The Prairie

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER XIX

  How if he will not stand? --Shakspeare.

  The several movements, related in the close of the preceding chapter,had passed in so short a space of time, that the old man, while heneglected not to note the smallest incident, had no opportunity ofexpressing his opinion concerning the stranger's motives. After thePawnee had disappeared, however, he shook his head and muttered, whilehe walked slowly to the angle of the thicket that the Indian had justquitted--

  "There are both scents and sounds in the air, though my miserablesenses are not good enough to hear the one, or to catch the taint of theother."

  "There is nothing to be seen," cried Middleton, who kept close at hisside. "My eyes and my ears are good, and yet I can assure you that Ineither hear nor see any thing."

  "Your eyes are good! and you are not deaf!" returned the other with aslight air of contempt; "no, lad, no; they may be good to see across achurch, or to hear a town-bell, but afore you had passed a year in theseprairies you would find yourself taking a turkey for a buffaloe, orconceiting, fifty times, that the roar of a buffaloe bull was thethunder of the Lord! There is a deception of natur' in these nakedplains, in which the air throws up the images like water, and then it ishard to tell the prairies from a sea. But yonder is a sign that a hunternever fails to know!"

  The trapper pointed to a flight of vultures, that were sailing over theplain at no great distance, and apparently in the direction in which thePawnee had riveted his eye. At first Middleton could not distinguish thesmall dark objects, that were dotting the dusky clouds, but as they cameswiftly onward, first their forms, and then their heavy waving wings,became distinctly visible.

  "Listen," said the trapper, when he had succeeded in making Middletonsee the moving column of birds. "Now you hear the buffaloes, or bisons,as your knowing Doctor sees fit to call them, though buffaloes is theirname among all the hunters of these regions. And, I conclude, that ahunter is a better judge of a beast and of its name," he added, winkingto the young soldier, "than any man who has turned over the leaves of abook, instead of travelling over the face of the 'arth, in order to findout the natur's of its inhabitants."

  "Of their habits, I will grant you," cried the naturalist, who rarelymissed an opportunity to agitate any disputed point in his favouritestudies. "That is, provided always, deference is had to the proper useof definitions, and that they are contemplated with scientific eyes."

  "Eyes of a mole! as if man's eyes were not as good for names as the eyesof any other creatur'! Who named the works of His hand? can you tell methat, with your books and college wisdom? Was it not the first man inthe Garden, and is it not a plain consequence that his children inherithis gifts?"

  "That is certainly the Mosaic account of the event," said the Doctor;"though your reading is by far too literal!"

  "My reading! nay, if you suppose, that I have wasted my time in schools,you do such a wrong to my knowledge, as one mortal should never lay tothe door of another without sufficient reason. If I have ever craved theart of reading, it has been that I might better know the sayings of thebook you name, for it is a book which speaks, in every line, accordingto human feelings, and therein according to reason."

  "And do you then believe," said the Doctor a little provoked bythe dogmatism of his stubborn adversary, and perhaps, secretly, tooconfident in his own more liberal, though scarcely as profitable,attainments,--"do you then believe that all these beasts were literallycollected in a garden, to be enrolled in the nomenclature of the firstman?"

  "Why not? I understand your meaning; for it is not needful to live intowns to hear all the devilish devices, that the conceit of man caninvent to upset his own happiness. What does it prove, except indeed itmay be said to prove that the garden He made was not after the miserablefashions of our times, thereby directly giving the lie to what the worldcalls its civilising? No, no, the garden of the Lord was the forestthen, and is the forest now, where the fruits do grow, and the birdsdo sing, according to his own wise ordering. Now, lady, you may seethe mystery of the vultures! There come the buffaloes themselves, and anoble herd it is! I warrant me, that Pawnee has a troop of his people insome of the hollows, nigh by; and as he has gone scampering afterthem, you are about to see a glorious chase. It will serve to keep thesquatter and his brood under cover, and for ourselves there is littlereason to fear. A Pawnee is not apt to be a malicious savage."

  Every eye was now drawn to the striking spectacle that succeeded. Eventhe timid Inez hastened to the side of Middleton to gaze at the sight,and Paul summoned Ellen from her culinary labours, to become a witnessof the lively scene.

  Throughout the whole of those moving events, which it has been our dutyto record, the prairies had lain in the majesty of perfect solitude. Theheavens had been blackened with the passage of the migratory birds, itis true, but the dogs of the party, and the ass of the doctor, werethe only quadrupeds that had enlivened the broad surface of the wastebeneath. There was now a sudden exhibition of animal life, which changedthe scene, as it were, by magic, to the very opposite extreme.

