Oowikapun shortly after his return to the village found his way to the
tent of Mookoomis, and candidly told him of his complete failure to find
anything of comfort or peace of mind in communion with nature. He said
he had faithfully carried out his directions, but that everything he
hoped would have in it help or satisfaction seemed to have had just the
reverse. Mookoomis listened intently to all he had to say, and then,
perhaps for the first time in his life, freely admitted his own
dissatisfaction and uncertainty of belief in their Indian way; but he
was an obstinate, wicked old man, and determined, if possible, to keep
Oowikapun walking, as he again said, "as our forefathers walked." So he
urged him to make the great trial of fasting and personal torture, and
see if in the delirium of physical agonies the voice of comfort for
which he was longing would, not come to him.
For a long time Oowikapun hesitated to undertake this terrible ordeal,
called by the Western Indians the _hock-e-a-yum_, a ceremony so severe
and dreadful that many an Indian has never recovered from its agonies.
Great indeed must be the wretched disquietude that will cause human
beings, who are made to shrink from pain, endure what thousands
voluntarily submit to, if only they can get peace to their souls.
Oowikapun spent weeks in a state of indecision, and then resolved to
follow the advice of old Mookoomis; and so in his blindness and folly he
found himself, although he knew it not, in company with a vast multitude
who in their ignorance and superstition, are hoping by inflicting
torture on their bodies to atone for sin and merit heaven.
Great indeed was, and still is, this innumerable company of deluded
ones. They are found by the missionaries almost everywhere. The poor,
ignorant Hindoo on the burning plains of his native land, seated on a
stone pillar, with arm extended until it has become fixed and rigid,
while the ever-growing finger nails have pierced through his clenched
hand, is one of the sad company. Another is that poor fanatic who
measured the whole distance, many hundreds of miles, which stretched
from his jungle home to the Ganges by prostrating his body on the ground
as a measuring rod. In this sad procession are millions, and millions
of unhappy souls, without God, and therefore without hope. They are
going down from the darkness of sin and error to the darkness of the
tomb, with none to whisper in their ears the story of redeeming love;
and so in their blindness and folly, believing that God delights in
misery and pain and suffering, they torture their poor bodies; and in
some instances still, as in olden times, "give of the fruit of their
body for the sin of their soul," if by these or any other means they can
propitiate the One whom they hope can give them peace.
The contemplation of a multitude so vast and in a condition so
deplorable makes our hearts sad, and shows us how imperative is the call
to each of us to do all we can to carry to them, or, if this is
impossible, to aid in sending to them, the blessed truth which alone can
make them happy. Poor Oowikapun was now in this sad company. All his
fears are aroused, and in his vain efforts to quiet them he is about to
go through a most severe ordeal of fasting and acute physical suffering.
How terrible is sin! How dreadful must be the goadings of the guilty
conscience when men and women will so punish themselves, if thereby they
can find relief!
When Oowikapun had finally resolved on his course of action he
immediately set about carrying it out. He joined himself to a company
of "braves" who were also going to pass through the ceremony of
_hock-e-a-yum_. Different motives were in the hearts of those who were
about to undergo the trying ordeal. Some of them were ambitious to
become great warriors or hunters, others were ambitious to become
leaders or great medicine-men among the tribes. To succeed in their
ambitious purposes, it was necessary that the ordeal of suffering should
be passed through.
While the majority were thus fired by their selfish hopes of attaining
prominence and position as the result of their suffering, there were
several like Oowikapun who were unhappy in their souls, and were going
to try this method in hope of relief. Perhaps, like him, they had in
some way or other been in a place where a few rays of light had shone
upon their souls. These had revealed to them the sinfulness of their
lives and the hideousness of sin; but being ignorant of the great
Physician, instead of looking to him for healing and happiness, they
were going to see if there was any efficacy in these trying ordeals.
As the ceremonies were only held in the far West, where the devotees
gathered from various tribes, Oowikapun and those with him had to travel
for many days ere they reached the place.
Far beyond the limits of the hunting grounds of his people did he and
his deluded comrades journey. They had to work up the swift current and
make many portages around the rapids of the Nelson River. Then across
the northern part of treacherous Lake Winnipeg they ventured in their
frail canoes, and only their consummate skill in the management of these
frail boats saved them from going down to watery graves.
Up the mighty Saskatchewan for nearly a thousand miles they hurried on.
If their minds had not been troubled at the prospect of their coming
sufferings, they would as hunters have been delighted by that trip
through that glorious western country which then teemed with game.
Multitudes of buffalo coming down to the great river to drink, first
gazed on them with curiosity and then, when alarmed, went thundering
over the plains. The great antlered elks were seen in troops upon the
bluffs and hills, and bears of different kinds went lumbering along the
shores. Beautiful antelopes with their large luminous eyes looked at
them for a moment and then went flying over the prairies like the
gazelles in the desert.
They landed at Edmonton, where now there nestles in beauty on its
picturesque bluffs a flourishing little town. Oowikapun and his
comrades in those days, however, found only the old historic fort, even
then famous as the scene of many an exciting event between the
enterprising fur traders and the proud, warlike Indians of the plains.
Here they left their canoes, and after exchanging some furs for needed
supplies they started southwest on the long trail of many days' toilsome
travelling, until at length the place of the fearful ordeal was reached.
Into the details of the scenes and events of the Indian ceremony of
torture, I am not going to enter. Catlin has with pen and brush
described it in a way to chill the blood and fill our sleeping hours
with horrid dreams.
