Chief

“ Through the whole mass, we could perceive the powerful form of the chief. He was urging his steed round in the innermost circle; and above the loud din of whoops and yells, we could hear the tones of his trumpet voice, cheering his warriors onward in their wild course. ”

“ Your words are brave, the chief returned,
⁠But deeds approve the man,
Set by your men and hand to hand,
⁠We'll try what valour' can.
With dauntless step he forward strode,
⁠And dared him to the fight ”

“ The young Chief, seizing our hands, chatters forth a thousand congratulations, salutations, and messages, nearly tears us from our saddles, and demands concerning our happiness, in tones which rise high above the whooping and yelling of his followers. ”

“ A chief is an eagle, a serpent, the bull of battle, an oak; he is the strength of the ninth wave, an uplifted pillar of wrath, impetuous as the fire through a [Pg 392] chimney; the ruddy reapers of war are his desire. ”

“ The Chief assents, and for a space the group stands looking round the sunlit fields and up at the clear sky. But their thoughts are not of the beauties of the peaceful landscape. The words of the General are the key to all their thoughts. ”

“ To the household and retainers of the chief she is less interesting than the ancestor from whom the chief derives his divine lineage, or the deeds of martial prowess in which he and his immediate following take pride. The epic rhapsodist may, indeed, clothe his heroes in the dress of Nature's godship, but the personality of his chief shines through. ”

“ Having chosen his chief, he forgets himself in him, assigns to him his own glory, serves him to the death. "He is infamous as long as he lives, who returns from the field of battle without his chief." ”

“ For one is a chief of the Iroquois and a warrior whose valor will resist the torment with pride. And the other is a white chief whose tender flesh will yield great delight and whose screams will give pleasure in our ears. ”

“ The great chief has spoken well, and may his words come from his heart, for a war between his people and mine will but end in death to his braves, the destruction of their homes, the sorrow of their wives and children. The words of Sitting Bull shall be told to the great white chief of my people, and his friendship made known. The great chief has a good memory, and we are friends. ”

“ When a chief dies, certain men, who are the hereditary undertakers, takers, call him, as he lies, oiled and ornamented, on fine mats, saying, "Rise, sir, the chief, and let us be going. The day has come over the land." ”

“ The name of my new chief I had long known, for his fine person and dark flashing eye had been pointed out to me when a boy as belonging to the finest officer in the service, and his manner and conversation were all that a raw boy could hope to find in a young man, of kindness, genius, and experience. ”

“ In his moments of fatherly instruction the chief will smooth a surface with his hand, and on it trace with his fingers a mystic line—I think it must always be a continuous and unbroken line—which expresses some secret of human existence. ”

“ The acts of the chief were imitated, every man seeming to strive to outdo his fellows in the contortions of their countenances, the protrusion of their tongues, and the way in which they rolled and displayed the whites of their eyes. ”

“ The chief comes out and all together enjoy a vigorous dance. They then sit down, all but one, who praises the chief to his face. A few strings of cowries are then distributed and the procession moves on. ”

“ He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people, that were their leaders and commanders, and were most famed for their martial fire and great achievements; when any thing is to be done they are heartless, and ready to flee at the shaking of a leaf. ”

“ Let those who think that preferment, power, and applause are always the chief objects of human ambition, look now at this illustrious and yet youthful personage, cheerfully resigning his command, and without one murmur of regret for the honors laid down, or one glance towards the honors gathering before him, taking affectionate leave of his companions in arms, and their great chief, and returning to his native land, to resume there the duties he owed as a subject and member of the State, in France. ”

“ If a chief has rendered an extraordinarily praiseworthy service to his government, he is presented with a fanciful, richly ornamented umbrella, which his servant carries before him, when he walks abroad, to prevent the sun from tanning his face. ”

“ When we see him, we see a chief who knew our fathers' fathers, and their fathers' fathers. That is a long time ago. He is a tradition, and knows all things. There is only one thing about him, that ought not to be. ”

“ MY DEAR GOVERNOR:—It was ordered by the franchises of destiny that you become the chief executive of a state in which the telling of tales brightened the hunter's camp-fire and cheered the lonely pioneer's cabin before our people learned the uses of ink; and the supreme fitness of this lies in the fact that you are yourself the best of story-tellers and entitled, for your excellence in this particular, as well as for weightier reasons, to sit at the head of the table in that commonwealth to which we are both bound by many and dear ties. ”

“ Our women and all our warriors carry him here (holding out his left hand and indicating the palm with a finger of his right hand) ; he is our chief; he is our great chief; he and his brother (Long Hair) , who sits by him, are the two great chiefs of our nation. ”

