Chapter Twelfth.
Astonishment of the Children. The Antiquity of the Ruins. Preparationsfor making the temple their quarters. Building a chimney to theirhouse. The Chief's contentment. He asks to marry Jane. Sidney's anger.Strange discoveries. Set out on a hunting expedition. Discovery of wildhorses. The chief captures a colt. He presents it to Jane. The wintersets in. A series of storms prevails. A deer hunt. They discover anIndian woman and her papoose. They take her into camp and provide forher. Her inexpressible thanks for her deliverance.
The children were filled with wonder and astonishment at themagnificence as well as the evident antiquity of the ruins, and spentmany days of actual pleasure wandering among them. They had read ofsimilar remains having been found in Europe; but these were renderedvague in outline by distance, and meagre in description by their utterimpossibility to comprehend the actual appearance of things, the likeof which they had never seen. These were more tangible. They saw andfelt them; ascended and descended the symmetrical steps; ran theirfingers along the seams of wonderful cement that bound the pile in itsplace like ribs of iron; drank water from a duct where a thousand yearsago others had drank, but of what nation, race or name they knew not.Oblivion with her sombre mantle had closed over them, to remain, untila mind capable of grasping the past shall arise, and with its giantintellect give back the forgotten alphabet--the key that shall open tous the rise, progress and fall of a nation, the relics of whose oncepowerful but unknown people may be found over the whole continent.
They covered the floor of the room they had cleared with dried skins,laying them with the hairy side up, thus making a comfortable carpet;large blocks of stone were piled at intervals around the rooms forseats, and these were also covered with soft skins, making verypassable but immovable seats. A table was built by setting four blocksof stone up endwise in the centre of the room and laying one large,smooth, thin slab on its top, around which were placed five movableseats to be used while eating.
What annoyed them greatly was, there was no way of warming the room,and as the weather now was becoming cold, they found it a greatdiscomfort, as the sun could not penetrate the thick stone walls to drythe dampness that gathered on them. They were quite puzzled to know howthey were to be comfortable in that place without a fire, there beingno place in which to build one. There were two windows that extendedfrom the floor five feet, up which, probably, had been frames, thatwere once filled with some perishable material, but of which not avestige now remained. These openings they always closed at night byhanging skins before them, which were taken down in the morning to letthe light in. The door-way that led into the room, was entirelydestitute of any vestige of a door, although they found grooves cut inthe blocks of stone that ran along the side on which a door had beenhung. This door-way opened into a long hall, that ran through the housefrom the front portal to the back--the doors that led into the fourrooms of which the temple was composed, opening on the inside. Thishall, which was truly a magnificent one, was thirty-five feet wide, andfifty long, forty feet high, tapering towards the centre overhead, in alofty dome.
"We must have a fire," said the trapper, one morning, after anunusually frosty night. "This is too cold. Can't we build one in thehall, chief?"
"The smoke will suffocate us; we could not stay in doors with it," saidWhirlwind.
"Why don't you build it in one of the windows? the smoke could then goout, while much of the heat would come in," said Edward.
"Better yet," said Sidney: "build a chimney by one of the windows, thenall the smoke will go out, and all the heat come in."
"You have it exactly," said the trapper. "I wonder we did not think ofit before. What say you, chief--shall we have the chimney?"
The chief, not only assenting, but entering with alacrity into theproject, the whole party went to work to collect the material, of whichthere was plenty, but as the blocks were nearly all large ones that layround them, they had to bring them from the mass of ruins by the river,which was of smaller material, and which they could handle to betteradvantage. They worked hard all that day, Sidney standing by quiteuneasy, because they would not allow him to help. The next morning theymixed some mud and clay for mortar, and commenced laying up thechimney, and succeeded by night in finishing a very serviceable, thoughnot a very beautiful one. They found, on building a fire in it, that itworked to a charm, filling the room with a genial warmth and cheerfullight, while it carried away all the smoke.
They had gathered some twenty bushels of fruit, that tasted like ourapples, but resembled a pear in shape and color, which was very hardand tough, not fit to eat then, but which, the chief said, would begood in midwinter. They had taken the precaution to gather them by hisadvice--he having made some large baskets of the pliable twigs ofwillow, in which they were conveyed from the trees to the temple, wherethey were deposited in the room they occupied.
