Canadian Crusoes by Catherine Parr Traill

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Attention, memory, and imitation, appeared to form the three most
remarkable of the mental faculties developed by the Indian girl. She
examined (when once her attention was roused) any object with critical
minuteness. Any knowledge she had once acquired, she retained; her memory
was great, she never missed a path she had once trodden; she seemed even to
single out particular birds in a flock, to know them from their congeners.
Her powers of imitation were also great; she brought patience and
perseverance to assist her, and when once thoroughly interested in any work
she began, she would toil on untiringly till it was completed; and then
what triumph shone in her eyes! At such times they became darkly brilliant
with the joy that filled her heart. But she possessed little talent for
invention; what she had seen done, after a few imperfect attempts, she
could do again, but she rarely struck out any new path for herself.

At times she was docile and even playful, and appeared grateful for the
kindness with which she was treated; each day seemed to increase her
fondness for Catharine, and she appeared to delight in doing any little
service to please and gratify her, but it was towards Hector that she
displayed the deepest feeling of affection and respect. It was to him her
first tribute of fruit or flowers, furs, mocassins, or ornamental plumage
of rare birds was offered. She seemed to turn to him as to a master and
protector. He was in her eyes the _"Chief,"_ the head of his tribe. His bow
was strung by her, and stained with quaint figures and devices; his arrows
were carved by her; the sheath of deer-skin was made and ornamented by
her hands, that he carried his knife in; and the case for his arrows, of
birch-bark, was wrought with especial neatness, and suspended by thongs to
his neck, when he was preparing to go out in search of game. She gave him
the name of the "Young Eagle." While she called Louis, "Nee-chee," or
friend; to Catharine she gave the poetical name of, "Music of the Winds,"--
Ma-wah-osh.

When they asked her to tell them her own name, she would bend down her head
in sorrow and refuse to pronounce it. She soon answered to the name of
Indiana, and seemed pleased with the sound.

But of all the household, next to Hector, old Wolfe was her greatest
favourite. At first, it is true, the old dog regarded the new inmate with a
jealous eye, and seemed uneasy when he saw her approach to caress him, but
Indiana soon reconciled him to her person, and a mutual friendly feeling
became established between them, which seemed daily and hourly to increase,
greatly to the delight of the young stranger. She would seat herself
Eastern fashion, cross-legged on the floor of the shanty, with the
capacious head of the old dog in her lap, and address herself to this mute
companion, in wailing tones, as if she would unburthen her heart by pouring
into his unconscious ear her tale of desolation and woe.

Catharine was always very particular and punctual in performing her
personal ablutions, and she intimated to Indiana that it was good for her
to do the same; but the young girl seemed reluctant to follow her example,
till daily custom had reconciled her to what she evidently at first
regarded as an unnecessary ceremony; but she soon took pleasure in dressing
her dark hair, and suffering Catharine to braid it, and polish it till it
looked glossy and soft. Indiana in her turn would adorn Catharine with the
wings of the blue-bird or red-bird, the crest of the wood-duck, or quill
feathers of the golden-winged flicker, which is called in the Indian tongue
the shot-bird, in allusion to the round spots on its cream-coloured breast:
[Footnote: The Golden-winged Flicker belongs to a sub-genus of woodpeckers;
it is very handsome, and is said to be eatable; it lives on fruits and
insects.] but it was not in these things alone she showed her grateful
sense of the sisterly kindness that her young hostess showed to her; she
soon learned to lighten her labours in every household work, and above all,
she spent her time most usefully in manufacturing clothing from the skins
of the wild animals, and in teaching Catharine how to fit and prepare them;
but these were the occupation of the winter months. I must not forestall my
narrative.

CHAPTER VII.

"Go to the ant."--_Proverbs._

IT was now the middle of September: the weather, which had continued serene
and beautiful for some time, with dewy nights and misty mornings, began to
show symptoms of the change of season usual at the approach of the equinox.
Sudden squalls of wind, with hasty showers, would come sweeping over the
lake; the nights and mornings were damp and chilly. Already the tints of
autumn were beginning to crimson the foliage of the oaks, and where the
islands were visible, the splendid colours of the maple shone out in
gorgeous contrast with the deep verdure of the evergreens and light
golden-yellow of the poplar; but lovely as they now looked, they had not
yet reached the meridian of their beauty, which a few frosty nights at
the close of the month was destined to bring to perfection--a glow of
splendour to gladden the eye for a brief space, before the rushing winds
and rains of the following month were to sweep them away, and scatter them
abroad upon the earth.