  A few enormous bison bulls were first observed, scouring along the mostdistant roll of the prairie, and then succeeded long files of singlebeasts, which, in their turns, were followed by a dark mass of bodies,until the dun-coloured herbage of the plain was entirely lost, in thedeeper hue of their shaggy coats. The herd, as the column spread andthickened, was like the endless flocks of the smaller birds, whoseextended flanks are so often seen to heave up out of the abyss of theheavens, until they appear as countless as the leaves in those forests,over which they wing their endless flight. Clouds of dust shot up inlittle columns from the centre of the mass, as some animal, more furiousthan the rest, ploughed the plain with his horns, and, from time totime, a deep hollow bellowing was borne along on the wind, as if athousand throats vented their plaints in a discordant murmuring.

  A long and musing silence reigned in the party, as they gazed on thisspectacle of wild and peculiar grandeur. It was at length broken by thetrapper, who, having been long accustomed to similar sights, felt lessof its influence, or, rather, felt it in a less thrilling and absorbingmanner, than those to whom the scene was more novel.

  "There go ten thousand oxen in one drove, without keeper or master,except Him who made them, and gave them these open plains for theirpasture! Ay, it is here that man may see the proofs of his wantonnessand folly! Can the proudest governor in all the States go into hisfields, and slaughter a nobler bullock than is here offered to themeanest hand; and when he has gotten his sirloin, or his steak, canhe eat it with as good a relish as he who has sweetened his foodwith wholesome toil, and earned it according to the law of natur', byhonestly mastering that which the Lord hath put before him?"

  "If the prairie platter is smoking with a buffaloe's hump, I answer,No," interrupted the luxurious bee-hunter.

  "Ay, boy, you have tasted, and you feel the genuine reasoning of thething! But the herd is heading a little this-a-way, and it behoves us tomake ready for their visit. If we hide ourselves, altogether, the hornedbrutes will break through the place and trample us beneath their feet,like so many creeping worms; so we will just put the weak ones apart,and take post, as becomes men and hunters, in the van."

  As there was but little time to make the necessary arrangements, thewhole party set about them in good earnest. Inez and Ellen were placedin the edge of the thicket on the side farthest from the approachingherd. Asinus was posted in the centre, in consideration of his nerves,and then the old man, with his three male companions, divided themselvesin such a manner as they thought would enable them to turn the headof the rushing column, should it chance to approach too nigh theirposition. By the vacillating movements of some fifty or a hundred bulls,that led the advance, it remained questionable, for many moments, whatcourse they intended to pursue. But a tremendous and painful roar, whichcame from behind the cloud of dust that rose in the centre of the herd,and which was horri
dly answered by the screams of the carrion birds,that were greedily sailing directly above the flying drove, appeared togive a new impulse to their flight, and at once to remove every symptomof indecision. As if glad to seek the smallest signs of the forest, thewhole of the affrighted herd became steady in its direction, rushingin a straight line toward the little cover of bushes, which has alreadybeen so often named.

  The appearance of danger was now, in reality, of a character to try thestoutest nerves. The flanks of the dark, moving mass, were advanced insuch a manner as to make a concave line of the front, and every fierceeye, that was glaring from the shaggy wilderness of hair in which theentire heads of the males were enveloped, was riveted with mad anxietyon the thicket. It seemed as if each beast strove to outstrip hisneighbour, in gaining this desired cover; and as thousands in therear pressed blindly on those in front, there was the appearance of animminent risk that the leaders of the herd would be precipitated on theconcealed party, in which case the destruction of every one of them wascertain. Each of our adventurers felt the danger of his situation in amanner peculiar to his individual character and circumstances.

  Middleton wavered. At times he felt inclined to rush through the bushes,and, seizing Inez, attempt to fly. Then recollecting the impossibilityof outstripping the furious speed of an alarmed bison, he felt for hisarms, determined to make head against the countless drove. The facultiesof Dr. Battius were quickly wrought up to the very summit of mentaldelusion. The dark forms of the herd lost their distinctness, and thenthe naturalist began to fancy he beheld a wild collection of all thecreatures of the world, rushing upon him in a body, as if to revenge thevarious injuries, which in the course of a life of indefatigable labourin behalf of the natural sciences, he had inflicted on their severalgenera. The paralysis it occasioned in his system, was like the effectof the incubus. Equally unable to fly or to advance, he stood rivetedto the spot, until the infatuation became so complete, that theworthy naturalist was beginning, by a desperate effort of scientificresolution, even to class the different specimens. On the other hand,Paul shouted, and called on Ellen to come and assist him in shouting,but his voice was lost in the bellowings and trampling of the herd.Furious, and yet strangely excited by the obstinacy of the brutes andthe wildness of the sight, and nearly maddened by sympathy and aspecies of unconscious apprehension, in which the claims of nature weresingularly mingled with concern for his mistress, he nearly split histhroat in exhorting his aged friend to interfere.

