American Museum of Natural History -- Fiction; Indians of North America -- Fiction; Nature stories, American; Western stories
"I dropped instantly, for I did not know what this might mean, and
creeping cautiously to the spot where I had last seen them, I saw the
earth opening in a sharp, deep ravine, at the bottom of which lay
Ongyatasse with one leg crumpled under him. I guessed that the Lenape
must have led him to the edge and then slipped aside just in time to let
the force of Ongyatasse's running carry him over. Without waiting to
plan, I began to climb down the steep side of the ravine. About halfway
down I was startled by a rustling below, and, creeping along the bottom
of the bluff, I saw the Lenni-Lenape with his knife between his teeth,
within an arm's length of my friend. I cried out, and in a foolish
effort to save him, I must have let go of the ledge to which I clung.
The next thing I knew I was lying half-stunned, with a great many pains
in different parts of me, at the bottom of the ravine, almost within
touch of Ongyatasse and a young Lenape with an amulet of white deer's
horn about his neck and, across his back, what had once been a white
quiver. He was pouring water from a birch-bark cup upon my friend, and
as soon as he saw that my eyes were opened he came and offered me a
drink. There did not seem to be anything to say, so we said nothing, but
presently, when I could sit up, he washed the cut on the back of my
head, and then he showed me that Ongyatasse's knee was out of place, and
said that we ought to pull it back before he came to himself.
"I crawled over--I had saved myself by falling squarely on top of White
Quiver so that nothing worse happened to me than sore ribs and a finger
broken--and took my friend around the body while our enemy pulled the
knee, and Ongyatasse groaned aloud and came back. Then White Quiver tied
up my finger in a splint of bark, and we endured our pains and
said nothing.
"We were both prisoners of the Lenape. So we considered ourselves; we
waited to see what he would do about it. Toward evening he went off for
an hour and returned with a deer which he dressed very skillfully and
gave us to eat. Then, of the wet hide, he made a bandage for
Ongyatasse's knee, which shrunk as it dried and kept down the swelling.
"'Now I shall owe you my name as well as my life,' said Ongyatasse, for
if his knee had not been properly attended, that would have been the end
of his running.
"'Then your new name would be Well-Friended,' said the Lenape, and he
made a very good story of how I had come tumbling down on both of them.
We laughed, but Ongyatasse had another question.
"'There was peace on my mouth and peace between Lenni-Lenape and
Tallegewi. Why should you chase us?'
"'The Tallegewi send a Pipe to the Three Clans. Will you swear that the
message that went with it had nothing to do with the Lenni-Lenape?'
"'What should two boys know of a call to Council?' said Ongyatasse, and
showed him the birch-bark scroll, to which White Quiver paid no
attention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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