Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1888-11-03
AN EsouIMAux BATTLE.
A Fierce Engagement on the Laquenay
Between Two Northern Tribes.


/. Between Two Northern Tribes.
1--WE went into it one thousand war;
riors on side, and in either army were
twenty chiefs of fame. We fought the
light at Mamelons, where at sunset we
met the Esquimaux coming up as we
were going down. The Montaignais
whose fathers wigwams stood at Name
Ions, had fought the Esquimaux one
thousand years, and both had wrongs
to right. My father died that summer,
and /, fresh from the fields of France,
headed my tribe. You know how
small it was the last remnant of the
old Lenape root, but every man war
rior. / knew not the right or wrong
Of it, nor did / care. l only
knew our tribe was pledged to the
Nasquapees of frozen Ungava, and they
were allies of the Mountainous, and
hence the fight held us to its edge.
That night we slept under truce, but
when the sun came up, went at it. /
see that morning now. The sun from
out the eastern sea rose red as blood.
The Nasquapees, who lived as atheists
without a medicine man, cared not for
this, but the prophet of the Mountain
GERS painted his face and body black as
night, tore his blanket into shreds, and
lay in the sand as one dead. The Mas
quapees laughed, but we of the mount
aims knew by that dread sign that our
faces looked toward our last battle.
We made it a brave doom. We fought
till noon upon the shifting sands, nor
gained en- inch, nor did ourcfoes, when
suddenly the sun was clouded and a
great wind arose that drove the sand
so thickly that it hid the battle. The
firing and the shouting ceased along
the terrace where we fought,
and great, dread silence
fell on the mighty mounds,
save when the fierce gusts smote them.
Thus living and dead, friend and foe,
we lay together, our faces plunged into
the coarse gravel, our hands clutching
the rounded stones, that we might
breathe and stay until the wind might
pass, And such q wind was never
blown on man before, for it was hot
and came straight down from heaven,
so that our backs WINGED as we lay
fiattened. Thus mixed and mingled,
we chung to the hot stones, while some
of them crept in beneath the dead fol
shelter. So both armies chung to the
ground for an hours space. Then,
suddenly, the sun rushed out, and
shaking the sand from eyes and hair,
and splitting it from our mouths, at il
we went again.
"In the pauses Of the wind we
who fought on either side, heard
shrieks and shouts and tramplings as
of ten thousand feet, and over us were
roarings and blowings and hollow
noises, dreadful to hear, and through
all the battle went the word that the
old dead were fighting, tool and tina
made us wild. Both sides went mad
The dying cheered the living, and tn,
living cheered the dead So went tn,
battle-the fathers and the sons, tn,
dead and the living, hard at it. TIL,
waters Of the Saguenay, a Thousand
feet below, were beaten into foam b,
the rush Of fighting feet and the roar
ing of a great battle filed its mouth
Its dark tide whitened with strang,
death froth from shore to shore, Will
lever and anon its surface shivered an,
shook. And under us on the higl
crest, cloud wrapped, the cart
trembled as we fought, so that nor
than once as we stood clinched, W
| two, the foe and |, still grippe,
for death, would pause until tn
ground grew steady, for its trem
blings made us dizzy, then clinch tn
fiercer, mad with great madness at be
ing stopped in such death-grapple
| Under us all the long afternoon tn
! great mounds rose and sunk like wave
that have no base to stand upon. TIL
clouds showed ashes. Mud fell i
showers. The air we breathed stan
with birthstone and burned bones
And still it thickened, and still bot
sides, now but scattered few, Tough
on, until at last, with crash, as if tn
world had split apart, darkness dee
as death fell suddenly, so that eye
were vain, and we, who were not dead
unable to find the foe, stood still. An
thus the battle ended, even drawn, be
cause God stopped the fight at Name
Ions. "-The Doom Of the MamelonS.