“Fred, get the rifle for me, please. I will return it when we get back to the city. I know too much about promises to be careful. I think it is perfectly safe for you to use the gun when you are with experienced hunters or alone, but not with a party of boys who never held a rifle in proper position before. This Winter I propose having the boys take lessons in a shooting gallery I know of, and then it will be different.”
The wild dreams of bringing a deer or grizzly bear to camp, or at least a small harmless rabbit, vanished for Fiji. Consequently, he was moody when the other boys started out to gather the long creepers and branches of brilliant Autumn leaves meant to decorate the house for the evening’s entertainment.
But the effect of invigorating air and scrambling over ledges of rock could not long keep anyone in a moody or sulky spell, and Fiji was the liveliest of the lively boys before he returned home laden with the Fall harvest of the woods.
Mrs. Baker was invited to attend the afternoon Birthday Council, and at three o’clock the Chief opened the meeting with the usual prayer and other ceremonies. After Tally Reports were read, and coups awarded to some of the new members and a few of the old ones of the Band, the feature of the Council began.
“O Chief!” commenced the Guide, standing and saluting Zan. “I suggest that we perform the Gift Ceremony of the Zuñi Indians in distributing our gifts. Mrs. Remington loaned me the sacred otter skin for this purpose and Elizabeth knows the rite by heart, so I propose that she act the principal part with Zan as second.”
“How!” approved the Council members, so the Chief took up the tomtom.
Sitting at one side of the Circle, dressed in her ceremonial robes, Zan beat the tomtom while Elizabeth, also gorgeously arrayed in beaded costume, representing Wako Tribe for that time, entered the Ring hop-stepping, and followed by the other members. As each girl passed the tomtom she paid tribute to the sacred instrument by an obeisance to the East for reverence, to the South, playfully, to the West with awe, and to the North for protection from all cold. Then they all sat in their places about the Council Fire to hear the Guide speak.
“To-day the braves of Wako Tribe won a great victory. The warriors of another Tribe, dwelling in the camp made by White Men, over-slept and were late on the war-path. But my Braves, led by our great Chief, were ready with paint and weapons to fight the as yet unseen enemy.
“With bags and baskets, we followed the trail which led to the sometime hidden chestnuts, or again some were found lying in ambush in the long wild grass. Many captives were made to bring back to camp for the fire and feast which celebrate the victory to-night. Hidden rascals, so surrounded by the sharp arrow points sticking from the chestnut burrs that we had many a finger-wound from them, were finally scalped—their burrs cracked open and the prisoners taken away.
“Some of our warriors were struck on the head by falling shells from hickory trees where the nuts had grown and awaited this opportunity to drive away assailants. But with the very act of striking us with shells, they also burst open, fell to earth, and thus were captured.