One morning, just after a night of heavy rain and wind, the two boys went
down to see if the lake was calm enough for trying the raft, which Louis
had finished before the coming on of the bad weather. The water was rough
and crested with mimic waves, and they felt not disposed to launch the
raft on so stormy a surface, but they stood looking out over the lake and
admiring the changing foliage, when Hector pointed out to his cousin a dark
speck dancing on the waters, between the two nearest islands. The wind,
which blew very strong still from the north-east, brought the object nearer
every minute. At first they thought it might be a pine-branch that was
floating on the surface, when as it came bounding over the waves, they
perceived that it was a birch-canoe, but impelled by no visible arm. It was
a strange sight upon that lonely lake to see a vessel of any kind afloat,
and, on first deciding that it was a canoe, the boys were inclined to hide
themselves among the bushes, for fear of the Indians, but curiosity got the
better of their fears.

"The owner of yonder little craft is either asleep or absent from her; for
I see no paddle, and it is evidently drifting without any one to guide it,"
said Hector, after intently watching the progress of the tempest-driven
vessel; assured as it approached nearer that such was the case, they
hurried to the beach just as a fresh gust had lodged the canoe among the
branches of a fallen cedar which projected out some way into the water.

By creeping along the trunk of the tree, and trusting at times to the
projecting boughs, Louis, who was the most active and the lightest of
weight, succeeded in getting within reach of the canoe, and with some
trouble and the help of a stout branch that Hector handed to him, he
contrived to moor her in safety on the shore, taking the precaution of
hauling her well up on the shingle, lest the wind and water should set her
afloat again. "Hec, there is something in this canoe, the sight of which
will gladden your heart," cried Louis with a joyful look. "Come quickly,
and see my treasures."

"Treasures! You may well call them treasures," exclaimed Hector, as he
helped Louis to examine the contents of the canoe, and place them on the
shore, side by side.

The boys could hardly find words to express their joy and surprise at the
discovery of a large jar of parched rice, a tomahawk, an Indian blanket
almost as good as new, a large mat rolled up with a bass bark rope several
yards in length wound round it, and what was more precious than all,
an iron three-legged pot in which was a quantity of Indian corn. These
articles had evidently constituted the stores of some Indian hunter or
trapper; possibly the canoe had been imperfectly secured and had drifted
from its moorings during the gale of the previous night, unless by some
accident the owner had fallen into the lake and been drowned; this was of
course only a matter of conjecture on which it was useless to speculate,
and the boys joyfully took possession of the good fortune that had so
providentially been wafted, as it were, to their very feet.

"It was a capital chance for us, that old cedar having been blown down last
night just where it was," said Louis; "for if the canoe had not been drawn
into the eddy, and stopped by the branches, we might have lost it. I
trembled when I saw the wind driving it on so rapidly that it would founder
in the deep water, or go off to Long Island."

"I think we should have got it at Pine-tree Point," said Hector, "but I am
glad it was lodged so cleverly among the cedar boughs. I was half afraid
you would have fallen in once or twice, when you were trying to draw it
nearer to the shore." "Never fear for me, my friend; I can cling like a
wild cat when I climb. But what a grand pot! What delightful soups, and
stews, and boils, Catharine will make! Hurrah!" and Louis tossed up his new
fur cap, that he had made with great skill from an entire fox skin, in the
air, and cut sundry fantastic capers which Hector gravely condemned as
unbecoming his mature age; (Louis was turned of fifteen;) but with the
joyous spirit of a little child he sung, and danced, and laughed, and
shouted, till the lonely echoes of the islands and far-off hills returned
the unusual sound, and even his more steady cousin caught the infection,
and laughed to see Louis so elated.

