While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The large spring referred to by Dr.
James, Sage, Fremont, Ruxton, and the other
writers whom I have quoted, is the one now
enclosed and used by the bottling works at
Manitou. Ruxton says the two springs were
intimately connected with the separation of
the Comanche and the Snake, or Ute tribes,
and he gives the following legend concerning
the beginning of the trouble:
Many hundreds of winters
ago, when the cottonwoods on the
Big River were no higher than an
arrow, and the red men, who
hunted the buffalo on the
plains, all spoke the same
language, and the pipe of peace
breathed its social cloud of
kinnikinnik whenever two parties
of hunters met on the boundless
plains-when, with hunting
grounds and game of every kind
in the greatest abundance, no
nation dug up the hatchet with
another because one of its
hunters followed the game into
their bounds, but, on the
contrary, loaded for him his
back with choice and fattest
meat, and ever proffered the
soothing pipe before the
stranger, with well-filled
belly, left the village, it
happened that two hunters of
different nations met one day on
a small rivulet, where both had
repaired to quench their thirst.
A little stream of water, rising
from a spring on a rock within a
few feet of the bank, trickled
over it and fell splashing into
the river. To this the hunters
repaired; and while one sought
the spring itself, where the
water, cold and clear, reflected
on its surface the image of the
surrounding scenery, the other,
tired by his exertions in the
chase, threw himself at once to
the ground and plunged his face
into the running stream.
The latter had been unsuccessful
in the chase, and perhaps his
bad fortune and the sight of the
fat deer, which the other hunter
threw from his back before he
drank at the crystal spring,
caused a feeling of jealousy and
ill-humor to take possession of
his mind. The other, on the
contrary, before he satisfied
his thirst, raised in the hollow
of his hand a portion of the
water, and, lifting it towards
the sun, reversed his hand and
allowed it to fall upon the
ground, a libation to the Great
Spirit who had vouchsafed him a
successful hunt, and the
blessing of the refreshing water
with which he was about to
quench his thirst.
Seeing this, and being reminded
that he had neglected the usual
offering, only increased the
feeling of envy and annoyance
which the unsuccessful hunter
permitted to get the mastery of
his heart; and the Evil Spirit
at that moment entering his
body, his temper fairly flew
away, and he sought some
pretense by which to provoke a
quarrel with the stranger Indian
at the spring.
"Why does a stranger," he asked,
rising from the stream at the
same time, "drink at the
springhead, when one to whom the
fountain belongs contents
himself with the water that runs
from it?"
"The Great Spirit places the
cool water at the spring,
"answered the other hunter,"
that his children may drink it
pure and undefiled. The running
water is for the beasts which
scour the plains. An-sa-qua is a
chief of the Shoshone; he drinks
at the head water."
"The Shoshone is but a tribe of
the Comanche," returned the
other; "Waco-mish leads the
grand nation. Why does a
Shoshone dare to drink above
him?"
"He has said it. The Shoshone
drinks at the spring-head; other
nations of the stream which runs
into the fields. Au-sa-qua is
chief of his nation. The
Comanche are brothers. Let them
both drink of the same water."
"The Shoshone pays tribute to
the Comanche.
Waco-mish leads that nation to
war. Waco-mish is chief of the
Shoshone, as he is of his own
people."
"Waco-mish lies; his tongue
is forked like the
rattlesnake's; his heart is
black as the Misho-tunga [bad
spirit]. When the Manitou made
his children, whether Shoshone
or Comanche, Arapahoe, Shi-an,
or Pane, he gave them buffalo to
eat, and the pure water of the
fountain to quench their thirst.
He said not to one, Drink here,
and to another, Drink there; but
gave the crystal spring to all,
that all might drink."
Waco-mish almost burst with rage
as the other spoke; but his
coward heart alone prevented him
from provoking an encounter with
the calm Shoshone. He, made
thirsty by the words he had
spoken-for the red man is ever
sparing of his tongue-again
stooped down to the spring to
quench his thirst, when the
subtle warrior of the Comanche
suddenly threw himself upon the
kneeling hunter, and, forcing
his head into the bubbling
water, held him down with all
his strength, until his victim
no longer struggled, his
stiffened limbs relaxed., and he
fell forward over the spring,
drowned and dead.
Over the body stood the
murderer, and no sooner was the
deed of blood consummated than
bitter remorse took possession
of his mind, where before had
reigned the fiercest passion and
vindictive hate. With hands
clasped to his forehead, he
stood transfixed with horror,
intently gazing on his victim,
whose head still remained
immersed in the fountain.
Mechanically he dragged the body
a few paces from the water,
which, as soon as the head of
the dead Indian was withdrawn,
the Comanche saw suddenly and
strangely disturbed. Bubbles
sprang up from the bottom, and
rising to the surface, escaped
in hissing gas. A thin vapory
cloud arose, and gradually
dissolving, displayed to the
eyes of the trembling murderer
the figure of an aged Indian,
whose long, snowy hair and
venerable beard, blown aside by
a gentle air from his breast,
discovered the well-known totem
of the great Wan-kan-aga, the
father of the Comanche and
Shoshone nation, whom the
tradition of the tribe, handed
down by skillful hieroglyphics,
almost deified for the good
actions and deeds of bravery
this famous warrior had
performed when on earth.
Stretching out a war-club
towards the affrighted murderer,
the figure thus addressed him:
"Accursed of my tribe! this day
thou hast severed the link
between the mightiest nations of
the world, while the blood of
the brave Shoshone cries to the
Manitou for vengeance. May the
water of thy tribe be rank and
bitter in their throats."' Thus
saying, and swinging his
ponderous war-club (made from
the elk's horn) round his head,
he dashed out the brains of the
Comanche, who fell headlong into
the spring, which, from that day
to the present moment, remains
rank and nauseous, so that not
even when half dead with thirst,
can one drink the foul water of
that spring.
The good Wan-kan-aga, however,
to perpetuate the memory of the
Shoshone warrior, who was
renowned in his tribe for valor
and nobleness of heart, struck,
with the same avenging club, a
hard, flat rock which overhung
the rivulet, just out of sight
of this scene of blood; and
forthwith the rock opened into a
round, clear basin, which
instantly filled with bubbling,
sparkling water, than which no
thirsty hunter ever drank a
sweeter or a cooler draught.
Thus the two springs remain, an
everlasting memento of the foul
murder of the brave Shoshone,
and the stem justice of the good
Wan-kan-aga; and from that day
the two mighty tribes of the
Shoshone and Comanche have
remained severed and apart;
although a long and bloody war
followed the treacherous murder
of the Shoshone chief, and many
a scalp torn from the head of
the Comanche paid the penalty of
his death.
