There is an account of a small boy who set a trap in the woods, and his uncle, who was visiting at the wigwam where the boy lived, went out secretly and put a rabbit in it which he had caught himself in another place. So when the boy went to his trap he found to his great pride and joy that there was a rabbit there. It was the first he had ever caught. He brought it home in triumph and gave it to his mother, and she made a soup of it, and the family with their guest, ate the soup together, leaving the boy to think all the time that it was really the fruit of his hunting that furnished the meal.
Stories for Children
The mothers were accustomed to talk very little with their children. Indeed, the Indians were extremely taciturn on all occasions. They, however, sometimes explained to the children the principles of duty, and told them stories to illustrate and enforce what they taught. Some of these stories are to be found reduced to writing, among other legends and tales which travelers who have visited Indians in their wigwams, or have lived among them, have recorded. The scenes of these stories were laid, of course, always in the woods, and wild animals figured very conspicuously in them. Here is one which will serve as a specimen. It was intended, we must suppose, to teach older children to be faithful, kind and true to the younger ones.
The Child that Turned into a Wolf
Once there was a man who lived with his wife in a lonely place on the borders of a lake. They had two children nearly grown up. The oldest was a boy. The other was a girl. Besides these there was a third child, a boy, who was very young.
The mother was more anxious about this little child than about either of the others, for as she and her husband were considerably advanced in life, she was afraid that they might not live long enough to take care of him until he should grow up and be able to take care of himself.
At last, one day when the father was hunting in the forest he was killed by wild beasts. The mother, with the help of her oldest boy, continued to maintain the family for some time, but at length she fell sick and could do no more. When she found that she was about to die she called her two oldest children to her and charged them to be kind to their little brother after she was gone, and never forsake him. They promised that they would obey. Soon after this the woman died.
For a time the oldest boy remained at home and took care of his sister and brother. But at last he grew tires of hunting and fishing every day to procure food for them, and so he went away and left them.
The girl remained at home for some time after the boy had gone away, but at last she grew tired of taking care of her little brother, and so she went away too.
The child was now left all alone in the wigwam. He staid there a day or two without anything to eat, wondering all the time where his brother and sister had gone. At last, being almost starved, he thought he would go into the woods and see if he could not find what had become of them.
He wandered about all day, and at length toward evening he became so weak that he could go no further, and he sank down upon the ground ready to die. But suddenly he observed near him a she wolf feeding her young ones with the flesh or a rabbit, or some other such animal which she had caught. The little boy crept toward her, and the wolf, seeing how pale and exhausted he looked, gave him some of the meat. This food revived and strengthened him so that he became quite like himself again, and he began to play with the little wolves, and tumble about with them upon the ground.
After this the old wolf, every day when she came home with food for her young ones, gave the boy some of it took, and he continued living with this wild family for some time in peace and plenty.
At length, one day while he was playing with the young wolves upon the shores of the lake, and singing a song, his brother, who was fishing on the lake in his canoe, at some distance from the shore, heard his voice, and he at once recognized it as that of his little brother. His conscience had often reproached him for having forsaken the child, and he was now overjoyed to find that he was still alive. He paddled his canoe toward the shore, and began to call his brother by name.
But from living so long with the wolves, and partaking the same sustenance with them, the child's nature had been gradually undergoing a change, and he was growing like a wild animal. In a word, he was turning into a wolf himself; so when he saw his brother approach, and heard his voice, instead of coming down to the shore to meet him, he gave a wild cry and ran off into the woods with the young wolves that he was with. As he went he sang a song, the burden of which was:
"I am changing into a wolf, and I cannot come;/I am changing into a wolf, and I cannot come."
His brother went away, feeling very sorrowful and sad. He found his sister and told her what he had seen, and during all the rest of their lives they were both rendered very unhappy by the remorse and anguish which they suffered at the thought of having abandoned their little brother in his helplessness, and of having thus been the cause of his turning into a wolf.
Chapter 7. Mechanic Arts
Native Ingenuity
It is surprising how much ingenuity the Indians displayed in contriving ways for accomplishing their various purposes, without any of the means or facilities which we should should have considered essential. They had no iron, and could, of course, have no good cutting tools. All the tools and implements of every kind which were used by the Indians of the eastern part of the country were formed of stone, or wood, or bone, or something of that sort, and although working with such tools was an exceedingly slow and tedious process, still the results that they finally attained were, in some cases, truly wonderful.
Some tribes, especially those that lived in the neighborhood of the great lakes, made certain tools and implements of copper, which metal, it is said, they had some means of hardening, so that it would cut wood tolerably well. But they had no iron. Accordingly, when the Europeans first came to this country, one of the things that principally struck the Indians was their possession of knives. It is said that the name by which the foreigners were designated among some of the tribes was knife men. Columbus found, too, when he first landed in the West India Islands, that the natives would barter almost anything in their possession for a needle.
Manufacture of Weapons
The work upon which most of the skill and ingenuity of the Indians was displayed was the manufacture of instruments to be used in hunting and in war. The bow and arrow was the principle weapon, although they likewise used spears and clubs of various kinds. Their spears and arrows they tipped with heads formed of a stone nearly as hard as flint, which they could shape very exactly by splitting off portions of the mass in a peculiar way, by a process similar to that in which gun-flints are fashioned at the present time. These heads were fastened to the shafts of the spear or of the arrow by means of very slender thongs of hide put on green. These, in shrinking as they dried, would bind the stone to the wood in the firmest manner imaginable. Great numbers of these arrow-heads and spear-heads have been found in mounds and in old Indian encampments, and are now preserved in museums in all parts of the country.
These weapons were much more efficient than it would be supposed possible that such rude contrivances could be. Of course, in throwing an arrow from a bow everything depends upon the strength of the arm which discharges it. But it is said that some of the western Indians could shoot an arrow swifter than a bullet could be thrown from a gun, and one of them has been known to pass entirely through the body of a buffalo - at least so it is stated on what seems to be very good authority. When De Soto landed in Florida his horse was shot under him, in an attack from the Indians, by an arrow which passed through the covering of the saddle, and entered seven or eight inches into the animal's side.