"The fire will injure them," said the chief. "We must put them inanother room in order to save them."
"There is one adjoining us, that opens like ours from the hall. We canclear out that as we did this, and make it a store house. We shall needsome place to keep our fruit and nuts in, which it is time now togather, and also our dried venison," said the trapper. "It is best tomake ourselves as comfortable as we can while here, for as the winterwill soon be on us, nothing but an especial providence can get us outof the scrape we are in, until the weather is warm enough for us totravel again."
"I am the cause of your wintering here. If it had not been for me, youwould all have been home now, instead of being, we don't know where,"said Sidney, who was often gloomy in his weakened state.
"Perhaps we should, and then, perhaps, we might have wandered into aworse place. Indeed, we ought to be thankful for the shelter and fruitswe have found. I hardly think many that are carried away by savages,escape as well as we have, and then find such winter quarters," saidJane, glancing complacently round the room, for, to tell the truth, shefelt a sort of pride in the ample blazing fire, soft skin-carpetedfloor, numerous seats, with gay colored skins thrown over them, andtheir couches, on which they slept, neatly spread over with skins,while at one corner, in a little nook screened from view by skinsjoined together and hung around, was a couch appropriated to her ownuse, covered with the finest furs they had taken--for the trapper hadset his snares from the first day of their abode there, and their storeof furs and skins was fast accumulating.
"We are here, that is a fact that cannot be doubted," said the trapper,"and if I knew the way out, and had my rifle, ammunition, a supply ofhounds and traps with me, I would not leave it until spring, if Icould, for the whole valley is filled with the right kind of game.There is a beaver dam a mile down the stream, which contains some ofthe finest coated fellows I ever saw. I have got some more there, andwill show fur that is fur, or else I will give you leave to call me notrapper."
"What matters it whether we are in one part of the forest or another?"said the chief, addressing Howe. "We have lost our home, now we havemade one, even better in some respects than the red man ever has. Thehunting ground is good--then let us be contented to live here.Whirlwind is a warrior; he has taken the scalp from his enemies inbattle--he is a chief; he has led his warriors to victory. Let thewhite chief give him the antelope for his squaw, and he will no more goout to battle; but remain here, where the Great Spirit has led him, andspend his days in filling his wigwam with the softest furs, best fishand venison in the forest, and the antelope's life shall be happy asthe singing bird, and bright as the sun.'
"Why, Jane, what does this mean?" asked Edward, bursting into a fit ofuncontrollable laughter, that awoke the echoes from the venerable pilethat had slept through a long list of ages. But Jane did not knowherself what it meant, as the expression of blank astonishment on herface amply testified. But Sidney for one, knew precisely the meaning ofit, and with flashing eyes and clenched hand, he limped to the side ofthe chief, with a threatening attitude. Howe saw the material he had todeal with, and thought it best to interfere
to prevent ill-feeling, aswell as to get such an idea out of the chief's head.
"When Jane has grown up she can speak for herself. The white men do notgive away their maidens: when they are old enough they select forthemselves."
"Whirlwind can wait," said the chief complacently.
Jane turned her head, and placed her hand over her mouth to keep downthe smile that would come, as her eye caught her uncle's gravecountenance, for he saw at a glance it would now require all his tactto undeceive him, in regard to the possibility of such a union, and yetretain his friendship. Sidney would have had the matter settled on thespot, but the trapper motioned him to keep silent, which he did, thoughhis lips were compressed, and his looks angry and threatening.
"Come," said the trapper, cheerfully, "we will clear out the adjoiningroom, and take these apples from here, then we will be ready to gatherin our nuts to-morrow.
"A disagreeable place this," said he, as he commenced scraping up theaccumulated mass and throwing it out of the window.
"Probably, it is a long while since it was cleansed," said Jane. "Avery singular place, and if we could get home safe at last, it would beworth a little trouble and privation to have seen it."
"Something new again: wonders will never cease," said the trapper,holding up a vessel of some kind of heavy material, oval at the bottom,and capable of containing some two gallons.
