480 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



•;. 1884. 



rice of the bark cm a cot 

 (the e-nis-kim), and with it a few 

 re hud u buffalo rubbed himself. And 

 d and dared not go past the tree, And 

 beautiful song, and the woman stood 

 vheu it had finished, it said: "Take me 

 When it is dark call all the people and 

 wsoug. Pray, too, that you may not 

 iay come, and when it is once more 

 glad." So the woman took the 

 it to her husband, idling him all 

 le evening all the people came and 

 •ed, aud while it was yet dark they 

 . Many came, and the sound of 

 under, and as toon as it was day 

 t and killed many fat cows, and the 



LIFE AMONG THE BLACKFEET. 



BY .1. WILT.AIID SCHCLTZ. 

 SIXTH PAPER. 



THE religion of the Blackfeet is a strange mixture of three 

 Stagesof rnythologic philosphy. It consists of remnants 

 of HeoastotJmwn, a complete Zoothmm, and, to a certain 

 extent, PhysitJievSM. 



So far as the writer knows, only three inanimate things 

 are woi snipped now by the Blackfeet, but there is conclusive 

 evidence that their religion was once pre eminently hecasto- 

 theistic, lhal is, that they worshipped trees, rivers, moun- 

 tains, rocks, in fact, all inanimate things. There is a certain 

 fossil found in the bluffs along the rivers which is much the 

 shape of the buffalo. It is called e-nls -kim, buffalo rock, 

 and is worshipped by all. It is Sometimes hung on the neeks 

 of little children as a necklace, but is more frequently de- 

 posited in the "medicine" sacks of the "medicine men." 

 The legend of it is as follows: 



Lnug ago. in the winter time, the people were starving, 

 for no buffalo could be lound. The young men went out to 

 hunt every day, but not even a poor old bull could ihcy 

 find. They waited aud waited for the buffalo to come, 

 saying: "Surely they will be here to-morrow," but they did 

 not COme; aud at last the people were so hungrv and weak 

 that they could uot move the camp, Now, one dny a young 

 married man killed a jack rabbit, and he hastened home and 

 said to one of his wives: "Go quickly now aud get some 

 water; we will cook this rabbit and eat it." When the. 

 young woman was going down the path to the river she 

 heard something singing, and she looked about to see what 

 it Was. There, jammed i 

 ton-wood tree, was 

 buffalo hate, for tl: 

 the woman was afiri 

 the e-nis-kim sung 

 and listened. And when 

 to your lodge, and who 

 teach them to sing my so 

 starve: that the buffalo n: 

 day your hearts will be 

 e-nis-kim home and auve 

 that had occurred. In tl 

 learned the sonar and pv;n 

 heard the buffalo coming 

 their running was like t'n 

 light the hunters went on 

 peoples' hearts were glad. 



Another object of hecnslothcistie worship is a large red 

 and white colored rock lying on the side of a hill some five 

 miles above Fort Conrad on the Marias River, It was once 

 on the very top of the hill, but successive raining seasons 

 have gradually washed the loose soil from under it, so thai 

 each year it moves down a few feet. The Blackfeet regard 

 this as a supernatural power and consequently worship it. 

 Seldom does ouc pass by it without making it a present of a 

 bracelet, or string of beads, or something of more or iess 

 value. 



The middle butte of the Sweet Grass hills is also wor- 

 shipped. The worship, however, partakes more of fear than 

 veneration. It is said that if any one happens to crimp by it, 

 that it will appear to him in his dreams and ask him for a 

 woman, promising in payment some of the game which is so 

 plentiful on its slopes. Camps are never pitched at its base, 

 and any one hunting about it must make it a present. 



It is not unlikely that there are more objects of Blackfool; 

 hecastotbeistic worship than the ones given above, but as yet 

 the writer is unacquainted with them. 



Zootheism forms an important part of the Blackfoot re- 

 ligion. Still, the animal gods hold but a secondary place 

 among the wonderful being's, the rulers of the universe. Each 

 Indian has his own secret god, either an animal or a star, or 

 constellation of stars. Having arrived at .the age when he 

 may go on the warpath, each young man goes out on the 

 prairie or to some lonelv spot by himself, and then fasts for 

 four days and four nights. Whatever be dreams of, as he 

 lies in a half insensible state, he takes for his god, for his 

 secret helper. But the Blackpool's prayers are not directly 

 to this secret helper. The wonderful animal which he takes 

 for his own god is not directly asked to fulfill his wishes. 

