the forest trees and the brown grass stubble of the meadow beneath their skeleton boughs were powdered lightly with snow, except where a tiny fire burned, its smoke floating upward into the overhanging tree-tops. on the far side of the field, backed by the roofs of the village, was massed the population of deonundagaa, men, women and children. besides the fire the robes of the seven surviving royanehs of the senecas, headed by ganeodiyo, each with his assistant behind him, made a splash of vivid color.
dimly through the bare foliage i glimpsed the long file of the royanehs of the other four nations—the mohawks, dagoeoga, the shield people; the onondagas, hodesannogeta, the name-bearers; the oneidas, neardeondargowar, great tree people; the cayugas, sonushogwatowar, great pipe people. the tuscaroras, sixth nation in the great league, had no representation in the hoyarnagowar, because the founders had created only so many names, or seats, and no iroquois would have thought of altering the framework they built; but a group of tuscarora chieftains followed in the train of the royanehs, mute witnesses by right to what should transpire.
i have seen many ceremonies in my day. i have watched the pope celebrate mass in st. peter's. i have attended at the mummery of the french court, with the splendor of versailles and the louvre for background. but i have never seen aught more imposing than the rites of the condoling council of the iroquois, the ceremonies by which at one and the same time they express their appreciation of a great man who has died and install his successor, beginning with the ceremony deyughnyonkwarakta, "at the wood's edge."
slowly, at a sign from hoyowenato, the keeper of the wampum, the long file of the royanehs paced out from the forest and formed in a half-circle opposite the little group of seneca royanehs, with the fire betwixt them. then ganeodiyo, spokesman for the senecas, stepped forward with arms outflung in welcome to the visitors. his trained orator's voice rolled in the measured cadences of the stately ritual, opening with the sentence—
"onenh weghniserade wakatyerenkowa desawennawenrate ne kenteyurhoton!"
"now, today, i have been greatly startled by your voices coming through the forest to this opening."
and proceeding in the set phrases of the greeting:
"you have come with troubled minds through all obstacles. you kept seeing the places where they met on whom we depended, my offspring. how then can your mind be at ease? you kept seeing the footmarks of our forefathers; and all but perceptible is the smoke where they used to smoke the pipe together. can, then, your mind be at ease when you are weeping on your way?
"great thanks, therefore, that you have safely arrived. now let us smoke the pipe together. because all around are hostile agencies, which are each thinking—'i will frustrate their purpose.' here thorny ways, and here falling trees, and here wild beasts lying in ambush. either by these you might have perished, my offspring, or here by floods you might have been destroyed, my offspring, or by the uplifted hatchet in the dark outside the house. every day these are wasting us; or deadly invisible disease might have destroyed you, my offspring."
the echoing voice went on, flexing the emotions of the words like a great organ. the orator recited the rules the forefathers had laid down. he repeated the traditional list of the villages of the three original clans, the wolf, the tortoise and the bear. then the fire was put out, and one by one the royanehs marched from the meadow to the council house of the village, where a new fire was kindled by ganeodiyo, and they sat in a wide circle on robes placed for them by their assistants.
hoyowennato produced the pipe of ceremony from its case; the mystically-carven soapstone bowl was filled with tobacco and he handed it to ganeodiyo, who lighted it with a coal from the council fire, blew the required puffs to the four quarters and to the earth and the sky and passed it on to tododaho, senior of all the royanehs, he who sits beside the ancient undying council fire of the league, which has burned for ages of ages at onondaga. the pipe went the rounds of the circle and was returned to hoyowennato, who replaced it in its case.
tododaho rose.
"my offspring, now this day we are met together," he intoned. "the great spirit has appointed this day. we are met together on account of the solemn event which has befallen you. now into the earth he has been conveyed to whom we have been wont to look. therefore in tears we have smoked together.
"now, then, we say, we wipe away the tears, so that in peace you may look about you.
"and further, we suppose there is an obstruction in your ears. now, then, we remove the obstruction carefully from your hearing, so that we trust you will easily hear the words spoken.
"and also we imagine there is an obstruction in your throat. now, therefore, we say, we remove the obstruction, so that you may speak freely in our mutual greetings.
