Chapter 22
Recruiting in the Southeast, 9 K
(SD to MS to KY, 1377)
The following spring, we all went up to visit Henry. He had Smoking Mirror’s helmet ready, and the latter was quite pleased. I showed him what the cannon could do with rock projectiles and explained that one could also shoot solid iron shot, hollow iron shot, and shrapnel. He again wanted to know if all this was Hanjen invention, and I had to admit it was. The gunnery classes were beginning, and Kabul was taking to his task with great enthusiasm. His recruits were from many different tribes, but I noticed there were no Mongols among them. Somehow, that didn’t surprise me. Old feelings die very hard. Henry had designed a special helmet that covered the ears for the gunners. Considering all the noise, that was probably of some help. The helmet also had a small cannon standing upright on the top. It made them feel very special, the least we could do for them considering the danger of their job. Indeed, there were already some injuries before we left.
Smoking Mirror and I set off in late spring after dropping Paula and the children back off at the Eagle Ordu. We picked up a moderately sized escort at the Owl Ordu along with a large group of returning Chahiksichahiks and Kitikiti’sh, and a smaller group of Ishak. We also brought along a wagonload of dried ox meat for the Ishak. En route, we passed large groups of the same tribes as well as a few whole bands of the Titskan watitch on their way to the Owls. Once we got into “confederate” country, progress slowed considerably as we had to stop and visit each town we encountered. We finally reached Hasinai territory, but still had to visit the towns. At length we got to Smoking Mirror’s city and stopped to call on his “brother.”
The Xinesi was cordial if not friendly. He seemed to be reconciled, but not at all happy about the situation. He was even rather brusque with his “brother” which I did not expect. We left as soon as politic, and I asked Smoking Mirror if he had anyone he wanted to take back to the Ordu with us on our return, but he said he didn’t. He was only close to his parents, and his mother had died a few years before, and his father was still in the south. I asked him how that happened, and he said it was because he had often accompanied his father and had not been around to form any strong friendships with his fellow tribesmen. His “brother” had never been close, but had always been good to him, and he was sorry they had become estranged. Things would only get worse, he was sure, because the western tribes of the confederacy wanted to confederate with Mongols instead of remaining with the Kadohadacho. Also, about a hundred of the Kadohadacho had gone off with this year’s group of Kitikiti’sh recruits. Being a priest as well as a ruler, the Xinesi was sure he had offended the Sun in some way and was frustrated in his efforts to set things right. He fully expected that the Sun would turn on the Mongols eventually since we didn’t honor him properly. He hoped he could hold his tribe and confederacy together until then so they would not be swept away with us.
All that reminded me of the sort of useless threats my grandfather Peter used to make against me in particular and the “godless” Mongols in general. I’m afraid I was as unimpressed with the Xinesi’s expectations as I had been with my grandfather’s threats. I supposed it was natural enough to hope for divine intervention when all else failed, but usually quite futile. Still, it kept him from despair, so it was a comfort to him. I had always been amazed at the lengths people would go to avoid admitting that they were wrong.
Smoking Mirror thought it would be good for me to call on the Taunika and the Pantch as well as the Natchez “Sun.” I agreed, so we continued down the Kadohadacho River and followed it through the Yatasi lands southeast to the lands of the Taunika. We found their main city on the bluffs above the point where the river empties into the Missi Sipi. Their houses were rectangular, made of thatch and spread out over a considerable area. They also had temples on mounds like the Kadohadacho. The people almost all had the grotesquely deformed heads like I had seen among the Kadohadacho. They wore their hair long and neither greased nor dressed. They practiced extensive tattooing, and the women seemed to have very black teeth—a staining done on purpose which they found attractive. They wore clothing made from the bark of the mulberry tree. It was definitely not silk, and they did not seem to be familiar with silk or the silkworms, although they had the right tree. They also wore robes of feathers or furs if it was cold enough. They were very active farmers, cultivating the usual large mondamin grain as well as beans, squash, melons, and a very large flower that yielded many nutlike seeds. Their language was quite melodious without being singsong. It was pleasant to hear, even if I couldn’t understand a word. Of course, Smoking Mirror could speak the language.
