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Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1869, by J . W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia
Vol. 111--- -No. 30
Written for Burke’s Weekly
SAL-O-QUAH;
OR,
Boy-Life Among the Indians,
3Y REV, P. R. GOULDING,
Author of 11 Young Marootier's," i ‘'Marooner's
Islandetc.
CHAPTER XXXII.
KANEEKA TELLS A VERY REMARK
ABLE STORY—INDIAN TRIAL FOR MAN
SLAUGHTER-RESEMBLANCE OF CHERO
KEE USAGE TO THAT OF THE ANCIENT
HEBREWS —EFFORTS TO SAVE THE LIFE
OF THE CONDEMNED MAN-DAY OF EX
ECUTION —SO-TIII, AND WHAT BECAME
OF HIM.
Jf: V \;v
p '-jjfyjf URING the past week a young
Indian of fine character, the
only son of a highly-esteemed
neighbor, had met with a great misfor
tune. While watching for deer at a
hidden stand, he heard at a distance
the bleat of a doe, then not far from
him the rustle of leaves, which was
soon after followed by the appearance
of a brown skin and branching antlers.
Without waiting to see more, he leveled
and fired. But on rushing forward with
his knife, what was his horror to see,
underlying the body, the rifle and hands
of a man ! Some still-hunter had adopt
ed the oft-practiced but dangerous de
vice of wrapping himself in the hide of
a buck, and had thus paid the penalty
of his rashness."' So-tih, for that was
* An accident, almost identical with this,
happened within live miles of the spot where
the writer now sits. In the year 1835, a white
man, hunting contrary to law on Indian
ground, saw, in the bushes near him, the
brown side and branching horns of a deer.
He fired, and the next moment saw, strug
gling in the air above the body, the mocea
siued feet of an Indian. He waited to see
no more, but confiden that his own death
would immediately follow a discovery of the
accident, he hurried to the house of a neigh
boring white man, told him of the misfor
tune, begged him to see after the unfortunate
Indian, then made all haste across the river.
He never afterwards dared to show himself
in the Indian country.
MACON, GEORGIA, JANUARY 22, 1870.
the young man’s name, did not stop to
make any farther examination. He on
ly called aloud to know if the person
were alive and needed help, but receiv
ing no answer, and seeing the blood
flowing from a bullet hole that must
have beet, near the heart, he left the
body just as it was, went with all speed
to Sawnee, the nearest chief, to whom
he surrendered himself, and told the
tale of his misfortune.
The usages of the Cherokees at the
time, in cases of involuntary manslaugh
ter, strongly resembled those of the an
SO-TIFI AND HIS WIFE AND CHILD.
cient Israelites, both in the sacredness
attached to life, and in the mode by
which a homicide was to be avenged.
Such was their horror of taking human
life, except in the way of justice, or in
the act of war, that a degree of crimi
nality was imparted to it even when it
happened by accident.
Saw-nee, as bound by the customs of
bis people, although a personal friend
of the young man and his mother, and
believing him innocent of “ malice
aforethought,” put him under guard to
await his trial, but in the mean time
Whole No. 134.
dispatched him with his guard to show
the place of the body, in order that the
relatives, whoever they were, might
give it a decent burial, and take such
other steps as were necessary.
So-till’s friends were pained to dis
cover that the slain man belonged 1o
the only family with whom it was at
feud, —a feud so old and deadly that no
settlement but a bloody one could be
reasonably anticipated. Fifiy years be
fore, So-tih’s grandfather bad accident
ally killed the grandfather of the de
ceased man in the same way. Thirty
years afterwards, So-tih’s father fell a
victim to the family quarrel that arose.
More than one on both sides had come
to violent death in consequence, so that
each of the two families had now but
one male representative, So-tih in the
one, and Tunk-sa-le-ne, brother of the
dead man, in the other.
When So-tih’s friends discovered this
they were much disturbed, not only be
cause they were sorry to embitter the
family quarrel, but principally on ac
count of an old usage which decided
that, although one death by accident
might be forgiven, yet two accidents of
the kind between the same parties were
to be regarded as equivalent to inten
tional manslaughter. They therefore
urged So-tih to flee the country, offer
ing to bribe his guard and set him free.
“ Go to the far sun-setting ; go to the
Choctaws ; go to the Catawbas ; go any
where ; but do not stay here to die,”
they said,
So-tih was in a great strait. He dear
ly loved his people and his home. He
was the only support of his now aged
mother. More than that, he expected
at the time of the next Green-corn
dance, only half a moon off, to take to
his home a beautiful bride, the girl he
had loved from her childhood. Life
was very sweet, —sweeter to him than
ever before ; but So-tih was too much
of a man to fly either from his enemy
or from the law of his people.
“No,” said he peremptorily to his
advisers, “So-tih live here if people
say Live ; So-tih die here if people say
Die.”
Without delay the relatives of the