The smoke signal is resorted to when no other could be employed, on account of distance or obstacles in the way, such as hills or forest. As this is a long-distance signal, the codes vary among different tribes, so that the intelligence conveyed may not be of equal advantage to the foe. Among the Sioux, it was often used by war-parties, announcing their return and giving news of success or failure; the number of scalps or horses taken might also be indicated.
To make this signal, you must build a brisk fire upon some convenient knoll, and as soon as it is burning freely, smother it with coarse green grass, also heap earth around it so that the smoke may be dense and closely confined. When it has burned long enough to gain attention, check the smoke for an instant by holding a blanket over the fire and then withdrawing it, causing a succession of short puffs, with intervals between. To avoid confusion, it will be well to adopt the code given above for mirror flashes. At night, a signal fire is sometimes kindled. Since fire is not always easy to control single-handed, the Indian is careful to turn up the earth before he builds his fire, and to have an abundance of green grass at hand, not only to produce a sufficient volume of smoke, but to put the fire out if necessary.
The drum is used for home communications. When four measured blows are struck, followed by many short ones, it is a call to the council. If every warrior is not present at the second signal, given a few minutes after the first, the Indian “soldiers” or police will come after the absentees. At all dances, the drum is used to call the dancers together, the third call being accompanied by yelps and the fourth by a real burst of war-whoops. There is a curious variation in the call to the scalp dance, which is something like skipping a stone on new ice. It begins in slow time, with each successive beat shorter, and ending in a mere roll.
There are also many signal calls executed by the voice alone, such as the call to war, the journey and hunting halloos, the good deed calls, and other yodels or musical shouts which are very effective and may be heard at a considerable distance.
XIII—AN INDIAN BOY’S SPORTS
Games with arrows are the most popular Indian sports. If you are camping in the woods, you may like to play the “Tree Game.”
About a dozen blunt or knob-headed arrows are shot up into the branches of a large, wide-spreading tree, in such a manner that they are all caught and hang there in many different positions. Then, at a given signal, the boys begin to shoot them down. Every arrow that a boy brings down is his; each one of his own that gets lodged becomes a “prize arrow” for the others to shoot at. Now and then an arrow hugs the limb so closely that it can hardly be seen; eventually all the boys aim at this one, and if they are so unlucky as to lose their own arrows without bringing it down, the “tree wins.”
Wand games are very simple and are played by the younger boys. The wands are from four to six feet long and as big round as a man’s little finger. They are merely peeled switches of any kind of shrub, usually the common red willow. To decorate in Indian fashion, you must take off with a sharp knife a long strip of bark; then, having scraped off all the rest, wind your ribbon of bark spirally round the peeled wand. After fastening each end securely, hold it over a smudge fire until it is well smoked. Then remove the strip and you will find a spiral of white against the deep yellow of the uncovered wood. Sometimes two strips are wound in opposite directions, leaving yellow diamonds bordered with white.
The wand is pitched and made to strike at the start upon an inclined mound or a low horizontal bar, from which it should bound with much force and sail through the air like an arrow, sometimes as far as fifty yards. A simple way to give it momentum is to raise the left foot as high as the right knee, rest the side of the wand against the left instep and propel it vigorously.
From two to a dozen boys choose sides. The side winning the toss sends the first wand, and the other side follows, each boy playing in turn for as long as they fail to pass the first. When they succeed in passing it, the first party tries again, and the game continues until one side has spent all its wands, which are gathered up by the winners. Enthusiastic partisans indulge in cheering, dancing and singing to encourage their friends and confuse and dishearten the opposite party, but are not allowed to interfere in any way with the players.