Their leaders were very cordial and glad that Smoking Mirror had brought me along. They were particularly interested to be reassured that if they confederated with us, we would rush to their aid if they were attacked. It seemed they had suffered incursions from the Chikasha, one of the more warlike chiefdoms as recently as the previous year. In the past, they had been raided by the Hotcangara, and they were quite happy that we had subdued them on the west side of the Missi Sipi and earnestly hoped we would destroy them on the east side as well. They would send observers and wait to hear their report before making their final decision, but all seemed quite favorable.
We moved on down the Missi Sipi River for several days before crossing to the eastern bank and climbing up the steep bluffs to the widely scattered houses of the town of Natchez. The “Sun’s” house was raised about ten feet on an earthen mound. It was quite large, about ten feet high by forty feet square, and made of mud mixed with straw and covered with an arched grass roof. Across a very large open space from it was another rather circular mound surrounded with mud walls on which was their temple. On the roof of the temple were wooden effigies that looked like birds. The people all had the deformed heads and, if possible, were even more tattooed than the Taunika. Their faces, arms, and legs were covered with blue, black, and red tattoos. Only the warriors were allowed to mark their trunks, however, and this only according to their exploits. The women wore their hair either braided or bundled in netting made of thread from the mulberry bark. The men cut their hair so it formed a sort of crown around their head with a few hairs left long on the top with which they tied feathers. They wore mostly deerskins and used hide and feather robes if it was cold. They also made ribbons and belts by weaving the longer hairs of the plains oxen.
We found the “Sun” inside his house, seated on a raised platform with some of his women and elders in attendance. My appearance and especially my blue eyes impressed him. He wondered if we also worshiped “his father” the sun as did most of the local tribes. I told him we instead bowed to the Blue Sky, Tengri. Unable to impress me, he asked about my reason for visiting, and I gave him the usual recruiting message. He wanted to know if what he had heard about our destruction of the Hotcangara was true. I replied that it was, but it was caused by their provocation rather than by our aggression. He asked if we would truly leave them in peace if they did not join us. I assured him that we would, but, of course, we would also not protect them from any tribe that was not allied with us. He explained that it would be unthinkable for the “Sun” to be subordinate to any other group, no matter how powerful, but as the sun shone on all, he would in no way impede us or in any sense be guilty of a “provocation.” I thanked him for his time and his neutrality and assured him that we and our allies would remain at peace with him as long as he remained so with us. Before we left, he wanted to know who our nearby allies were. I told him who had joined and who was thinking about joining. He was sorry to hear that we had not dealt with the Chikasha as yet, for they were his worst enemies. I said that we would deal with them in turn as necessary, and we would keep him informed as our alliance grew among his neighbors.
As we left, we were given an escort to make sure we left their territory unharmed. When the escort departed a few days later, Smoking Mirror told me he was glad that they had not joined and he hoped they would eventually provoke their own destruction. I was surprised at his hostility and asked him about it. He said that they were such a pitifully small tribe of absolutely no consequence and yet they had the temerity to put on such airs and haughtily dismiss their neighbors, almost any of whom could easily destroy them. He then explained their rather stratified society. It seems the bulk of the people were called “stinkards,” above them were “honored people,” then were the “nobles,” and above all was the “Sun.” I reminded him that the Kadohadacho were also rather hierarchical, but he said that their ranking was according to duty and responsibility not because of which ranking their mother happened to belong. It seems one’s mother’s rank was the determining factor in the tribe. We learned later that certain activities such as sacrificing your child during the funeral of the “Sun” could gain one a class promotion. Somehow that didn’t warm us up to them at all.
