University of Virginia Library

4. CHAPTER IV.

The approach of night brought with it but little inclination
to sleep to the excited girl. Her father slept, tired
with the day's hunt; and her mother dreamed of seeing
her daughter the wife of a war chief and a medicine man.

The village was built on the shores of the lake now
known as Lake Calhoun. By the light of the moon the
teepees were reflected in its waters. It was bright as day;
so clear was the lake, that the agates near the shore sparkled
in its waters. The cry of the whippoorwill alone disturbed
the repose of nature, except when the wild scream
of the loon was heard as she gracefully swept the waters.

Seated on the shore, Harpstenah waited to hear the low
whistle of her lover. The villagers were almost all asleep,
now and then the laugh of some rioters was heard breaking
in upon the stillness of night. She had not seen her lover
for many days; from the time that her marriage was determined
upon, the young warrior had kept aloof from her.
She had seized her opportunity to tell him that he must
meet her where they had often met, where none should

know of their meeting. She told him to come when the
moon rose, as her father would be tired, and her mother
wished to sleep well before the medicine feast.

Many fears oppressed her heart, for he had not answered
her when she spoke to him, and he might not intend to
come. Long she waited in vain, and she now arose to return
to the teepee, when the low signal met her ear.

She did not wait to hear it a second time, but made her
way along the shore: now her steps were printed in the
wet sand, now planted on the rocks near the shore; not a
sound followed her movements until she stood on the appointed
place. The bright moonlight fell upon her features,
and her rich dress, as she waited with folded arms for her
lover to address her. Her okendokenda of bright colors
was slightly open at the neck, and revealed brooches of
brass and silver that covered her bosom; a heavy necklace
of crimson beads hung around her throat; bracelets of
brass clasped her wrists, and her long plaited hair was ornamented
at the end of the braids with trinkets of silver.

Her cloth petticoat was richly decorated with ribbons,
and her leggins and mocassins proved that she had spent
much time and labor on the adorning of a person naturally
well formed, and graceful.

“Why have you wished to meet me, Harpstenah?” said
the young man, gloomily. “Have you come to tell me of
the presents Cloudy Sky has made you, or do you wish to
say that you are ashamed to break the promise you made
me to be my wife?”

“I have come to say again that I will be your wife,”
she replied: “and for the presents Cloudy Sky left for me,

I have trampled them under my feet. See, I wear near
my heart the brooches you have given me.”

“Women are ever dogs and liars,” said Red Deer, “but
why do you speak such words to me, when you know you
have agreed to marry Cloudy Sky? Your cousin told me
your father had chosen him to carry you into the teepee of
the old man. Your father beat you, and you agreed to
marry him. You are a coward to mind a little pain. Go,
marry the old medicine man; he will beat you as he has
his other wives; he may strike you with his tomahawk
and kill you, as he did his first wife; or he will sell you to
the traders, as he did the other; he will tell you to steal
pork and whiskey for him, and then when it is found out,
he will take you and say you are a thief, and that he has
beaten you for it. Go, the young should ever mate with
the young, but you will soon lie on the scaffold, and by his
hand too.”

“The proud eagle seeks to frighten the timid bird that
follows it,” said the maiden; “but Red Deer should not
speak such angry words to the woman that will venture
her life for him. Cloudy Sky boasts that he is the friend
of the thunder bird; in my dreams, I have seen the fairy
of the waters, and he told me that Cloudy Sky should die
by my hand. My words are true. Cloudy Sky was once
with the sons of the thunder birds when they fought against
Unktahe. He killed a son of the water god, and the spirits
of the water have determined on his death.

“Red Deer, my heart is strong. I do not fear the medicine
man, for the power of Unktahe is greater than his.
But you must go far away and visit the Tetons; if you
are here, they will accuse you of his death, and will kill

you. But as I have promised to marry him, no one will
think that I have murdered him. It will be long ere I see
you again, but in the moon that we gather wild rice,[4] return,
and I will be your wife. Go, now,” she added, “say
to your mother that you are going to visit your friends,
and before the day comes be far away. To-morrow Cloudy
Sky gives a medicine feast, and to-morrow night Haokah
will make my heart strong, and I will kill the medicine
man. His soul will travel a long journey to the land of
spirits. There let him drink, and boast, and frighten women.”

Red Deer heard her, mute with astonishment. The
color mantled in her cheek, and her determined countenance
assured him that she was in earnest. He charged
her to remember the secret spells of the medicine man. If
she loved him it was far better to go with him now;
they would soon be out of the reach of her family.
To this she would not listen, and repeating to him her
intention of executing all she had told him of, she left
him.

He watched her as she returned to her teepee; sometimes
her form was lost in the thick bushes, he could see
her again as she made her way along the pebbled shore,
and when she had entered her teepee he returned home.

He collected his implements of war and hunting, and,
telling his mother he was going on a long journey, he left
the village.