The Scouts of the ValleyAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
General
The Scouts of the Valley
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
Chemung River Valley (N.Y. and Pa.) -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Wyoming Valley (Pa.) -- Fiction
So horrifying had been the impression made upon him by this woman at
Wyoming that he could not feel any pity for her now. The picture of the
great war tomahawk cleaving the heads of bound prisoners was still too
vivid. She had several sons, one or two of whom were slain in battle
with the colonists, and the body that lay in the boat may have been one
of them. Henry always believed that it was-but he still felt no pity.
As the file came nearer they heard her chanting a low song, and now she
raised her face and tore at her black hair.
“They're goin' to land,” whispered Shif'less Sol.
The head of the file was turned toward the shore, and, as it approached,
a group of warriors, led by Little Beard, the Seneca chief, appeared
among the trees, coming forward to meet them. The three in their covert
crouched closer, interested so intensely that they were prepared to
brave the danger in order to remain. But the absorption of the Iroquois
in what they were about to do favored the three scouts.
As the canoes touched the bank, Catharine Montour rose from her
crouching position and uttered a long, piercing wail, so full of grief,
rage, and despair that the three in the bushes shuddered. It was
fiercer than the cry of a wolf, and it came back from the dark forest in
terrifying echoes.
“It's not a woman, but a fiend,” whispered Henry; and, as before, his
comrades nodded in assent.
The woman stood erect, a tall and stalwart figure, but the beauty that
had once caused her to be received in colonial capitals was long since
gone. Her white half of blood had been submerged years ago in her Indian
half, and there was nothing now about her to remind one of civilization
or of the French Governor General of Canada who was said to have been
her father.
The Iroquois stood respectfully before her. It was evident that she had
lost none of her power among the Six Nations, a power proceeding partly
from her force and partly from superstition. As the bodies were brought
ashore, one by one, and laid upon the ground, she uttered the long
wailing cry again and again, and the others repeated it in a sort of
chorus.
When the bodies-and Henry was sure that they must all be those of
chiefs-were laid out, she tore her hair, sank down upon the ground, and
began a chant, which Tom Ross was afterwards able to interpret roughly
to the others. She sang:
The white men have come with the cannon and bayonet,
Numerous as forest leaves the army has come.
Our warriors are driven like deer by the hunter,
Fallen is the League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee!
Our towns are burned and our fields uprooted,
Our people flee through the forest for their lives,
The king who promised to help us comes not.
Fallen is the League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee!
The great chiefs are slain and their bodies lie here.
No longer will they lead the warriors in battle;
No more will they drive the foe from the thicket.
Fallen is the League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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