DARBY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 106, 7 May 1896, Page 6

DARBY.

Bear-hunter of Alaska,

BY SEWARD W. HOPKINS.

Attttroref 'In bhe China Sea,' 'Two Gentlemen of Hawaii,' 'Jack Bobbins of America,' etc.

CHAPTER XXIV. Thb great wedding, feast and joy-dance of the Tananahs were over.

Mosb of the warriors were still rolling round in a drunken brawl, but Mesouga had withdrawn hia presence and had sought his tent).

Maxom and I were alone, or sufficienbly isolated for conversation.

I had been in a maze of wonder, surprise and doubt since tbe absence of Tahnag had been discovered. Nob that thab facb alone caused wonder. I had seen the chief dancing on the edge of the cliff. Tbe wonder would have been if he had not gone over, Had he been sober, ib would have been different ' There ia something about this disappearance of bhe chief thab I don'b undersband, Maxom,' I said. Ha smiled—a grim sorb of smile, utterly without mirth.

'lb is not an easy thing for any ono to andeisband,' he replied. • Oh,' I said, it is nob so much his disappearance in itself thab puzzles me, bus your complacent way of taking it. Knowing your greab friendship for the Kotch, I should expect a greater show of feeling over hia death. 5

He smiled again and a gleam came into his eyaß when he looked at me, * Wetmore,' he Baid, ' there is no human being I think so much of, excepting of course, tho Marshalls and yourself, and John Bazely and his wiife, as I do of Tahnag. Ib would be a bitter loes to me if I knew he was dead.' ' If you knew he wns dead !' I repeated: •Greab Scobb! Is there any room for doubb?' . . * Ib seems hardly possible, I will admit, he said. « Bub you don'b know Tahnag as well as I do. Jusb recall the incidents of this feast and dance. To begin, the Kotcb was away from us for some time, no doubt pondering upon the question how to escape. Whatever conclusions he may have reached, he had no time to communicate them to us. Mesouga was always near, and I suppose it was more to his purpose to make the great Tananah believe his love for us had changed to dislike, and thab his Indian nature had regained bhe ascendancy. Then the manner in which he spoke to us was utterly ab variance with his nature. I firmly believe ib was studied and assumed for the occasion.'

•Granting all that.' I answered, 'what good will ib all do now ? Had he remained sober, he migbb bave carried some kind of scheme to perfection, but even that ia beyond my conception. Anyhow, drunk as he was. what could he do ?' • There ib is again,' said Maxom. 'As long as I have known Tahnag, I have nob seen him drunk. In fact, I know he hates whisky like poison. In short, I believe that when he disappeared he was as sober as we are.' •Do you think so?' I asked, in surprise. •He certainly looked and acted like a drunken man to me. Bub you know him better than I do. You may be righb. But admitting1 thab you are righb—suppose he was sober —he must have met his death if be went over the cliff. And I see no other way thab be could have escaped.' Maxom stroked his moustache meditatively. . •Ib woold Beem so,' he said; ' yeb hia manner was so carefully Btudied—the new role he played having no doubb been chosen with a purpose—-1 feel loth to believe thab aeeidenb has befallen him. I feel almosb confident that he is even now hiding in some snner spot that neither Mesouga nor I know anything about.' *I hope so, most sincerely,' I said. The remainder of tbe day was spent by us in comparative quiet, and the camp was undisturbed, save the usual demonstrations of joy when, toward evening, a hunting party returned with some geese and a fine caribou, shot, so Maxom told me, near tke beadwaters of the stream that rushed paßb us toward the Yukon. The next morning I happened to be up a few seconds ahead of Maxom, and stepping to the entrance of the hut, I saw a crowd of savages around the lodge ot Mesouga. ' Hello!' 1 said. * There is a groat commotion among the Tananahs. Come and see.' He stepped out by my side and looked. ' Shamanism,' he said. • Well, whab is that ?' I asked. •Medicine business,' lie replied. * Yoa are familiar with it. Don't tbe red Indians of the plains have charm-doctors, great medicine-men and all thab ?' ' Indeed they do ; bub I see no charmdocbor in that crowd. •lb is boo early. He will appear soon. They are now supplicating him. I wonder who is ill. Let's co and pee.' We walked toward the crowd. Delobrek, he who had won first choice of brides, stood before the tenb next to MOsouga's, beating bis cheat and chanting. As in the former case of the songs of tka Tananahs, I will ineerb ib here as ib was afterwards interpreted to me—as was all that was said by these savages, excepb thab spoken to u» by Mesouga, who used the English language. •The heart of Delobrek the hunter ia sad,'he sung. •And tbe heart of Delobrek, the great warrior of the Tananahs, will break. Fdr tbe bad spirit has come into his lodge. And tho Pigeon of the Rats, -who is Delobrek s wife, is full of tho bad spirit, And will die ! And will die! That is why the heart of Delobrek is broken. And his eyes can no longer look upon the sun. Nor his mouth tell if his foed be good or bad. Nor hi_ spoar be used in many days to kill the

