42 KAROK FABLES. 
of voice, and then the drop descended and his soul went suddenly out on 
its dark flight. 
The Karok had quietly acquiesced in the execution, but they were not 
well pleased, and now though they dared not make open insurrection 
against the whites, their astute prophets and soothsayers concocted a story 
which was intended to encourage their countrymen ultimately to revolt. 
They pretended they had a revelation, and that all the Karok who had 
died since the beginning of time had experienced a resurrection, and were 
returning from the land of shadows to wreak a grim vengeance on the 
whites and sweep them utterly off the earth. They were somewhere far 
toward the rising sun advancing in uncounted armies, and Kareya himself 
was at their head leading them on, and with his hands parting the 
mountains to right and left, opening a level road for the slow-coming 
myriads. The prophets pretended to have been out and seen this great 
company that no man could number, and they reported to their willing 
dupes that they were pygmies in stature, but like the Indians of to-day in 
every other regard. Klamath Jim was with them—the soul and inspiration 
of this majestic movement of vengeance, counsellor to Kareya himself. 
It is not necessary to follow this cock-and-bull story any further; of 
course nothing came of the matter, for the Indians had once tasted the 
quality of George Crook’s cold lead, and they were very willing to let 
these dead-walkers try their hands on the whites first. No doubt they very 
earnestly hoped the dead would return and assist them in sweeping the 
Americans off the earth, and they did all that lay in human power to bring 
them back. They danced for months, sometimes a half day at a time 
continuously ; and when I passed that way again in 1872, about nine 
months afterward, they were dancing still. The old Indians had profound 
faith in the prediction, saying that every man who faithfully danced would 
liberate some near relative’s soul from the bonds of death, and restore him 
to earth; but the young Indians, who spoke English, were heretical, and 
were a great eyesore to their elders. Pa-chi-ta, a Karok chief at Scott’s 
Bar, told me that in this dance red paint was used for the first time in their 
history as a symbol of war. Two poles were planted in the ground, «pirally 
