
was dying, and he hastened to inform Henrich of the fact, and to
entreat him to return with him to Terah's wigwam, and to prey to the
Great Spirit in his behalf.
Henrich readily complied: and he, too, was convinced, by the first
glance at the dying Indian, that no human aid, however skilful, could
long retain that once powerful spirit in its worn and wasted tenement
of clay. He knelt down by the side of Terah's couch, and Jyanough knelt
with him; and, regardless of the wondering gaze of the ignorant
attendants, he offered up a short and simple prayer to God for the
soul of the departing warrior.
The Cree Powows who had watched the sick man during the night, had left
the lodge as soon as daylight set in, to collect materials for a great
burnt offering they deigned to make, as a last resource, in front of
the Pince's dwelling. As Henrich and Jyanough rose from their knees,
the heathen priest entered, bearing strings of wampum, articles of
furniture, of clothing, food, tobacco, and everything of any value that
they had been able to obtain from the friends of Terah. All these
various articles were displayed before the dim eyes of the invalid, for
whose benefit they were to be reduced to a heap of useless ashes; and a
faint smile of satisfaction passed over Terah's countenance: but he
spoke not. Jyanough then bent down, and pressed his lips to the cold
brow of his almost unconscious uncle, and hurried with Henrich from the
lodge; for he could not bear again to witness any repetition of the
heathen ceremonies that had caused him so much shame the preceding day:
neither could he endure to see his last relative leave the world,
surrounded by a spiritual darkness which it was not in his power to
dispel.
The young friends took their way into the forest, that they might be
beyond the sight and the sound of those rites that were about to be
performed for the recovery of one who had already begun to travel
through ‘the valley of the shadow of death.’ They had not, however,
gone far in a westerly direction, before they chanced their intention,
and resolved to return to the village. The cause of this change of
purpose was their meeting with a band of Cree warriors, who had gone
out, some weeks previously, on an expedition against a settlement of
their enemies, the Stone Indians; and were now returning from the
plains of the Saskatchawan, laden with spoils. Many of the Crees bore
scalps suspended from their belts, as bloody trophies of victory; and
all had arms, and skins, and ornaments that they had carried away from
the pillaged wigwams of their foes.
Henrich could not help gazing with admiration at the party of warriors
as they approached. The greater part of them were mounted on beautiful
and spirited horses of the wild breed of the western prairies, which
they rode with an ease and grace that astonished the young Englishman.
They wore no covering on their heads, and their black hair was cut
short, except one long scalp-lock hanging behind; so that their fine
countenances, which were rather of the Roman cast, were fully exposed
to view. Their dress consisted of a large blanket, wrapped gracefully
round the waist, and confined by a belt, so as to leave the bust and
arms bare; and so perfect and muscular were their figures, that they
had the appearance of noble bronze statues. Their native weapons,
consisting of spears and bows, with highly ornamented quivers suspended
from their shoulders, and battle-axes hung to their belts, added much
to their martial and picturesque effect. Behind the horsemen followed
a band on foot, who carried the stolen treasures of the wasted village;
and Henrich looked with curiosity at the various and beautifully
decorated articles of dress, and hunting equipments, that had formed
the pride and the wealth of the defeated Stone Indians.
But the part of the spoil that interested and distressed both Henrich
and his companion more than all the rest, was a young Indian warrior,
who, with his wife and her infant, had been brought away as prisoners
to add to the triumph, and, probably, to glut the vengeance, of their
conquerors. There was an unextinguished fire in the eye of the captive,
and an expression of fearless indignation in the proud bearing with
which he strode by the side of his captors, that clearly told how
bravely he would sell his life but for the cords that tightly bound his
wrists behind him, and were held by a powerful Cree on each side.
