Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/37

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COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES

tor>- was celebrated. Notices of these feasts were sent to the wigwams and to the friendly tribes by means o f a runner, who bore small pieces o f painted wood. H e would give the date and program verbally. When the feast occurred the bucks, squaws and young Indians would sit around the hres, on which were boil­ ing the kettles o f green com, juicy venison, bear meat, fat coon and hominy. W arriors and squaws dressed in their best, and the occa­ sion w as one o f vast ceremonial. Each was provided with a wooden bowl and a spoon of bone or metal, and they helped themselves whenever the food had been cooked to their notion. None but the w arriors participated in the wild excitement of the w ar dance, but the youths were allowed to look on in order to prepare for their later initiation, which was severe and nerve-testing. There were other dances in which the young and old joined with loud shoutings, the clangor o f tomtoms and other rude instruments; winding dances with intricate figures; wild square dances, in which the maiden might show her preference for the favorite hunter; and these dances often were continued alt night by the light of the blazing camp fires. The sports and pastimes of the savages were in character more in the w ay o f preparation fo r and incentive to the objects and pursuits of their life, and consisted o f running and canoe races, jumping, wrestling, shooting, throwing the tomahawk, and, in the days be­ fore the introduction o f firearms, o f practice with the bow and arrow. Football was a very* popular game, the excitement lasting some­ times for days and involving the entire village in the sport. FISH IN G AND HUNTING

The Susquehanna and the streams flowing into it were the favorite spawning and feeding waters for the choice varieties of the different fishes native to this section, and during the cool months the Indians speared them and trapped them in wicker baskets and nets. The younger people had great sport in following the larger fish in the shoals and rapids and killing them with spears and arro w s; and in winter they cut holes in the ice and through them speared the finny denizens of the stream. Trapping of animals was the most profitable pursuit followed. It was a good school for the youths, furnished employment for the old or disabled men, and gave the braves the means wherewith to supply themselves with neces­

saries and hnery from the traders. It some­ times happened, when the season was favorable and game was plenty, that the whole tribe would devote the winter to the traps, which were located at all favorable points along the trails and streams, sometimes occupying a ter­ ritory o f thirty miles in circumference. Bea­ ver, otter and bear skins were the most val­ uable, but the skins o f muskrats, mink, weasels and other small game also were not rejected. T he great abundance o f game in the woods, (he nch soil o f tKe valleys in which were located the villages, provided an unfailing source o f supply to the savages. Knowledge o f woodcraft and of the habits of the birds and beasts of the forest was the first requi­ site fo r existence in .savage life, and in this the Indians excelled. They had expedients for every emergency. One great accomplish­ ment was the ability to imitate the notes and calls of the birds and the cries of the beasts of the forest. W arriors used these calls in their forays, and the first white settlers soon learned to suspect the cry o f a bird if sounded at an unusual time. WARS AND FORAYS

T h e war party w'as the most carefully organ­ ized band that left a village, the numbers o f which it w as composed depending upon the character of the expedition. One or two braves might start on a bushwhacking or scalping expedition of their own, or a band o f five or six might start out to destroy some isolated cabins and massacre the inmates. Larger parties were made up to attack the scttiraients. When starting out all the braves donned the warpaint and oiled their bodies, then formed into a single line and marched through the village singing w ar songs. Ju st before leaving the limits of the village a salute would 1)C fired, but from that time until the attack w as made not a sound broke the still­ ness of the forest. A w ar party o f Indians could pass within a few feet of the camp of the whites or the cabins of the settlers and make not a sound or leave a single trace of their passage. T h e Indian.s' method o f fighting, which has survived even to the present day. was a sys­ tem of rapid attacks and retreats. T hey would lie in wait fo r the enemy and after a sudden attack would fall back to some other ad­ vantageous point. In the fight the whole force was formed in an irregular line, covered hy anything that the topography of the country affor<le<l. T h ev seldom met the enemv in a