To Oowikapun this interview was of great value, and while he could not
but feel a certain amount of humiliation at the cowardice he had been
forced to admit, and felt also that it was a new experience to be thus
talked to by a woman, yet his conscience told him that she was right and
he deserved the reproofs she had given. So with something more to think
about, he resumed his onward journey, and ere he stopped that night and
made his little camp he was many miles nearer his home.
As he sat there by his cheery fire, while all around him stretched the
great wild forest, he tried to think over some of the new and strange
adventures through which he had passed. With starring vividness they
came before him, and above all the brave words of the maiden Astumastao
seemed to ring in his ears. Then the consciousness that he who had been
trying to make himself and others believe that he was so brave was
really so cowardly took hold of him, and so depressed him that he could
only sit with bowed head and burdened heart, and say within himself that
he was very weak and foolish.
The stars shone out in that brilliant northern sky, and the aurora
danced and blazed and scintillated, meteors flashed across the heavens
with wondrous brightness, but Oowikapun saw them not. The problem of
life here and hereafter had come to him as never before. He found out
that he had a soul, and that there was a God to fear and love, who cared
for men and women, and that there was reward for right doing and
punishment for sin. So with the little light he had, he pondered and
thought, and the more he did the worse he got; for he had not yet found
the way of simple faith and trust, and he became so saddened and
terrified that there was but little sleep that night for him. As there
he sat longing for help, he remembered the words of Astumastao: "O, that
we had a missionary among us, with the book of heaven, that we might
learn more about the way, and be brave and courageous all the time!"
In this frame of mind he watched and waited until the first blush of
morn; then after a hasty meal prepared on his camp fire, he started off,
and in due time reached his home in the distant village in the
wilderness, and in the depressing mood in which we here first met him he
lived for many a day.
The change in him was noticed by all, and many conjectured as to the
cause, but Oowikapun unburdened not his heart, for he knew there was
none among his people who could understand, and with bitter memories of
his cowardice, he thought in his blindness that the better way to escape
ridicule and even persecution would be to keep all he had learned about
the Good Spirit and the book of heaven locked up in his heart.
Oowikapun was one of the best hunters in his village, and as his father
was dead and he was the oldest son, and now about twenty-five years of
age, he was looked up to as the head of the wigwam. In his Indian way
he was neither unkind to his mother nor to the younger members of the
family. To his little brothers he gave the two young bears, and they
soon taught them a number of tricks. They quickly learned the use of
their fore legs, and it was very amusing to see them wrestling with and
throwing the young Indian dogs, with whom they soon became great
friends.
Oowikapun, to divert attention from himself, and to keep from being
questioned about the change in his conduct, which was so evident to all,
devoted himself with unflagging energy to the chase. Spring having now
opened, the wild geese came in great flocks from their southern homes to
those northern lands, looking for the rich feeding grounds and safe
places where they could hatch their young. These times when the geese
are flying over are as a general thing profitable to the hunters. I
have known an old Indian, with only two old flintlock guns, kill
seventy-five large grey geese in one day. That was however an
exceptional case. The hunters considered themselves fortunate if each
night they returned with from seven to twelve of these birds.
Oowikapun, having selected a spot at the edge of a great marsh from
which the snow had melted, and where the goose grass was abundant, and
the flocks were flying over in great numbers, hastily prepared what the
hunters call their nest. This is made out of marsh hay and branches of
trees, and is really what its name implies, a nest so large that at
least a couple of men can hide themselves in it. When ready to begin
goose hunting they put on a white coat and a cap of similar colour; for
these observant Indians have learned that if they are dressed in white
they can call the geese much nearer to them than if their garments are
of any other hue. Another requisite for a successful hunt is to have a
number of decoy geese carved out of wood, and placed in the grass near
the nest, as though busily engaged in eating.
Oowikapun's first day at the hunt was fortunately a very good one. The
sun was shining brightly, and aided by a southern breeze many flocks of
geese came in sight in their usual way of flying, either in straight
lines or in triangles. Oowikapun was gifted with the ability to imitate
their call, and he succeeded in bringing so many of them in range of his
gun that ere the day ended he had bagged almost a score.
In after years when I visited that land it used to interest me much, and
added a pleasurable excitement to my trip, to don a white garment over
my winter clothing, for the weather was still cold, and join one of
these clever hunters in his little nest and take my chance at a shot at
these noble birds. I felt quite proud of my powers when I brought down
my first grey goose, even if I did only break a wing with my ball.
