The Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet in California, Sonora, and Western Texas

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER IX.

  In the remarks which I am about to make relative to the Shoshones, I mayas well observe that the same observations will equally apply to theComanches, Apaches, and Arrapahoes, as they are but subdivisions andoffsets from the original stock--the Shoshones. The Wakoes, who have notyet been mentioned, or even seen, by any other travellers, I shallhereafter describe.

  I may as well here observe, that although the Shoshones are always atpeace with the Comanches and Apaches, they had for a long while been atwar with their descendants, the Arrapahoes, as well as the whole of theDacotah and Algonquin tribes, as the Crows and Rickarees, Black-feet,Nez-perces, and others.

  First, as to their religion--a question highly interesting, and perhapsthrowing more light upon their origin than can be collected fromtradition, manners, and customs. From my knowledge of the Indians, Ibelieve them, if not more religious, most certainly to be moreconscientious, than most Christians. They all believe in oneGod--Manitou, the author of good, and worship him as such; but believingthat human nature is too gross to communicate with the Arbitrator of allthings, they pray generally through the intervention of the elements oreven of certain animals, in the same manner that the Catholics addressthemselves to their saints.

  The great Manitou is universal among this family, and indeed among allthe savage tribes of North America. The interceding spirit alone varies,not with the tribe and nation, but according to individual selection.Children are taught to know "Kishe Manito" (the Almighty), but no more.When the boy is verging upon manhood, he selects his own personal deity,or household god, which is made known to him in his dreams. When hestates his intention of seeking the spirit, the parents of the young manorder him to fast for three days; then they take away his bow andarrows, and send him far into the woods, the mountains, or the prairies,to wait for the visitation.

  An empty stomach and inaction in the lone wilderness are certain toproduce reveries and waking dreams. If the young man is thirsty, hethinks of water; of fire or sunshine, if he feels cold; of buffalo orfish, if he is hungry. Sometimes he meets with some reptile, and uponany one of these or other natural causes or productions, his imaginationwill work, until it becomes wholly engrossed by it.

  Thus fire and water, the sun or the moon, a star, a buffalo, or asnake--any one of them, will become the subject of his thoughts, andwhen he sleeps, he naturally dreams of that object which he has beenbrooding over.

  He then returns home, engraves upon a stone, a piece of wood, or a skin,the form of this "spirit" which his dream has selected for him, wears itconstantly on his person, and addresses it, not as a god, but as anintercessor, through which his vows must pass before they can reach thefearful Lord of all things.

  Some men among the Indians acquire, by their virtues and the regularityof their lives, the privilege of addressing the Creator without anyintervention, and are admitted into the band, headed by the masters ofceremonies and the presidents of the sacred lodges, who receiveneophytes and confer dignities. Their rites are secret; none but amember can be admitted. These divines, as of old the priest of Isis andOsiris, are deeply learned; and truly their knowledge of natural historyis astonishing. They are well acquainted with astronomy and botany, andkeep the records and great transactions of the tribes, employing certainhieroglyphics, which they paint in the sacred lodges, and which none buttheir caste or order can decipher.

  Those few who, in their journey in the wilderness, have "dreamt" of asnake and made it their "spirit," become invariably "Medecines." Thisreptile, though always harmless in the western countries (except in someparts of the mountains on the Columbia, where the rattlesnake abounds),has ever been looked upon with dread by the Indians, who associate itwith the evil spirit. When "Kishe Manito" (the good God) came uponearth, under the form of a buffalo, to alleviate the sufferings of thered man, "kinebec" (the serpent), the spirit of evil gave him battle.This part of their creed alone would almost establish theirBrahminic origin.

  The "Medecine" inspires the Indian with awe and dread; he is respected,but he has no friends, no squaws, no children. He is the man of darkdeeds, he that communes with the spirit of evil; he takes his knowledgefrom the earth, from the fissures of the rocks, and knows how to combinepoisons; he alone fears not "Anim Teki" (thunder). He can cure diseasewith his spells, and with them he can kill also; his glance is that ofthe snake, it withers the grass, fascinates birds and beasts, troublesthe brain of man, and throws in his heart fear and darkness.