bear Or the caribou, of the sheep, or the salmon. For Delobrek. the mighty hunter, must remain

in his lodste and mourn, And no more can his war club be used against the enemies of his people, Not for many days. For the mighty warrior ef the Tananahs must put aside his war paint And cover himself with bark And remain in his lodge and mourn When the pigeon dio3. SBnt there is one amoiag the Tananahs Who is greater than Mesouga, Who is greater than Delobrek. Who is greater than the bad spirit— ais na_oe is Koskopog. Mis name _3Koskopog. He is the mighty Shaman of tho Tananahs. He alone can save the Pigeon for Delobrek. Shall Delobrek's lodge be dark and lonely with tho Pigeon silent 1 Or sha> 1 it be gay and light with the presence of

tho Pigeon And her happy song ? And her happy song. Come. oh. Koskopog. and drive away the evil

spirit. Oh, Koskopog. come. Tho gratitude of Delobrek shall be yours. The gratitude of the Pigeon shall be yours. The gratitude of Mesoaga and all the Tananahs shall be yours. Come, Koskopog. Koskopog, oh, come.'

When he had finished there was an impressive silence, lasting aboub five minutes. No reply came from the Shaman's tent. Ib waa as if the appeal of Delobrek had been anheard.

Then Luk-luk, who had been second to Delobrek in the confceabs for wives, stepped before bhe door of the Shaman, and sang thus : •Oh. Koskopog! It is Luk-luk, the fritnd of Delobrek, who sings. His lodge is happy and bright, for in it the

Warbler of the Rats Makes all the days like summer, A»- her voice is always music in the ear of

