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386
Written lor Burke’s Weekly.
To a Father Bereaved.
task is done: so let the sun
Through all its summer-cycle, run.
The seed is in the ground: resign
The rest'to better care than thine.
That watulyj** ere Eden’s glory
And sprfiti' l :s A his last mound with
dew. .
Guiding the cloudlet from the deep,
He biddeth His beloved, Sleep!
In foretaste, ere thy labors cease,
Os yonder great white harvest, Peace. i—
—•»
Written for Burke’s Weekly
SAL-O-QUAH ;
OK, r
Boy-Life Among the Indians
3Y REV. F. R. GOULDING,
Author of “Young Marooner'sf “ Marooncr's
Islandetc.
CHAPTER XLI.
YELLOW-JACKETS LORENZO’S SCARE
PREPARING TO TRAVEL —VISIT TO SCOS
SIT-EQUAH —HOMINY MORTAR AND PES
TLE —CONNAHAYNEE —S EE-QUO-I.AH
AGAIN.
M -
ANEEKA’S account of the
/fjjrD pursuit and capture of the
murderer has been given con
tinuously in the preceding chapter, in
order to present the story whole and
entire, although in so doing we outrun
several little incidents that occurred be
fore his- return. These incidents are
very trivial in themselves, but they are
so fresh in memory and rise so constant
ly to mind that I pin them down here
to get rid of them.
Scossit-efuah had come that morning
on some business with Kaneeka, and
had brought as a present to us an earth
en jar of wild honey, beautifully white
and delightfully fragrant. We enjoyed
it much. There is, however, an old
proverb, more true in former days than
at present, yet painfully true in respect
to our honey—“ No rose without a
thorn;” for scarcely had the honey
been shared among us before we were
surrounded with yellow-jackets,* that
hovered greedily over the jar, plunged
into our saucers, alighted on our fin
gers, and persistently followed the hon
ey to our very lips. We bore with them
patiently as possible, knowing that
wasps and even hornets will seldom use
their stings unless first assailed. But
their numbers and insolence were such
that it was useless to think of keeping
the peace if we kept at the same time
our honey. All of us were stung, some
of us several times, and so painfully
that we resolved at once upon a war of
extermination, by every means we could
* A small species of wasp, prettily belted
with black and yellow.
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
devise. While we were thus engaged,
Saloquah came in and said :
“ Must be big nest of them close by.
I go find it.”
We insisted that he should first par
take with us in the pleasure of the hon
ey, and in the danger of being stung.
The last of these he professed to disre
gard, saying:
“ Yellow-jacket never sting me, or if
sting, I don’t care.”
Vain boast! for in the act of carrying
the first mouthful to his lips a yellow
jacket, concealed under the honey comb,
was carried there too, and gave him
such a sting that he started with the
pain, and said :
“Ugh! hurt like a hornet!”
Before leaving the tent, his stung lip
looked more like a fat sausage than the
well-turned labial he was accustomed
to wear.
“ Pay him for this!” said he, in pre
tended wrath, pushing out his swollen
lip so as to make it appear awfully big.
“Kill the whole nest of them to pay
for this sting. Come let us go. I show
you how to find the nest.”
He first went to the house and brought
thence a sparrow’s skin, from which he
plucked a small feather, stuck it in the
abdomen of a yellow-jacket, and turned
it loose. The poor wretch, conscious,
no doubt, of having received its death
wound, made directly for its home to
die amid its kin. Saloquah followed,
as far as he could see the feather, then
treated another yellow-jacket the same
way. We were soon broaglit to a de
cayed stump, at the foot of which there
was a small hole with a swarm of these
insects coming out or going in, and hov
ering above.
“ Must have fire now,” said he, giv
ing his hatchet to Lorenzo and myself,
and adding: “You get some light
wood.”
He ran to the house, brought back a
live coal, and in the course of a few
minutes there was a bright flame as
cending from a fire so near the hole
that every yellow-jacket that attempted
to come out or go in fell wingless to the
ground. There, in great numbers, they
crawled about in helpless rage. The
fire was kept up as long as there were
any to be seen flying. On returning to
the tent and reporting the success of
our foray, Cousin Aleck said :
“ I suppose it was nothing but just in
you, Saloquah, to murder that poor
yellow-jacket by sticking a feather into
its body ; but in bee-hunting there is a
better-looking plan, by tying a small
feather or thistle down to its leg, or at
taching it to the bees back by means of
a little honey.”
“ Look better for bee ,” returned Sal
oquah very meekly ; “ but,” he added,
with a laugh, pushing out his swollen
under lip, “ my plan good enough for
yellow-jacket.”
At midday, a circumstance of rather
unusual character occurred to Lorenzo.