  The Shoshone women, as well as the Apache and Arrapahoe, all of whom areof the Shoshone race, are very superior to the squaws of the EasternIndians. They are more graceful in their forms, and have more personalbeauty, I cannot better describe them than by saying that they have moresimilitude to the Arabian women than any other race. They are very cleanin their persons and in their lodges; and all their tribes having bothmale and female slaves, the Shoshone wife is not broken down by hardlabour, as are the squaws of the eastern tribes; to their husbands theyare most faithful, and I really believe that any attempt upon theirchastity would prove unavailing. They ride as bravely as the men, andare very expert with the bow and arrow, I once saw a very beautifullittle Shoshone girl, about ten years old, the daughter of a chief, whenher horse was at full speed, kill, with her bow and arrow, in the courseof a minute or two, nine out of a flock of wild turkeys which she wasin chase of.

  Their dress is both tasteful and chaste. It is composed of a looseshirt, with tight sleeves, made of soft and well-prepared doe-skin,almost always dyed blue or red; this shirt is covered from the waist bythe toga, which falls four or six inches below the knee, and is madeeither of swan-down, silk, or woollen stuff; they wear leggings of thesame material as the shirt, and cover their pretty little feet withbeautifully-worked moccasins; they have also a scarf, of a fine richtexture, and allow their soft and long raven hair to fall luxuriantlyover their shoulder, usually ornamented with flowers, but sometimes withjewels of great value; their ankles and wrists are also encircled bybracelets; and indeed to see one of these young and graceful creatures,with her eyes sparkling and her face animated with the exercise of thechase, often recalled to the mind a nymph of Diana, as describedby Ovid[10].

  [Footnote 10: The Comanches women very much resemble the common squaws,being short and broad in figure. This arises from the Comanchessecluding the women and not permitting them air and exercise.]

  Though women participate not in the deeper mysteries of religion, someof them are permitted to consecrate themselves to the divinity, and tomake vows of chastity, as the vestals of Paganism or the nuns of theCatholic convents. But there is no seclusion. They dress as men, coveredwith leather from head to foot, a painting of the sun on their breasts.These women are warriors, but never go out with the parties, remainingalways behind to protect the villages. They also live alone, aredreaded, but not loved. The Indian hates anything or any body thatusurps power, or oversteps those bounds which appear to him as naturaland proper, or who does not fulfil what he considers as theirintended destiny.

  The fine evenings of summer are devoted, by the young Indian, tocourtship. When he has made his choice, he communicates it to hisparents, who take the business into their hands. Presents are carried tothe door of the fair one's lodge; if they are not accepted, there is anend to the matter, and the swain must look somewhere else; if they aretaken in, other presents are returned, as a token of agreement. Thesegenerally consist of objects of women's workmanship, such as garters,belts, moccasins, &c.; then follows a meeting of the parents, whichterminates by a speech from the girl's father, who mentions his daughteras the "dove," or "lily," or "whisper of the breeze," or any otherpretty Indian name which may appertain to her. She has been a gooddaughter, she will be a dutiful wife, her blood is that of a warrior's;she will bear noble children to her husband, and sing to them his greatdeeds, &c. The marriage day arrives at last; a meal of roots and fruitsis prepared; all are present except the bridegroom, whose arms, saddles,and property are placed behind the fair one. The do
or of the lodge isopen, its threshold lined with flowers; at sunset the young man presentshimself, with great gravity of deportment. As soon as he has taken aseat near the girl, the guests begin eating, but in silence; but soon asignal is given by the mothers, each guest rises, preparatory toretiring. At that moment, the two lovers cross their hands, and thehusband speaks for the first time, interrogatively:--"Faithful to thelodge, faithful to the father, faithful to his children?" She answerssoftly: "Faithful, ever faithful, in joy and in sorrow, in life and indeath"--"Penir, penir-asha, sartir nu cohta, lebeck nu tanim." It is thelast formula,--the ceremony is accomplished. This may seem very simpleand ridiculous; to me it appeared almost sublime. Opinions depend uponhabits and education.