Behind him walked his wife, with downcast features and faltering steps,
and at her back hung her little infant, suspended in a bag or pouch of
deer skin, half filled with the soft bog-moss, so much used by Indian
squaws to form the bed--and, indeed, the only covering--of their
children during the first year of their existence. The eyes of the
captive young mother were fixed tearfully on the majestic form of her
husband, who was too proud--perhaps, also, too sad--to turn and meet
her gaze, while the eyes of his foes were upon him to detect his
slightest weakness. Even the low wailing cry of her child was unheeded
by this broken hearted wife in that sad hour; for she well knew the
customs of Indian warfare, and she had no hope for the life of her
warrior, even if her own should be spared.
Henrich gazed on the little group in pity; for be instinctively read
their story, and their coming fate, in their countenances, and in the
cruel glances that fell on them from their guards. He looked at
Jyanough; and in his expressive features he saw a fell confirmation of
his worst fears.
'They will sacrifice them to Maatche-Mahneto in the vain hope of
lengthening Terah's life,' he softly whispered in Henrich's ear. 'Let
us go back and seek Oriana. Perhaps, for her sake, Tisquantum may ask
the lives of the squaw and her young child; and, as Chingook's honored
guest, they would be granted to him; but there is no hope for the
warrior. His blood will surely be shed to appease Maatche-Mahneto, and
to atone for the death of several of the Cree braves who have fallen
this year by the hands of the Stone tribe.'
Hastily Henrich turned; and, followed by Jyanough, took a by-path well
known to them, and entered the village before the arrival of the
warriors and their unhappy prisoners. A brief explanation was
sufficient to enlist all the kindly feelings, and all the Christian
spirit, of Oriana in favor of their project; and she lost no time in
seeking her father, who had again repaired to Terah's hut, to
superintend the costly sacrifice that was being offered in his behalf.
She found him exulting in a partial improvement in his patient, whose
senses had again returned with a brief and deceitful brilliance, and
attributing what he called the aged Pince's recovery to the potency of
his own spells.
This was no time for Oriana to argue with the elated Powow on the
fallacy of his pretensions. She therefore listened patiently to his
boastings; and then, with much feeling and natural eloquence, told him
the cause of her interrupting him at such a moment, and besought him to
exert all his great influence with the Crees, to induce them to spare
the lives of the Stone captives.
Tisquantum listened with attention to her story and her petition, for
he was always gentle to Oriana; but he gave her little hope of that
fell success which her warm young heart desired, and anticipated.
'My child,' he said, 'I will do what you ask, so far as to request that
the woman and child may be placed at your disposal. But the warrior's
life I cannot demand, for it would be an insult to the brave Crees to
suppose that they would suffer an enemy to escape, and tell his tribe
that they were woman-hearted. No, he must die; and, if the soul of his
ancestors dwells in him, he will exult in the opportunity of showing
how even a Stone Indian can meet death.'
Oriana was repulsed, but not defeated, by this reply.
'Nay, my father,' she again began, 'either save all, or let all perish.
Do not take the brave young warrior from his wife and child, and leave
them in poverty and sorrow; but plead for mercy to be shown to him
also--and so may mercy be shown to his conquerors, and to you, his
deliverer, when--'
'Peace, child,' interrupted the Sachem, with more asperity than he
usually showed to Oriana. 'These are the notions you have learned from
your white brother, and I desire not to hear them. Tisquantum knows his
duty. I will demand the lives of the woman and child of whom you speak;
but the warrior must abide his fate. And think you that he would not
scorn to live when honor is gone I Go'--he added more gently, as he saw
the sorrow that dimmed her eye--'go, and tell Jyanough to meet me at
the Sachem's lodge. Terah may yet be saved--this victim comes at s
happy moment, and surely Mahneto demands his life as at offering for
that of the venerable Pince.'
Oriana shuddered at what she saw to be her father's meaning. Once she
would have felt as he did and have believed that their god could be
propitiated by blood and agony. But now she knew that all such cruel
sacrifices were worse than vain; and deeply she regretted her own
inability to bring her countrymen, and especially her own beloved
father, to a knowledge of the Gospel of mercy and peace; and thus save
them from imbruing their hands in the blood of their fellow men, and
thinking that they did good service to the Great Spirit.