Luk-luk. And the mighty warrior of the Tananahs

! I* sad for his friend. Delobrek, For Delobrek is a warrior And a hunter. Greater than aay among the Tananahs, except Luk-luk, Mesouga and a few. Yet Delobrek is sad. His heart weeps and bleeds. For the Pigeon, his wife, is dying. Then B_o3kopog, the mightieit Shaman ot Alaska Caa save her. Can save her. And he will. Because Luk-luk asks it.' When Luk-luk had finished bis song, there was a murmur among the crowd, as if to applaud the friendship between these two young warriors. All eyes were fixed upon the entrance of the Shaman's hut, Ib was corta ii that this appeal would nob go unheeded. , At last the decorated skin of the Shaman s tent moved slowly. It seemed as if ib moved even reluctantly. Then, slowly moving into the open space, came bhe most grotesque — the mosb wonderfully gotben-up—creature I had ever seen. His advent was attended with no demonstrations. He was too sacred. The silence of awe— , of humble worship—was over all. This Shaman, or medicine-man of the Tananahs, wore his hair tied up inWeral knots. Into each one of these knots was fastened the ' wish-bone' of a goose, and from the two ' feeb ' of tbe wish-bone hung a long string of twisted hair and feathers, gayly coloured with red clay. Atop of all, he wore a tremendous coroneb of feathers from the tail and wings of the eagle. The face of the Shaman was disfigured beyond description. Running laterally through the upper lip was a bone ab least three inches long, which caused the lip to protrudo in the mosb disgusting manner. And fiom the ends of the bone were suspended shining black beads, which rattled when he shook bis head. The natural lines of bis face had been almosb obliterated. Whab wibh greab pabchos of the ever-present red slay, and protuberances made by tht insertion of nose and lip ornaments, tbe physiognomy of Roskopos was no more pleaaing than his name. Around his neck was a necklace of boar's claws, and attached to thiß wa3 a Greek cross in silver, the relic, no doubt, of some unfortunate Russian long since passed to his fathers by means of Tananah treachery and cruelty. Somehow the presence of tho cross on the breast of thab murderouslooking heathen jarred on ray nervos unpleasantly. The coab of this fellow was made of the skins of sables, and as economy had played no part in its manufacture, it was a garment thab mighb well arouse tho envy of the fashionable people in tho cities. Around the bottom of the coat was a row of glass balls, many of them broken, being probably all thab remained of a supply : gathered during the early days of primitivo barter when one ball like. theße would buy from the simpler natives a cloak of sable or ermine worth hundreds of dollars. The Shaman wore gaudily-painted leggings of buckskin, over which was drawn a pair of high boots made of bear skin, fur side out, with a heavy sole made of walrus hide, obtained either in trade or by conaueab from some of tbe tribes near tbe shore. The Shaman moved silently and majesticcally onward, motioning for Delobrek bo ': lead tho way. As bhe secrecy generally surrounding the performances of the medicine-men of the plaina was absent here, Maxom and I proposed to witness all that was done. To me it was a matter of interest, but there was something in Maxom's manner thab seemed to tell me without words that the welfare of ' Tbe Pigeon ' in some way bore directly on our own fate. But there was no timo to talk—in facb, the Bilence was so impressive that a word from either of us would have sounded startlingly loud. Delobrek led bhe way to his hut, the Shaman following him, and Maxom and I keeping close in tho wake of the Shaman, for if the cerenaony of driving out the evil spirits was carried" on inside the hub, there would nob be room for all, and we intended bo get in. We wore successful in getting inaide bhe hub, where upon a pile of skins lay 'bhe Pigeon,' bruly a pretty girl for a native,, her eyes rolling up at Delobrek and tho Shaman in a piteous appeal for life. The Shaman bent over her and mumbled some words that seemed to satisfy her, for she lay back on her rude couch and closed her eyes, muttering a sigh of relief. Koskopog turned te Delobrek and issued a command. The wsirrior iebchod a lamp—the usual sfeene kind filled with oil and a wick of moes, and tbe Shaman hung some metal plates about the size of a silver dollar over ib. When bhese were heated he placed them by bhe side of bhe Pigeon's head. The poor girl now gave every evidence of being very ill, and I ventured to ask Maxom what was the mabter. He looked ab me a momenb before he replied, and I bhought his face was paler than usual. 'I do nob know what bo call ib,' he said. ' I have seen the Indians along tho Porcupine affected bhe same way, bub my knowledge of diseases is boo limited for me to know whab it is. Anyhow, any offer of ourß to assist in curing her would nob avail, for tbey will not allow anyene but the Shaman to do thab. One thing is plain to me, and thab is that this girl is going to die.' Our talking must have disturbed the Shaman, for he turned his horrid face toward us, and made it known by signs that ho wanted tho hut cleared. Even Delobrek was driven out, and we stood in a group waiting for news. For a time all was silence. Then we heard the low, weird tones of the Indian chant. Then again all was still. Then a hand was protruded from the teat and beckoned. * Delobrek went inside. Never was a life hung upon with more anxiety than thab of the new-made bride of the Tananah warrior. i An hour went by. Then another. Maxom walked back and forth, his eyes bent upon the ground. Hadleigh came out of his tent buc little, and seemed to take no interest in anything save himself. The Shaman came from Delobrek's hub, and bhe crowd parbed, as in awesbruck silence bhey made a passageway for this greab medicine-man, He walked to his own hub, and waa hidden inside for about ten minutes. Then he re-appeared, armed with a long knife. He whispered a few words to one of the young men who had been a member of the hunting party the day before.

The hunter turned away and was lost to view among the huts. In a momenb ho reappeared, carrying a live goose. This he gave to bhe Shaman, who took ib, and once more wenb into Delobrek's hub.

* It is serious,' said Maxom quietly, as he passed me ; and I thought little of his remark, except, of course, that he meanb the girl was going to die. Again we waited, almosb breathlessly, while the Shaman was insido the hut. Now and then we could hear the voices of Delobrek and the Shaman in broken, subdued conversation.

Suddenly trom inside the tent came a piercing Bhriek of woe, and Delobrek rushed from ib and ca3b himself face downward on the snow, moaning and shrieking in turn. The Shaman came forth with bowed head walking toward his own tent. His body was bent in sorrow and shame. His arts had failed. He stood before the people as a man who had failed.

The Pigeon of tho Eats was dead. • Do you know whafe thab means to us V asked Maxom, calmly, when we had fully realised the significance of the scene.

• No,' I arißwered. * I didn't know its had anything fco do with us.' 'Its has this to do,'he said. 'It is the law among these Indiana that when one of them dies, the only way to insure a happy hereafter for tha soul is to kill an enemy. And if that enemy happens to be a white man, so much tbe better.' * Phew !' I said. • Oar situation ia mors critical than I thought. Pray to God that Tahnag teas sober when he left us, and that he will find some way bo get ub out of this difficulty.' ' Before one of u3 is killed,' he added. « Before one of ns is killed,' I repeated, having little faith thab what I hoped for would como to pass. How could one man—though he waa a chief—combat the hundreds of savages thab Mesouga had with him '! The more I looked ab it, the more hopeless I became. •I wish I had a handful of the Second Cavalry here,' I said, 'I'd soon pub thab rascal Mesouga where be belongs,' 1 But you have not,' said Maxora. « True,' I said, ' I had already thoughb of that. I have not' (To if continued.)