Tomahawk

“ The warrior, old enough to be the father of the other, saw that he was helpless. He was without the power to raise a finger to save himself, even though he held a loaded rifle in one hand and carried the regulation knife and tomahawk in his girdle. Had he made the first motion toward using his weapons, the upraised tomahawk would have left the grasp of Deerfoot with the swiftness of lightning, and the skull of his foe would have been cloven as though made of tissue paper. ”

“ A mutilated tomahawk, with a beautifully-curved cutting edge (Fig. 187) , was obtained by Major Couchman when engaged in surveying Pental Island, on the River Murray. It is a fine granular—nearly dense—quartzite.
A small tomahawk obtained from the Yarra tribe (Fig. 188) is rudely fashioned from a block by striking off flakes. The cutting part is well ground and polished, and when fitted with a handle it must have been a handy and useful instrument. The rock is aphanite, and the axe is only three inches and a quarter in length. Its weight is seven and a quarter ounces. ”

“ While there they witnessed a military display of such impressive interest as to evoke a speech from Black Hawk:
“My heart grew bitter against the whites, and my hands strong. I dug up the tomahawk, and led on my warriors to fight. I fought hard. I was no coward. Much blood was shed. But the white men were mighty. They were as many as the leaves of the forest. I and my people failed. I am sorry the tomahawk was raised. I have been a prisoner. I see the strength of the white men. They are many; very many. The Indians are but few. They are not cowards. They are brave, but they are few. ”

“ Thus, in declarations of war: "The blood of our wives and children smokes on the ground! The bones of our warriors and old men are uncovered, and whiten the earth! The tomahawk is raised!" And on the conclusion of peace: "The bones of our warriors are buried! the tomahawk is buried! the blood of our women and children is covered! The path which leads to them must be kept clean; no weeds may grow there. The chain which binds us together must not become rusty." ”

“ The tomahawk that he had loosened in his belt for the sake of ease, was even suffered to fall from its usual situation to the ground, and his form seemed to sink, like that of a man whose nerves and sinews were suffered to relax for the purpose of rest. Cunningly resuming his former position, though with a change of hands, as if the movement had been made merely to relieve the limb, the native awaited the result with a calmness and fortitude that none but an Indian warrior would have known how to exercise. ”

“ The white hunter’s time has come.”
As the Indian ceased speaking, he drew his tomahawk, and stepped back a few paces where his aim at the head of the swinging and senseless young hunter would be true and certain.
He noted the distance accurately with his practiced eye, and poised his weapon.
“How quick he will die!” he muttered. “How easy Bear-Killer will slay him!”
“Bear-Killer will not slay him!” said a deep voice, close at his side; and a heavy hand was laid on his arm, so suddenly and with such force that the tomahawk fell from his grasp and half buried itself among the leaves at his feet. ”

“ Accordingly the Netop was seated by the large fire, with a Mohegan at either side of him, to hold him fast until the tomahawk had been sunk into his head. Although Captain Church had seen much blood-shedding and had made short work of many other Indians, to-night he walked away, with his heart a little sick.
The Netop had appeared to be waiting for the tomahawk, as if he intended to die like a brave. But when the Mohegan struck, he suddenly jerked his head aside so cleverly that the tomahawk not only missed him entirely, but flew from the Mohegan's hand and almost killed one of the others. ”

“ The gift of the tomahawk had done all this mischief, and how it would end, was a thought which caused me some anxiety. The tall savage had set his heart upon our goods and chattels, and it was not in human nature for him to desist from his aggressive purpose, if we could not, in some way, contrive to cheek the pursuit. I knew instinctively, by the first sound of a loud whisper of his at "Tagando" at night, near our tents, that there was no music in this man's soul. We soon arrived at a ridge of ferruginous sandstone, whereof the strike tended S. S. W. and the dip was to the eastward. ”