"It looks like a dinner kettle; but how could a dinner kettle gethere?"
"You don't think the people that used to live here lived withouteating, do you?" said Howe.
"Or, that they knew how to build houses like this, and did not know howto make a dinner pot."
The rest thought they must have known how to do so natural a thing, asthe proof of it was before them, and then the question arose; couldthey use it themselves? "For, if we can," said Jane, "we can have suchnice stews and soups."
"Which we can eat with a _split stick_, as we do our meat, especiallythe _soup_," said Edward.
"We can have some nice wooden spoons made for that," replied thetrapper. "I really think the kettle can be put in a cookable order, bytaking off a coat or two of rust."
"Here is another just like it," said the chief, dragging out a similarvessel.
"You see," said Howe, "the people must not only have eaten likecivilized people, but had a good appetite, or we should not find somany vessels in one place."
The room being cleansed, the fruit and dried venison were removed fromthe warm room, and the next day they began to gather in their store ofnuts. Butternuts, walnuts, and hickory nuts, were gathered in largequantities, as well as acorns which, when roasted, formed a deliciousas well as nutritious food. Chestnuts were also gathered, as well asthe pine knots; these last were mostly for the light they would givewhen burning, the only thing excepting their fire, which they weredependent on to illumine their house. The collection of these occupiedthem a number of days. Then the chief and Edward took the baskets, andwent down the stream in search of yampa, a root much used for food bythe Indians. This they found in abundance, about two miles distant, andcollected a number of baskets full of it.
When these precautionary measures were completed, they felt a securityand satisfaction about them which they had not felt before. The fact oftheir being lost was shorn of half its terrors. Their door wasbarricaded against the cold and starvation. Sidney had made up his mindit was his fate to have the worst of the trouble; for, weak in body,his arm still in a sling, he was unable to join in the busypreparations that the rest entered into with such a keen relish. Thisworried him; but not half as much as did the assiduous, delicateattention which the chief bestowed on Jane. Had the chief been huntingand procured game, it was laid at her feet; did he secure a bird ofrare plumage, its plumes fantastically arranged, were modestlypresented to her; and furs of rare softness and beauty in profusionadorned her apartment, at the request of the chief. Unwilling tooffend, and as he had never spoken on the subject to her, she could donothing but accept them with the best grace she could. She saw how itirritated Sidney, though she thought little of it after the moment,supposing his illness caused the irritation as much as the singularmode of winning favor pursued by the chief.
No buffalo had yet been seen in the valley, and the chief had more thanonce expressed his belief they could be found by following the opencountry down the valley a few miles. Making himself a strong lasso, andwith hunting-knife, bow and arrows, and tomahawk, he set out one day,more for the sport than anything else. After proceeding about sevenmiles over a broad, heavily wooded valley without any signs of thedesired game he began to think he was too far in the mountains from aprairie for them, and was about to retrace his steps when a rustling ata little distance attracted his attention. Going thither, as heapproached, a wolf darted up from the spot, and with a few leaps wasout of sight. The chief soon saw he had been feeding on a wild horsethat had died of old age and looked as though it had lain there somedays. However the sight seemed to excite him, and after marking thetrees to designate his course, he closely scanned the tracks around andthen started farther down the valley at a rapid pace.
After travelling some ten miles farther, he had the satisfaction tocome up with the drove. They were not feeding, but some were layingdown, others standing leisurely around, evidently unaware of theproximity of the chief, who divesting himself of all his weapons butthe lasso, with exceeding caution crawled along the ground withoutrustling the leaves or branches until within throw of the nearest,which was a young brown colt of great beauty and graceful proportions.
