 | CHAPTER IV. The wigwam and the cabin |  |
4. CHAPTER IV.
“The next day came the commencement of the great hunt, and
the warriors were up betimes and active. Stations were chosen,
the keepers of which, converging to a centre, were to hem in the
wild animal on whose tracks they were going. The wolves were
known to be in a hollow of the hills, near Charashilactay, which
had but one outlet; and points of close approximation across
this outlet were the stations of honour; for, goaded by the hunters
to this passage, and failing of egress in any other, the wolf, it was
well known, would be then dangerous in the extreme. Well calculated
to provoke into greater activity the jealousies between the
Occonies and the Green Birds, was the assignment made by Moitoy,
the chief, of the more dangerous of these stations to these two
clans. They now stood alongside of one another, and the action
of the two promised to be joint and corresponsive. Such an appointment,
in the close encounter with the wolf, necessarily promised
to bring the two parties into immediate contact; and such
was the event. As the day advanced, and the hunters, contracting
their circles, brought the different bands of wolves into one,
and pressed upon them to the more obvious and indeed the only
outlet, the badges of the Green Bird and the Brown Viper—the
one consisting of the stuffed skin and plumage of the Carolina parrot,
and the other the attenuated viper, filled out with moss, and
winding, with erect head, around the pole, to the top of which it
was stuck—were, at one moment, in the indiscriminate hunt, almost
mingled over the heads of the two parties. Such a sight was
pleasant to neither, and would, at another time, of a certainty, have
brought about a squabble. As it was, the Occonies drove their
badge-carrier from one to the other end of their ranks, thus studiously
avoiding the chance of another collision between the viper
so adored, and the green bird so detested. The pride of the Estatoees
was exceedingly aroused at this exhibition of impertinence,
and though a quiet people enough, they began to think that forbearance
and hostile neighbours. Had it not been for Nagoochie, who
had his own reasons for suffering yet more, the Green Birds would
certainly have plucked out the eyes of the Brown Vipers, or tried
very hard to do it; but the exhortations to peace of the young
warrior, and the near neighbourhood of the wolf, quelled any open
show of the violence they meditated; but, Indian-like, they determined
to wait for the moment of greatest quiet, as that most fitted
for taking away a few scalps from the Occony. With a muttered
curse, and a contemptuous slap of the hand upon their thighs,
the more furious among the Estatoees satisfied their present anger,
and then addressed themselves more directly to the business before
them.
“The wolves, goaded to desperation by the sight and sound of
hunters strewn all over the hills around them, were now, snapping
and snarling, and with eyes that flashed with a terrible anger, descending
the narrow gully towards the outlet held by the two rival
tribes. United action was therefore demanded of those who,
for a long time past, had been conscious of no feeling or movement
in common. But here they had no choice—no time, indeed,
to think. The fierce wolves were upon them, doubly furious at
finding the only passage stuck full of enemies. Well and manfully
did the hunters stand and seek the encounter with the infuriated
beasts. The knife and the hatchet, that day, in the hand
of Occony and Estato, did fearful execution. The Brown Vipers
fought nobly, and with their ancient reputation. But the
Green Birds were the hunters, after all; and they were now
stimulated into double adventure and effort, by an honourable
ambition to make up for all deficiencies of number by extra valour,
and the careful exercise of all that skill in the arts of hunting for
which they have always been the most renowned of the tribes of
Cherokee. As, one by one, a fearful train, the wolves wound
into sight along this or that crag of the gully, arrow after arrow
told fearfully upon them, for there were no marksmen like the
Estatoees. Nor did they stop at this weapon. The young Nagoochie,
more than ever prompted to such audacity, led the way;
and dashing into the very path of the teeth-gnashing and clawrending
enemy, he grappled in desperate fight the first that offered
him, with a fearful plunge at his side, adroitly leaping to the right,
he thrust a pointed stick down, deep, as far as he could send it,
into the monster's throat, then pressing back upon him, with the
rapidity of an arrow, in spite of all his fearful writhings he pinned
him to the ground, while his knife, in a moment after, played
fatally in his heart. Another came, and, in a second, his hatchet
cleft and crunched deep into the skull of the angry brute, leaving
him senseless, without need of a second stroke. There was no rivalling
deeds of valour so desperate as this; and with increased
bitterness of soul did Cheochee and his followers hate in proportion
as they admired. They saw the day close, and heard the
signal calling them to the presence of the great chief Moitoy, conscious,
though superior in numbers, they could not at all compare
in skill and success with the long-despised, but now thoroughly-hated
Estatoees.
