ee

 

 

Indians. The chaplain read the beautiful burial-
service, interpreted by another to them.

One said: ‘I can hardly describe my feelings at
witnessing here this first Christian burial of an Indian,
and one of such consideration among her tribe. The
hour, the place, the solemnity, even the restrained
weeping of the mother and other relatives, all com-
bined to affect me deeply.’

It is added: the officers, to gratify Monica’s father,
each placed an offering in her coffin. Colonel May-
nadier, a pair of gauntlets, to keep her hands warm
(it was winter), Mr. Bullock gave a handsome piece
of red cassimere to cover the coffin. ‘lo complete the
Indian ceremony, her two milk-white ponies were
killed and their heads and tails nailed on the coffin.
These ponies the Indians supposed she would ride
again in the hunting-grounds whither she had gone.

WHY DO INDIANS SCALP THEIR ENEMIES ?

J HAVE been a good deal puzzled to know the
origin of this custom, of always scalping a foe in
battle, both among themselves and in fighting white
‘people. A negro is never scalped by the Indians. In
conversing with Major A. 8. Burt, of 9th United
States Infantry, at our post, who has had much
experience among the Indians on the plains, I learnt
some things which gave a clue to the matter, which
agree with all I can hear. He says that each Indian
wears a ‘scalp-lock,’ which is a long tuft of hair, into
which the Indian inserts his medicine, which consists
generally of a few quills of eagles’ feathers. ‘This
‘medicine’ is simply a ‘ charm,’ as we call it, gotten
byg purchase of the medicine-man of the tribe. The
medicine-man is the most influential man in each
tribe. He professes to be able to conjure, by his arts
and influence with the Great Spirit, certain articles,
which he sells to the Indians of his tribe. This
‘medicine’ the superstitious believe will cure dis-
eases, and help him against his enemy in battle.
Hence, in scalping a fallen foe, the victor deprives
him of his charm, and shows it in triumph, as a token
of his skill in battle. If you visit an Indian in his
tent, and ask him to show you his ‘ medicine,’ he will
do. so, if you pay him in such things as he needs to
make therewith a feast, both for himself and an offer-
ing to his medicine idol; but as the idol can’t eat, it
goes of course into the stomach cf the live Indian! *

Another idea: the Indian believes that the spirit of
the enemy he slays enters into himself, and he is
thereby made the stronger; hence he slays all that he
can. Ihave seen youug warriors in the streets of
Cheyenne, with their hair reaching down almost to
their heels ; and all along it you’d see strung round
pieces of silver, from the size of a silver-dollar to a
tea-saucer; each one of which was a tell-tale of the
number of the scalps the young fellow had taken. It
was what the ladies would call a ‘ waterfall !’

Speaking of this, as revealing the pride of Indians
in showing their prowess, I learned of a young buck,
coming into a post and walking round, dressed in the
top of Indian fashion,—i. e. with paint on his face,

 

*The Indian keeps his ‘medicine’ hung up. in his tent, and
prays to it——dreams about it,— and if his dream is ot goud luck,
he acts accordingly. ‘his applies to hunting, going on war
expeditions, &c.; in short, it ig his sort of saint, to which’ he
pays idolatrous worship.

 

 

 

 

feathers in his hair, and brass ornaments on his leg-
gings. These young fellows put on all the gewgaws
they can to make a show of importance. Well, he
finally walked into the post-trader’s store, and asked
Mr. Bullock if he didn’t think it made the officers
faint when they saw him? ‘ Yes,’ said he, ‘I think
you’d better take off some of your things (pointing
to his trappings), they will scare somebody.’

INDIAN BOY’S EDUCATION.

WHEN an Indian gets to be eighteen years old it is
expected that he-will strike out for himself, and do
some act to show his bravery; and that begins in
striking somebody to kill them (a white or Indian of
a hostile tribe), and to steal stock, a horse, or mule,
or cattle. :

No young warrior can get a wife till he has taken
the scalp of a white man or Indian, and have stolen a
horse or pony. - This being a law of the Sioux, so in
proportion as he scalps and steals horses so does his
number of wives increase, and the greater a warrior
does he become. In short, he becomes ‘a big heap
chief.’ What to us becomes a murder or a theft,—the
very first act of a young Indian,—in his own tribe is
a great and praiseworthy deed. So you see what
blood has ° een shed, and other acts of cruelty caused
by Spottc « Tail, Red Cloud, and others, who have
imbrued their hands in the blood of innocent victims
with a fiendish delight that savages only know and
take pleasure in.

As the arrows tell of the tribe to which they be-
long,—coloured near the end,—green for the Sioux,
blue, Cheyenne, red or brown, Arrapahoes, black
feathers, Crow,—so the tribe to which an Indian
—aurderer belongs is known by the method (usually)
by which the victim is scalped. The Cheyennes
remove a piece not larger than a silver dollar from
immediately over the left ear; the Arrapahoes take
the same over the right ear. Others take from the
crown, forehead, or nape of the neck. The Utes take
the entire scalp from ear to ear, and from forehead
to nape of neck. ;

WHY DOES NOT THE INDIAN MEDDLE WITH THE
TELEGRAPH ?

It is said that the pioneer company over the plains
got together several chiefs and explained as well as
they could the modus operandi of obtaining electricity
from the clouds, and making it useful in conveying
intelligence to great distances; ‘This was hard for
them to believe, because they are superstitious, and
attribute all phenomena they do not fully understand
to conjuration or charms, such as their medicine-man
practises. However, they concluded to put the matter
to a test.

So it was two principal Indians, about one hundred
miles apart, agreed to send a message over the lines on
a given day, and then they would travel towards each
other as fast as they could to see if the message
(known only to themselves and the operator) should
be correct. Of course it proved as we wouid expect,
and they were satisfied. ‘This intelligence has spread
from one tribe to another, and they believe that it
is somehow (as it is in truth) connected with the
Great Spirit who controls the winds and the storms ;
hence they do not meddle with it.

See ne a St