  "Come forth, old trapper," he shouted, "with your prairie inventions! orwe shall be all smothered under a mountain of buffaloe humps!"

  The old man, who had stood all this while leaning on his rifle, andregarding the movements of the herd with a steady eye, now deemed ittime to strike his blow. Levelling his piece at the foremost bull,with an agility that would have done credit to his youth, he fired. Theanimal received the bullet on the matted hair between his horns, andfell to his knees: but shaking his head he instantly arose, the veryshock seeming to increase his exertions. There was now no longer time tohesitate. Throwing down his rifle, the trapper stretched forth hisarms, and advanced from the cover with naked hands, directly towards therushing column of the beasts.

  The figure of a man, when sustained by the firmness and steadiness thatintellect can only impart, rarely fails of commanding respect from allthe inferior animals of the creation. The leading bulls recoiled, andfor a single instant there was a sudden stop to their speed, a densemass of bodies rolling up in front, until hundreds were seen flounderingand tumbling on the plain. Then came another of those hollow bellowingsfrom the rear, and set the herd again in motion. The head of the column,however, divided. The immovable form of the trapper, cutting it, as itwere, into two gliding streams of life. Middleton and Paul instantlyprofited by his example, and extended the feeble barrier by a similarexhibition of their own persons.

  For a few moments, the new impulse given to the animals in front, servedto protect the thicket. But, as the body of the herd pressed more andmore upon the open line of its defenders, and the dust thickened, so asto obscure their persons, there was, at each instant, a renewed dangerof the beasts breaking through. It became necessary for the trapperand his companions to become still more and more alert; and they weregradually yielding before the headlong multitude, when a furious bulldarted by Middleton, so near as to brush his person, and, at the nextinstant, swept through the thicket with the velocity of the wind.

  "Close, and die for the ground," shouted the old man, "or a thousand ofthe devils will be at his heels!"

  All their efforts would have proved fruitless, however, against theliving torrent, had not Asinus, whose domains had just been so rudelyentered, lifted his voice, in the midst of the uproar. The most sturdyand furious of the bulls trembled at the alarming and unknown cry,and then each individual brute was seen madly pressing from that verythicket, which, the moment before, he had endeavoured to reach, with theeagerness with which the murderer seeks the sanctuary.

  As the stream divided, the place became clear; the two dark columnsmoving obliquely from the copse, to unite again at the distance ofa mile, on its opposite side. The instant the old man saw the suddeneffect which the voice of Asinus had produced, he coolly commencedreloading his rifle, indulging at the same time in a heartfelt fit ofhis silent and peculiar merriment.

  "There they go, like dogs with so many half-filled shot-pouches danglingat their tails, and no fear of their breaking their order; for what thebrutes in the rear didn't hear with their own ears, they'll conceit theydid: besides, if they change their minds, it may be no hard matter toget the Jack to sing the rest of his tune!"

  "The ass has spoken, but Balaam is silent!" cried the bee-hunter,catching his breath after a repeated burst of noisy mirth, that mightpossibly have added to the panic of the buffaloes by its vociferation."The man is as completely dumb-founded, as if a swarm of young bees hadsettled on the end of his tongue, and he not willing to speak, for fearof their answer."

  "How now, friend," continued the trapper, addressing the stillmotionless and entranced naturalist; "how now, friend; are you, who makeyour livelihood by booking the names and natur's of the beasts of thefields and the fowls of the air, frightened at a herd of scamperingbuffaloes? Though, perhaps, you are ready to dispute my right to callthem by a word, that is in the mouth of every hunter and trader on thefrontier!"

