Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-01-09

Inat s0meLn,ng 2cEsSso TAD happened me
cap'n stood near the wheel looking hope
lessly toward shore, and didn't even notice
me. The sea was runnin' high A heavy
gale had caught US to leeward and we had
sprung leak. Our ship was pretty fast
and we were out of sight of land. The
leak was big one and our ship was film
fast All the men were at work at the
pumps, but the water was gainin' on 'em
and they were losin' hear5 and hone
| When the cap saw me he didn't ire of and
cat-tan me. No; he just caught me by the
shoulder here and he jest looked up to
Heaven thus way, and he jest said, Thank
Godp sorter happy like.
''Then he hurried me down into the hold
and then he said somethin' TO one of the
men as was at the pumps. Tue man went
away, but he soon come back n told the cap
that all Yves right
"Then the capn took me down into the
bow of the old hulk. That's wher' she'd
sprung leak. Their was a hole bout the
size of your body on the starboard side
The cap'n, he and the man then cotched m
up, an mates, would you believe ita they
! just stuck me IN that hole up to nv
armpits, they did, blast me if they didn,ta
1t was mighty uncomfortable to me, but it
stopped the water from flowin' in. After a
while the water was all pumped out. an
then the carpenter fixed the hole For nv
part of the work the cap'n gave me free
passage, and here am.''
And then Peter Johnson closed his teeth
on an old clay pipe, nor would he open them
again to say one word in explanation of his
strange adventure
The INDIAN DEAD.
Laid to Rest in the B0ughs of Forest
Trees-The Widows Chant.
Over in the northeastern part of the
White Earth reservation is graveyard
where lie the remains of those who have
gone to the happy hunting grounds. The
original style of burial that prevailed
among The tribe before white men set foot
on the continent has been followed to some
extent. The graves are in the branches of
/ big trees. A resting place for the dead has
been made of branches and sticks half
woven together and fastened to the limb of
the tree, and on these, covered with bark,
and with bow and arrow on their breasts,
ready for use in the land of the great spirit,
| the remains are laid, high enough to be out
| of reach of wolves, if there are any, forever
and forever rocked to sleep as the wind
| blows through the grave. Sometimes, at
night, when the moon shines in the clear
! sky, an Indian woman comes from her
| tepee and sits in the shadow of the great
| oak tree that is her husbands grave and
| she sings a song-a sort of low, plaintive
chant Of sorrow for her dead. In autumn,
says the Minneapolis Tribune, when the
leaves fall from the tree, she gathers them
and takes them to her tepee, where she
makes couch for her children to sleep on. If
she passes under the grave of her dead
husband by daylight she does not look up at
it, but turns her eyes to the ground and
gives sort of mournful cry, as If she were
calling to the dead man, and had not the
| heart to look to learn if he had heard her
voice Some dozens of these graves are
scattered through the timber land ON the
reservation. Some have been there for
| years, and are covered with moss and dead
leaves Flocks of bluejays haunt the wood
where these bodies lie, and they send out
screams as mournful as the scenes around
| them all day long. 1t is a desolate spot,
| where white men seldom go, even in mid
! day, and where the only sound that breaks
| the solemn stiffness at night is the song of
! the Indian woman and the cry of hybrid
wildcat that prowls through the darkness.
Some of the Indians believe that the great
spirit comes down and protects the dead,
and when in the winter the wind makes a
creaking through the woods they say ''the
great spirit is in the trees,'' and they put
out the fires in the tepees, and, sitting
around the ashes, chant mournfully, and
sit shivering IN their blankets till the wind
! dies away or the morning dawns.