"now again another thing, my offspring. i have spoken of the solemn event which has befallen you. every day you are losing your great men. they are being borne into the earth; so that in the midst of blood you are sitting.
"now, therefore, we say, we wash off the blood-marks from your seat, so that it may be for a time that happily the place will be clean where you are seated.
"and now, that our hearts may be prepared for the instructions of our forefathers and the memory of their greatness, we sing the hymn 'yondonghs aihaigh.'"
almost a hundred voices boomed out the rhythmic lines:
"i come again to greet and thank the league;
i come again to greet and thank the kindred;
i come again to greet and thank the warriors;
i come again to greet and thank the women.
my forefathers—what they established—
my forefathers—hearken to them!"
and after the song was ended, tododaho walked up and down the council house, crying out:
"hail, my grandsires! now hearken while your grandchildren cry mournfully to you—because the great league which you established has grown old.
"even now, oh, my grandsires, that has become old which you established—the great league! you have it as a pillow under your heads in the ground where you are lying—this great league which you established; although you said that far away in the future the great league would endure."
a second time they sang the hymn, and then tododaho called the roll of the founders, commencing with tehkarihhoken and ending with tyuhninhohkawenh, and after each name the royanehs thundered the responses:
"this was the roll of you,
you who were joined in the work,
you who completed the work,
the great league!"
tododaho reseated himself, and a royaneh of the cayugas rose to speak for the so-called younger nations—the cayugas, oneidas and tuscaroras.
"now our uncle has passed away," he recited, "he who used to work for all, that they might see the brighter days to come—for the whole body of warriors and also for the whole body of women, and also for the children that were running around, and also for the little ones creeping on the ground, and also for those that are tied to the cradle-boards; for all these he used to work that they might see the bright days to come. this we say, we three brothers.
"now another thing we will say, we younger brothers. you are mourning in the deep darkness. i will make the sky clear for you, so that you will not see a cloud. and also i will give the sun to shine upon you, so that you can look upon it peacefully when it goes down.
"now, then, another thing we say, we three younger brothers. if any one should fall—it may be a principal chief will fall, a royaneh, and descend into the grave—as soon as possible another shall be put in his place. this we say, we three younger brothers.
"now i have finished. now show me the man!"
a hush mantled the council house. all eyes turned toward the door where tawannears stood with peter and me. ganeodiyo and another seneca royaneh rose from their places and crossed the room to us. at a sign tawannears went to meet them. they took position, one on each side, with their hands under his elbows, and so guided him into the center of the circle around the council fire. three times they walked him around the circuit of royanehs. then ganeodiyo spoke.
"denehogaweh is dead, oh, royanehs! our eyes have been blinded with tears. our hearts have been heavy. loudly we have cried our grief. but the forefathers laid down rules for us to follow and we have followed them. a vacant place must be filled. work laid aside must be completed. the places left by the founders must be carried on that our children may continue to have peace.
"behold, oh, royanehs, after the tradition of our people, as required by the founders, the wise women of the wolf clan gathered in council. they considered deeply. donehogaweh was dead. another of his line must succeed him. donehogaweh was the guardian of the western door. no foes entered the long house after he kept watch. who should endeavor to take his place?
"the wise women pondered, oh, royanehs. they continued to ponder. they remembered that donehogaweh had a nephew, tawannears, warden of the door. he was his uncle's prop, his right hand, a tried warrior, feared by the enemies of the great league, respected by the subject nations, the friend of our friends.
"oh, royanehs, we present him to you! he is no longer tawannears. he is donehogaweh! he is the guardian of the western door. give him your favor!"
"aigh! aighhaigh! kwa, kwa!" applauded the royanehs.
peter and i slipped out of the door as they formed in procession and took our station with kachina—for i cannot bring myself to give her the name gahano by which tawannears always addressed her—to watch the formal presentation to the assemblage of senecas gathered in the open around the gaondote, or war-post. a shout of approval came from the people when tawannears, now donehogaweh, was led forth by tododaho and ganeodiyo.
"the guardian of the door!" they cried. "he is favored by hawenneyu! kwa! kwa!"
kachina clapped her hands with glee—one of many tricks that proved to me her caucasian origin.