“ Around this hapless captive there moved the figures of three savages, their faces streaked with various hues of paint, their war-bonnets of eagles' feathers flaunting, and wonderful to behold. Each bore in his right hand a gleaming tomahawk, which now and then was raised menacingly toward the unfortunate huntsman. Again one would put his hand to his lips, and a shrill war-whoop would rival the screaming of the steam calliope. ”

“ We have buried [Pg 205] the tomahawk, and the sound of the rifle will hereafter only bring death to the deer and the buffalo. Brother, you have treated the red men very kindly. Your squaws have made them presents, and you have given them plenty to eat and drink. The memory of your friendship will remain till the Great Spirit says it is time for Black Hawk to sing his death-song. Brother, your houses are as numerous as the leaves upon the trees, and your young warriors, like the sands upon the shore of the big lake that rolls before us. ”

“ Their friends had fled, and were safe, but they were now placed within a few paces of three hundred blood-thirsty warriors. On seeing them, the savages uttered the most hideous yells, rushed forward and cut them off from the fort, and then sprung after them, tomahawk in hand. Luckily, however, for our little band of heroes, the Indians had just discharged their rifles, and their own were loaded; by which means, when hard pressed, they turned and kept their foes at bay—the savage, in all cases, being too cautious to rush upon a weapon so deadly, with only a tomahawk wherewith to defend himself. ”

“ It is a “pipe-tomahawk,” the upper part of the head being formed into a pipe-bowl, and the smoke drawn through the handle, which is plentifully decorated with porcupine quills and feathers. This is specially valued by the American Indians, because it saves them the trouble of carrying a separate pipe, and is most formidable as a weapon, and in time of peace is an efficient axe for chopping firewood and similar purposes. The tomahawk is used both in close combat and as a missile, in which latter capacity it is hurled with wonderful force and accuracy of aim. ”

“ It was answered by the Indians within the settlements, and with tomahawk in one hand and firebrand in the other they fell upon the still sleeping settlers.
They spared neither man nor woman, neither the old nor the young; and when they could find no more to slay they set fire to the houses. Then those who had hidden themselves were forced to flee from the flames, only to fall beneath the tomahawk. The Swiss and Germans round New Berne and the Huguenots of Bath were the chief sufferers. ”

“ And then it came, a ripping, tearing burst of sound, as if the very sky was being torn to shreds.
“He—he got him!” Brand’s lips went white as the Tomahawk, after banking so sharply it seemed to stand on its right wing, went into a spin.
Only then did the American boy realize to the full that this was a battle, not a show affair that these were men and planes, not birds, and that the brave fellow in that spinning airplane was apparently about to be beaten to a pulp on the cruel earth of the hillside. Instinctively he closed his eyes and began to count,—“One—two—three.” ”

“ It must be remembered that in all the fighting in America between the British and the French, the native Indians took an active share. Armed with their favourite weapon, the tomahawk, they were at close quarters dangerous foes. Their fierce aspect in full war-paint—for the warriors daubed their naked bodies with glaring colours—and their wild war-whoops were well calculated to inspire soldiers straight from England or France with considerable dread. ”

“ A tomahawk and a scalping knife—weapons which the Indians never lay aside—hung from his belt, and he leant with careless grace upon a long rifle of American manufacture. The hunter bowed, and after stretching out his arm, with the palm turned down and the fingers straight, said in a gentle voice—"Wah! The Waconda protects me, since the first person I see, on returning to my people, is Sparrowhawk." ”

“ All the stations on the river were apparently at his disposal, and it speaks well for his humanity that he refused to [Pg 226] lead any farther savages armed with the tomahawk and the scalping knife, against his white brethren. He could order a retreat, as he did, but he could not rescue the captives from those who had seized them. The Indians loaded down their victims with the plunder of their own dwellings, and as they fell by the way, sinking beneath their burdens, they buried the tomahawk in their brains. ”