Eventually, we came upon the Pantch. They lived in houses much like those of their northern neighbors but had smaller and more scattered villages. Their land was rather swampy, and we found it necessary to leave the horses and most of our escort in one of their villages and go the rest of the way by boat. They also flattened their heads and tattooed their arms, legs, and faces. They wore their hair long and tied and the men tied a piece of lead to the end. The men wore little more than a breechcloth and the women little more than a skirt, but they were much ornamented, wearing rings, bracelets, earrings, gorgets, arm bands, and even bangles of copper, shell, and other things hanging from belts and other articles of clothing. They were quite artistic in their basket making. They also raised the mondamin grain, beans, squash, melons, and an odd sort of yellow root that looked like a small yam and was tastier than it or the squash. They also hunted and ate a creature something like the crocodile of Sungjen lands, but much larger. Its meat was an acquired taste. They subsisted more on fish than any other meat. They used a dart propelled by their blowing it through a long hollow cane tube for bagging small game and birds.
They also had a rather stratified society with the same orders as their neighbors, but the distinction was not as noticeable. Their leader was also called the “Sun,” but I found him much less haughty than his counterpart to the north. I was surprised that they had the same system if they were unrelated, but this “Sun” insisted that the others had adopted and corrupted his system. They would also send observers and were willing to confederate if they reported back with favorable impressions. They sincerely hoped that they would be left in peace by all their neighbors. I told him that we would see that they were undisturbed if they confederated, and in fact, we would be visiting their neighbors to the east, the Pansfalaya, next. He said that the Pansfalaya were no threat to anyone who left them alone; it was the far ranging Chikasha that plagued them the most along with the occasional ambushes by the Ishak. I assured him that the Ishak would no longer bother them without our permission now that they were our allies, and we would probably make some contact with the Chikasha and the other eastern chiefdoms later this year. He was happy to hear that and told me they would send word as soon as the decision was made.
We returned to the horses and began to move eastward out of the marshy river delta toward the lands of the Pansfalaya. Not long after we entered their territory, we came upon a large plain over which were scattered groups of houses as well as individual houses surrounded by fields. One of the houses was raised up on a mound. As we drew nearer, a group of locals came toward us playing on a sort of reed flute with one of their number being carried on another’s shoulders. They had the distorted heads and were heavily tattooed like their neighbors. Their clothing was also much the same. They wore their hair long and loose. Their heads and faces seemed to be broader than those of their neighbors, however, and at the time I wondered if that was also an artificial distortion (it wasn’t). In due course, the man being carried came up to us and proved to be the chieftain of the town. He welcomed us as having come openly and in peace and invited us to his house.
The chief’s house was the one up on the mound. It was an oval-shaped thatch house, not very different from that of his neighbors. It turned out they favored a more substantial mud-reinforced house in the winter. A group of elders were waiting in the chief’s house, and we burned some weed, as usual, before we got on with it. After I gave the recruitment speech through Smoking Mirror, the chief informed me that he was not like the “Sun.” He exercised a more limited authority and would not order his people around. He would advise them, and they could accept or reject his advice. Further, he was only the chief of this particular town and had no authority whatever beyond it. I assured him that we were quite used to the system, having encountered it very widely all through the north. Was there perhaps an occasional meeting of chiefs, where matters of mutual interest were discussed? There were no such meetings to his knowledge. I asked if it would be possible to set one up, so I could talk to the chiefs, and they could pass on our offer of confederation and peace to their people, and the people could then decide the merits rather than me visiting each of their towns and talking to each of their chiefs. He consulted with the elders at length and finally they decided it would do no harm to ask the other chiefs if they would agree to such a meeting. I thanked them for their wisdom and asked them to please do so. They agreed, but warned me it would take a while and asked if I wished to stay with them while I waited. I said I would be honored to do so and promised to learn their language while I waited.
We were assigned a few houses, and I sent the men out to do some hunting so we wouldn’t become a burden. Their fields were quite extensive, however, and there seemed to be no shortage of any food, except perhaps meat. Smoking Mirror started giving me language lessons once we were settled in. It was a very different language again. I could see no similarities with the others I had learned so far. Smoking Mirror said that the much-maligned Chikasha spoke virtually the same language, and the people farther east as well as the “Sun’s” people spoke a similar language. We wandered around the town a bit while we waited. The people worked their fields extensively, but also found time to play skill games, especially one where one person rolled a flat wheel like stone (much like the ones I had seen in Murenbalikh) and a few others threw very long poles at it. I can’t recall if the object was to knock down the stone or merely get it to stop at your pole. They also used the hollow cane blowgun weapon to hunt birds and squirrels. They rather prized squirrel meat. The bird most hunted was a sort of pigeon that roosted in huge flocks in certain areas.