“ When the office of chief was offered to him, the big man, who looked every inch a chief, instead of accepting the position at once, became deeply affected, and seemed utterly unable to make any suitable reply. ”

“ His authority is shadowy and is dependent largely, aside from wealth and family influence, on personal prowess in time of war, or on an aggressive personality. In short the prominence of the chief is all that he can make it by the arts of assertion, bargain, intrigue, wealth, display and personal prowess. ”

“ Our chief want in life, is, somebody who shall make us do what we can. ”

“ Whatever a chief among us tells his soldiers to do, is done. We obey our chiefs. We are soldiers of the great chief your father. He has told us to come out here, and see this country and all the Indians, his children. ”

“ We lay for hours in the wet fields, with the rain falling steadily, waiting for our chiefs to give the signal for the great rush. Word came round from chief to chief to be ready, and every man crouched, grasping his weapon, to run forward. ”

“ A prudent chief not always must display
His powers in equal ranks and fair array,
But with the occasion and the place comply.
Conceal his force, nay, seem sometimes to fly. ”

“ Chief of the Bearings, go up on to the Hill of Speech, and speak to the folk out of thy wisdom, and let them know that to-morrow early before the sun-rising those that may, and are not bound by the Gods against it, shall do deeds according to their might, and win rest for themselves, and new days of deeds for the kindreds. ”

“ As soon as our leader had finished, a chief of a stature superior to the common race of men, and of a most determined look, jumped into the middle of the assembly, and, taking up the belt, cried out in their language, 'Let us march, my brethren, with the young men of our great father! ”

“ Before the sun shall have reached the zenith, he, the great white Chief, accompanied by that other great man, young and vigorous then; but since grown old by toil and works of righteousness and today renewed in youth forever—he the leader whose life among us we shall soon meet to commemorate. ”

“ But this chief is not considered as the head of the state; besides the great warrior who is elected for his warlike qualifications, there is another who enjoys a pre-eminence as his hereditary right, and has the more immediate management of their civil affairs. ”

“ The office of chief is hereditary. When a chief dies, the pandita, or priest, chants a requiem, while the attendants beat a hollow piece of wood that serves as a gong. The neighbors rush in, and shout and stamp their feet while the body is sprinkled with salt. ”

“ Thee first, as chief, thou white-hair’d man.
“Your news, your news, come tell to me:
What would you of Noménoë?”
“We come for right; to know, in brief,
Hath Heaven a God,—Bretayne a chief?”
“Heaven hath a God, I trow, old man ”

“ They speak with much judgment and reason, and, when they have any important enterprise to undertake, the chief is attentively listened to for two or three hours together, and he is answered point to point, as the subject may require. ”

“ If the chief do not, in the main, conserve the qualities that are deemed befitting in the holder of the chiefship; or if he originate any measure which finds popular disfavour, his power with the people declines. ”

“ Near the great Chief, in purple robes he stood;
Sense, from his tongue, and sweet persuasion flow'd;
Round the wide plain attentive silence hung,
And thus sage counsels sway'd the listening throng. [ 830]
My voice impels to arms ”

“ He was apparently the chief, and, saluting us civilly, he soon discovered that we were human beings, and spoke to his young men, who were scattered about, and made them come in, and give up their foolish fears. ”

“ If a great chief takes an oath, he swears by the god, (laying his hand upon the consecrated bowl) ; if an inferior chief takes an oath, he swears by his superior relation, who, of. course, is a greater chief, and lays his hand upon his feet. ”

“ Then before long the Chief himself began to be proud and vain. He had conquered everyone; so he thought he was the greatest warrior in the world.
One day he boastfully said: “I can conquer anything or any person on this earth.”
Now, a certain Wise Old Woman lived in this village. She knew one whom the Chief could not conquer. She decided it was best for the Chief to know this, for he was getting too vain. So one day she went to the Chief and told him. ”

“ We have had some novelty here my dear friend, for general Closelle, who commands during the absence of the general in chief, has taken a new method to amuse the people, and courts popularity under the veil of religion. ”

“ They went to the lodge of a young chief, and when they were seated, the chief signed to New Robe: ‘My father, once a great chief, is an old man. He does not want to die of old age and long and painful illness, and he wants a chance to kill one more enemy before he dies. He wants to fight you. If he kills you, then that will be good. ”

“ Whether as captain of the eleven or as head of the house at school, as manager of an office or a business, as policeman or foreman, as corporal or Commander-in-Chief, as administrator or Prime Minister, whether as nurse, parent, or schoolmistress, a man or woman is in his position of authority directly or indirectly on the appointment or choice of those over whom he has to exercise authority. ”