Leaving Hector to guard the prize, Louis ran gaily off to fetch Catharine
to share his joy, and come and admire the canoe, and the blanket, and the
tripod, and the corn, and the tomahawk. Indiana accompanied them to the
lake shore, and long and carefully she examined the canoe and its contents,
and many were the plaintive exclamations she uttered as she surveyed the
things piece by piece, till she took notice of the broken handle of an
Indian paddle which lay at the bottom of the vessel; this seemed to afford
some solution to her of the mystery, and by broken words and signs she
intimated that the paddle had possibly broken in the hand of the Indian,
and that in endeavouring to regain the other part, he had lost his balance
and been drowned. She showed Hector a rude figure of a bird engraved with
some sharp instrument, and rubbed in with a blue colour. This, she said,
was the totem or crest of the chief of the tribe, and was meant to
represent a _crow_. The canoe had belonged to a chief of that name. While
they were dividing the contents of the canoe among them to be carried to
the shanty, Indiana, taking up the bass-rope and the blanket, bundled up
the most of the things, and adjusting the broad thick part of the rope to
the front of her head, she bore off the burden with great apparent ease, as
a London or Edinburgh porter would his trunks and packages, turning round
with a merry glance and repeating some Indian words with a lively air as
she climbed with apparent ease the steep bank, and soon distanced her
companions, to her great enjoyment. That night, Indiana cooked some of the
parched rice, Indian fashion, with venison, and they enjoyed the novelty
very much--it made an excellent substitute for bread, of which they had
been so long deprived.

Indiana gave them to understand that the rice harvest would soon be ready
on the lake, and that now they had got a canoe, they would go out and
gather it, and so lay by a store to last them for many months.

This little incident furnished the inhabitants of the shanty with frequent
themes for discussion. Hector declared that the Indian corn was the most
valuable of their acquisitions. "It will insure us a crop, and bread and
seed-corn for many years," he said; he also highly valued the tomahawk, as
his axe was worn and blunt.

Louis was divided between the iron pot and the canoe. Hector seemed to
think the raft, after all, might have formed a substitute for the latter;
besides, Indiana had signified her intention of helping him to make a
canoe. Catharine declared in favour of the blanket, as it would make, after
thorough ablutions, warm petticoats with tight bodices for herself and
Indiana. With deer-skin leggings, and a fur jacket, they should be
comfortably clad. Indiana thought the canoe the most precious, and was
charmed with the good jar and the store of rice: nor did she despise the
packing rope, which she soon showed was of use in carrying burdens from
place to place, Indian fashion: by placing a pad of soft fur in front of
the head, she could carry heavy loads with great ease. The mat, she said,
was useful for drying the rice she meant to store. The very next day after
this adventure, the two girls set to work, and with the help of Louis's
large knife, which was called into requisition as a substitute for
scissors, they cut out the blanket dresses, and in a short time made two
comfortable and not very unsightly garments: the full, short, plaited
skirts reached a little below the knee; light vests bordered with fur
completed the upper part, and leggings, terminated at the ankles by knotted
fringes of the doe-skin, with mocassins turned over with a band of squirrel
fur, completed the novel but not very unbecoming costume; and many a glance
of innocent satisfaction did our young damsels cast upon each other, when
they walked forth in the pride of girlish vanity to display their dresses
to Hector and Louis, who, for their parts, regarded them as most skilful
dress-makers, and were never tired of admiring and commending their
ingenuity in the cutting, making and fitting, considering what rude
implements they were obliged to use in the cutting out and sewing of the
garments.

The extensive rice beds on the lake had now begun to assume a golden tinge
which contrasted very delightfully with the deep blue waters--looking, when
lighted up by the sunbeams, like islands of golden-coloured sand. The ears,
heavy laden with the ripe grain, drooped towards the water. The time of
the rice-harvest was at hand, and with light and joyous hearts our young
adventurers launched the canoe, and, guided in their movements by the
little squaw, paddled to the extensive aquatic fields to gather it in,
leaving Catharine and Wolfe to watch their proceedings from the raft, which
Louis had fastened to a young tree that projected out over the lake, and
which made a good landing-place, likewise a wharf where they could stand
and fish very comfortably. As the canoe could not be overloaded on account
of the rice-gathering, Catharine very readily consented to employ herself
with fishing from the raft till their return.

The manner of procuring the rice was very simple. One person steered the
canoe with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and
another with a stick in one hand, and a curved sharp-edged paddle in the
other, struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the stick;
the chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe, which a little
practice soon enabled them to do as expertly as the mower lets the grass
fall in ridges beneath his scythe.

