University of Virginia Library

3. CHAPTER III.

Meanwhile, the Omahas labored in vain to provoke their
enemies to action. Never did warriors show themselves so solicitous
of being beaten — struck at least — and never did Christian

warriors show themselves more reluctant to bestow the much
desired chastisement. This sort of strategy could not last for
ever. Our Omahas began to be very impatient, and to curse
the priesthood and its prophecies, in their heart of hearts. It is
true that they were not kept idle, but constantly watchful and
busy; true, also, that they kept their hands in for war, by practising
a very slaughterous campaign against bear, buffalo, and
buck. But this did not satisfy the national appetite for the
blood of their hated rivals. And they groaned with impatience
at the difficulty of complying with the conditions of the war,
which the prophets had prescribed, in consequence of the most
unnatural forbearance displayed by the Pawnees.

Among the young warriors of the Omahas who suffered from
this impatience, there was one, a gallant youth, little more than
grown to manhood, who had already made himself famous by
his excellence in all the qualities of warrior and hunter. A
more daring or accomplished fellow than Enemoya, the nation
did not possess. Though quite young still, he had been tried
in frequent battles, and had acquired such a reputation for equal
spirit, skill, and understanding, that he took a foremost rank
among his people, whether in action, or in the preliminary deliberations
of the council. But Enemoya, though brave and
savage in war, had yet his weaknesses. He was not insensible
to the tender passion. There was a young woman of his tribe,
known by the pretty poetical name of Missouri; and the first
symptoms which Enemoya had that this young woman was of
any importance in his eyes, consisted in his sudden discovery of
the great beauties of this name.— The Indian warrior, like Richard
Cœur de Leon, and the knights most famous of Provence, is
something of a Jongleur.— At all events, every chief of the red
men sings his war song, his battle hymn, his song of rejoicing,
and his death chant. Of the quality of these songs, as works
of art, we have not a syllable to say. They were probably not
any better than those of Cœur de Leon and his brother bardknights
of Provence. Perhaps, metrical harmony considered,
they were not half so good. In making songs for the fair Missouri,
Enemoya did by no means set up for a poet; and that
his song has been preserved at all, is due to the fact that it has
been found to answer the purposes of other lovers among the

red knights of the Omaha. It has even found circulation among
the Pawnees, and, by the last advices from that tribe, it is said
that this people actually claim the original verses for one of their
own warriors — a claim which we need scarcely assure you
is totally unfounded. Perhaps, however, it matters very little
with whom the authorship properly lies. It is certain that
Enemoya, stealing behind the lovely Missouri, while she played
with her sister's children in a stately grove on the borders of
the beautiful lake, chanted the following ditty in her ear. We
make a close translation from the original, putting it, however,
into good English rhymes, in the hope that it may be adopted
by Russell, or some other popular singer, and become the substitute
for the poor, flat, puny, mean-spirited love songs, which
are at present so discreditable to the manhood of the Anglo-Saxon
race. We are constrained to add that Enemoya, though
he had a good voice, and could scream with any eagle, was yet
rather monotonous in singing his ditty.

LOVE SONG OF ENEMOYA,
ONE OF THE GREAT WAR CHIEFS OF THE OMAHAS.

This will be called rather a rough style of wooing, in our
softly sentimental society, but, among the red men, the chant
of Enemoya, on this occasion, was deemed the very perfection

of a love song. It dealt frankly with the maiden. It
told her all that she ought to know, and warned her of what she
had to expect, whether she took him or not. The lover never
thought of the damsel's fortune; but he freely tendered everything
that he himself possessed. It was herself only that he
wanted. He was no fortune-hunter. He was a man, and he
talked to her like a man. “See what provision I have made for
you. Look into my lodge. See the piles of meat in yonder
corner. They are humps of the buffalo. These alone will last
us two all the winter. But look up at the thirty venison
hams, and the quarters of the bear now smoking, hanging from
the rafters. There's a sight to give a young woman an appetite.
They are all your own, my beauty. You perceive that
there's much more than enough, and in green pea season we can
give any number of suppers. Lift yon blanket. That is our
sleeping apartment. See the piles of bear skins: they shall
form our couch. Look at the tin ware — that most precious of
all the metals of the white man — yet I have appropriated all
these to culinary purposes. As for jewels and ornaments, the
beads, of which I have given you a sample, are here in abundance.
These are all your treasures, and you will do wisely to
accept. Now, my beauty, I don't want to coerce your tastes, or
to bias your judgment in making a free choice; but I must say
that you shall never marry anybody but myself. I'm the very
man for you; able to fight your battles and bring you plentiful
supplies; and feeling that I am the only proper man for you, I
shall scalp the first rival that looks on you with impertinent
eyes of passion; nay, scalp you too, if you are so absurd as to
look on him with eyes of requital. I'm the only proper person
for you, I tell you.”

We need scarcely say that this performance made Enemoya
as famous as a poet, as he had been as a warrior and hunter. It
is now universally considered the chef d'œuvre of the Omahas.
As a matter of course, it proved irresistible with the fair Missouri.
It had an unctuous property about it, which commended
the lover to all her tastes. She suffered him to put his arms
about her, to give her the kiss of betrothal, which, among the
Omaha women, is called the “kiss of consolation,” and the result
was, an arrangement for the bridal, with the close of the

present campaign, and the opening of the spring — that is, taking
for granted that Enemoya does not happen, by any chance, to
leave his own scalp along the war-path. But neither party
thought of this contingency, or they made very light of it. The
courtship occurred that very autumn, and just as the warriors
were preparing for the winter campaign. It was during the
“windy month” (October), and they were to wait till May.
And Enemoya was to be absent all the winter! It was quite a
trial even for a Birserker Omaha!