Stories of American Life and AdventureEggleston, Edward
History
Stories of American Life and Adventure
Eggleston, Edward
Readers -- History; United States -- History -- Juvenile literature
You see, the cunning old medicine man had somehow got hold of a large
black cat with yellow eyes. Cats were not common among the Indians,
these animals having been brought by the white people. Such a cat as
this, the Indians had never seen. The medicine man kept the cat in his
cabin, and trained it. He would strike it with a whip, crying out
every time he struck it, "Vistee-poolee-keek-apook!"
The poor cat became afraid of the long ugly name of the Indian god,
because the whip and the name always came together. One day the black
cat crept into the cabin of an Indian woman to get something to eat.
The medicine man who was near by saw it. He said the name of his god
in his common voice. The cat, which the Indians believed to be a
witch, jumped like lightning through the hole in the cabin that was
used for a window. The Indians really believed that they had seen an
evil spirit in the shape of a little black panther, and that it
disappeared when the medicine man spoke the name of his god.
After that, every time an Indian saw this black cat, or little black
panther, as it was called, he spoke the name of this terrible god. Of
course, the black cat with yellow eyes ran away. Tired out at last
with being driven off in this fashion, the cat disappeared entirely,
and took up its home with the wild animals in the woods, where it
could not hear the terrible name of the idol any more.
Bossu afterward made use of the Indians' belief in spirits for his own
purpose. One of his soldiers had been killed by one of the Indians.
Bossu could not find out who killed the soldier, or even to what tribe
the Indian that killed him belonged. He wanted to punish or frighten
the murderer in order to save the lives of the rest of the French
soldiers.
He called the chief of the Indians, and told him that one of his men
was missing. He said he was sure the man had not run away. He
therefore asked that the Indians should find the man, and said, that,
if he were not found, he should have to think that some of the Indians
had killed him.
The chief answered that the white soldier had probably gone hunting in
the woods, and killed himself accidentally with his gun, or else he
had been killed by a panther. To this Bossu replied that the animal
would not have eaten the gun or the clothes of the soldier. He said
that if the Indians would find the Frenchman's gun, or bits of his
clothes, they could easily show that he had been killed by a wild
animal.
Bossu had a friend among the Indians who was very much attached to
him. He persuaded this young Indian to tell him to what tribe the
murderer of the Frenchman belonged, but he solemnly promised that the
other Indians should never know who had told him. He paid the young
Indian for telling him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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