Many bushels of wild rice were thus collected. Nothing could he more
delightful than this sort of work to our young people, and merrily they
worked, and laughed, and sung, as they came home each day with their light
bark, laden with a store of grain that they knew would preserve them from
starving through the long, dreary winter that was coming on.

The canoe was a source of great comfort and pleasure to them; they were now
able to paddle out into the deep water, and fish for masquinonjè and black
bass, which they caught in great numbers.

Indiana seemed quite another creature when, armed with a paddle of her own
carving, she knelt at the head of the canoe and sent it flying over the
water; then her dark eyes, often so vacant and glassy, sparkled with
delight, and her teeth gleamed with ivory whiteness as her face broke into
smiles and dimples.

It was delightful then to watch this child of nature, and see how
innocently happy she could be when rejoicing in the excitement of healthy
exercise, and elated by a consciousness of the power she possessed of
excelling her companions in feats of strength and skill which they had yet
to acquire by imitating her.

Even Louis was obliged to confess that the young savage knew more of
the management of a canoe, and the use of the bows and arrows, and the
fishing-line, than either himself or his cousin. Hector was lost in
admiration of her skill in all these things; and Indiana rose highly in his
estimation, the more he saw of her usefulness.

"Every one to his craft," said Louis, laughing; "the little squaw has been
brought up in the knowledge and practice of such matters from her babyhood;
perhaps if we were to set her to knitting, and spinning, and milking of
cows, and house-work, and learning to read, I doubt if she would prove half
as quick as Catharine or Mathilde."

"I wonder if she knows anything of God or our Saviour," said Hector,
thoughtfully.

"Who should have taught her? for the Indians are all heathens;" replied
Louis.

"I have heard my dear mother say, the Missionaries have taken great pains
to teach the Indian children down about Quebec and Montreal, and that so
far from being stupid, they learn very readily," said Catharine.

"We must try and make Indiana learn to say her prayers; she sits quite
still, and seems to take no notice of what we are doing when we kneel down,
before we go to bed," observed Hector.

"She cannot understand what we say," said Catharine; for she knows so
little of our language yet, that of course she cannot comprehend the
prayers, which are in other sort of words than what we use in speaking of
hunting, and fishing, and cooking, and such matters."

"Well, when she knows more of our way of speaking, then we must teach her;
it is a sad thing for Christian children to live with an untaught pagan,"
said Louis, who, being rather bigoted in his creed, felt a sort of
uneasiness in his own mind at the poor girl's total want of the rites of
his church; but Hector and Catharine regarded her ignorance with feelings
of compassionate interest, and lost no opportunity that offered, of trying
to enlighten her darkened mind on the subject of belief in the God who
made, and the Lord who saved them. Simply and earnestly they entered into
the task as a labour of love, and though for a long time Indiana seemed to
pay little attention to what they said, by slow degrees the good seed took
root and brought forth fruit worthy of Him whose Spirit poured the beams of
spiritual light into her heart: but my young readers must not imagine
these things were the work of a day--the process was slow, and so were the
results, but they were good in the end.

And Catharine was glad when, after many go months of patient teaching, the
Indian girl asked permission to kneel down with her white friend, and pray
to the Great Spirit and His Son in the same words that Christ Jesus gave
to his disciples; and if the full meaning of that holy prayer, so full of
humility and love, and moral justice, was not fully understood by her whose
lips repeated it, yet even the act of worship and the desire to do that
which she had been told was right, was, doubtless, a sacrifice better than
the pagan rites which that young girl had witnessed among her father's
people, who, blindly following the natural impulse of man in his depraved
nature, regarded deeds of blood and cruelty as among the highest of human
virtues, and gloried in those deeds of vengeance at which the Christian
mind revolts with horror.

