Another Summer: The Yellowstone Park and AlaskaGillis, Charles J.
General
Another Summer: The Yellowstone Park and Alaska
Gillis, Charles J.
Alaska -- Description and travel; Yellowstone National Park
From that day I have been careful about undertaking to
pet strange dogs with umbrellas, or anything else, but I forgot the
Constantinople experience yesterday at Sitka, when I went ashore, and
after wandering around among the Indian women, who were sitting on the
grass surrounded by their mats, bottles, and various curios, I stopped
opposite one of them, and saw, lying down in front of her, a very
small dog, which I supposed was a puppy, but it proved to be full
grown, and a very ugly little beast. I touched him with the umbrella,
and he barked in a furious manner, and making one jump, fastened his
teeth into my leg above the knee. I shook him off, the Indian woman
put him under her blanket, and I returned to the ship to repair
damages with court-plaster, vowing that never shall this umbrella be
used again to pet a strange dog."
Indian reminiscences being in order, one of our party related the
following:
SARAH ARBUCKLE AND THE INDIAN CHIEF.
A STORY OF FRONTIER LIFE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
"Sarah Arbuckle came to this country, with her father and brothers,
about 1740, when she was sixteen years old. They settled in the midst
of a dense wilderness, where the town of Merrimac now stands, many
miles from neighbors, and she was their housekeeper. It was so lonely
that many times a day, she would step out-of-doors to listen for the
sound of their axes, and if it ceased for any length of time, she
would tremble with fear lest the Indians or wild beasts had attacked
them.
"One morning she was stooping over the fireplace, making the
'stirabout' (Indian hasty pudding) for breakfast, when a shadow
falling across the floor startled her, and turning hastily to the open
door, she was frightened almost to death at the sight of a gigantic
Indian standing at the threshold, with blood streaming down all over
one side of his face. He tried to speak to her, but she could not
understand him. When she was a little over her fright, she saw that
there was an arrow sticking in his eye, which he wanted her to remove.
She plucked up courage, drew the arrow out, dressed the wound, gave
him food, and he stayed there and was cared for a few days, and then
disappeared in the woods. Some years after this occurrence, a war
broke out between the Indians and settlers, and the Arbuckles were
preparing to remove to the garrison house for safety, when, one
evening, a band of Indians, with fearful yells, burst in the doors of
their house, and the tomahawk was just descending on Sarah's head,
when at a word spoken by a chief, who rushed in after them, every
warrior dropped his hand, and silently, one after another, filed out
into the darkness, leaving the chief with the family. He had learned
enough English to tell them that he had been there before, and had
been assisted by them, and that they need fear nothing. They might
remain on their place, and would not be molested. They did so
throughout the war, and had no further trouble. This Indian came to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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