 Animals are supposed to be much nearer the supreme gods 

 (the Sun, Moon, Old Man, and the Stars) then mortal man, 

 and the secret helper is implored to ask the supreme gods to 

 grant whatever the Indian may pray for. 

 " Of the physillicistie gods, the Sun stands at the head: next 

 to him in power is bis wife, Ike Moon, and after them the 

 Morning Star, their son, named E-pI-su-ahts— early riser. In 

 the mythic tales which will close this paper, the reader will 

 find accounts of the doings of the wonderful animal gods 

 and bright people of the sky. 



The soul, that part of the person which never dies, is sup- 

 posed by a Blackfoot to be his shadow. After death this 

 shadowleaves the body and travels to the Saud Hills, a large 

 barren tract of prairie some thirty miles doyonrl the sweet- 

 grass hills Here, living in lodges which are not visible to 

 the mortal eye, are all the Blackfeet who ever lived on earth 

 Their daily occupations are the same as the 

 on earth. " "Still." said an old fellow to mi 

 life-for-uothing life it must be. Their bone: 

 on them, their horses aud dogs 

 horses, aud they hum, kill and 



died in a few hours. The reason assigned I'oi its death was 

 thai the ghost of one of the fallen Crees had shot it. 



Every person, after death, is supposed to go to the Sand 

 Hills. "The good and the bad are both certain to go. The 

 "happy hunting grounds" of another world are unknown to 

 the Black! cet Their idea of a future life is a dreary, ever- 

 lasting make-believe existence, a pantomime of the life in 

 this world. 



Disease is supposed to be caused by the many evil ghosts 

 wlu'ch are constantly hovering shout, seeking an'opportunity 

 to take life. These ghosts have many ways of causing 

 death Sometimes they shoot their invisible arrows; some- 

 times they cause small, 'unseen animals to enter persons and 

 eat their vital parts; again, they kill by degrees, causing one 

 to suffer and linger for a long time in gnat agony, and 

 sometimes they commence at the feet and kill one slowly, 

 every day killing up toward the body a little further until 

 death at "last ensues. 



When a person dreams, the Blackfeet believe that his 

 shadow has in reality been away from his body and actually 

 participated in the acts of which he has dreamed. The 

 dream is thought to he a special gift from the gods, thus en- 

 abling man to look forward into the future and ward off any 

 danger I hat may be threatening him, If a man dreams that 

 he has seen a person long since dead, he immediately on 

 king makes a present to the gods, entreating them to 

 drive the death ghosts away. If he dreams of anything good, 

 he also makes" a present to the gods, to pay them for t lie 

 good fortune which they may give him. Thus, no matter of 

 what one dreams about, it is sure to be interpreted either for 

 guild or bad. 



[TO BE CONTINCT3D.] 



th, 



■sued 

 what a 

 have no meat 

 onlv skeleton clogs and 

 ikeleton buffalo. But," 



continued the old fellow, "how useless it must be to eat only 

 what looks like the shadow of meat." 



Before death the shadow is called kwu-tuck; alter death it 

 takes the form of the skeleton and is then named slit-au. 

 Although the Sand Hills are the homes of the many dead, the 

 StS-auks, or, as we may translate it, the ghosts, do not always 

 live there. They have tin power to come and go unseen, 

 and often visit the spots which were dear to them, and it is 

 thought that they are always present at a death to lead the 

 new ghost to his future home. A ghost also is capable of 

 avenging any wrong Which may have been done to him 

 before death, Sometimes he will come and whistle over the 

 lodge of any one he hates; sometimes he shoots invisible 

 arrows, which quickly kill any one whom they may hit. 

 Enemies, who have been killed and scalped, are thought to 

 be specially invested with this power of shooting invisible 

 arrows. Not long ago the Cree Indians made a raid on the 



.!■■■ belonging to this place, and in the light which ensued 

 two of them were killed and scalped by the Blackfeet. A 

 few days since, a little child — belonging to one of the Black- 

 feet who were in tile fight— was taken suddenly sick and 



SHOOTING IN SWEDEN— III. 