Quickly unloosing Cuffy, one of my favourite Newfoundland dogs, I sent
her after the bird, which had lit down on a great ice field about five
hundred yards away. But although disabled, the bird could still fight,
and so when my spirited dog tried to close in upon her and seize her by
the neck, the brave goose gave her such a blow over the head with the
uninjured wing that it turned her completely over and made her howl with
pain and vexation. Witnessing the discomfiture of my dog, I could
easily understand what I had been frequently told by the Indians, of
foxes having been killed by the old geese when trying to capture young
goslings from the flocks.
In these annual goose hunts all the Indians who can handle a gun take
part. The news of the arrival of the first goose fills a whole village
with excitement, and nothing can keep the people from rushing off to the
different points, which they each claim year after year, where they
hastily build their nests and set their decoys.
I well remember how quickly I was deserted by a whole company of
Salteaux Indians one spring, on their hearing the long-expected call of
a solitary goose that came flying along on the south wind. I had
succeeded, after a good deal of persuasion, in getting them to work with
me in cutting down trees and preparing the soil for seed sowing, when in
the midst of our toil, at about ten o'clock in the forenoon, the distant
"aunk! aunk! aunk!" of an old grey goose was heard, the outskirmisher of
the oncoming crowds. Such was the effect of that sound upon my good
hunters, but poor farmers, that the axes and hoes were hastily dropped,
and with a rush they were all off to their wigwams for their guns and
ammunition, and I did not see them again for a month.
Success in the goose hunt seems to elate the Indian more than in
anything else. Why, I could never find out. It may be because it is
the first spring hunting after the long, dreary winter, and there is the
natural gladness that the pleasant springtime has come again. Whatever
it may be, I noticed for years more noisy mirth and earnest
congratulations on success in the goose hunt than in anything else.
Loaded down with his game, Oowikapun returned to his wigwam, and instead
of cheerily responding to the congratulations of the inmates on account
of his success, he threw himself down on his bed, silent and gloomy, and
refused the proffered meal, and even the lighted pipe which his mother
brought him.
They were all surprised at his conduct, which was so contrary to his old
ways. He had never been known to act like this before. Just the
reverse. He had come to be considered the brightest young man in the
village; he had more than once been called the young hunter of the
cheery voice and the laughing eyes. Then in his serious hours, in times
when the affairs of the tribe were being discussed at the council fires,
so good was his judgment, and wise and thoughtful beyond his years were
his words considered, that even the old men, who seldom did anything but
sneer at the words of the young men, gave respectful attention to what
fell from the lips of Oowikapun. Well was it remembered how, only last
year, at the great council fire of the whole tribe, when the runners
brought the news of the aggressions of the whites on some of the
southern tribes with whom they had been, in the years past, on friendly
alliance, and the old men spake with bitterness and talked of the old
glories of the red men, ere the paleface came with his firearms, and
what was worse with his firewater, and hunted down and poisoned many of
their forefathers, and drove back the rest of them toward the setting
sun or northward to the regions of the bitter cold and frost, and how
much better it would have been, they said, if their forefathers had
listened to the fiery eloquence and burning words of Tecumseh and his
brother the prophet, and joined in a great Indian confederacy, when they
were numerous and strong to drive the white man back into the sea. Then
it was, when eyes flashed and the Indians were wild enough with
excitement to cause great trouble, that Oowikapun arose and spoke kindly
words, and wise beyond his years.
In his address he urged that the time for successful war was passed,
that Tecumseh himself fell before the power of the paleface, that his
wampum and magic pipe had disappeared, and his tomahawk had been buried
in a peace ceremony between his survivors and the paleface; and bitter
as might be some of the memories of the past, yet to all it must be
clear that as many of the white men were really their friends, it was
for their interest and happiness to act patiently and honourably toward
them, and strive to live as the Great Spirit would have them, as loving
brothers.
Thus talked Oowikapun last year. Why is it, they said, that he who gave
such promise of being a great orator, as well as a successful hunter,
should act so strangely now? Some said he was losing his reason and
becoming crazy. The young folks said he was in love with some
bright-eyed maiden, whom they knew not, but many of the dark-eyed
maidens hoped she was the fortunate one. And so they wondered why he
did not let it be known. As he still delayed, they said, it is because
he has had so many to support that he is poor, and is fearful that what
he has to offer in payment for his bride might not be considered
sufficient, and he would be humiliated to be refused.
Even some of the older women, not born in beauty's hand basket, when
they could, get away from their exacting husbands, would sit down
together under the bank where the canoes were drawn up, and in imitation
of the men around the council fires, would gravely exchange opinions,
and perhaps, like white folks, would gossip a little in reference to
conduct so extraordinary.