Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-20
THE OLDEST M

THE OLDEST WOMAN.
Conceal, But is Proud of Her Longevity
The Plant of Life.
We were ushered into a rudely con-
structed stone Building of greater di.
mansions than those before visited in
the village. 1t was almost dark inside
and the room was i'll smelling and
close. When our eyes became accus.
toned to the dim light we saw a skin.
clad figure kneeling in one corner OF
the room and engaged in breaking light
sticks of wood into small faggots. We
were told that it vas a woman whom
the chief had brought us to see, and
that she had not noticed our approach,
being blind and deaf. The chief placed
mis- hand on her shoulder and'she Slowly
turned around. / could now see quite
plainly and was at once struck with q
feeling of responsiveness almost akin to
the horror one feels toward visions seen
in a nightmare, when her hideous face
and blank, sunken eyes met my gaze.
Her face was of a greenish-yellow
color, and what little there was left of
flesh or skin chung to her bones as
though stuck there by some adhesive
compound. 1t bore a parched, desic-
Gated appearance, like the outer flesh
of a mummy. The lower jaw, which
was devoid of teeth, obtruded consid-
erably beyond the angle of her sharp,
hooked nose. Her arms appeared to
be almost bare of any tleshy tissue and
the skin covering them was dry and
hard. I could scarcely believe that the
breath OF life could find a lodging in
such a corpse-like tenement. The
woman was. however, able to move
about with the assistance of a young
girl who attended her, and could, when
feeling her best, walk without any sup
port for q quarter of a mile, or more,
having repeatedly made such distances
in that n within the past year"
"And what is her age?"
81 reserved that" said the doctor.
with q half-smile. ''until you should in
quire, because I thought you might be
rather incredulous if I told you at the
start that she had attained her n
hundred and eighty-second year last
June. 1t is, nevertheless, a fact, as L
am most credibly informed and most
solemnly believe. This places her two
years beyond the reputed age Of the
patriarch Isaac at the time of his death.
and she must have first seer the light
in 1902, or seventy-four wears before
the signing of the Declaration of indie.
pendence."
"Did you learn her name?"
"Ihe people of the village call her
Watsuma. She has only one living
relative, a great grandson, who IS
eighty-six years of age"
elbow has the record of her wears
been kept?"
SIN the .immemorial fashion of this
tribe-by punching small round holes
in a piece of smoothly polished horn at
the end of each twelve-month. T ex-
pressed a desire to see the record of
Watsuma's age. At first she was very
backward about producing it, but
finally directed her young attendant in
a slow, hoarse speech to go and bring
it to her, which was done, and then
without allowing us to take it from her
bony fingers, she held it up for our in
spection. The one hundred and eighty
two holes were counted by our won
dering party and. the ancient relic was
replaced in its position in an inner re-
cess in the wall of the hovel. We were
then led out of the room and along the
crooked roadway, on each side of which
arose the rough dwellings of the ma
tives. We had frequently remarked
the ancient appearance of many of
these buildings, some of them locking
as though they were about to tumble
into masses of ruins, and were told that
the Oldest had stood there for nearly
two centuries, having, of course. been
often repaired or partially restored.
The chief offered to conduct us to the
abodes of other aged people of the
tribe, but as he admitted that in Muskee
and Watsuma we had seer the oldest
inhabitants of the place, we thanked
him kindly for the courtesy he had
shown us and Withdrew b our camp
on the hillside, about a mile from the
village.
"On our way down the valley next
day u Moqui boy confided to me
what he declared to be the secret of the
wonderful longevity among the Wa
koyas. His Indian sagaaty had led
him to do a little detective work from,
clues thrown out by some of the young
members of the tribe, and he told me
that he had discovered that the Wa
koyas were in the. habit of making a
kind of tea from the yellow pods gath
cred from a small plant called the
tepruk, or teprook, indigenous to the
region. He described the plant, and
we had no difficulty in finding numer-
Gus specimens of it on our journey
toward the canyon. 1t has a wiry
stem, varying in length, when full
grown, from Six to ten inches in differ
ent plants, and has five long leaves and
a yellowish pod about two inches in
length and a little thicker than a COM
mon lead-pencil. l have thoroughly
tested the virtues of the plant, and do
not hesitate to say that it is among the
least valuable Of the flora of this coast.
Like other Indian superstitions, the
belief in the wonderful life-giving
properties of the plant may be tradi-
tional with the Wakoyas, but our phar-
macopmia can not utilize it to advan-
tage among enlightened people. l am
inclined to think that it is on account
of their faith in this or some other herb
that the tribe has separated from the