They seemed to have three different kinds of the mondamin grain that ripened at separate times. There was a short version, which matured quickly and would be eaten boiled. Then there was a type with a thick husk protecting each seed. They soaked these in a solution of wood ashes and water which ate away the husk and freed up the seeds which they would either eat as they were, or dry and grind up into a kind of porridge. The last kind they would usually dry and grind up to make their flat breads. They also grew peas, beans, squash, and the other plants just like their neighbors. They also gathered different sorts of nuts, berries, and roots. There was a sort of grape in the area, but they used it for food, not wine. Far be it from me to give them any such ideas.
After we had been with them a while, I noticed that they didn’t seem to have a temple nor did they seem much given to religious ceremony. There was what turned out to be a tribal ossuary. It was attended by an odd group of older men with very long fingernails. They were referred to as “buzzard men” and treated with some deference. We found out that their name and their fingernails were due to the noisome task they had taken on themselves. They placed their dead up on a scaffold to decay a certain length of time, and then the “buzzard men” would pick the flesh off the bones utilizing their long fingernails. The bones would then be placed in the ossuary. I suspected there was some horror in the deference they enjoyed.
One day the chief came by to invite us to a great ceremony. We, of course, agreed and much of the evening was spent with singing and dancing. They made their dancing music with drums, rattles, and a sort of rasping instrument. The singing was more chanting than melodic. The dancing was rather energetic, and the dancers were frequently replaced through the ceremony. The next day, the scene of the dance proved to be something of a field where a kind of contest was held. The field was about two hundred feet long and a hundred or so feet wide. At each end there were two long pieces of cane stuck in the ground and tied together. There were about forty young men very painted up and wearing a ringed animal tail tied to the appropriate spot. They each held two sticks about three feet long with a sort of rude small basket at one end. They formed into two groups and a shaman threw up a small ball made of deer hide, which they endeavored to hurl through the tied sticks at each end of the field. There was much parrying and thrusting with the sticks and passing about of the ball and tripping and bumping and falling, but all seemed to be quite in earnest. The shaman connected to each side spent the contest making incantations and arbitrating disputed scores. When one side was finally declared the victor, two teams of women took over the field and played just as hard as the men. When they finished, there was a general feasting. It was an odd but entertaining spectacle. I wondered where they got such an idea.
It seemed that all of the Pansfalaya belonged to one of two groups, the Imoklasha and the Inholahta. These groups always played against each other in the game. They also only married out of their group, so it wasn’t really a source of disunity. Strangely the Imoklasha were considered the “peace” group and the Inholahta the “war” group. This was only in the sense that members of those groups would initiate either peace or war, but, of course, all of them could participate in any wars. Most of their wars were with their relatives the Chikasha in the north, their neighbors to the east, and less often, to the west. While the Pansfalaya were, just as the Pantch had suggested, a peaceful people, they were not afraid to fight. They told me that they preferred to ambush their attackers on their land rather than carry the battle to their antagonist’s camp. This was so that they would only kill warriors, not women and children. They also frowned on torturing prisoners, but would quickly dispatch those condemned to death and enslave the others. They were a most unusual tribe, and I hoped they could be induced to join us.
At length, the chief announced that the large majority of the chiefs would be willing to hear me out. They wanted to meet with me at Nanih Waiya, their most sacred site. All were sure I could not lead them astray there. It seemed that they believed that they emerged from the ground or an underworld at that particular spot. Since the Mongols used to think they descended from the union of a wolf and a man, I wasn’t about to comment on their legend. The site was about ten days’ journey to the northeast, and we would meet at the next new moon. I decided we might as well get started since the new moon was about sixteen days off, and we could take a rather leisurely pace, and I could look about for any useful minerals. A young man named Thliotombi was sent with us as a guide.