 'T'HE coachman whipped up the horses. The ladies waved 

 JL us adieu from the hospitable porch. We rattled over 

 the stone bridge by the old stone mill aud stretched away 

 across country for six miles over a eood macadamized road. 

 Stone walls Hanked the road on either side, and cliffs of cold 

 gray granite rose abruptly everywhere from the level fields 

 green with winter rye. Then we turned squarely to the left, 

 mid over a by road "drove out on a peninsula that juts into 

 the stormy Cattegat,, and pulled up in the square court-yard 

 of an old Swedish farmer's residence. 



The old farmer was blessed with eight stalwart sons, all 

 men gTOwn, all over six feet tall, all with blue eyes aud 

 flaxen hair, and all living at home with him. 



Two of these voung aiauts went with us to the rockv 

 shore. The wind" was blowing; half a hale. The wave's 

 beat spitefully against the strand. All over the sea I he 

 white caps came toppling toward us, aud long streaks of 

 foam Stretched away to windward. No, the boat woidd uot 

 live in that sea with six of us on board; they would go up 

 into the cove aud row out the "Pram." 



And soon, far up the shallow cove, we saw the young 

 vikings splashing along in the knee-deep water, towing and 

 shoving a great lumbersonie lighter. Big enough it was tt 

 cross the Atlantic, so we defied the waves of the Cattegat. 

 and after a hard pull with the clumsy oars the vikings rowed 

 us over to the island of Balgo. 



Tliis island is abmi! ■100 acres in extent, it lies a mile off 

 the southwest coast of Sweden near the town of Warhcrg. 

 aud is the property of Alfrid Bexell, Esq., whose guest I 

 was, and who accompanied me to the island. With us came 

 his son. Alfrid Bexell, Jr., ft bright young lad of fifteen, and 

 his daughter Ebba, a blue-eyed girl of twelve, who scampered 

 away over the fields in front of us, her flaxen hair streaming 

 in the wind, as lithe aud graceful as a young gazelle. 



We soon reached the farmhouse, and I had occasion toad- 

 mire the two substantial barns of hewn stone, which Mr. 

 Bexell, who never does anything by halves, has just erected 

 to accommodate the increasing harvests that his superior 

 methods of cultivation are producing on Ihe island. 



Alfrid Jr., Ebba, the vikings, and several of the far 

 hands, with tin pans aud sticks in their hands, started west 

 across the island, while Mr. Bexell and I followed afield 

 down to a cove on the north. 



Some seven or eight years ago, Mr. Bexell had put some 

 hares upon Bnlgii. They had multiplied very rapidly, and 

 occasionally the proprietor ga\e his friends a rare hare hunt. 

 Such an one was to come off to-morrow, but iny host said, 

 "You are a stranger, you do not understand this hare shool- 

 ing, you must go over to Balgo with me to-day, and we will 

 have a little hunt all to ourselves, just to get your hand in . " 



So here we were. A stone wall ran across the foot of the 

 field, about forty yards from the head of the cove. Behind 

 an angle in this Vail I stationed myself, laid my cartridges 

 in a row on a smooth stone before me, and took a careful 

 view of the situation. The water in the cove was within 

 forty yards, the hares must pass within gunshot, lhal was 

 certain. Thirty yards away, running parallel with the water 

 and the course the hares must come, was a dilapidated stone 

 wall built of large boulders. From me to the old stone wall 

 was a green sward, that would be easy shooting; but beyond 

 I must catch them at snap shots between the boulders. Luck- 

 ily a large gap in the old wall was nearly opposite me, where 

 a'brook from the field rippled down to the sea. So 1 crouched 

 behind the angle of the wall and waited. A little way off 

 my host sat on the stone wall, and smoked his cigar as coolly 

 as'Gc-n. Grant on the eve of battle. He had no gun; lie 

 never shoots, but a great lover of shooting is he all the same. 