"he has his uncle's place!" she exclaimed. "i was afraid that fat old she-ant, guanaea, would make trouble for him. i will put a snake in her bed some night."
"nonsense!" i rebuked her. "she is your mother. her eyes are clouded by grief. be kind, and she will learn to love you."
"love me! hai, i care not whether she loves me. i have tawannears' love, and that is enough."
peter plucked me by the sleeve.
"come!" he whispered.
i followed him behind the nearest ganasote, and he pointed to a narrow opening in the wall of the forest opposite, the throat of the great trail of the long house.
"here is no blace for us," he said. "we hafe saidt goodt-by to tawannears—who is no longer tawannears. he has a new life to lif. he must be an indian of indians. he has a wife andt a mother-in-law——"
"who is not his mother-in-law," i gibed.
"ja, berhaps. but dot doesn't matter now. we are white men. he is an indian. we don't do him no goodt for a time. we petter go, andt leafe him to himself."
"yes," i agreed slowly. "you are right, peter. 'tis strange how tactful you can be—and how talkative. but where shall we go?"
he gave me a curious look.
"it's petter you go home, eh?"
"home?"
"ja! new york—der gofernor—andt——"
he left the sentence unfinished, for which i was duly grateful. i was conscious of no impelling urge to return to civilization. the zest which had attended our homeward journey was gone from me. but i could not argue against peter's suggestion. the governor expected a report from me. for the rest, i shrugged my shoulders. but i did not hunger for the house in pearl street. i did not even attempt to picture what awaited me there.
a snowstorm overtook us near the headwaters of the mohawk, and after securing snowshoes from an oneida village we decided we might as well save time by pushing straight southeast through the forest country on the west bank of hudson's river, avoiding fort orange* and the contiguous settlement, and crossing the river at the first point we came to where the ice would hold. corlaer knew every inch of this wild land, and was never at a loss to steer a bee-line in any direction he fancied.
* albany.
but as a result of this we saw no other white men until we reached the outlying villages above new york, and their residents could give us no tidings of the town's affairs, for they had been cut off by the great drifts since christmas—a feast to which we had given no thought. we had completely lost track of days and were not even sure of the month. for years we had regulated ourselves by the seasons. it was hot or cold, winter or summer, with us. we let it go at that.
the burghers of the out-ward eyed us askance for the wastrels we seemed in our deerskin shirts and leggings, bearskin robes belted about us, hair and beard sweeping our shoulders. and as it chanced, we saw none we knew until we reached the broadway just above the green lane, when honest john allen, my clerk, turned the corner in face of us and would have passed on, with an uneasy glance for our ruffian pair.
"how, now!" i cried. "is it so you greet your master, john?"
he dropped his bundle of papers in the snow and his chin sagged to his chest.
"'tis never you, master ormerod! why, we had given you up two years gone—all, that is, save master burnet. but for him the magistrates would have settled your estate."
now, why it was i know not, but at this i was smitten with an insane desire to laugh, and i rocked my sides so that people across the way deemed me witless and hastened by us.
"i am glad there is one man of intelligence left," i said when i had found my breath again. "but i never doubted the governor, john."
"he is governor no longer, sir."
"what?"
even peter fetched out a shrill dutch curse.
"ay, sir. but last month the lords of trade gave him notice transferring him to massachusetts. he sailed ten days since."
"he is gone hence?"
"'tis so, sir."
"but who has his place!"
"master montgomery, sir. and oh, master ormerod, things are very different from what they were. the malcontents in the town have the new governor's ear. there is much ado about municipal reforms, and small thought to the fur-trade and the alliances with the savages that master burnet gave thought to."
i clapped an arm on peter's fat shoulder.
"then here are two shall give master montgomery somewhat to think on," i proclaimed. "we'll tell him of the wilderness country, eh, peter? we'll acquaint him with the doings of the french! we'll make plain to him the empires and kingdoms that lie waiting the englishman, if he have but the courage of his ancestors!"
"nein," said peter. "you go."
"but you?"
"i go wit' john here."
"have it your own way," i returned cavalierly. "shall i find the governor in the fort, john?"