  The husband remains a whole year with his father-in-law, to whom belongsby right the produce of his hunting, both skins and flesh. The yearexpired, his bondage Is over, and he may if he wishes it, retire withhis wife to his own father's, or construct a lodge for his own use. Thehunter brings his game to his door, except when a heavy animal; thereends his task; the wife skins and cuts it; she dries the skin and curesthe meat. Yet if the husband is a prime hunter, whose time is precious,the woman herself, or her female relations, go out and seek the gamewhere It has been killed. When a man dies, his widow wears mourningduring two or four years; the same case happens with the widower, onlyhis duties are not so strict as that of a woman; and it often happensthat, after two years, he marries his sister-in-law, if there is any.The Indians think it a natural thing; they say that a woman will havemore care of her sister's children than of those of a stranger. Amongthe better classes of Indians, children are often affianced to eachother, even at the age of a few months. These engagements are sacred,and never broken.

  The Indians in general have very severe laws against murder, and theyare pretty much alike among the tribes; they are divided into twodistinct sections--murder committed in the nation and out of the nation.

  When a man commits a murder upon his own people, he runs away from histribe, or delivers himself to justice. In this latter case, the nearestrelation of the victim kills him openly, in presence of all thewarriors. In the first case, he is not pursued, but his nearest relationis answerable for the deed, and suffers the penalty, if by a given timehe has not produced the assassin. The death Is instantaneous, from theblow of a tomahawk. Often the chief will endeavour to make the partiessmoke the pipe of peace; if he succeeds, all ends here; If not, a victimmust be sacrificed. It is a stern law, which sometimes brings with itsexecution many great calamities. Vengeance has often become hereditary,from generation to generation; murders have succeeded murders, till oneof the two families has deserted the tribe.

  It is, no doubt, owing to such circumstances that great families, orcommunities of savages bearing the same type and speaking the sametongue, have been subdivided into so many distinct tribes. Thus it hasbeen with the Shoshones, whose emigrant families have formed theComanches, the Apaches, and the Arrapahoes. The Tonquewas have sincesprung from the Comanches, the Lepans and the Texas[11] (now extinct)from the Apaches, and the Navahoes from the Arrapahoes. Among theNadowessies or Dacotahs, the subdivision has been still greater, thesame original tribe having given birth to the Konsas, the Mandans, theTetons, the Yangtongs, Sassitongs, Ollah-Gallahs, the Siones, the WallahWallahs, the Cayuses, the Black-feet, and lastly the Winnebagoes.

  [Footnote 11: Formerly there was a considerable tribe of Indians, by thename of Texas, who have all disappeared, from continual warfare.]

  The Algonquin species, or family, produced twenty-one different tribes:the Micmacs, Etchemins, Abenakis, Sokokis, Pawtuckets, Pokanokets,Narragansets, Pequods, Mohegans, Lenilenapes, Nanticokes, Powatans,Shawnees, Miamis, Illinois, Chippewas, Ottawas, Menomonies, Sacs, Foxes,and the Kickapoos, which afterwards subdivided again into more than ahundred nations.

  But, to return to the laws of murder:--It often happens that the nephew,or brother of the murderer, will offer his life in expiation. Very oftenthese self-sacrifices are accepted, principally among the poorerfamilies, but the devoted is not put to death; he only loses hisrelationship and connection with his former family; he becomes a kind ofslave or bondsman for life in the lodges of the relations ofthe murdered.

  Sometimes, too, the guilty man's life is saved by a singular and veryancient law; it, however, happens but rarely. If the murdered leaves awidow with children, this widow may claim the criminal as her own, andhe becomes her husband nominally, that is to say, he must hunt andprovide for the subsistence of the family.