Winding one end of the lasso around his wrist, he gently raisedhimself. The lasso whirled above the colt, and the next instant closedaround its throat. The rest of the horses with a snort darted away,leaving the terrified colt plunging and rearing with the Indian who hadsprung on its back, where he now clung with perfect security. Seeingits companions flying down the valley it too leaped away after themmaking fearful jumps over brooks and logs for many miles, every fewminutes rearing and plunging in its mad endeavors to free itself fromits burthen, until covered with foam and trembling in every limb itpaused, and turning its head gazed wildly and terrified on the chief,who smoothed it gently as he spoke to it mildly, and then holding thelasso tight in his hand, slipped off its back. Feeling the burthenremoved it attempted to escape, but being still held it was soonsubdued and induced to follow the chief. The colt seemed to understandthat it was a captive, for its manner became subdued and quiet underthe hands of its captor who viewed its symmetrical proportions with theeye of a connoisseur. The chief actually laughed aloud at his success.He had now a horse, it was so like old times, and with this he couldpursue the herd until he caught others, when he had it perfectlytrained. Satisfied with his day's hunt, he followed the tracks of theherd back, sometimes riding, then again walking, as the fancy struckhim, until he reached the temple about sunset, where he and his prizewere greeted with every demonstration of joy.
With a grave, dignified countenance he led the colt to where Janestood, and placing a halter, which he had tied around its neck in placeof the lasso, in Jane's hand, he said:
"Whirlwind's gift to the antelope," and walking away left the younggirl in possession of his noble love-token.
Puzzled and blushing at her awkward position. Jane turned to her unclean imploring look, who amused and laughing, came forward and catchingher by the arms, seated her on her prize.
"Ride her round a few minutes, the chief expects it," he whispered inher ear. Obeying him, she walked it back and forth before them a fewtimes, then slipping off placed the halter in her uncle's hand.
"Here chief," said the trapper, "Jane is well pleased with your presentand desires you to take good care of it for her, and will never bebetter pleased than when she sees you on its back."
The chief, with a gratified look, led away the colt, and fastening itto a sapling, took a skin from which he cut a long stout halter so thatit could have the range of a few rods, and fastening it left it to feedon the wild grass and herbage around.<
br />
"Look here, uncle," said Sidney, as the chief walked away, "I wish Iwas dead or well, I don't particularly care which."
"Why, boy, what is in the wind now? Why the rest of us are trying tomake out something good of a bad business, while you are fretting andfuming like a caged lion. Be easy, boy, and if you cannot be easy, doas we do, and be as easy as you can."
"It is well enough to say be easy, crippled, helpless, and obliged toeat of the things the rest of you bring in; to sit here all day longand be pitied, while that black rascal----"
"Hold! hold!--not another word like that," said the trapper, sternly."We are too much indebted to as noble a heart as ever beat, for areturn like this. What matters it, then, that his ways and complexionare not like ours? His father was my father's friend, as well as myown; and him I have known from earliest boyhood, and to this hour havenever known him guilty of a mean or dishonest act."
"What greater, more dastardly act of meanness could he perpetrate, thanstealing away the heart of that young girl, or are you so blind youcannot see through his manoeuvring?"
"Sidney, you are not yourself to-night," said the trapper, "I amconvinced of that, and I do wrong to chide you: sickness and suffering,toil and privation have unnerved you. When you are well, you will seethings clearer than you do now. Come, I must take you in, the night dewis falling fast and cold around us. I see and know all that is goingon, and understand the chief much better than you do. Trust in mymanagement of the affair, and you will have no cause to complain atlast, however appearances at times may be against you."
The chief was now as contented and happy as if he had never known otherscenes than those that lay around him. The lodge, as he called theirabode, was filled with fruit, venison, skins and furs; the antelopeaccepted his offering, and a half-tamed, high mettled colt was at hiscommand, on which, sometimes for a whole day, he went dashing madlythrough the forest, a piece of hide around the colt's neck his onlyaccoutrements. Then he was in his element and free, with the freshmountain air fanning his dusky brow, infusing into his stalwart framenew life and vigor.
Snow now began to fall, and the fierce northern winds swept through theforests, creaking the leafless limbs of the trees as they swayed themto and fro, anon rending them in twain, and scattering the fragmentsover the white mantled earth. The wanderers now spent most of theirtime within the temple, by their glowing fire that blazed socheerfully, the window and door closed tightly by skins, shutting outthe cold air. Here they amused themselves in recounting past scenes,and strange wild legends with which they had become familiar. Without awritten language, the Indian preserves his national and domestichistory solely by oral instruction, handed down from father to son.Thus every tribe has its own legends, while many vague traditions ofnational history are peculiar to the whole of the North AmericanIndians without regard to tribe.