She hurried back to her companions, and, weeping, told them of her
partial success. It was all, and more than all, that Jyanough expected;
and he immediately went to meet Tisquantum at the lodge of the Cree
Sachem, Chingook, where he found the war party and their prisoners
assembled. After a few words to Jyanough, Tisquantum commenced a long
speech to his brother Sachem, in which he dilated on the friendship
that subsisted between them, and the joy that he had felt in exercising
his skill for the benefit of the brave and hospitable Crees. He then
spoke of Terah's perilous condition, and his fears that even his powers
had been baffled by the spirit of evil; and that the Pince would yet be
taken from them, unless some offering could be found more precious than
all that were now piled before his dwelling, and only waited for the
auspicious moment to be wrapped inflame, us a sacrifice to the offended
deity who had brought the pestilence. 'And have we not such an offering
here?' he added, pointing to the captive warrior, who stood, with head
erect, awaiting the sentence that he knew would be pronounced. 'Have we
not here a victim, sent by Mahneto himself, at the very moment when
Terah's life seems hanging on a breath? Lead him, then, to the sacred
pile; and as his soul goes forth, the soul of Terah shall revive.
This speech was received with acclamations by the Crees; and already
the warriors were hurrying away their captive, while his wife followed,
as if mechanically, to share her husband's fate. Bat here Tisquantum
interposed, and, in his daughter's name, requested the life of the
woman and her child. His request was readily granted by Chingook; for
of what value was a squaw in the eyes of these Indian braves?
The daughter of our friend and benefactor shall be denied nothing that
she asks,' replied the Cree Chief. 'Take the woman to Oriana's lodge,
and let her be her slave.'
Jyanough approached to lead away the unhappy woman but she turned on
him a look of despairing misery, and, laying her band on her husband's
arm, said quickly, 'I will see my Lincoya die, and then I will follow
you where you will, for Mailah has no home.'
Jyanough did not oppose her, for his heart was touched by her sorrow
and her fortitude; and the captive warrior turned his head, and bent on
her sad countenance one look of tenderness and approbation, that told
how deeply he was sensible of her devotion.
He did not speak--perchance he could not trust his voice in that trying
moment--but he followed his guards, and his eye was again steadfast,
and his step was firm.
Henrich and Oriana waited anxiously for the return of Jyanough: but he
came not; and they almost feared that Tisquantum's request had been too
coldly urged to prove successful. It was a calm autumnal day; and as
the sun rose high in the heavens, his beams were shrouded by heavy
thunder clouds, while a low and distant murmur foretold an approaching
storm, and added to the gloom that weighed heavily on Oriana's spirit.
All the sin and degradation of the faith of her countrymen seemed to
strike upon her mind with a force hitherto unknown, and to bow her down
in shame and sadness. Even to Henrich--to her loved Christian friend
and teacher--she could not now utter her feelings; and when, to divert
her thoughts, and remove her from the village where he knew so cruel a
scene would soon be enacted, he led her towards the forest, she
followed him silently. They seated themselves beneath an overshadowing
tree; and, for some time, no sound broke the oppressive silence save
the soft rustling of the leaves, that seemed to be moved by the spirits
of the air-for no wind was stirring.
Presently a shriek--one single cry of agony--arose from the village:
and all was still again.
'It was a woman's voice!' exclaimed Oriana, in a tone of deep
suffering. 'O, Henrich! they murder the helpless and the innocent; and
my father consents to the deed!'
Henrich did not reply; he had no comfort to offer. But they both gazed
towards the village, as if hoping to discover, through the impervious
wood that surrounded it, some indications of what was going on in those
'habitations of cruelty.’