  When the murderer belongs to a hostile tribe, war is immediatelydeclared; if, on the contrary, he belongs to a friendly nation, thetribe will wait three or four months till the chiefs of that nation cometo offer excuses and compensation. When they do this, they bringpresents, which they leave at the door of the council lodge, one side ofwhich is occupied by the relations of the victims, the other by thechiefs and warriors of the tribe, and the centre by the ambassadors. Oneof these opens the ceremony by pronouncing a speech of peace, whileanother offers the pipe to the relations. If they refuse it, and thegreat chief of the tribe entertains a particular regard for the othernation, he rises and offers himself to the relations the calumet ofconciliation. If refused still, all the children and babes of themurdered one's family are called into the lodge, and the pipe passed athird time in that part of the lodge. Then if a child even two or threemonths old touches it, the Indians consider the act as a decision of thegreat Master of Life, the pipe goes round, the presents are carried in,and put at the feet of the plaintiffs. When on the contrary, the calumetpasses untouched, the murderer's life alone can satisfy the tribe.

  When the chiefs of the tribe of the murderer leave their village to comeand offer excuses, they bring with them the claimed victim, who is wellarmed. If he is held in high estimation, and has been a good warrior anda good man, the chiefs of his tribe are accompanied by a great number oftheir own warriors, who paint their faces before entering the councillodge; some in black with green spots, some all green (the pipe of peaceis always painted green).

  The relations of the murdered man stand on one side of the lodge, thewarriors of the other tribe opposite to them. In the centre is thechief, who is attended by the bearer of the pipe of peace on one side ofhim, and the murderer on the other. The chief then makes a speech, andadvances with the pipe-bearer and the murderer towards the relatives ofthe deceased; he entreats them, each man separately, to smoke the pipewhich is offered by the pipe-bearer, and when refused, offered to thenext of the relatives.

  During this time the murderer, who is well armed, stands by the chiefsside, advancing slowly, with his arrow or his carbine pointed, ready tofire at any one of the relations who may attempt to take his life beforethe pipe has been refused by the whole of them. When such is the case,if the chiefs want peace, and do not care much for the murderer, theyallow him to be killed without interference; if, on the contrary, theyvalue him and will not permit his death, they raise the war-whoop, theirwarriors defend the murderer's life, and the war between the two tribesmay be said to have commenced.

  Most usually, however, the pipe of peace is accepted, in preference toproceeding to such extremities.

  I will now mention the arms and accoutrement of the Shoshone warriors,observing, at the same time, that my remarks refer equally to theApaches, the Arrapahoes, and the Comanches, except that the great skillof the Shoshones turns the balance in their favour. A Shoshone is alwayson horseback, firmly sitting upon a small and light saddle of his ownmanufacture, without any stirrups, which indeed they prefer not to have,the only Indians using them being chiefs and celebrated warriors, whohave them as a mark of distinction, the more so that a saddle andstirrups are generally trophies obtained in battle from aconquered enemy.

  They have too good a taste to ornament their horses as the Mexicans, theCrows, or the Eastern Indians do; they think that the natural grace andbeauty of the animal are such that anything gaudy would break itsharmony; the only mark of distinction they put upo
n their steeds (andthe chiefs only can do so) is a rich feather or two, or three quills ofthe eagle, fixed to the rosette of the bridle, below the left ear; andas a Shoshone treats his horse as a friend, always petting him, cleaninghim, never forcing or abusing him, the animal is always in excellentcondition, and his proud eyes and majestic bearing present to thebeholder the beau ideal of the graceful and the beautiful. The elegantdress and graceful form of the Shoshone cavalier, harmonizes admirablywith the wild and haughty appearance of the animal.

