The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-01-21
THE INDIAN DEVIL

dread most the Loup Garou. Of wild
beasts dread most the Indian devil.
Neither bullet nor knife will save you
from the first, thy faith in the Great
Father alone availing; but for the sec
ond keep bullet cartridge ever hancy
In your belt, and know that your knife
is smooth in It's sheath"
Thus spoke old Moon-Eye, the Mali
sect, to his half breed grandson.
Antoine listened attentively, with his
clear eyes on the red, wrinkled face of
She aged chief. Below them, at the foot
of the bluff and beyond the gray
single, ran the river, laughing. An
tome loved the river-she was mis-
tress and comrade to him. The angry
thunder of falls, the chatter of rapids
and the lullaby of quiet reaches were
the music of his quiet dreams. Greater
even than his regard for the sayings of
love for the beautiful Tobique. Greater
even than his RECORD for the sayings of
bis grandsire was his belief in the
things that the river told him.
Moon-Eye had once been the poet OF
his tribe. The French songs of the
elder Antoine had been called good by
many rough, gay trappers end fur
traders at many camp fires. And now the
lad Antoine, with what scholarship the
priest had impaired to him, had pu.
down with ink upon paper some ofthe
philosophy Of the river and some OF the
secrets OF the forests.
He will be great poet some day."
said the old priest to Moon-Eye, "for
his verses run with music of white stars
and swift waters, and in his heart he is
beginning to know what God once
sang to nature"
Dangers Turk everywhere, awaiting
MS like gray wolves, and l know not
what to warn him against" replied the
Indian. He cut few shreds of tobacco
and rolled them in his palm. 'Once,"
he continued, when my eyes were
clearer, could see beyond the morrow,
and even beyond many days, but the
Great Father has allowed little smoke
to blow across my face, and now /
know only what see before me as far
as the river"
"Yet He has been merciful God TO
you," said the priest.
"Yea," replied the other, ''when Clote-
scarp stood aloof He sheltered us with
His hand, as with blanket of soft
skins"
These things were said in the fall Of
the year, when the river had wonder
full blue magic and the trees were of
many glorious colors. In mid-winter
the priest died, and old Moon-Eye
grieved bitterly for his white friend,
until April broke the ice on the river
and called back the gray geese, and
then he followed to that hunting
ground that has no returning trail.
Antoine's parents had died during his
infancy, and now he was left alone with
the river and the trees. Sometimes,
when he awoke in the night hours and
could hear nothing but the ice and
water swirling past the foot of the
bluff and the whisper Of the wings
going north over his roof, a horrible
dread of things unseen would come to
him.
What the dark things were that
crowded against his soul in the night
watches he never knew. Perhaps that
low footing at his door was the Loup
Garou and not the wind. Could that
cry from afar of be the cry of the
great panther of the north, the Indian
devil. and not the laughter of the loon
One night, when little wind fingered
the uneven shingles of his roof, he
arose, trembling, and slipped cart
ridge into his shotgun. But dawn came.
and then the sun again, and fear slid
away from the sheen of the merry
river.
1t befell that in middle May three In
dians landed their two canoes at the
foot of the bluff and spent night
with Antoine. They were good men.
from settlement on the great river
st. John, into which the Tobiqnc runs.
and which, in its turn, goes down into
Fundy. They were sad upon hearing
of the death of their old chief, Noon
Eye.
They questioned the half breed about
the forests, particularly about those
places where the white birch trees
grow.
"Come with us, Antoine, and help us
in the padding and in the gathering
of canoe bark, and we will pay You
q fit wage" said the leader of the
three.
So Antoine carried his own canoe
into the cabin and nailed up the door,
and with his few books and hiA tawling