Not feeling well, he had gone to his
mother’s room to lie down, and after a
refreshing nap was suddenly aroused by
a peculiar sputtering sound at the head
of his bed. On looking up he saw a
head with horns, and two great staring
eyes, surmounting a long hooked nose.
As his eyes had been turned to it back
wards from his pillow, he was not able
at first to judge of its size or distance,
and fancied it something big as a pan
ther, and fierce enough to destroy him.
Lorenzo was a brave boy, and seldom
knew fear, but this was one of the times,
he said, when he felt the hair rise on
his head. He sprang up with a bound,
and was about to rush from the room
when he saw that his visitor was only
an enormous horned owl, perched on
the head-board of the bed. He turned
back on discovering this, and tried to
drive it out by “shoo”-ing at it. In
stead of going, however, the intruder
only ruffled its feathers and began spit
ting and sputtering as before. Looking
around now for a stick with which to
kill it, and finding none, he came to the
door and hallooed to me:
“ Johnny, come here! Come quick!
I’ll show you a sight.”
I answered the call with alacrity, and
found that the owl, not at all disposed
to give up its comfortable quarteis, nor
even content with its former perch, had
flown farther into the room, and taken
its place upon the shelf where my aunt’s
maid kept her clothes. We placed our
selves between it and the window, pre
pared with sticks to kill it as it flew
past; then tried to start it from its
roost. But there it remained, making
the same noises and motions as before,
until Lorenzo approached near enough
to kill it by a deliberate blow upon its
neck.
It was a magnificent bird for one of
its ill-omened tribe, richly marked with
stripes of black and brown, and meas
uring nearly three feet from the tip of
its wings. What could have prompted
it to this strange freak I cannot conjec
ture even to this day. I describe the
scene just as it occurred, and leave it
without further remark.
Our time had passed so pleasantly
and so rapidly at Ivaneeka’s, amid the
ever-varying scenes of this wild Indian
country, that it was with mingled feel
ings of regret and pleasure we heard
our seniors speak that day of termina
ting our sojourn, and going early next
week forty or fifty miles into the interi
or, to visit a celebrated cave and the
country surrounding.
The time fixed for our departure was
Monday, only two days distant, and we
began at once to make preparation ; but
the plan was partly interrupted by the
occurrence of an event rather rare at
that time in Cherokee history, and too
important as a feature in Indian life for
us to neglect, It was a public election.
Like all other public acts of that sim
ple-minded people, its execution was
marked with great promptness. A coun-
cil of chiefs and leading men had been
held during our visit to the “ Rock
Mountain,” who decided that anew
chiet must be elected for this neighbor
hood, to fill the place of one who had
recently emigrated to Arkansas, and the
day of the next full moon was set apart
for the purpose. That was Monday,
July Ist, and Scossit-equah’s business
that morning was to inform Kaneeka
of the fact, and through him to invite
our attendance. The day was the same
we had set for our departure ; but, of
course, on such an occasion, we prefer
red to alter our plans.
Next morning early we mounted our
horses and went on a farewell visit to
Scossity’s, intending also to call on See
quo-lah, if there was reason to suppose
we should be welcome.
On arriving at Scossit-equah’s door
we found it closed, but there was no
shinned pole leaning against it, as on a
former occasion ; on the contrary, there
was the smoke of a recent cooking-fire
ascending from a spot a few steps off,
and Kaneeka remarked, in view of these
signs :
“ Scossity say, Take seat; lie’ll bo
here soon.”
We “ hitched ” our horses by making
their bridles fast to one-another—for
there were no bushes nor small trees
near at hand—and found seats for our
selves on logs and large stones outside
the door. While our seniors were en
gaged in conversation, we boys made
the circuit of the premises, but discov
ered nothing except a mortar and pes
tle, for beating hominy, and a scaffold
of small sticks, with ashes lying below,
which Saloquah informed us was a place
for “jerking” venison, or drying it by
the combined influence of sun and
smoke. The mortar was a block about
two feet high, slightly scooped, and hav
ing in its centre a hole about two inches
wide and three inches deep. The pes
tle was the counterpart of an ordinary
maul for splitting logs, of which the
small end was nicely rounded, and had
the marks of being the part used for
pounding. The corn, softened by par
boiling, was introduced into this cavity
a little at a time, beaten then to a cream
like paste, then returned to the pot and
boiled with beans. Thus prepared, it
was called Connahaynee , and was the
standing dish of the nation. It was
usually kept in a large earthen jar, ready
for use, and was thence dipped and
drunk like thick gruel. The flavor was
sometimes varied by the admixture of
meat.
We had not been seated many min
utes after this exploring expedition be
fore Kaneeka raised his head, looked
in a certain direction and exchanged a
significant glance with Saloquah; im
mediately after which Scossity appear
ed, striding through the woods from an
unexpected quarter. Our two red
friends had caught the sound of ap
proaching footsteps, and been assured