"ay, sir." he hesitated. "but sure, master ormerod, you'll stop in pearl street. elspeth and——"
"anon, anon," i said airily. "i am not much of a home-body, john."
and i swaggered on my way, poor fool, secretly fearful of the memories that pearl street might evoke.
at the fort i was recognized by an officer, and he passed me into the governor's house with a celerity that made me fume all the more during the hour i must cool my heels in his anteroom. but all things end in time, even the whims of jacks-in-office. a liveried servant opened the inner door, and i was ushered in my motley forest-garb into a room which expressed in every detail the finicking niceties of its occupant.
a small man, with a pompous carriage, insignificant features expressing vanity and pride, master montgomery made no effort to disguise his displeasure that a citizen should have ventured to appear before him so roughly dressed.
"master ormerod?" he said. "ah, yes, i am aware who you are, sir. the late—ah—governor was pleased to give me some account of you, and of the—ah—ridiculous mission upon which he was pleased to dispatch you. close to four years gone, was it not? you have been overlong, sir. i——"
"one moment," i interrupted. "you call my mission ridiculous. are you aware, sir, that i have traveled where no englishman has been before? do you understand the value of the information i bring? does it mean nothing that i have news of the french dispositions in the wilderness country?"
he waved me to silence.
"you attach unnecessary importance to your wanderings, master ormerod," he reproved me. "here, sir, we have work sufficient to occupy us for many generations. the—ah—failures of my predecessor, i venture to assert, may be ascribed to his unfortunate predilection to extravagant views and policies. the day for such delusions, i assure you, is past. here in new york we are now occupied with the important task of improving the lot of our loyal, law-abiding citizens, and the abatement of hindrances to trade and commerce."
he selected a paper from several on the table before him.
"i have here a draft of a new charter i am issuing to the citizens! too little attention has been paid to such matters, and it shall be my care to——"
"do i understand you have no ear for my report, your excellency?" i broke in.
"some other time, master ormerod. at the present, i am occupied with affairs of serious moment."
"but the french——"
"tut, tut, sir," he remonstrated severely. "here is overmuch stress upon the french. another fault of my—ah—distinguished predecessor was to exaggerate the animosity of the french. treat the french fairly, live and let live, so you may construe my policy. i have no fault to find with french expansion. there is land enough for all on this continent. as for the near-by savages, we have humored them more than is good for them. in future——"
how i got from that room i do not remember, but in some way i dammed the flow of pompous rhetoric and futile reasoning, brushed by all who would have questioned me in the fort, and found my way by oft-trodden paths into pearl street. i was still seething with indignation as the red-brick house came in view. when i tapped at the door none answered me, so i pushed it open and entered the wide hallway. i called, but no answer was returned. and then i heard a bubbling chuckle of mirth in the rear garden, capped by corlaer's squeaking laughter.
it was as if a secret hammer tapped at my heart. i caught my breath, and stepped softly through the corridor to the door which gave on the garden. on the steps below me sat stout scots elspeth, heedless of the snow, and john allen, both of them helpless with laughter; and in the garden's center a small, lusty urchin in breeches, a wooden scalping knife clutched in one mitten-covered fist, circled cautiously the ponderous figure of corlaer, who contrived a most realistic mimicry of panic-fear.
"and now i shall scalp you!" the urchin shrieked gleefully.
but peter gestured him towards me, and the boy turned with a glad cry. the knife dropped from his hand. there was a scurry of feet, and two arms were stretched up to me, two brown eyes—eyes that it seemed i had looked into so many times before—shone into mine.
"you have come back!" shouted the treble voice. "john said you would! and so did master burnet! do you always wear a beard! will you buy me clothes like those you and peter wear? will you teach me to cast the tomahawk and shoot with the bow and arrow? will you take me to live with the indians? did you kill very many this time? what did you find beyond the sunset?"
i swept him in my arms, gray eyes beaming steadily through the mist that veiled my sight.
"i found contentment—and love," i said.
elspeth burst into tears.
"hecht, but them's the bonny worrds," she blubbered. "the master's hame and richt in his mind again!"
my son's bubbling laughter stirred me afresh, and i peered over his shoulder to perceive corlaer waltzing like a clumsy bear, with john allen's sedate person clasped against his enormous belly. and i sat down beside the boy and laughed, too, laughed as i had laughed in bygone years, with the joyous vigor of a happy heart.
the end