Indiana took upon herself the management of the rice, drying, husking and
storing it, the two lads working under her direction. She caused several
forked stakes to be cut and sharpened and driven into the ground; on these
were laid four poles, so as to form a frame, over which she then stretched
the bass-mat, which she secured by means of forked pegs to the frame on
the mat; she then spread out the rice thinly, and lighted a fire beneath,
taking good care not to let the flame set fire to the mat, the object being
rather to keep up a strong, slow heat, by means of the red embers. She next
directed the boys to supply her with pine or cedar boughs, which she stuck
in close together, so as to enclose the fire within the area of the stakes.
This was done to concentrate the heat and cause it to bear upwards with
more power; the rice being frequently stirred with a sort of long-handled,
flat shovel. After the rice was sufficiently dried, the next thing to be
done was separating it from the husk, and this was effected by putting it
by small quantities into the iron pot, and with a sort of wooden pestle
or beetle, rubbing it round and round against the sides. [Footnote: The
Indians often make use of a very rude, primitive sort of mortar, by
hollowing out a bass-wood stump, and rubbing the rice with a wooden
pounder.] If they had not had the iron pot, a wooden trough must have been
substituted in its stead.

When the rice was husked, the loose chaff was winnowed from it in a flat
basket like a sieve, and it was then put by in coarse birch baskets,
roughly sewed with leather-wood bark, or bags made of matting, woven by the
little squaw from the cedar-bark. A portion was also parched, which was
simply done by putting the rice dry into the iron pot, and setting it on
hot embers, stirring the grain till it burst: it was then stored by for
use. Rice thus prepared is eaten dry, as a substitute for bread, by the
Indians. The lake was now swarming with wild fowl of various kinds; crowds
of ducks were winging their way across it from morning till night, floating
in vast flocks upon its surface, or rising in noisy groups if an eagle or
fish-hawk appeared sailing with slow, majestic circles above them, then
settling down with noisy splash upon the calm water. The shores, too, were
covered with these birds, feeding on the fallen acorns which fell ripe and
brown with every passing breeze; the berries of the dogwood also furnished
them with food; but the wild rice seemed the great attraction, and small
shell-fish and the larvæ of many insects that had been dropped into the
waters, there to come to perfection in due season, or to form a provision
for myriads of wild fowl that had come from the far north-west to feed upon
them, guided by that instinct which has so beautifully been termed by one
of our modern poetesses, "God's gift to the weak" [Footnote: Mrs. Southey.]

CHAPTER VIII.

"Oh, come and hear what cruel wrongs Befel the Dark Ladye."--COLERIDGE.

THE Mohawk girl was in high spirits at the coming of the wild fowl to the
lake; she would clap her hands and laugh with almost childish glee as she
looked at them darkening the lake like clouds resting on its surface.

"If I had but my father's gun, his good old gun, now!" would Hector say, as
he eyed the timorous flocks as they rose and fell upon the lake; "but these
foolish birds are so shy, that they are away before an arrow can reach
them."

Indiana smiled in her quiet way; she was busy filling the canoe with green
boughs, which she arranged so as completely to transform the little vessel
into the semblance of a floating island of evergreen; within this bower she
motioned Hector to crouch down, leaving a small space for the free use of
his bow, while concealed at the prow she gently and noiselessly paddled the
canoe from the shore among the rice-beds, letting it remain stationary or
merely rocking to and fro with the undulatory motion of the waters. The
unsuspecting birds, deceived into full security, eagerly pursued their
pastime or their prey, and it was no difficult matter for the hidden archer
to hit many a black duck or teal or whistlewing, as it floated securely on
the placid water, or rose to shift its place a few yards up or down the
stream. Soon the lake around was strewed with the feathered game, which
Wolfe, cheered on by Lewis, who was stationed on the shore, brought to
land.

Indiana told Hector that this was the season when the Indians made great
gatherings on the lake for duck-shooting, which they pursued much after the
same fashion as that which has been described, only instead of one, a dozen
or more canoes would be thus disguised with boughs, with others stationed
at different parts of the lake, or under the shelter of the island, to
collect the birds. This sport was generally finished by a great feast.

The Indians offered the first of the birds as an oblation to the Great
Spirit, as a grateful acknowledgment of his bounty in having allowed them
to gather food thus plentifully for their families; sometimes distant
tribes with whom they were on terms of friendship were invited to share the
sport and partake of the spoils. Indiana could not understand why Hector
did not follow the custom of her Indian fathers, and offer the first duck
or the best fish to propitiate the Great Spirit. Hector told her that the
God he worshipped desired no sacrifice; that his holy Son, when he came
down from heaven and gave himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world,
had satisfied his Father, the Great Spirit, an hundred-fold.

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