“ In the hand of each Indian is always to be seen, besides his pipe, a bow and arrow, or tomahawk, or rifle, or weapon of some description;—more generally his tomahawk is his pipe, the head serving as the bowl, and the handle for the stem, it being bored into a tube;—and nameless other appearances did this assemblage exhibit, which language is inadequate to describe:—all waiting to see and hear. ”

“ TOMAHAWKS. The common tomahawk is nothing more 245than a light hatchet, but the most approved sort has on the back part of the hatchet, and connected with it in one piece, the bowl of a pipe, so that when the handle is perforated, the tomahawk answers every purpose of a pipe: the Indians, indeed, are fonder of smoking out of a tomahawk than out of any other sort of pipe. That formerly given to the Indians by the French traders, instead of a pipe, had a large spike on the back part of the hatchet ”

“ Hampered, unsheltered, outnumbered by a vengeful host, the whites must die. The men die fighting, as men in such straits should. The Indians are close upon the women and children in the wagon. Into one of them, that which contains the hunter's child, leaps a savage, in whose beady eyes are all cruelty and ferocity. His tomahawk sinks into the brain of the nearest helpless one, and at the same instant, swift as an otter gliding into water, the boy is out and darting away among the bushes. ”

“ That, these bold young men determined, should not be. So about fifty of them dressed themselves as Red Indians, staining their faces brown and painting them hideously. Then, tomahawk in hand, they stole silently down to the ships, and uttering wild war cries sprang on board. They seized the tea chests and with their hatchets burst them open, and poured the tea into the harbour. ”

“ They honor braves; they point the finger at cowards.”
Here a sign was made by Bear's Meat, and a warrior raised the tomahawk that was to separate the fastenings, His hand was in the very act of descending, when the crack of a rifle was heard, and a little smoke rose out of the thicket, near the spot where the bee-hunter and the corporal, himself, had remained so long hid, on the occasion of the council first held in that place. The tomahawk fell, however, the withes were parted, and up flew the saplings, with a violence that threatened to tear the arms of the victim out of their sockets. ”

“ The following morning we set off, letting no one know the object of our expedition. We were armed in this fashion: Charlie Peters bore an ancient Dutch musket, warranted when properly loaded to kill at both ends; Johnston had a keen tomahawk, which the Indians had taught him to use like one of themselves; and I carried an old-fashioned smooth-bore shot-gun, dangerous only to small game.
"Now, if we come across an Indian devil, Charlie," said Johnston, "you give him a broadside from 'Dutchie,' and I'll finish him with my tomahawk." ”

“ Soon a breach was cut through, and the howling warriors like maddened demons rushed in. There was no mercy shown. The gleaming tomahawk, wielded by hundreds of brawny arms, expeditiously did its work. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately cut down and scalped. It was an awful scene of butchery. Scarcely an individual escaped.
One athletic boy, after having seen his father, mother, four sisters, and four brothers tomahawked and scalped, pursued by the savages, with frantic energy succeeded in leaping the palisades. Several Indians gave chase. ”

“ One never could predict with any certainty how long Indians would dance before they actually took the trail of murder and pillage. So much depended upon the Medicine, so much on signs and portents. It was even possible that they might, for some mysterious reason unknown to their white neighbors, decide at the last moment to bide their time. The Tomahawk outfit worked from dawn until dark, and combed the foothills of the Snowies hurriedly, riding into the most frequented, grassy basins and wide canyons where the grass was lush and sweet and the mountain streams rushed noisily over rocks. ”

“ Their spears, clubs, shields, bag, and tomahawk are lying on the ground. The following parts of the picture are divided from the above by encircling lines. Towards the left, in a circle, there are two figures of natives and a snake: one native is pointing towards the snake with his right hand; in his left hand he holds a stone tomahawk. The other native has a bag in his right hand, and a tomahawk uplifted in his left. The artist has evidently made a mistake here: natives are very rarely left-handed. ”