About all I found on our journey was a very rich soil and forest not unlike those on the west of the Missi Sipi. The land was virtually flat except for the sloping bluffs above the very many broad river and creek bottoms. These were heavily wooded unless the Pansfalaya had cleared them. They tended to clear very wide swatches of the river or creek valleys and spread their houses and fields widely. Their “towns” were quite large in area if not in population, but there did seem to be quite a lot of them. Smoking Mirror was convinced that they were as numerous as his own Hasinai Confederacy. We reached the town closest to the appointed spot with a few days yet to spare. I asked the local chief how near their eastern neighbors were, thinking that we had come some distance to the east, although mostly to the north. He said that their lands began across a river about three days’ journey east. I would have liked to recruit them as well, but the summer was waning, and I needed to get back by early fall. Besides, they were supposed to be a collection of vaguely similar tribes spread over a very large area and divided into numerous independent chiefdoms, and it would likely take some time to talk to all of their leaders.
Finally, on the appointed day, we went to Nanih Waiya. It proved to be a mound along a creek. There was a large crowd of Pansfalaya waiting for me there. We sat on the ground in a huge circle, for there must have been a hundred chiefs. Beyond the inner circle, there was a larger group of elders. A few pipes were fired up and passed around before we started. I stood up to give my pitch so I could project my voice far enough to be heard by (at least) most of the chiefs. They listened politely, and a few of them asked some questions. Most of these were the usual ones, but one wanted to know if we would recruit the Chikasha or just destroy them. I told him that because we had been warned that they were very warlike, we would send a strong force to them to determine their disposition toward us. A small embassy such as mine would be at risk, and we never foolishly risked our people. Of course, if they attacked our allies or us before we made contact with them, we would destroy them. He seemed satisfied by the answer, but another wanted to know how long it would take us to reach the lands of the Chikasha from our land. I replied that we had two large forces a few days’ north of their frontier and a third across the Missi Sipi from them. Several more such forces were in striking distance of them, since they had been identified to us as a potential threat by some of their neighbors. Of course, one of our Ordu would be enough to deal with them since they were not really very numerous. With the questions answered, the chiefs retired to their respective groups of elders and conferred for a while.
Late in the day, we got back into our circle, and one of them told me that all had decided to present my offer to the people of their towns. The people would choose to either join us, confederate with us, or remain independent of us. He wanted to assure me that whichever choice was made by the individual towns, all wished to remain at peace with us. He also wanted to make sure I realized that the various towns might choose any of the options, and their choice would only be for their particular town. Was such an arrangement acceptable to us? I told him that we welcomed their decision to be at peace with us and were quite used to having individual towns or villages of a tribe join us to varying degrees. I went on to tell them that having lived among them for many days, I was very impressed by them and could assure them that our people would be honored to have them join us. I thanked them for their time and consideration. I could see that something was still troubling him, but thought it rude to ask him directly. After another round with the weed, we broke up. Those chiefs I had met before personally took their leave of me, but I could tell that they really had no idea how their people would choose. There seemed to be something on their minds also, but they didn’t bring it up either. I noticed one of them talking to Smoking Mirror, however, and could see them both look in my direction. At length Smoking Mirror rejoined me and I asked if there was something wrong.
“In a way,” he replied enigmatically. “Our hosts are puzzled that you are of such great rank and yet are so emphatically unadorned. Even I, your humble subordinate, am decently tattooed, wear earplugs and gorget as well as bracelets, but you—nothing.”
“Do you mean that one’s rank must be proclaimed with bangles and scars?” I protested. “That’s ridiculous. I’ve always detested cluttering myself up with such ornaments like a Hanjen matron.”
“Do I look like a Hanjen matron?” he asked pointedly.
“I’m sorry, my friend,” I replied sheepishly. “It is just my preference. What others wear is their business. I don’t mean to impose my taste or submit to anyone else’s.”
“While that seems quite fair of you,” he observed, “it does not make your task any easier. Appearances are quite important in this area, and except for your generally odd appearance, you don’t really look special. The farther east we go, the more difficult things will become. You can’t expect a chief to receive someone decked out like a commoner just because he looks strange.”
“You mean to suggest”—I stared at him—“that I should get tattooed, cut up my ears, and hang copper all over myself to impress some petty chieftain.”
“Well,” he hedged, “at least go with the copper.”
