Owindia | Page 8

all the Indians were aware that something
horrible had occurred in Michel's camp, and from every lodge, far and
near, they hurried out with looks of dread and inquiry. The farthest
lodge was not more than sixty yards from that of Michel, and the
nearest was hardly a dozen yards removed, although a little further
back from the edge of the bank. When the first man entered the lodge it
could not have been more than a few seconds after the firing of the fatal
shot, for Michel was still standing, gun in hand, and his poor wife
sighing forth the last few breathings of her sad and troubled life. She
had kept her word, and met her death without one cry or expostulation!
It might have been heard from far, that groan of horror and dismay
which sprung spontaneous from the one first witnessing the ghastly
scene, and then from the whole of the assembled Indians.
"Se tue! Se tue!" "My sister, my sister!" cried the women, as one by
one they gazed upon the face of the departed; then kneeling down, they
took hold of the poor still warm hand, or raised the head to see if life
were indeed extinct; then as they found that it was truly so, there arose
within that lodge the loud, heart-piercing Indian wail, which, once
heard, can never be forgotten. Far, far through the tangled wood it
spread, and across the swift river; there is nothing like that wail for
pathos, for strange succession of unusual tones, for expression of deep
need--of the heart-sorrow of suffering humanity!
In the meantime the chief actor in that sad tragedy had let the
instrument of his cruelty fall from his hand; it was immediately seized
by one of the Indians and flung into the river. Michel made no
resistance to this, albeit even at that moment it might have occurred to
him that being deprived of his gun, he was shorn of well nigh his only
means of subsistence. He turned to leave his tent, and with a scared,
wild look, slowly raised the blanket which hung at its entrance; but he

was not suffered to escape so easily: the men of the surrounding camps
were gathered close outside, and as with one consent, they laid hold of
the miserable culprit and pinned him to the spot; then ensued a fierce
Babel of tongues, each one urging his own opinion as to the course of
treatment befitting the occasion. The din of these many voices, mingled
with the sad wail of the women in the tent, made an uproar and
confusion which it would be hard to describe. It ended, however, by
one of the Indians producing a long coil of babiche, and to this another
added some pieces of rope, and with these they proceeded to bind their
prisoner hand and foot, and then again to bind him to one of the nearest
trees. Having succeeded in doing this effectually, but one thought
seemed to seize the whole community,--to flee from the spot. But one
other duty remained to be performed, and this they now prepared to
carry out.
The funeral rites of the North American Indian, it need hardly be
remarked, are of the very simplest description; indeed, it is only of late
years, and since Christianity has spread among them, that they have
been persuaded to adopt the rites and ceremonies of Christian burial.
Formerly, in many instances, the body of the deceased would be
wrapped in its blanket, and then hoisted up on a wooden stage erected
for the purpose; after which the friends of the departed would make off
with the utmost speed imaginable. Sometimes even this tribute to a lost
friend would not be forthcoming; the Indian has an unspeakable dread
of death, and of the dead; from the moment that the heart of his best
beloved has ceased to beat, he turns from the lifeless form, nor cares to
look upon it again. The new blanket which, perhaps, was only worn a
day or two by the departed, will now, with scrupulous care, be wrapped
around his dead body; for although he were blanketless himself, no
Indian could be persuaded to use that which had once been a dead
man's property. Then, it may be, the corpse would be left lying in the
leather lodge or tent, which would afterwards be closely fastened up;
and it has sometimes devolved upon the Missionaries to spend the night
outside, watching the camp and keeping a fire burning in order to ward
off dogs or wolves, which would otherwise undoubtedly have broken
into the tent and made short work of the lifeless body deserted by all its
friends and neighbours and dearest connexions.
In the case of the wife of Michel,