  The old man was however mistaken, in supposing he could excite thebenumbed faculties of the Doctor, by provoking a discussion. From thattime, henceforth, he was never known, except on one occasion, to utter aword that indicated either the species, or the genus, of the animal. Heobstinately refused the nutritious food of the whole ox family, and evento the present hour, now that he is established in all the scientificdignity and security of a savant in one of the maritime towns, he turnshis back with a shudder on those delicious and unrivalled viands, thatare so often seen at the suppers of the craft, and which are unequalledby any thing, that is served under the same name, at the boastedchop-houses of London, or at the most renowned of the Parisianrestaurants. In short, the distaste of the worthy naturalist for beefwas not unlike that which the shepherd sometimes produces, by firstmuzzling and fettering his delinquent dog, and then leaving him as astepping stone for the whole flock to use in its transit over a wall, orthrough the opening of a sheep-fold; a process which is said to producein the culprit a species of surfeit, on the subject of mutton, for everafter. By the time Paul and the trapper saw fit to terminate the freshbursts of merriment, which the continued abstraction of their learnedcompanion did not fail to excite, he commenced breathing again, as ifthe suspended action of his lungs had been renewed by the applicationof a pair of artificial bellows, and was heard to make use of the everafterwards proscribed term, on that solitary occasion, to which we havejust alluded.

  "Boves Americani horridi!" exclaimed the Doctor, laying great stress onthe latter word; after which he continued mute, like one who pondered onstrange and unaccountable events.

>   "Ay, horrid eyes enough, I will willingly allow," returned the trapper;"and altogether the creatur' has a frightful look, to one unused to thesights and bustle of a natural life; but then the courage of the beastis in no way equal to its countenance. Lord, man, if you should once getfairly beset by a brood of grizzly bears, as happened to Hector and I,at the great falls of the Miss--Ah, here comes the tail of the herd, andyonder goes a pack of hungry wolves, ready to pick up the sick, or suchas get a disjointed neck by a tumble. Ha! there are mounted men on theirtrail, or I'm no sinner! here, lad; you may see them here-away, justwhere the dust is scattering afore the wind. They are hovering around awounded buffaloe, making an end of the surly devil with their arrows!"

  Middleton and Paul soon caught a glimpse of the dark group, that thequick eye of the old man had so readily detected. Some fifteen or twentyhorsemen were, in truth, to be seen riding, in quick circuits, abouta noble bull, which stood at bay, too grievously hurt to fly, and yetseeming to disdain to fall, notwithstanding his hardy body had alreadybeen the target for a hundred arrows. A thrust from the lance of apowerful Indian, however, completed his conquest, and the brute gave uphis obstinate hold of life with a roar, that passed bellowing overthe place where our adventurers stood, and, reaching the ears of theaffrighted herd, added a new impulse to their flight.

  "How well the Pawnee knew the philosophy of a buffaloe hunt!" saidthe old man, after he had stood regarding the animated scene for a fewmoments, with evident satisfaction. "You saw how he went off like thewind before the drove. It was in order that he might not taint the air,and that he might turn the flank, and join--Ha! how is this! yonderRed-skins are no Pawnees! The feathers in their heads are from the wingsand tails of owls.--Ah! as I am but a miserable, half-sighted, trapper,it is a band of the accursed Siouxes! To cover, lads, to cover. A singlecast of an eye this-a-way, would strip us of every rag of clothes, assurely as the lightning scorches the bush, and it might be that our verylives would be far from safe."

  Middleton had already turned from the spectacle, to seek that whichpleased him better; the sight of his young and beautiful bride. Paulseized the Doctor by the arm; and, as the trapper followed with thesmallest possible delay, the whole party was quickly collected withinthe cover of the thicket. After a few short explanations concerning thecharacter of this new danger, the old man, on whom the whole dutyof directing their movements was devolved, in deference to his greatexperience, continued his discourse as follows--

  "This is a region, as you must all know, where a strong arm is farbetter than the right, and where the white law is as little known asneeded. Therefore does every thing, now, depend on judgment andpower. If," he continued, laying his finger on his cheek, like one whoconsidered deeply all sides of the embarrassing situation in which hefound himself,--"if an invention could be framed, which would set theseSiouxes and the brood of the squatter by the ears, then might we comein, like the buzzards after a fight atween the beasts, and pick up thegleanings of the ground--there are Pawnees nigh us, too! It is a certainmatter, for yonder lad is not so far from his village without an errand.Here are therefore four parties within sound of a cannon, not one ofwhom can trust the other. All which makes movement a little difficult,in a district where covers are far from plenty. But we are threewell-armed, and I think I may see three stout-hearted men--"

  "Four," interrupted Paul.

  "Anan," said the old man, looking up simply at his companion.

