Pushmatahaw [pp. 166-168]

166 APPETONIS'JO UJ?NL OF POULAR [AGUST 6
so dark that she seemed not fair to somebody? Polly Ann's toilet
will be made on the morrow, but that part of it which consumes the
greatest amount of time is performed overnight. This is the har.
The hair has always been a most important part of feminine attractiveness, and the object of careful study with women, from the day
when Juno, about to assume the cestus of Venus,
"... arranged the lustrous curls
Ambrosial, beautiful, that clustering hung
Round her immortal brow,"
as Mr. Blant tells us in his translation of the "Iliad," to the time
when Hetty Sorrel surveyed in the "small, red-framed, shilling looking-glass" her hyacinthine tresses (see " Adam Bede "); but it is quite
certain that neither the Queen of Olympus nor the rustic beauty of
Hayslope had half the trouble with her chevelure that Polly Ann encounters. Remark the coarse, wide-toothed, wooden comb with
which she is endeavoring to get the kinks out of the refractory wool
by help of the refracting rather than reflecting bit of broken lookingglass and the gulittering tallow candle! See, also, the chignon on the
floor, composed of horse-hair or sofa-stuffing, which is to crown the
whole when the task is done. We cannot wait for the finishing touch,
though we can anticipate the complacent soliloquy with which it will
be given: " Dar, now! Sam ain't been see nuffin like dat, I'spects,
no whar."
Good-night, Polly Ann.
PUSHMATAHAW.
T is now just forty-six years since a delegation of chiefs of the
Choctaw nation waited upon Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of
War, on matters of business connected with the welfare of their
people. After several interviews, and the business had been finished,
the secretary threw aside his official dignity, and had a long and familiar talk with the chiefs, on topics of mutual interest. Among other
things, he said to them that, as they were all reputed to be the great men
of their tribe, he would like to have them tell him how they had acquired
their influence and fame. All eyes were at once turned upon the head
of the delegation, but he pointed to the youngest man present to begin
with his story, and intimated that he himself would "close the debate." All the chiefs present then proceeded in turn, and briefly recounted the leading events of their lives, the main idea of their several
speeches seeming to be, that all their ancestors were very distinguished
people. In due time the head chief of the delegation stood up in his
place, and uttered these words:
" Pushmatahaw never had a father nor a mother. A little cloud
was once seen inthe northern sky. It came before a rushing wind,
and covered the Choctaw country with darkness. Out of it flew the
angry fire. It struck a large oak, and scattered its limbs and its trunk
all along the ground, and from that spot sprung forth a warrior fully
armed for war; and that man was Pushmatahaw." It is the history
of this man that we now propose to record, and our principal authority for what follows is Peter Pitchlynn, the Choctaw chief, whose
father, John Pitchlynn, was an intimate friend of the warrior during
the long period that he held the position of interpreter in the Choctaw nation.
Pushmatahaw was born in what is now the State of Mississippi,
about the year 1764, and he distinguished himself on the war-path
before he had obtained his twentieth year. He joined an expedition
against the Osages on the western side of the Mississippi, and, because
of his youth and propensity for talking, he was a good deal laughed at
by the more experienced men of the party. Every night, after making their camp-fires, some of the more fluent warriors were wont to
deliver speeches touching their intended movements, and the boy'warrior did not hesitate to express his views and intentions; but the
older men shook their heads in derision. In due time the war party
reached the Osage country, and a desperate fight soon occurred. It
lasted nearly a whole day, and, when concluded by the defeat of the
Osages, it was whispered around that the boy had disappeared early in
the conflict, and he was condemned as a coward. At midnight he rejoined his friends at their rendezvous, and they jeered him to his face
for running away. To this he made reply by saying: "Let those
laugh who can show more scalps than I can," whereupon he took from
his pouch no less than five scalps, and threw them upon the ground.
They were the result of a flank movement which he had made, singlehanded, on the rear of the enemy. From that night they looked upon
the young warrior as a great man, and gave him the name of the
Eagle.
