It did not take me long to reach the creek, and when I drove over the hill and down into the bottom lands, what was my surprise and consternation to find that I had driven into the storm center of the Messiah Dance then being held on the bank of the river. There were between five hundred and a thousand Chyennes and Arpahoes in the assemblage. Just at the moment they were holding what the cowmen call a “powow.” I was evidently in a very ticklish situation. What to do I did not know. One thing I decided on in a very hasty manner, and that was that there was no use in showing the white feather just then. I drove up within about twenty rods of their headquarters. I got out and began to unhitch. I was certainly taking the dilemma by the horns and determined to make the most of the situation. While trying to make myself feel comfortable, which I was far from doing, I told Emmet to hobble the rest of the ponies to prevent their wandering away. Then I set to work to make flap-jacks and coffee, and I do not believe that flap-jacks were ever turned out under such circumstances before or since. I had been doing a lot of thinking over the situation, but found that, no matter what angle I viewed it from, I was in difficulties. I did not dare to tell Emmet what was passing through my mind for fear he would lose his courage, and I must say that my own was fast ebbing. I did not like to acknowledge to my boy that I was afraid. They say that God hates a liar, and I must say that I am no greater admirer of such a man myself, but when Emmet ask me what the disturbance was all about, I had to evade his question and put him off by saying that there was nothing wrong, that the Indians were out on one of their picnics, which they were accustomed to hold frequently. I knew I was deceiving him, but felt that it was the best I could do under the circumstances. I knew that the Indians claimed to be in touch with Messiah and Messiah had promised to remove the white man and restore the buffalo to his native plains, and I began to think seriously that I might be the first pale-face on which that order might take effect.
While making my flap-jacks for supper, I had a visit from some eight or ten bucks dressed up in white sheets. They came and stood around me in a half circle. They did not speak a word, nor even utter a grunt. I continued to give my undivided attention to the work at hand, apparently unaware of their presence. They remained there motionless as statues for fifteen or twenty minutes. If one of them moved a muscle, I did not know it. Their presence was rather disconcerting, to say the least, but what could I do about it? Why they were wearing those white sheets, I could not understand. It might, probably, have been a part of their regalia for the ceremony. Whatever it was, it did not add anything to my feelings of comfort. At a signal from headquarters they left me as uncerimoniously as they had come. I had a winchester leaning against the front wheel of the wagon, and a six-shooter lying on the top of the grub-box, and Emmet had a rifle close at hand, which went to show that we were pretty well able to look after ourselves in case of emergency. Just then my attention was attracted by the rumbling of wheels and on looking around I saw a man driving a small team of ponies in my direction. I was rather glad of his arrival, whoever he might be. Some one has said that “misery loves company,” and I have yet to learn which was the greater nuisance, my misery or my new-found arrival. I was anxious for a relief from the present embarrassing conditions, and invited him to stop and have something to eat. He complied with my request, or rather invitation. He unhitched his ponies, not a very difficult task as he employed a simplified harness of the chain variety, with corn-husk collars, and no throat-latch to the bridles. When he went towards the wagon the old ponies seemed to know what was coming, and shook their heads and the bridles fell off, and they went to grazing. While Emmet was making more coffee and frying an extra quantity of meat, I went over to inspect his outfit. It was certainly a strange make-up for a man on a journey. There was no bedding in sight, and no kind of cooking outfit. There was an old gun that had once been a flint-lock, and might have seen service in the battle of Waterloo. The breach had been cut off and it had been restocked. The barrel was about four feet long, and for a front sight it had something that very much resembled a brass collar button. The butt of the stock was wrapped in a gunny sack and tied up carefully with binder twine, which I learned afterwards was for the purpose of lessening the concussion on his shoulder when firing it.
My guest sat down to eat, and while he was thus occupied, I made bold to question him as to whence he came and whither he was going. He informed me that he was from Arkansaw and was on his way to No-Man’s Land where he had relations. I then ask him to mention some of the folks he was going to bless with his presence. From the reply he gave me I knew that I was face to face with an artistic liar, as I knew all the settlers up in that part of the country. Having in earlier years made a study of phrenology, I thought this the proper time to put some of the principals I had learned to the test. I began to make a sort of mental examination of the formation of his cranium and came to the conclusion that he would violate at least seven of the commandments without a second thought, and the remaining three would have to depend upon circumstances for their observation. One thing I found in his favor and that was that he would not commit murder as the bump of combativeness was almost entirely lacking a view which in a very short time proved to be correct, for almost immediately, without any preliminaries or forewarning, as if by magic the Messiah Dance was opened, and the man from Arkansaw almost melted away through fear.
As it was now dark, I could see plainly the movements of the Indians by the glare of the camp fires around their teepees. Their leader commenced intoning a wierd Hi-Yi-Hi-Oh-Yip-Yip-Hi-Oh, and maintained the monotonous chant as an accompaniment to the tom-tom. This was kept up without intermission until the first set of dancers became exhausted. Then everything became quiet once more. The silence remained unbroken until the next performance was ready. When the recess had lasted about half an hour, the signal was given a second time, and all the dancers, bucks and squaws, fell into line and began a performance which resembled very much a continuation of the old-time hop-step. They leaped and chanted at the same time. The melody of their song was very much in keeping with the music of the tom-tom, but entirely unlike anything I had ever heard, before or since. Most of the bucks were decorated with the insignia of the rank they held in their respective tribes, while the remainder were clothed in the regulation blanket, moccasins, and breach clouts. The squaws, like their white sisters, endeavored to outdo each other in the matter of fantastic habiliments. They wore no head dress, and their hair was done up in the latest style. They wore some splendid blankets which I judged were of Navajoe make, and were highly ornamented. Besides this they wore moccasins beaded in many colors, and leggings.
