Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; Western stories
The young bucks who had not gone on the raid to the Piegans thronged to
hear the story, and the warriors told it here and there, walking in
their feathers among a knot of friends, who listened with gay
exclamations of pleasure and envy. Great was Cheschapah, who had done
all this! And one and another told exactly and at length how he had seen
the cold water rise into foam beneath the medicine-man's hand; it could
not be told too often; not every companion of Cheschapah's had been
accorded the privilege of witnessing this miracle, and each narrator in
his circle became a wonder himself to the bold boyish faces that
surrounded him. And after the miracle he told how the Piegans had been
like a flock of birds before the medicine-man. Cheschapah himself passed
among the groups, alone and aloof; he spoke to none, and he looked at
none, and he noted how their voices fell to whispers as he passed; his
ear caught the magic words of praise and awe; he felt the gaze of
admiration follow him away, and a mist rose like incense in his brain.
He wandered among the scattered tepees, and, turning, came along the
same paths again, that he might once more overhear his worshippers.
Great was Cheschapah! His heart beat, a throb of power passed through
his body, and "Great is Cheschapah!" said he, aloud; for the fumes of
hallucination wherewith he had drugged others had begun to make him
drunk also. He sought a tepee where the wife of another chief was alone,
and at his light call she stood at the entrance and heard him longer
than she had ever listened to him before. But she withstood the
temptation that was strong in the young chief's looks and words. She did
not speak much, but laughed unsteadily, and, shaking her head with
averted eyes, left him, and went where several women were together, and
sat among them.
Cheschapah told his victory to the council, with many sentences about
himself, and how his medicine had fended all hurt from the Crows. The
elder chiefs sat cold.
"Ump!" said one, at the close of the oration, and "Heh!" remarked
another. The sounds were of assent without surprise.
"It is good," said Pretty Eagle. His voice seemed to enrage Cheschapah.
"Heh! it is always pretty good!" remarked Spotted Horse.
"I have done this too," said Pounded Meat to his son, simply. "Once,
twice, three times. The Crows have always been better warriors than the
Piegans."
"Have you made water boil like me?" Cheschapah said.
"I am not a medicine-man," replied his father. "But I have taken horses
and squaws from the Piegans. You make good medicine, maybe; but a cup of
water will not kill many white men. Can you make the river boil? Let
Cheschapah make bigger medicine, so the white man shall fear him as well
as the Piegans, whose hearts are well known to us."
Cheschapah scowled. "Pounded Meat shall have this," said he. "I will
make medicine to-morrow, old fool!"
"Drive him from the council!" said Pretty Eagle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account