His second expedition to the west was for the bDarmless purpose of
hunting buffaloes, but met with an unexpected termination. While roaming on the head-waters of the Red River, he and his party of one hundred were attacked by a band of five hundred Toranqua Indians, and
although several of his companions were killed, and he lost his favorite cap-which was ornamented with eagles' feathers and the rattles of
the rattlesnake-he made his escape into the borders of Mexico,where
he spent several years with the Mexican Indians. On his return to his
own country he went alone in the night to a Toranqua village, where
he killed seven men with his own hand, set fire to several tents, and
made his retreat uninjured.
For a few months afterward he tried hard to lead a quiet life
among his own people, but the old spirit of revenge still rankled in his
breast; and, as he could always count upon any number of followers,
during the next two years he performed three expeditions into the
Toranqua country, and added eight fresh scalps as a fringe to his war
costume. The Toranquas, or Man-eaters, were so named because they
sometimes indulged in cannibalism, and our hero, because of his success in fighting them, came to be known among his own people, as the
Man.-eater. Once, on being questioned as to the secret of his success
in fighting, he simply replied:
"I scare them first, and then I whip them."
Passing over about fifteen years of his life, in regard to which we
know nothing that merits special notice, we find him, in 1810, boasting that his name was Pushmatahaw, or "the warrior's seat is finished," and enjoying the reputation of being a famous bill-player. He
was then living on the Tombigbee, and while engaged in a national
game, which kept him away from home for several days, a party of
Creek Indians visited his cabin and burned it to the ground. His
blood-thirsty nature was at once roused, and, summoning his most
faithful friends, he suddenly invaded the Creek country, killing many
of these new enemies and destroying much of their property. He
travelled with such rapidity, and performed such desperate deeds,
that he became a terror to the entire tribe; and this agreeable pastime
he kept up until the commencement of the English and American
war of 1812, when he promptly took sides with the United States.
The council which decided the course of the Choctaws lasted ten
days. All the warriors and leading men were for neutrality excepting
John Pitchlynn the interpreter and Pushmatahaw. Up to the last
day he had not uttered a word, but at that time he made the following
speech: "The Creeks were once our friends. They have joined the
English and we must now follow different trails. When our fathers
took the hand of Washington, they told him the Choctaws would
always be the friends of his nation, and Pushmatahaw cannot be false
to their promises. I am now ready to fight against both the English
and the Creeks. I have seventeen hundred men, who are willing and
ready for battle. You who may wish to do so, can stay at home and
attend to the pots. I and my warriors are going to Tuscaloosa, and
when you hear from us again the Creek fort will be in ashes." And
his prophecy was duly fulfilled. It was some months before this
period that the great prophet of the Shawnees, Tecumseh's brother,
visited the Southern Indians, and tried to mass them together against
the United States. He craved an audience with Pushmatahaw, and
was permitted to attend a council at a spot in what is now Noxaby
County. In the course of his speech he said that the earthquake which
had lately occurred was the Great Spirit stamping his foot upon the
ground; that it was a signal for all the Indians to begin war against
the Americans, whose powder would not burn; and that after the victory they were sure to gain; the buffaloes would come back again into
their country. Pushmatahaw made this reply: "Every word you
have uttered is a lie. You are a prophet, but there are other prophets
beside yourself. The cause of the earthquake no prophet can tell. If
it had any meaning, it was a signal for Pushmatahaw and all his warriors to rush at once upon the English and all the enemies of the
United States. If you were not my guest, I would make you feel my
tomahawk. I advise you to leave this country at once."
The Creeks and Seminoles allied themselves to the British. Pushmatahaw made war upon them with such energy and success that the
whites gave him the title of the Indian G(eneral, which he and his
people considered a decided advance on his previous titles of warrior,
hunter, man-eater, and ball-player. It was while helping the American cause, and playing the part of a general that he one day struck
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