第95章

Many deep and gloomy gorges, choked with trees and bushes, opened from the sides of the hills, which were shaggy with forests wherever the rocks permitted vegetation to spring.A great number of Indians were stalking along the edges of the woods, and boys were whooping and laughing on the mountain-sides, practicing eye and hand, and indulging their destructive propensities by following birds and small animals and killing them with their little bows and arrows.There was one glen, stretching up between steep cliffs far into the bosom of the mountain.I began to ascend along its bottom, pushing my way onward among the rocks, trees, and bushes that obstructed it.Aslender thread of water trickled along its center, which since issuing from the heart of its native rock could scarcely have been warmed or gladdened by a ray of sunshine.After advancing for some time, I conceived myself to be entirely alone; but coming to a part of the glen in a great measure free of trees and undergrowth, I saw at some distance the black head and red shoulders of an Indian among the bushes above.The reader need not prepare himself for a startling adventure, for I have none to relate.The head and shoulders belonged to Mene-Seela, my best friend in the village.As I had approached noiselessly with my moccasined feet, the old man was quite unconscious of my presence; and turning to a point where Icould gain an unobstructed view of him, I saw him seated alone, immovable as a statue, among the rocks and trees.His face was turned upward, and his eyes seemed riveted on a pine tree springing from a cleft in the precipice above.The crest of the pine was swaying to and fro in the wind, and its long limbs waved slowly up and down, as if the tree had life.Looking for a while at the old man, I was satisfied that he was engaged in an act of worship or prayer, or communion of some kind with a supernatural being.Ilonged to penetrate his thoughts, but I could do nothing more than conjecture and speculate.I knew that though the intellect of an Indian can embrace the idea of an all-wise, all-powerful Spirit, the supreme Ruler of the universe, yet his mind will not always ascend into communion with a being that seems to him so vast, remote, and incomprehensible; and when danger threatens, when his hopes are broken, when the black wing of sorrow overshadows him, he is prone to turn for relief to some inferior agency, less removed from the ordinary scope of his faculties.He has a guardian spirit, on whom he relies for succor and guidance.To him all nature is instinct with mystic influence.Among those mountains not a wild beast was prowling, a bird singing, or a leaf fluttering, that might not tend to direct his destiny or give warning of what was in store for him;and he watches the world of nature around him as the astrologer watches the stars.So closely is he linked with it that his guardian spirit, no unsubstantial creation of the fancy, is usually embodied in the form of some living thing--a bear, a wolf, an eagle, or a serpent; and Mene-Seela, as he gazed intently on the old pine tree, might believe it to inshrine the fancied guide and protector of his life.

Whatever was passing in the mind of the old man, it was no part of sense or of delicacy to disturb him.Silently retracing my footsteps, I descended the glen until I came to a point where I could climb the steep precipices that shut it in, and gain the side of the mountain.Looking up, I saw a tall peak rising among the woods.

Something impelled me to climb; I had not felt for many a day such strength and elasticity of limb.An hour and a half of slow and often intermittent labor brought me to the very summit; and emerging from the dark shadows of the rocks and pines, I stepped forth into the light, and walking along the sunny verge of a precipice, seated myself on its extreme point.Looking between the mountain peaks to the westward, the pale blue prairie was stretching to the farthest horizon like a serene and tranquil ocean.The surrounding mountains were in themselves sufficiently striking and impressive, but this contrast gave redoubled effect to their stern features.