They had been kept within the tent for many days by a series of storms,and their stock of fresh meats had become quite exhausted, when Howeand the chief announced their determination to go on a hunt for game.They could not take the colt, as in the deep snow it would make moretrouble than it would be of service to them. Telling the children to beof good cheer, and keep up a good fire, they launched forth, protectedfrom the cold by the thick, warm fur garments they had manufactured forthemselves, and armed with their bows and arrows they had made also,they gaily took the way down the valley as the one where game wasgenerally most abundant. A pair of partridges, a wild turkey, and anantelope, were soon brought down; but as it was early in the day, andthey were only warmed in the sport, they hung these on a sapling, andproceeded on.
"I tell you what, chief," said the trapper, "I am in for a buck. Theyare never so fat and tender as now, and I intend to have the plumpest,nicest venison steak for supper there is in this forest, if I have towork for it. There are signs of them about, and a little further downwe shall find where they have been browsing, if I am not mistaken."
"My brother is right," said the chief; "yonder they have passed, andtheir trail is still fresh in the snow. There are many of them, and ourwigwam will again be full of fat venison. Hist, yonder they are; theywill see us if we do not move with great caution. You take the circuitround that clump of spruce to the right, and I will keep farther downto the left."
Warily they made their way until within shot of them, when theydischarged their arrows, and one fine doe selected by the chief, fell,shot through the heart. Howe was not so fortunate, he having selected anoble buck, who bounded away with the arrow sticking in his side, butfrom the quantity of blood that flowed from his wound, staining thesnow, they knew he could not run far. Hanging up the doe after dressingit, they set out to recover the buck, which they expected to find deadnot far off. In this they were mistaken: he led them many miles beforehe gave out, and by the time he was dressed, and they were ready forreturning, the sun had passed the meridian.
They had not retraced their steps more than half a mile, when a wailingsound was faintly heard from a thicket a few rods distant. They pausedin a listening attitude. Again came the sound like the wail of a youngchild.
"A panther," said Howe, "he wants some of our venison, perhaps a biteof us. Let us on or we shall have to fight."
Again it was heard now louder, and then followed a heavy sob and groan.
"No panther," said the chief throwing down his load and making for thethicket. Howe began to think so too, and was following, when the chief,with a cry of surprise, disappeared beneath in the thicket. Howehastened forward, and there on the bare ground which she had cleared ofsnow lay a young squaw with a papoose but a few years old huddled inher arms which she was vainly endeavoring to shield from the cold. Theywere terribly emaciated, with the seal of gaunt famine in their sunkeneyes and hollow cheeks. The mother's limbs were frost bitten andentirely benumbed with cold.
"Lost," said the chief; "she has been lost like us in theseinterminable wilds."
"We must save her," said the trapper. "Wrap her in that skin from thevenison while I build a fire to warm her by and cook her some meat.Poor thing, she looks as though she was nearly dead with hunger andcold. She is human, see the tears in her eyes as she hugs that littlething closer in her arms. Bless me but it makes a child of me--poorthing! poor thing!"
Gathering some wood, the trapper soon had a large place cleared fromsnow, and a fire was quickly kindled, in the fierce heat of which someof their slices of steaks were held a few minutes then given to thefamished woman. Eagerly seizing them she held one to the mouth of thechild, when it seized it and commenced sucking the juicy food withgreat voracity, while the rest disappeared with a rapidity thatastonished even the chief, who was so rarely astonished at anything.
"I would like to know who she is and where she came from," said Howe."Ask her if you can make her understand."
But she could not understand them, nor could they her. She told them bysigns that she had been wandering a long while and could not find herhome, and begged them not to leave her there to die.
"That we will not, chief; you stay with the woman and I will take aload of venison home and return with the colt for the woman to ride on,for she is too weak to travel."
The squaw looked her thanks while she pressed her child to her bosom asif she would "say we shall still live perhaps to see home and kindredwhen the snows melt from the hills."
American Family Robinson Page 13