They Were Paraded On Poles About The
Village, Followed By The Warriors Decked Out In All Their Savage
Ornaments, And Hideously Painted As If For Battle.
By the Osage warriors, Mr. Hunt and his companions were again
warned to be on their guard in ascending the river, as the Sioux
tribe meant to lay in wait and attack them.
On the 10th of April they again embarked their party, being now
augmented to twenty-six, by the addition of Mr. Crooks and his
boat's crew. They had not proceeded far, however, when there was
a great outcry from one of the boats; it was occasioned by a
little domestic discipline in the Dorion family. The squaw of the
worthy interpreter, it appeared, had been so delighted with the
scalp-dance, and other festivities of the Osage village, that she
had taken a strong inclination to remain there. This had been as
strongly opposed by her liege lord, who had compelled her to
embark. The good dame had remained sulky ever since, whereupon
Pierre, seeing no other mode of exorcising the evil spirit out of
her, and being, perhaps, a little inspired by whiskey, had
resorted to the Indian remedy of the cudgel, and before his
neighbors could interfere, had belabored her so soundly, that
there is no record of her having shown any refractory symptoms
throughout the remainder of the expedition.
For a week they continued their voyage, exposed to almost
incessant rains. The bodies of drowned buffaloes floated past
them in vast numbers; many had drifted upon the shore, or against
the upper ends of the rafts and islands. These had attracted
great flights of turkey-buzzards; some were banqueting on the
carcasses, others were soaring far aloft in the sky, and others
were perched on the trees, with their backs to the sun, and their
wings stretched out to dry, like so many vessels in harbor,
spreading their sails after a shower.
The turkey-buzzard (vultur aura, or golden vulture), when on the
wing, is one of the most specious and imposing of birds. Its
flight in the upper regions of the air is really sublime,
extending its immense wings, and wheeling slowly and majestically
to and fro, seemingly without exerting a muscle or fluttering a
feather, but moving by mere volition, and sailing on the bosom of
the air, as a ship upon the ocean. Usurping the empyreal realm of
the eagle, he assumes for a time the port and dignity of that
majestic bird, and often is mistaken for him by ignorant crawlers
upon the earth. It is only when he descends from the clouds to
pounce upon carrion that he betrays his low propensities, and
reveals his caitiff character. Near at hand he is a disgusting
bird, ragged in plumage, base in aspect, and of loathsome odor.
On the 17th of April Mr. Hunt arrived with his party at the
station near the Nodowa River, where the main body had been
quartered during the winter.
CHAPTER XVI.
Return of Spring.- Appearance of Snakes.- Great Flights of Wild
Pigeons.- Renewal of the Voyage.- Night Encampments.- Platte
River. - Ceremonials on Passing It.- Signs of Indian War
Parties.- Magnificent Prospect at Papillion Creek.- Desertion of
Two Hunters.An Irruption Into the Camp of Indian Desperadoes.-
Village of the Omahas.-A necdotes of the Tribe.- Feudal Wars of
the Indians.-Story of Blackbird, the Famous Omaha Chief.
THE weather continued rainy and ungenial for some days after Mr.
Hunt's return to Nodowa; yet spring was rapidly advancing and
vegetation was putting forth with all its early freshness and
beauty. The snakes began to recover from their torpor and crawl
forth into day; and the neighborhood of the wintering house seems
to have been much infested with them. Mr. Bradbury, in the course
of his botanical researches, found a surprising number in a half
torpid state, under flat stones upon the banks which overhung the
cantonment, and narrowly escaped being struck by a rattlesnake,
which darted at him from a cleft in the rock, but fortunately
gave him warning by his rattle.
The pigeons, too, were filling the woods in vast migratory
flocks. It is almost incredible to describe the prodigious
flights of these birds in the western wildernesses. They appear
absolutely in clouds, and move with astonishing velocity, their
wings making a whistling sound as they fly. The rapid evolutions
of these flocks wheeling and shifting suddenly as if with one
mind and one impulse; the flashing changes of color they present,
as their backs' their breasts, or the under part of their wings
are turned to the spectator, are singularly pleasing. When they
alight, if on the ground, they cover whole acres at a time; if
upon trees, the branches often break beneath their weight. If
suddenly startled while feeding in the midst of a forest, the
noise they make in getting on the wing is like the roar of a
cataract or the sound of distant thunder.
A flight of this kind, like an Egyptian flight of locusts,
devours everything that serves for its food as it passes along.
So great were the numbers in the vicinity of the camp that Mr.
Bradbury, in the course of a morning's excursion, shot nearly
three hundred with a fowling-piece. He gives a curious, though
apparently a faithful, account of the kind of discipline observed
in these immense flocks, so that each may have a chance of
picking up food. As the front ranks must meet with the greatest
abundance, and the rear ranks must have scanty pickings, the
instant a rank finds itself the hindmost, it rises in the air,
flies over the whole flock and takes its place in the advance.
The next rank follows in its course, and thus the last is
continually becoming first and all by turns have a front place at
the banquet.
The rains having at length subsided, Mr. Hunt broke up the
encampment and resumed his course up the Missouri.
The party now consisted of nearly sixty persons, of whom five
were partners, one, John Reed, was a clerk; forty were Canadian
"voyageurs," or "engages," and there were several hunters.
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