Now a hare appears on the crest of the upland pasture to 

 the west, cocks himself up on a knoll, raises himself bolt 

 upright, like a kangaroo, cocks his ears, bends them forward, 

 wheels aim gallops'baek again out of sight like a flash, evi- 

 dently not pleased with his reconnoissauce. Three more 

 hares" go through this same evolution. The wind was How- 

 ins strongly from me to them. Did they smell me? 



But -.now" from afar we hear the distant beating of the tin 

 pans, and the shouts of the drivers. Down the hillside leaps 

 a hare and with ears flattened back on his neck gallops across 

 the green sward and by me like the wind. I give him an al- 

 lowance of nearly his own length aud pull trigger. He turns 

 a somersault and' lies feel up stone dead. 



Now another seutiles by beyond the old wall, a snapshot 

 tumbles him into the brook, 'At, the report five hare- leaping 

 down the hillside, turned and scampered back in very truth, 

 "for ciear life." But "clatter, clatter," -'1111110! hullo!" ever 

 Bearer come the drivers, with little Ebba's clear child's voice 

 Sounding high above the din. 



Aud now scamper, scamper the Laies shoot by like woolly 

 Shuttles darting through the warp of rocks. Hang! bang! 

 load and fire, it was hot work. Fast as 1 could cram in toe 

 cartridges, the hares came faster. In shooting one, there 

 would scamper by five, but I laid them out on the green 

 sward, beyond the wall, in the brook, past Hie brook, alj 



around, everywhere I piled rhemup tor two burning minutes, 

 and then the drivers were up with us aud the shoot was over. 

 Mr. Bexell continued to smoke his cigar sitting on the stone 

 wall. Hastening to him and dashiug my hat on the ground, 

 Ijrraspedbis hand and heartily thanked him for the best 

 shoot I had ever enjoyed. '*Wo never saw a man who could 

 load and fire as fast as you," ;-aid the drivers. Pick- 

 ing up the hares they laid them in a row on the ..trass; fifteen 

 there were, a pretty' sight. Young Alfrid picked up my 

 empty shells. There were twenty, three had required the 

 second barrel. 1 had missed but two clean. 



tint as my host and 1 stood talking a hare came bouncing 

 along from the east, and looking up I saw Mr. Bexell hail 

 prepared a surprise for me, and that the men were driving 

 the eastern pasture. Running under cover of the stone wall 

 I pulled myself again into shooting trim, and bowled over 

 nine more brown beauties as they came leaping by. The 

 men had their hands full. Twenty-four hares they" carried 

 across the field to the house. Time of shooting, three- 

 quarters of an hour. It was concentrated sport. 



Several of the hares weighed <! pounds, one weighed 10, 

 and one noble fellow brought down the scales to ll-i pounds. 

 And this was the little hunt all by ourselves just to get my 

 hand in. 



On the morrow, October li". 1883, the grand hunt came 

 oil'. Bight guns were in line, the whole island was driven 

 twice by about thirty drivers, and we shot sixty-six hares. 

 But the Sport lacked the romance, the beauty ami the fresh 

 ness of the day before, when my host sat, anil smoked on the 

 wall, the flaxen hair of his fair daughter blew out among the 

 drivers on the hill, and the hares scattered like mad over the 

 narrow- pass between the stone wall and the sea. 



That evening Ihere was a grand dinner party at, Gi'augt- 

 garden, the hospitable country scat of the Bexells. The 

 priest and all the magnates of Warberg were there, aud a 

 jolly night we had of if. America aud Sweden wee toasted 

 in "honorable terms, and with three rousing cheers, and 

 "Vart Land" and the "Star Spangled Banner weiesungin 

 full chorus. 



Nexl morning I bade F<h-r:n to my kind friends and drove 

 to the railway station, As werattled through the poital, 

 the American flag which had been tl\ iug during my visit in 

 honor of my country, was lowered Iron) its staff in the 

 center of the pretty garden, and my shooting for 18X3 WAS 

 over. 



Mr. Alfrid Bexell owns not only the estate of Qoingegar- 

 den of TOO acres, but also some ten miles away the estate of 

 Thorstorp. some 8,500 acies in extent. He was born in 

 Sweden, but lie is an American for all that, for the true 

 American spirit of manly independence, and the will and 

 work that conquers every obstacle is within him. He is the 

 architect of his own fortunes, and has risen to be one of the 

 leading agriculturists of Ihe kingdom. 