  "Four," repeated the bee-hunter, pointing to the naturalist.

  "Every army has its hangers-on and idlers," rejoined the bluntborder-man. "Friend, it will be necessary to slaughter this ass."

  "To slay Asinus! such a deed would be an act of supererogatory cruelty."

  "I know nothing of your words, which hide their meaning in sound; butthat is cruel which sacrifices a Christian to a brute. This is what Icall the reason of mercy. It would be just as safe to blow a trumpet,as to let the animal raise his voice again, inasmuch as it would prove amanifest challenge to the Siouxes."

  "I will answer for the discretion of Asinus, who seldom speaks without areason."

  "They say a man can be known by the company he keeps," retorted the oldman, "and why not a brute? I once made a forced march, and went througha great deal of jeopardy, with a companion who never opened his mouthbut to sing; and trouble enough and great concern of mind did the fellowgive me. It was in that very business with your grand'ther, captain.But then he had a human throat, and well did he know how to use it, onoccasion, though he didn't always stop to regard the time and seasonsfit for such outcries. Ah's me! if I was now, as I was then, it wouldn'tbe a band of thieving Siouxes that should easily drive me from such alodgment as this! But what signifies boasting, when sight and strengthare both failing. The warrior, that the Delawares once saw fit to callafter the Hawk, for the goodness of his eyes, would now be better termedthe Mole! In my judgment, therefore, it will be well to slay the brute."

  "There's argument and good logic in it," said Paul; "music is music,and it's always noisy, whether it comes from a fiddle or a jackass.Therefore I agree with the old man, and say, Kill the beast."

  "Friends," said the naturalist, looking with a sorrowful eye from one toanother of his bloodily disposed companions, "slay not Asinus; he isa specimen of his kind, of whom much good and little evil can be said.Hardy and docile for his genus; abstemious and patient, even for hishumble species. We have journeyed much together, and his death wouldgrieve me. How would it trouble thy spirit, venerable venator, toseparate, in such an untimely manner, from your faithful hound?"

  "The animal shall not die," said the old man, suddenly clearing histhroat, in a manner that proved he felt the force of the appeal; "buthis voice must be smothered. Bind his jaws with the halter, and then Ithink we may trust the rest to Providence."

  With this double security for the discretion of Asinus, for Paulinstantly bound the muzzle of the ass in the manner required, thetrapper seemed content. After which he proceeded to the margin of thethicket to reconnoitre.

  The uproar, which attended the passage of the herd, was now gone, orrather it was heard rolling along the prairie, at the distance of amile. The clouds of dust were already blown away by the wind, and aclear range was left to the eye, in that place where ten minutes beforethere existed a scene of so much wildness and confusion.

  The Siouxes had completed their conquest, and, apparently satisfied withthis addition to the numerous previous captures they had made, they nowseemed content to let the remainder of the herd escape. A dozen remainedaround the carcass, over which a few buzzards were balancing themselveswith steady wings and greedy eyes, while the rest were riding about, inquest of such further booty as might come in their way, on the trail ofso vast a drove. The trapper measured the proportions, and scannedthe equipments of such individuals as drew nearer to the side of thethicket, with careful eyes. At length he pointed out one among them, toMiddleton, as Weucha.

  "Now, know we not only who they are, but their errand," the old mancontinued, deliberately shaking his head. "They have lost the trail ofthe squatter, and are on its hunt. These buffaloes have crossed theirpath, and in chasing the animals, bad luck has led them in open sightof the hill on which the brood of Ishmael have harboured. Do you see yonbirds watching for the offals of the beast they have killed? Therein isa moral, which teaches the manner of a prairie life. A band of Pawneesare outlying for these very Siouxes, as you see the buzzards lookingdown for their food, and it behoves us, as Christian men who have somuch at stake, to look down upon them both. Ha! what brings yonder twoskirting reptiles to a stand? As you live, they have found the placewhere the miserable son of the squatter met his death!"

  The old man was not mistaken. Weucha, and a savage who accompanied him,had reached that spot, which has already been mentioned as furnishingthe frightful evidences of violence and bloodshed. There they sat ontheir horses, examining the well-known signs, with the intelligencethat distinguishes the habits of Indians. Their scrutiny was long, a
ndapparently not without distrust. At length they raised a cry, thatwas scarcely less piteous and startling than that which the hounds hadbefore made over the same fatal signs, and which did not fail to drawthe whole band immediately around them, as the fell bark of the jackalis said to gather his comrades to the chase.