Soon a dense cloud of smoke rose high in the still at; and flames shot
up above the intervening trees. And then burst forth a mingled din of
wild unearthly sounds, that told of sated vengeance, and malignant joy,
and demoniac worship. Fiercely the war cry of the Crees rang in the
air, while above it rose the shrill sound of clashing spears and
tomahawks; and Oriana knew that the savages were dancing round a death-
fire, and calling on Mahneto to accept their bloody offering.
But now the threatening storm broke suddenly on that dark place of the
earth; and it seemed to Oriana's troubled spirit that the wrath of
heaven was poured upon her benighted race. Peal after peal resounded in
quick succession, and reverberated from the distant kills; while
flashes of forked lightning followed one another rapidly, and
dispelled, for a moment, the unnatural darkness. The young Indian clung
trembling and terrified to her companion, and hid her face on his
shoulder, to shut out the fearful scene, while Henrich spoke to her
words of comfort and encouragement, and at length succeeded in calming
her agitation. The rain poured down in torrents but so dense was the
foliage that hung over Oriana and her companion that it could not
penetrate their place of refuge; and they remained awaiting its
cessation, and watching the curling smoke, that seemed to die away as
the falling torrent extinguished the fire. But as it disappeared,
another cloud arose near the same spot; and wider and fiercer flames
sprang up, that defied the rain, and continued to burn with more and
more strength. Whence could they arise? Surely the wigwams were on
fire!
Henrich communicated this fear to Oriana, and they arose and hurried
together towards the village, where an appalling scene met their eyes.
In front of Terah's dwelling were the smoldering remains of the
sacrificial fire, on which--still upheld by the stake to which he had
been bound--the burnt and, blackened form of a man was visible; while
close by the ashes lay a woman, so motionless that she seemed as
totally deprived of life as the wretched victim himself, and a child
was reclining on her shoulder, whose faint wailing cry showed that it
yet lived and suffered.
None heeded the melancholy group; for the warriors, whose wild songs
and frantic dances had been interrupted by the sudden violence of the
storm, were all now engaged in fruitless efforts to extinguish the
flames that were rapidly consuming the lodge of Terah. The lightning
had struck it, and ignited its roof of reeds; and so rapidly had the
whole dwelling become a prey to the dreadful element, that even the
removal of the dying sage had been despaired of. But Jyanough, who had
been a silent spectator of all the previous scene of cruelty, was not
to be daunted by the smoke and flame that burst through the entrance,
and drove from the chamber of death all the attendants of the sufferer.
Boldly he rushed into Terah's dwelling; and, just as Henrich and Oriana
entered the open space in front of it, they beheld him issuing forth,
blackened with smoke and scorched with fire, and bending beneath the
weight of his uncle's corpse.
Yes; Terah was already a corpse! All the charms and incantations of
the Powows bad failed to banish the disease that was sent to summon him
away. All the treasure that had been destroyed, and the precious life-
blood that had been spilled to propitiate false deities, could not for
one moment arrest the fiat of the true 'Master of life,' or detain the
spirit which was recalled by ‘Him who gave it' That spirit had passed
away amidst the noise of the tempest; and when Henrich sprang forward,
and assisted his friend to lay the body gently on the earth, they saw
that the spark of life had fled!
All further attempts at extinguishing the fire were now abandoned; and
the Crees gathered round their departed friend to condole with
Jyanough, who was his nearest relative, and to commence that dismal
howling by which they express their grief on such occasions. All the
property of the dead man was already consumed; but the best mats and
skins that Jyanough’s wigwam contained were brought to wrap the corpse
in; and when the site of his former dwelling could be cleared of ashes
and rubbish, a grave was speedily dug in the center of it, and the,
body laid by the simple sepulchre, around which the friends of the
venerated Pince seated themselves, and howled, and wept, and detailed
the virtues and the wisdom of the dead.