“And still more great the vexation, still more deadly the hate,
when the prize was bestowed by the hand of Moitoy, the great
military chief of Cherokee—when, calling around him the
tribes, and carefully counting the number of their several spoils,
consisting of the skins of the wolves that had been slain, it was
found that of these the greater number, in proportion to their force,
had fallen victims to the superior skill or superior daring of the
people of the Green Bird. And who had been their leader? The
rambling Nagoochie—the young hunter who had broken his leg
among the crags of Occony, and, in the same adventure, no longer
considered luckless, had won the young heart of the beautiful
Jocassée.
“They bore the young and successful warrior into the centre
of the ring, and before the great Moitoy. He stood up in the
presence of the assembled multitude, a brave and fearless, and
fine looking Cherokee. At the signal of the chief, the young
maidens gathered into a group, and sung around him a song of
compliment and approval, which was just as much as to say,—
`Ask, and you shall have.' He did ask; and before the people
of the Brown Viper could so far recover from their surprise as to
interfere, or well comprehend the transaction, the bold Nagoochie
had led the then happy Jocassée into the presence of Moitoy and
lodge of the Estato hunter.
“That was the signal for uproar and commotion. The Occonies
were desperately angered, and the fierce Cheochee, whom
nothing, not even the presence of the great war-chief, could restrain,
rushed forward, and dragging the maiden violently from
the hold of Nagoochie, hurled her backward into the ranks of his
people; then, breathing nothing but blood and vengeance, he
confronted him with ready knife and uplifted hatchet, defying the
young hunter in that moment to the fight.
“ `E-cha-e-cha, e-herro—echa-herro-echa-herro,' was the war-whoop
of the Occonies; and it gathered them to a man around
the sanguinary young chief who uttered it. `Echa-herro, echa-herro,'
he continued, leaping wildly in air with the paroxysm of
rage which had seized him,—`the brown viper has a tooth for the
green bird. The Occony is athirst—he would drink blood from
the dog-heart of the Estato. E-cha-e-cha-herro, Occony. ' And
again he concluded his fierce speech with that thrilling roll of
sound, which, as the so much dreaded warwhoop, brought a death
feeling to the heart of the early pioneer, and made the mother
clasp closely, in the deep hours of the night, the young and unconscious
infant to her bosom. But it had no such influence upon
the fearless spirit of Nagoochie. The Estato heard him with
cool composure, but, though evidently unafraid, it was yet equally
evident that he was unwilling to meet the challenger in strife.
Nor was his decision called for on the subject. The great chief
interposed, and all chance of conflict was prevented by his intervention.
In that presence they were compelled to keep the
peace, though both the Occonies and Little Estatoees retired to
their several lodges with fever in their veins, and a restless desire
for that collision which Moitoy had denied them. All but Nagoochie
were vexed at this denial; and all of them wondered
much that a warrior, so brave and daring as he had always
shown himself, should be so backward on such an occasion. It
was true, they knew of his love for the girl of Occony; but they
never dreamed of such a feeling acquiring an influence over the
hunter, of so paralyzing and unmanly a character. Even Nagoochie
himself, as he listened to some of the speeches uttered
he began to wish that the affair might happen again, that he might
take the hissing viper by the neck. And poor Jocassée—what of
her when they took her back to the lodges? She did nothing but
dream all night of Brown Vipers and Green Birds in the thick of
battle.
| CHAPTER IV. The wigwam and the cabin | |