I was disgusted, but decided to think about it a while and talk it over with Paula and Givevneu when I got home. Meanwhile, I decided it would be best to move directly west to the Missi Sipi staying out of potentially hostile country. Once across the river, we could move directly north and link up with the Cranes. They would know what was going on, and I could finish mapping the river. Thliotombi decided to go with us for the adventure, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to have one of them along who could report back, perhaps reassuring them of my rank. We stopped in Pansfalaya towns along the way so that as many as possible would be able to see us, and we could answer any further questions they might have. Eventually we left them and came upon a Taunika village. We were well received and helped along to the river. Here another village ferried us across on their dugout boats. We worked our way through more of their villages, finally leaving their country and entering the unmapped area between them and us. We were warned that Chikasha raiding parties were in the area, so I switched us over to infiltrative advance. I kept us close enough to the river so I could map it, but into the woods enough that we couldn’t be easily seen.
After a few days, our vigilance paid off. We could see a few boats approaching the riverbank below us. The band beached the boats and started climbing up the bluffs near us. We laid low so we could get a better look at them, but Thliotombi assured me that they were Chikasha. Smoking Mirror whispered that he knew a way to make them return once they got up on the bluff. I told him to do so then, because while we could have easily wiped them out, I thought it important that we not initiate hostilities. After all, if they were headed for a tribe who was not our ally, we had no quarrel with them. At the same time, I didn’t want to risk any of our men in a vain attempt to parley with a war party. Neither did I want them to pass by and later ambush us. As they drew near, I could see that they were all painted red and black. Their heads were deformed and their hair worn something like the Mingue, shaved on the sides with a narrow roach left on the top from front to back but also with a fringe left above the forehead. The hair was greased to stand up, and on the top they had attached feathers, other parts of birds, or a single finger-sized shell. Their ears looked very odd, and we later found out that they cut the outer rim of the ear and stretch the freed flap of skin by winding copper wire around it. They also wore rings in their noses and some had bracelets made of beads or shells. They did not seem to be very heavily tattooed, at least, from what I could see through all their body paint. They wore only breechcloths, belts, and headbands, and carried bows, arrows, javelins, shields, and either clubs or axes. One of them, the one right behind the leader, carried a bag that looked like a stuffed owl skin with what could only be described as reverence. When Smoking Mirror judged them to be close enough, he made a chirping sort of noise like a bird. The band froze and listened carefully. He repeated the sound, but in such a way that it sounded just like bird might. The group all exchanged glances and without a word went back down to the river, reembarked in their boats, and paddled furiously back across.
I pressed Smoking Mirror for details. He said that his father had taught him the trick many years before. He had discovered their fear of the bird one day while he was hiding from one of their war bands. The actual bird was heard calling, and the band returned home immediately. Apparently they viewed it as a bad omen. His father listened very carefully to the bird and imitated the sound until he had it just right. Once Smoking Mirror struck out on his own, he taught it to him. From his description of the bird, it was something like a sparrow only with a longer beak. I never did see one.
Late in the day, we came to a spot across from a large landing site. The bank was full of boats and we could see a fair amount of activity all on the far side. There was a rather steep bluff on both banks, and we could see what must have been a trail on the other side. There were a number of “southern” Hotcangara in the area but no more than would be normal for a landing site. There were women and children among them, so it was likely they either meant us no harm or were unaware of our presence. Still, we decided to camp a little way farther upstream and keep them under surveillance. In the morning nothing had changed. There were the same casual comings and goings we had seen before, so we moved on. We found two more such landing sites farther north, but the first was the largest. We saw a few of their settlements on the bluffs above the river, but there was no sign of them or anyone else on this side.
Several days later, well north of the point where the Wazhazhe joined the Missi Sipi, we finally ran into elements of the Cranes. They were quite surprised to see me, and I was rather surprised that they weren’t much farther south. I sped on to the Ordu and found it no more than four days’ ride south of their original position. The commander of the Cranes was Khassar, another nephew of Kaidu. He said that they had been much farther south, but were recalled because of a revolt among the Hotcangara. The revolt had been crushed long before they reached the