Part 27 (2/2)

”Nor I,” said Albert. ”By the time we had gone ten feet the whole village would be on top of us. d.i.c.k, while I'm here I'm going to make the best of it I can.”

In pursuance of this worthy intention Albert pressed forward and almost took the cansakala from the hands of a stalwart warrior.

The man, amazed at first, yielded up the pair of wands with a grin. Albert signaled imperiously to the warrior with the hoop, and he, too, grinning, sent canyleska whirling.

Albert cast the wands, and the hoop fell many feet from them. A shout of laughter arose. The white youth was showing himself a poor match for the Sioux, and the women and children came running to see this proof of the superiority of their race.

The warrior from whom he had taken them gravely picked up the cansakala and handed them back to Albert, the other warrior again sent canyleska rolling, and again Albert threw the wands with the same ill fortune. A third and fourth time he tried, with but slight improvement, and the crowd, well pleased to see him fail, thickened all the time, until nearly the whole village was present.

”It's just as hard as we thought it was, d.i.c.k, and harder,” said Albert ruefully. ”Here, you take it and see what you can do.”

He handed cansakala to d.i.c.k, who also tried in vain, while the crowd enjoyed the sport, laughing and chatting to one another, as they will in their own villages. d.i.c.k made a little more progress than Albert had achieved, but not enough to score any points worth mentioning, and he, too, retired discomfited, while the Sioux, especially the women, continued to laugh.

”I don't like to be beaten that way,” said Albert in a nettled tone.

”Never mind, Al, old fellow,” said d.i.c.k soothingly. ”Remember it's their game, not ours, and as it makes them feel good, it's all the better for us. Since they've beaten us, they're apt to like us and treat us better.”

It was hard for Albert to take the more philosophical view, which was also the truthful one, but he did his best to reconcile himself, and he and d.i.c.k moved on to other sights.

d.i.c.k noticed that the village had been located with great judgment. On one side was the river, narrow but swift and deep; on the other, a broad open s.p.a.ce that would not permit an enemy to approach through ambush, and beyond that the forest.

The tepees stood in a great circle, and, although d.i.c.k did not know it, their camps were always pitched according to rule, each gens or clan having its regular place in the circle. The tribe of the Mendewahkantons--a leading one of the Seven Fireplaces or Council Fires of the great Sioux nation--was subdivided into seven gentes or clans; the Kiyukas, or Breakers, so called because they disregarded the general marriage law and married outside their own clan; the Que-mini-tea, or Mountain Wood and Water people; the Kap'oja, or Light Travelers; the Maxa-yuta-cui, the People who Eat no Grease; the Queyata-oto-we, or the People of the Village Back from the River; the Oyata Citca, the Bad Nation, and the t.i.ta-otowe, the People of the Village on the Prairie.

Each clan was composed of related families, and all this great tribe, as the boys learned later, had once dwelled around Spirit Lake, Minnesota, their name meaning Mysterious Lake Dwellers, but had been pushed westward years before by the advancing wave of white settlement. This was now a composite village, including parts of every gens of the Mendewahkantons, but there were other villages of the same tribe scattered over a large area.

When d.i.c.k and Albert reached the northern end of the village they saw a great number of Indian ponies, six or seven hundred perhaps, grazing in a wide gra.s.sy s.p.a.ce and guarded by half-grown Indian boys.

”d.i.c.k,” said Albert, ”if we only had a dozen of those we could go back and get our furs.”

”Yes,” said d.i.c.k, ”if we had the ponies, if we knew where we are now, if we were free of the Sioux village, and if we could find the way to our valley, we might do what you say.”

”Yes, it does take a pile of 'ifs,'” said Albert, laughing, ”and so I won't expect it. I'll try to be resigned.”

So free were they from any immediate restriction that it almost seemed to them that they could walk away as they chose, up the valley and over the hills and across the plains. How were the Sioux to know that these two would keep their promised word?

But both became conscious again of those watchful eyes, ferocious, like the eyes of man-eating wild beasts, and both s.h.i.+vered a little as they turned back into the great circle of bark teepees.

Chapter XVI The Gathering of the Sioux

d.i.c.k and Albert abode nearly two weeks in the great lodge of the Akitcita, that is, as guests, although they were prisoners, whose lives might be taken at any time, and they had splendid opportunities for observing what a genuine Spartan band the Akitcita were. Everyone had his appointed place for arms and his rush or fur mat for sleeping. There was no quarreling, no unseemly chatter, always a grave and dignified order and the sense of stern discipline. Not all the Akitcita were ever present in the daytime, but some always were. All tribal business was transacted here. The women had to bring wood and water to it daily, and the entire village supplied it every day with regular rations of tobacco, almost the only luxury of the Akitcita.

Both d.i.c.k and Albert were keenly observant, and they did not hesitate also to ask questions of Bright Sun whenever they had the chance. They learned from him that the different tribes of the Sioux had general councils at irregular intervals, that there was no hereditary rank among the chiefs, it being usually a question of energy and merit, although the rank was sometimes obtained by gifts, and ambitious man giving away all that he had for the prize. There were no women chiefs, and women were not admitted to the great council.

The boys perceived, too, that much in the life of the Sioux was governed by ancient ritual; nearly everything had its religious meaning, and both boys having an inherent respect for religion of any kind, were in constant fear lest they should violate unwillingly some honored law.

The two made friendly advances to the members of the Akitcita but they were received with a grave courtesy that did not invite a continuance. They felt daily a deepening sense of racial difference. They appreciated the humane treatment they had received, but they and the Sioux did not seem to come into touch anywhere. And this difference was accentuated in the case of Bright Sun. The very fact that he had been educated in their schools, that he spoke their language so well, and that he knew their customs seemed to widen the gulf between them into a sea.

They felt that he had tasted of their life, and liked it not.

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