The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and ManuscriptsSchoolcraft, Henry Rowe
History
The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and Manuscripts
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
Indians of North America
The ensuing year another was killed, and so on till four were killed.
The remaining two brothers did all they could to afford consolation to
their pining sister, but she would not be consoled: they did all they
could to divert her mind from so much mourning, but all their endeavours
proved ineffectual: she scarcely took any food, and what she ate was
hardly sufficient to sustain nature. The two brothers said that they
would go hunting, which they did from day to day. They would bring
ducks and birds of every description to their sister, in order to tempt
her appetite, but she persisted in refusing nourishment, or taking very
little. At the expiration of the year when the fourth brother had been
killed, the two young men set out upon the chase; one of them returned
in the evening, the other was missing, and found killed in like manner
as the others had been. This again augmented the afflictions of the
young girl; she had been very delicate, but was now reduced to a mere
skeleton. At the expiration of the year the only and last of her
brothers, taking pity upon his pining sister, said to her that he would
go and kill her some fresh venison, to entice her to eat. He started
early in the morning, and his sister would go out from time to time, in
the course of the day, to see if her brother was returning. Night set
in, and no indications of his coming--she sat up all night, exhibiting
fear and apprehension bordering upon despair--day light appeared, and he
did not come--search was made, and he was finally found killed, like all
the other brothers. After this event the girl became perfectly
disconsolate, hardly tasting food, and would wander in the woods the
whole day, returning at nights. One of her aunts had the care of her at
this time. One day in one of her rambles she did not return; her aunt
became very anxious, and searched for her, and continued her search
daily. On the tenth day, the aunt in her search lost her way and was
bewildered, and finally was benighted. While lying down, worn with
fatigue, she thought she heard the voice of some one speaking: she got
up, and directing her course to the spot, she came upon a small lodge
made of bushes, and in it lay her niece, with her face to the ground.
She prevailed upon her to return home. Before reaching their lodge the
girl stopt, and her aunt built her a small lodge, and she resided in it.
Here her aunt would attend upon her daily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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