  The Shoshone allows his well-combed locks to undulate with the wind,only pressed to his head by a small metal coronet, to which he fixesfeathers or quills, similar to those put to his horse's rosette. Thiscoronet is made either of gold or silver, and those who cannot afford touse these metals make it with swan-down or deer-skin, well-prepared andelegantly embroidered with porcupine quills; his arms are bare and hiswrists encircled with bracelets of the same material as the coronet; hisbody, from the neck to the waist, is covered with a small, softdeer-skin shirt, fitting him closely without a single wrinkle; from thewaist to the knee he wears a many-folded toga, of black, brown, red, orwhite woollen or silk stuff, which he procures at Monterey or St.Francisco, from the Valparaiso and China traders; his leg from the ankleto the hip is covered by a pair of leggings of deer-skin, dyed red orblack with some vegetable acids, and sewed with human hair, which hangsflowing, or in tresses, on the outward side; these leggings arefastened a little above the foot by other metal bracelets, while thefoot is encased in an elegantly finished mocassin, often edged withsmall beautiful round crimson shells, no bigger than a pea, and foundamong the fossil remains of the country.

  Round his waist, and to sustain the toga, he wears a sash, generallymade by the squaws out of the slender filaments of the silk-tree, aspecies of the cotton-wood, which is always covered with long threads,impalpable, though very strong. These are wove together, and richlydyed. I am sure that in Paris or in London, these scarfs, which are fromtwelve to fifteen feet long, would fetch a large sum among the ladies ofthe haut ton. I have often had one of them shut up in my hand so that itwas scarcely to be perceived that I had anything enclosed in my fist.

  Suspended to this scarf, they have the knife on the left side and thetomahawk on the right. The bow and quiver are suspended across theirshoulders by bands of swan-down three inches broad, while their longlance, richly carved, and with a bright copper or iron point, is carriedhorizontally at the side of the horse. Those who possess a carbine haveit fixed on the left side by a ring and a hook, the butt nearly close tothe sash, and the muzzle protruding a little before the knee.

  The younger warriors, who do not possess the carbine, carry in its steada small bundle of javelins (the jerrid of the Persians), with which theyare very expert, for I have often seen them, at a distance of ten feet,bury one more than two feet deep in the flanks of a buffalo. To completetheir offensive weapons, they have the lasso, a leather rope fifty feetlong, and as thick as a woman's little finger, hanging from the pommelof their saddles; this is a terrible arm, against which there is butlittle possibility of contending, even if the adversary possess a rifle,for the casting of the lasso is done with the rapidity of thought, andan attempt to turn round and fire would indubitably seal his fate: theonly means to escape the fatal noose is to raise the reins of your horseto the top of your head, and hold any thing diagonally from your body,such as the lance, the carbine, or anything except the knife, which youmust hold in your right hand, ready for use.

  The chances then are: if the lasso falls above your head, it must slip,and then it is a lost throw, but if you are quick enough to pass yourknife through the noose, and cut it as it is dragged back, then theadvantage becomes yours, or, at least is equally divided, for then youmay turn upon your enemy, whose bow, lance, and rifle, for the bettermanagement of his lasso, have been left behind, or too firmly tied abouthim to be disengaged and used in so short a time. He can only oppose youwith the knife and tomahawk, and if you choose, you may employ your ownlasso; in that case the position is reversed; still the conquest belongsto the most active of the two.

  It often happens, that after having cut the lasso and turned upon hisfoe, an Indian, without diminishing the speed of his horse, will pick upfrom the ground, where he has dropped it, his rifle or his lance; then,of course, victory is in his hands. I escaped once from being lassoed inthat way. I was pursued by a Crow Indian; his first throw failed, so didhis second and his third; on the fourth I cut the rope, and wheelinground upon him, I gave chase, and shot him through the body with one ofmy pistols. The noose at every cast formed such an exact circle, andfell with such precision, the centre above my head, and thecircumference reaching from the neck to the tail of my horse, that if Ihad not thrown away my rifle, lance, bow, and quiver, I shouldimmediately have been dragged to the ground. All the western Indians andMexicans are admirably expert in handling this deadly weapon.