Jyanough was expected to act the part of chief mourner in these
ceremonies; and the real affection he had entertained for his uncle
induced him to comply, and to remain all that day, and all the
following night, at the grate. But he refused to cover his face with
soot--as is customary on such occasions of domestic sorrow--or to join
the Powows in their frantic cries and exorcisms, to drive off the
Weettakos from sucking the dead man's blood. The presence of Henrich
seemed to annoy and irritate these priests of Satan; and he was glad to
retire from a scene so repugnant to his better feelings, and to return
to Oriana, by whose care and direction the unhappy Mailah and her
infant had been promptly removed from the place of death and
desolation, and conveyed to her own apartment in Tisquantum’s lodge.
Her kind efforts had restored the poor young widow to consciousness;
and she now sat on the floor, with her child on her knee, listening
with a calmness that almost seemed apathy, to the words of comfort that
were uttered by the gentle Squaw-Sachem.
Mailah was very young. Scarcely sixteen summers had passed over her
head; and yet--such is Indian life--she had already been a wife and a
mother; and now, alas! she was a widow. Her grief had been passionate
at the last, and had burst forth in that one wild cry that had startled
Oriana’s ear in the forest. But that was over now, and she seemed
resigned to her hard fate, and willing to endure it. Perhaps this was
for her infant's sake; and, perhaps, her sensibilities were blunted by
the life she had led, in common with the rest of her race and sex--a
life in which the best feelings and sympathies of our nature are almost
unknown. It was not until Oriana led her to speak of her past life, and
the home of her youth--now desolate and in ruins--that tears of natural
grief flowed from her eyes. Then she seemed roused to a full sense of
all she had lost, end broke out into mournful lamentations for her
murdered Lincoya, whose noble qualities and high lineage she eloquently
extolled; while she sadly contrasted her present lonely and desolate
position with her happiness as the squaw of so distinguished a warrior,
and so successful a hunter.
Oriana said all she could to console her; and assured her of her
protection and friendship, and of a home in her lodge when they
returned to their own country, where she should live as her sister, and
bring up her little Lincoya to emulate his father's courage and
virtues: and, ere long, the simple young savage again grew calm, said
lifted up her soft black eyes, and smiled gratefully at her new friend
and benefactor. She said she bad no wish to return to her own tribe,
for all her family and friends had been destroyed in the recent
massacre; and the village where she had spent such happy days was
reduced to ashes. She, therefore, was well content to remain with the
youthful Squaw-Sachem, to whose intercession she knew she owed her own
life and that of her child, and in whose service she professed her
willingness to live and die.
Her manner and appearance greatly interested Henrich, for they were
marked by much greater refinement than he had seen in any of the Indian
females, except Oriana. This was to be accounted for by her noble
birth; for in those days the Indian chieftains prided themselves on the
purity and nobility of their lineage; and no member of a Sachem's
family was allowed to marry one of an inferior race. A certain air of
dignity generally distinguished the privileged class, even among the
females; although their lives were not exempt from much of hardship and
servitude, and they were regarded as altogether the inferiors of their
lords and masters.
To Oriana the arrival of the young mother and her playful child was a
source of much pleasure and comfort; for she had begun to feel the want
of female society, and the women who accompanied Tisquantum's party,
and assisted her in the domestic duties of the family, were no
companions to her. In Mailah she saw that she could find a friend; and
her kindness and sympathy soon attached the lonely young squaw to her,
and even restored her to cheerfulness and activity. It was only when
she visited the grave in which Henrich and Jyanough had laid the
murdered Lincoya, and decked it with flowers and green boughs, that the
widow seemed to feel the greatness of her affliction. Then she would
weep bitterly, and, with passionate gestures, lament her brave warrior.
But, at other times, she was fully occupied with the care of her little
Lincoya, or in assisting Oriana in the light household duties that
devolved upon her. And her sweet voice was often heard singing to the
child, which generally hung at her back, nestled in its soft bed of
moss.