In Their Extremity
They Sent Forth A Herald, Bearing The Calumet Or Pipe Of Peace,
But He Was Shot Down By Order Of The Blackbird.
Another herald
was sent forth in similar guise, but he shared a like fate.
The
Ponca chief then, as a last hope, arrayed his beautiful daughter
in her finest ornaments, and sent her forth with a calumet, to
sue for peace. The charms of the Indian maid touched the stern
heart of the Blackbird; he accepted the pipe at her hand, smoked
it, and from that time a peace took place between the Poncas and
the Omahas.
This beautiful damsel, in all probability, was the favorite wife
whose fate makes so tragic an incident in the story of the
Blackbird. Her youth and beauty had gained an absolute sway over
his rugged heart, so that he distinguished her above all of his
other wives. The habitual gratification of his vindictive
impulses, however, had taken away from him all mastery over his
passions, and rendered him liable to the most furious transports
of rage. In one of these his beautiful wife had the misfortune to
offend him, when suddenly drawing his knife, he laid her dead at
his feet with a single blow.
In an instant his frenzy was at an end. He gazed for a time in
mute bewilderment upon his victim; then drawing his buffalo robe
over his head, he sat down beside the corpse, and remained
brooding over his crime and his loss. Three days elapsed, yet the
chief continued silent and motionless; tasting no food, and
apparently sleepless. It was apprehended that he intended to
starve himself to death; his people approached him in trembling
awe, and entreated him once more to uncover his face and be
comforted; but he remained unmoved. At length one of his warriors
brought in a small child, and laying it on the ground, placed the
foot of the Blackbird upon its neck. The heart of the gloomy
savage was touched by this appeal; he threw aside his robe; made
an harangue upon what he had done; and from that time forward
seemed to have thrown the load of grief and remorse from his
mind.
He still retained his fatal and mysterious secret, and with it
his terrific power; but, though able to deal death to his
enemies, he could not avert it from himself or his friends. In
1802 the small-pox, that dreadful pestilence, which swept over
the land like a fire over the prairie, made its appearance in the
village of the Omahas. The poor savages saw with dismay the
ravages of a malady, loathsome and agonizing in its details, and
which set the skill and experience of their conjurors and
medicine men at defiance. In a little while, two thirds of the
population were swept from the face of the earth, and the doom of
the rest seemed sealed. The stoicism of the warriors was at an
end; they became wild and desperate; some set fire to the village
as a last means of checking the pestilence; others, in a frenzy
of despair, put their wives and children to death, that they
might be spared the agonies of an inevitable disease, and that
they might all go to some better country.
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