Part 6 (1/2)
”Eagle's Wing,” said Ichabod, imitating the language of the Tuscarora, ”is wise. He dwells in peace in the wigwams of his people. But why is he here--two days' march from his friends?”
The Indian remained silent for a few moments. At length he replied:
”I am in the hunting grounds of my people. The heart of Eagle's Wing is filled with peace.”
”Yes, yes, old friend,” said Ichabod, resuming his usual manner of expression. ”You and I have been on a good many warpaths together. I know a Tuscarora and Oneida just as well as I know a Seneca or Mohawk. I know your people are gentlemen born, and I know them others are reptiles. You can't deceive _me_, Eagle's Wing--you are on a trail?”
”The eyes of my brother are keen--he has followed the war-path. Has he crossed the trail of an enemy?”
The Indian uttered this with a countenance so unmoved, and with such an expression of sincerity, that Ichabod began to think the Tuscarora had nothing to conceal from him. He said, however, in reply:
”I know your heart is true, Eagle's Wing; but I rather thought, at first, you might be following up some devil of a Seneca. But them varmints have left these parts, I s'pose.”
”My brother is wise,” softly replied the Tuscarora, but at the same time with a quiet expression of victory in the glance which he cast towards Ichabod. The glance was not unnoticed, and the latter at once saw that his original suspicions were correct. But he knew it would be useless to press the Tuscarora with questions. He said to him, however, in a tone that convinced the Indian that Ichabod was not deceived:
”Well, old friend, you and I have been brothers in harder times than these; and if you need the help of this rifle here, which is an old acquaintance of your'n, I shall take it in dudgeon if you don't call on me.”
The Indian still remained unmoved; but Ichabod could see that the offer was kindly received.
At this moment, Barton approached, and invited the Tuscarora to accompany him to his dwelling. ”You will always be welcome there, and I hope I may have many opportunities to testify to you my grat.i.tude.”
The Tuscarora courteously declined the invitation for the present, and the party prepared to depart. The horses were led out, and the party proceeded towards the cottage, while Eagle's Wing, remained as long as he could be observed, still leaning upon his rifle in front of the hut.
The party journeyed for some distance without conversation, until Ralph at length asked Ichabod, who seemed to be much less talkative than usual, how they who were at the cottage had so soon learned the danger which Ruth and he were in, from the pursuit of the wolves.
”Learn!” answered Ichabod. ”Why, you see the old Squire, 'long towards dusk, began to get considerable uneasy, from some cause or other--either because he had heard more about them infarnal varmints, lately, than he chose to tell, or else because Sambo teazed him until he ra'ally thought you was in some danger; and so he proposed to me to walk with him along down the road, until we met you. We'd got in just about a mile of that shanty, when we heard the yells of them pestiferous cre'turs. I tell you, Captain, them would have been tough customers to have come to a close fight with.”
”I was entirely unarmed,” said Ralph, ”but I had no reason to expect meeting an enemy of any kind; and least of all did I suppose we should run any danger from such an enemy.”
”Them varmints,” replied Ichabod, ”when they've once had a taste of human blood, are as hungry for it as Senecas are for scalps--_con_-found 'em.”
”I know the prevalent opinion in some portions of Europe--in Germany, for instance, of the ferocity of wolves. There is an old superst.i.tion of Weird-wolves, of which I have heard.”
Ralph explained, by giving an account of this peculiar superst.i.tion. In Germany, and in the Netherlands, and in some other portions of Europe, the opinion had been prevalent among the people, that there were certain sorcerers, who, having anointed their bodies with ointment, the preparation of which, they had learned from the devil, and having put on an enchanted girdle, so long as they wore it, appeared, to the eyes of others, like wolves; and who possessed the same ferocity and appet.i.te for human blood, as the animals they were believed to resemble. A large number of persons in these countries had been executed, who were supposed to be guilty of that offence. They were generally known as Weird-wolves.
This popular superst.i.tion, indeed, has survived in some portions of Europe, until this day. In the ”Arabian Night's Entertainments,” the unhappy subjects of this superst.i.tion were denominated ”ghouls,” but in the west they were known by the name we have already mentioned. A circ.u.mstance occurred in Paris, in 1849, which seemed to throw more light upon the nature of this superst.i.tion, and to prove indeed, that there was a pretty good foundation for the popular belief. Like the delusion under which many of those unhappy persons labored in the days of the ”Salem witchcraft,” who really believed themselves to be what their judges p.r.o.nounced them, so these Weird-wolves were undoubtedly insane persons, who fancied themselves possessed of the wolfish form and nature.
”I have heard,” said Barton, who now joined in the conversation, ”of many instances in our northern settlements, where people have been attacked by these animals; but, although it is a frequent occurrence for them to disturb the whole country about here with their howls by night, I had never apprehended any such danger from them. But we ought to be thankful that there is no worse enemy about here.”
Ichabod, whose mind, ever since his conversation with the Tuscarora, had been occupied with thoughts that did not seem very agreeable to him, started at this remark, and said, slowly--
”Well, squire, I hope you mayn't be able to change that last remark of your'n by to-morrow this time.”
Ralph, who knew Ichabod well enough to know that however unsafe his opinion might be upon subjects relating to moneymaking, yet that, upon all the perils and dangers incident to a forest life, he possessed an excellent judgment, with some anxiety asked him for an explanation.
The whole party had caught the alarm; and Ichabod, with a mixture of pride at finding himself in such an important position, and of sorrow at the information he felt bound to communicate, answered--
”You see, Eagle's-Wing and I are old friends. We've _fout_ many a battle agin them cussed Senecas and Onondagas; and I reckon I know an Injin, and can read him through pretty tolerably easy. Now Eagle's-Wing isn't down here for nothing; and though his Injin blood wouldn't let him tell me what kind of speculation he _is_ on, yet I know he's on a trail of some sort. You can always tell an Injin when he's after an enemy.”