Suffice to say that Oowikapun put himself in the hands of the torturers,
and, first of all, they kept him for four days and nights without
allowing him a mouthful of food or drink. Neither did they permit him
to have a moment's sleep. Then they stripped off his upper garments,
and, cutting long, parallel gashes in his breast down to the bone, they
lifted up the flesh and there tied to the quivering flesh ends of
horsehair ropes about three quarters of an inch in diameter. The other
ends of these two ropes were fastened to a high pole about fifteen feet
from the ground. At first the upper ends of these ropes were drawn
through rude pulleys, and poor Oowikapun was dragged up six or eight
feet from the ground and held there for several minutes by the bleeding,
lacerated, distended muscles of his breast. Then the ropes were
suddenly loosened from above, and he fell with a sickening thud to the
ground. Quickly they raised him up on his feet and made fast the ropes
to the upper end of the pole, and left him to struggle and pull until
the muscles rotted or were worn away, and he was free. Four days passed
by ere he succeeded in breaking away, and during that time not a morsel
of food or a drop of water was given him.
Weeks passed away ere Oowikapun recovered from those fearful wounds,
and, after all, what did they accomplish for him? Nothing at all. He
was, if possible, more wretched in mind than in body. No voice of
comfort had he heard. No dispelling of the darkness, no lifting of the
heavy loads, no assurance of pardon and forgiveness. Is it any wonder
that he was discouraged, and that his sharp-eyed neighbours looked at
him at times with suspicion, and said one to another that something must
be wrong in his head?
To convince them that his mind was not disordered or his reason
affected, Oowikapun attended the councils of the tribe, and ever showed
himself clear-headed in discussion and debate. He applied himself with
renewed diligence to his work as a hunter, and remembering Memotas's
love for his household, strove to imitate him in his conduct toward his
mother and the younger members of his family. Disgusted and annoyed
that nothing but disappointment and suffering had come to him from
following the advice of Mookoomis, he shunned his society and would have
none of his counsel.
So passed the summer months, and when the winter came again there arose
in the breast of Oowikapun a longing desire, doubtless it had been there
before, to go and see Astumastao, the brave maiden who had been his real
friend, and had told him words which had done him more good than
anything else he had heard since he had parted from Memotas.
About her he had never spoken a word to anyone, but her bright eyes had
buried themselves in his heart, while her brave words had fixed
themselves in his memory.
So making up some excuse in reference to business with his relatives in
the distant village where dwelt the fair maiden, he prepared for the
journey. He arrayed himself in new and picturesque apparel, and with
his little outfit on a light sled, and his gun in his hand, and his axe
and knife in his belt, he set off for the village where he had made such
a sad fall, after all his resolves to have nothing more to do with devil
worship.
Is it surprising that, as he hurried along, he forgot much of his
sorrow, and was filled with pleasurable excitement at the prospect of
meeting Astumastao again? True, he would check himself and say he was
acting or thinking foolishly, for Astumastao might be married or the
bride selected, by her uncle, for some one else, for all he knew. Why,
then, should he so think about her? True, she had been very kind to him
in his sorrow, but then he had only met her once, and so why should he
be continually thinking about her? Thus he reasoned with himself, but
he kept hurrying along as never before, and he did not try very hard to
banish her from his heart and memory. And fortunate it was for
Astumastao that Oowikapun was on the way.
When Astumastao returned to the village after her conversation with
Oowikapun she found the people excited by his story of the fire burning
in his wigwam and the meal prepared and ready for him. How these things
could have been done without anyone finding it out, when they were all
so alert and quick-witted, amazed them. Then it was to them such a
breach of the rules or usages of such occasions. Who, they said in
their excitement, could have been so presumptuous as to break the
long-established custom, and take in food and fire to one of the
dancers?
While some said that one of their number must have done it while the
others slept so soundly after the exciting days through which they had
been passing, there were others, tinged with superstition, who declared,
with bated breath, that the gods must have had special love for him, and
had themselves come and supplied his wants.
To all of these things Astumastao listened, and, not being suspected,
she kept what she knew in her heart. She was an active, brave girl, and
knew how to handle both the paddle and the gun. Kistayimoowin, her
uncle, was pleased with her prowess and industry, and while possessing
the pagan ideas about women, so that he would never allow himself to
show them any particular affection, yet ever since she had been brought
as a little child into his wigwam he had treated her not unkindly. With
his superstitious nature he had been strongly influenced by the words of
the missionary, when he handed the orphan child over to his care, and
had told him that if he wanted the favour of the Great Spirit he must
treat her kindly and well.
So it happened that as Kistayimoowin had no children of his own, this
bright, active girl was always with him and his wife as they,
Indianlike, moved from one hunting ground to another in quest of
different kinds of game. As she was so quick and observant, her uncle
had taught her many things about the habits and instincts of the
different animals and the best method known for their capture. The
result was she had become a very Diana, skillful and enthusiastic in the
chase.
Thus the years rolled on, and she grew to beautiful young womanhood, and
more than one pair of eyes looked toward her as the one they would like
to woo and win, or, as they thought of it, be able by abundant or
valuable gifts to purchase her from her uncle. Up to this time,
however, he had repelled most decidedly all advances made to him for
her, and had acted in so harsh a manner toward all would-be suitors that
they had been obliged to keep at a respectful distance. So Astumastao
was still free as a prairie breeze.