  Before the arrival of the Prince Seravalle, the Shoshones had bucklers,but they soon cast them aside as an incumbrance: the skill which waswasted upon the proper management of this defensive armour being nowapplied to the improved use of the lance. I doubt much, whether, in thetournaments of the days of chivalry, the gallant knights could show totheir ladye-love greater skill than a Shoshone can exhibit when fightingagainst an Arrapahoe or a Crow[12].

  [Footnote 12: The Crows, our neighbours, who are of the Dacotah race,are also excellent horsemen, most admirably dressed and fond of show,but they cannot be compared to the Shoshones; they have not the sameskill, and, moreover, they abuse and change their horses so often thatthe poor brutes are never accustomed to their masters.]

  But the most wonderful feat of the Shoshone, and also of the Comancheand Apache, is the facility with which he will hang himself alongsidehis horse in a charge upon an enemy, being perfectly invisible to him,and quite invulnerable, except through the body of his horse. Yet inthat difficult and dangerous position he will use any of his arms withprecision and skill. The way in which they keep their balance is verysimple; they pass their right arm, to the very shoulder, through thefolds of the lasso, which, as I have said, is suspended to the pommel orround the neck of the horse; for their feet they find a support in thenumerous loops of deer-skin hanging from the saddle; and thus suspended,the left arm entirely free to handle the bow, and the right one verynearly so, to draw the arrow, they watch their opportunity, and unlesspreviously wounded, seldom miss their aim.

  I have said that the Shoshones threw away their bucklers at theinstigation of the Prince Seravalle, who also taught them the Europeancavalry tactics. They had sense enough to perceive the advantage theywould gain from them, and they were immediately incorporated, as far aspossible, with their own.

  The Shoshones now charge in squadrons with the lance, form squares,wheel with wonderful precision, and execute many difficult manoeuvres;but as they combine our European tactics with their own Indian mode ofwarfare, one of the most singular sights is to witness the disappearancebehind their horses, after the Indian fashion, of a whole body ofperhaps five hundred horse when in full charge. The effect is moststrange; at one moment, you see the horses mounted by gallant fellows,rushing to the conflict; at a given signal, every man has disappeared,and the horses, in perfect line appear as if charging, without riders,and of their own accord, upon the ranks of the enemy.

  I have dwelt perhaps too long upon the manners and habits of thesepeople; I cannot help, however, giving my readers a proof of theknowledge which the higher classes among them really possess. I havesaid that they are good astronomers, and I may add that their intuitiveknowledge of geometry is remarkable. I once asked a young chief what heconsidered the height of a lofty pine. It was in the afternoon, aboutthree o'clock. He walked to the end of the shadow thrown by thepine-tree, and fixed his arrow in the ground, measured the length of thearrow, and then the length of the shadow thrown by it; then measuringthe shadow of the pine, he deducted from it in the same proportion asthe difference between the length of the arrow, and the
length of itsshadow, and gave me the result. He worked the Rule of Three withoutknowing it.

  But the most remarkable instance occurred when we were about to cross awide and rapid river, and required a rope to be thrown across, as a stayto the men and horses. The question was, what was the length of the roperequired; _i.e._, what was the width of the river? An old chief steppedhis horse forward, to solve the problem, and he did it as follows:--Hewent down to the side of the river, and fixed upon a spot as the centre;then he selected two trees, on the right and left, on the other side, asnear as his eye could measure equidistant from where he stood. Having sodone, he backed his horse from the river, until he came to where his eyetold him that he had obtained the point of an equilateral triangle.Thus, in the diagram he selected the two trees, A and B, walked back toE, and there fixed his lance. He then fell back in the direction E D,until he had, as nearly as he could tell, made the distance from A Eequal to that from E D, and fixed another lance. The same was repeatedto E C, when the last lance was fixed. He then had a parallelogram; andas the distance from F to E was exactly equal to the distance from E toG, he had but to measure the space between the bank of the river and E,and deduct it from E G, and he obtained the width of the river required.

  I do not think that this calculation, which proved to be perfectlycorrect, occupied the old chief more than three minutes; and it must beremembered that it was done in the face of the enemy. But I resume myown history.