Still the dance went on with the same powow, with no variation in the music. It was left for the third and final dance to make the grand display of the evening. When they had enjoyed the second recess in sullen silence, they broke forth in one grand effort to make the finale the piece-de-resistance of the evenings entertainment. They seemed to have restrained themselves for this special production of their hideous and welkin-splitting pandemonium. Everything they had done in the way of cavorting in the complex measures of their former dance, seemed to be nothing to what was expected of them in the last grand splurge. From my own observation of the performance I should best describe it by saying that it seemed as if the infernal regions had been turned loose for a holiday. The readers imagination will have to picture what really took place in that final orgy of riot and disorder. Words cannot adequately describe it, and I would be unwise to attempt to do so. But just to give a faint idea of what really took place I will say that at a given signal they all fell into line again as in the previous performance. In addition to their former efforts, they included the call or cry of every bird or beast known to them, from the guttural growl of the wild bear to the call of the peewee. It was all there in one jumble of discordant sound, the neighing of the horse, the roaring of the bull, the call of the bobwhite, the barking of dogs, the howl of the coyote, the call of the peacock, the familiar gobbling of the wild turkey, etc. This was continued until they dropped from sheer exhaustion. The revel and riot was at length completed and silence reigned again.
In all my experience I have never heard or seen anything like it. Anything that I had ever seen before was like a children’s picnic when compared with the Messiah Dance. I had read of Tam O’Shanter peeping through the crannies of the Auld Kirk of Alloway, feasting his eyes upon the dance of the witches, but it was not to be compared with the Messiah Dance, for here there were real, live mortals enacting a dance that was incomparable in its weird peculiarities.
When the festivities had ceased, I asked my Arkansaw guest what he thought of it. He replied that he had just about concluded to leave at once. “If,” said he, “they do such things in play, what would they do to us if they took the notion to put into practice some of the barbarities for which the Indian is famed.” I told him to get that notion out of his head immediately, for, if he did, the Indians would likely follow him and take his scalp for a prelude to what they would do afterwards to him. I assured him that there was some security in remaining where we were, but that there would be none in leaving, as they would think he was afraid and then would follow him with results not to be desired. After a good deal of persuasion, I induced him to share my blankets with me and my boy, which was a great trial for him.
The bucks and squaws had, by this time, retired to their tents, and everything, was quiet. The camp fires were still burning and lit up the trees and shrubbery so plainly that one could see each separate branch and twig. The reflection of the blaze lit up the little valley in such a way that we seemed to be walled in by a cordon of liquid fire.
As I was fatigued after the day’s journey, I turned in like a trooper’s horse, with my shoes on, to be ready to meet any emergency that might arise. As innocence knows neither crime, nor danger, Emmet was curled up in sleep like a babe in its mother’s arms. But such was not the case of the Arkansaw Traveller. He was lying on the opposite side of the “bed,” next to Emmet, but in spite of the fact that he was removed from me in that manner, I could hear his heart beating so distinctly that it seemed like the fluttering of a bird trying to break from its cage. For myself, I just trusted in a kind Providence, and slept the sleep of the weary.
At daybreak we were up and thankful that we were still alive. We went about the preparation of breakfast as though nothing unusual was taking place around us. As the weather looked as though we would have rain very soon, I set about the task of building a teepee, as I had no shelter. I intended to cover it with a wagon sheet, as that was the most serviceable for the purpose of keeping us dry. In the meantime Emmet had strayed off through the trees and brush to see what he could find in the way of game. I had just cut some willows to make the framework of my teepee, when the boy came running excitedly back to camp and exclaimed, “papa, papa come down to the river and see what those Indians are doing!” As I saw he was excited about something, I dropped everything and followed him to the river which was not far from our camp. There I saw something that was novel to me. There were about five hundred bucks and squaws in the water taking their morning bath. They were not in one group, but were separated about seventy-five yards, bucks in one group and squaws in another. Between them was an imaginary dead line over which, by tribal custom, no young buck or brave had the temerity to cross. They were splashing around in the water like nymphs, disporting themselves after their own fashion. I did not notice that indispensable attache of refined society, the chaperon domineering over those simple, stainless daughters of the plains to keep them from drifting from the path of moral rectitude. A native sense of modesty, as well as tribal traditions dispensed with such a guardian. There was no need of one. There were no ladies of high-degree lolling on benches on the bank, with a broad brimmed hat, and all the other follies that go to make up what is called “style,” neither were there any little, black nosed, red eyed, fluffy-haired dogs with expensive collars around their necks, nor pugs with tails curled up so tightly that it would be almost impossible for their hind legs to touch the ground. No, they were not there, neither were many other devises that go to improve the figure to make it Juno-like, nor were bathing suits in evidence, but in spite of all that they seemed to be enjoying the frolic in the water.