Sago-zhu-ni spoke briefly, but to the point. “Are you men, old women, or
children?” she cried fiercely. “If you are old women and children, you
will stay here and wait to receive your punishment; but if you are
warriors, you will take the war-trail, and then Nan-tan-des-la-par-en
must catch you before he can punish you. May-be-so, you go to Sonora, he
no catch you. I have spoken.”
Now Na-chi-ta, encouraged by tizwin and goaded by the reproaches of
Shoz-Dijiji spoke for war. Geronimo, his savage brain inflamed by the
fumes of the drink, applauded Sago-zhu-ni and demanded the blood of
every pindah-lickoyee.
With fiery eloquence he ranged back through the history of the
Shis-Inday for more than three hundred years and reminded them of every
wrong that white men had committed against them in all that time. He
spoke for more than an hour, and while he spoke Sago-zhu-ni saw that no
warrior suffered from lack of tizwin. Of all who spoke vehemently for
the war-trail Shoz-Dijiji alone spoke out of a clear mind, or at least a
mind unclouded by the fumes of drink, though it was dark with bitter
hatred and prejudice.
When Geronimo sat down they voted unanimously for the war-trail; and the
next morning they broke camp and headed south—thirty-four warriors,
eight boys, and ninety-one women. Hair was slicked down with tallow,
swart faces streaked with war paint, weapons looked to. Hoddentin was
sprinkled on many a tzi-daltai of lightning riven pine or cedar or fir
as copper warriors prayed to these amulets for protection against the
bullets of the pindah-lickoyee, for success upon the war-trail.
Shoz-Dijiji, with Gian-nah-tah and two other warriors, rode in advance
of the main party, scouting far afield, scanning the distances from
every eminence. No creature stirred in the broad landscape before them
that was not marked by those eagle eyes, no faintest spoor beneath their
feet was passed unnoted.
The young war chief of the Be-don-ko-he was again the Apache Devil. His
face was painted blue but for the broad band of white across his eyes
from temple to temple; around his head was wound a vivid yellow bandana
upon the front of which was fastened a silver disc in the center of
which was mounted a single turquoise; small rings of silver, from each
of which depended another of these valued gems, swung from the lobes of
his ears; other bits of this prized duklij were strung in the yard-long
necklace of glass beads and magical berries and roots that fell across
the front of his brown, print shirt, which, with his heavy buckskin war
moccasins and his G-string, completed his apparel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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