He Was one of the first to discover aud make use of marl 

 in tlie agriculture of Sweden. A large area of the country 

 lies a desolate moor, covered with heather, producing noth- 

 ing. Mr. Bexell found out lhal marl, while a fertilizer to 

 useful crops, was the destroyer, of heather. He at once and 

 at large expense built fine macadamized roads liom his marl 

 pits to his most distant heather hills. Over these roads he 

 hauls many thousand loads of marl every year, and is bring- 

 ing hundreds of acres of waste land into Crop. 



"Where the heather land is too stony for any possible gralu 

 Or grai 8, there he plauts forest trees, and in a few years Mr. 

 Bexell will turn a vast area of heathery moor into crop or 

 forest. 



If he be "a benefactor to the human race who causes two 

 blades of grass to grow where but one grew before." surely 

 Alfrid Bexell, Esep of Gbingegnrden and Thorstorp is a true 

 philanthropist. 



And now when the snow is deep outside my windows in 

 Ibis capital of the Northland, how pleasant it is to look back 

 upon the scenes ami friends of brown. October— upon the 

 davsal Thorstorp, where voung Alfrid and I kepi bachelors' 

 hall, and went afield together, not forgetting on bright 

 moonlit evening when Miss Bexell. a tall, graceful maid of 

 seventeen summers, galloped ten miles over the hills on her 

 favorite steed to bring us our mail. And then the davs at 

 Gbingcgardcn. where .Mrs. Bexell presided with such a 

 motherly, New England era. a- over the household, and 

 where all conspired to make ihe American feel that he was 

 no longer a stranger in a strange land, Aud c veil now I see 

 ihe hares, with ears pressed back, galloping wildly past me 

 at Balgo, and turning a leaping somersault at every shot. 

 Rest quietly in your case, good old gunofmino; the good 

 days of brown October will come again, ami L\aylagain 

 inc. t my generous friends of GOingegard. a, M \i:si ua.mc 



SAVE THE AD1RONDACKS. 



mtor Fweal and $fream; 



i note with great pleasure the importance your paper is 

 placing upon the crying necessity of legislative action to 

 preserve from further destruction the grand forests of the 

 Adirondack region. I do not write this to suggest means, 

 or to argue the constitutionality of the means suggested by 

 notable political journals of the Stale— for example, tlie 

 Utica Herald — for the accomplishment of this purpose; but, 

 so far as my opinion may go, to urge that tlie FoKES* ash 

 STREAM keep this matter before the great army of its read 

 ers, a large number of whom reside in Ihe Empire State, 

 until they shall realize more keenly than now that something 

 must be done, and so bring their Influence to bear upon 

 the Legislature thiswinter at Albany, which shall accomplish 

 this result. I know what i,-: the commercial value of thc- 

 woods in lumber, and as a u-sei voir of supply lor the Erie 

 Canal, the Hudson River, and all those streams, great and 

 small, whose source is in this region. Still, I speak from 

 (lie standpoint of one who would like to see the Adirrm- 

 daek.s left as they are; for a place where a camp-fire can be 

 built out of hearing of any steam-whistle; where the seeker 

 after rest and grand scenery may. catch his own trout and 

 bag his own venison for many years to conic. I am not a 

 but 1 enjoy sport with rod and rifle, and each 

 summer finds me somewhere in the forest gaining what doc- 

 tors cannot furnish; living in sublime indifference to the 

 conventionalities of life: counting it grand luck if trout and 

 deer keep Out of camp that (to mesaljoiniualion -salt pork — 

 and this within forty miles of where t am writing. There 



ii ol i lie wilderness each year. Let the culling ol lim 



ii and the granting of lands, and building of roads 



and "railroads continue ten years longer and the Adirondack^ 

 Will be a barren waste, stripped of limber and void of game— 

 a tract of valueless country. 



The commercial value of the woods, as a reservoir 

 IS vastly more than that of tile timber were every tree big 

 enough for a hoop pole cut away. It is lo be hoped that our 



