- 40: It was not until the second week of July, in the year following the battle, did the Remnant, having by then adopted the name Root of Jesse Fellowship, set out for the western territories. The House of Haivri made the necessary provisions, securing for us passage by rail for part of the distance. The arrangement was said to be under the direction of a concern styled General Materials, of which I knew nothing at the time. In retrospect, our departure was well timed. Events in the East soon justified that conclusion. Following General Lee’s Maryland campaign, President Abraham Lincoln relieved General George McClellan of command and placed General Ambrose Burnside at the head of the army. Burnside, who had been engaged at the Lower Bridge near Sharpsburg, later advanced upon Fredericksburg, where his operations resulted in a severe repulse. A subsequent movement undertaken in unfavorable weather was halted before it could develop, the President acting upon urgent representations from Burnside’s own officers.
- 41: Command then passed to General Joseph Hooker, who had previously directed the right of the Federal line during the fighting at Sharpsburg. By this stage of the war a growing sentiment had taken hold in both armies that Lee could not be successfully opposed. The impression was not confined to the ranks, and appears to have influenced Hooker himself. At Chancellorsville, though in possession of superior numbers, he failed to press his advantage. Lee, dividing his force in the presence of the enemy, achieved another success, and in doing so strengthened the prevailing belief in his army’s invincibility. The President next appointed General George Meade to command the army, a decision widely regarded at the time as sound. Meade had previously assumed direction of the First Corps when Hooker was disabled during the Maryland operation, and was considered a man of resolution. He was accounted more decisive than McClellan, yet less impetuous than Burnside. And unlike Hooker, Meade did not appear overawed by Lee.
- 42: When General Robert E. Lee again crossed the Potomac River with the intention of carrying the war into the North, the converging roads brought the opposing armies together near the town of Gettysburg. The first day’s fighting was marked by considerable confusion. Lee was absent from the field for much of the action, and Meade would not arrive until later that evening. The Federal forces, pressed heavily, withdrew to a ridge of modest elevation but considerable extent, where they established a defensive line. Lee’s position to the west, on somewhat lower ground, afforded only a limited view of the enemy’s dispositions; his cavalry, upon which he relied for intelligence, was not available to provide timely reports. Efforts were made against the Federal right without success, after which the left was engaged with even greater severity. The fighting on both fronts was costly, yet neither effort proved decisive. The situation thus reduced Lee to a narrower set of options than he had previously entertained.
- 43: The decision was made to attempt a direct assault upon the center of the Union line. This was preceded by an artillery fire of unusual magnitude, exceeding in scale anything previously witnessed on this continent. But the assault itself failed. A small portion of the attacking force reached the stone wall, to be sure, but they could not maintain their position and were captured or driven back. The result of the third day settled the contest in favor of the Union. After the action, General Lee withdrew his army behind South Mountain and made for Virginia with what speed circumstances allowed. General Meade followed on a line roughly parallel, keeping to the eastern side of the ridge, though his movements were necessarily cautious. The armies came again into proximity near Williamsport. It was there, as we later learned, that property associated with our party suffered loss. The animals that had been preserved from the earlier fighting were taken by Lee’s army, including all the horses belonging to Ariel.
- 44: The temple was likewise stripped of its contents, though the dwellings of Ariel’s kinfolk were left undisturbed. News of these events reached us after our train approached Baltimore. The impression among our number was that each misfortune served only to hasten our departure, as if circumstances themselves pressed us onward. The members of the Root of Jesse Fellowship then continued west by a succession of short rail lines, joined one to another across the Appalachian Mountains. The rails, being of wrought iron, did not permit high speed without undue wear, and the journey was accordingly slow. The terrain imposed further delay; the ridges, running generally north to south, obstructed a direct course and required frequent deviation. Numerous stops were made for fuel and passengers, and it was not until the better part of two days and a night had passed that we arrived at Pittsburgh. In that city we left off travel by rail and took passage upon a small steamboat bound down the Ohio River.
- 45: Though borne along by the current, we were still in its upper reaches, where the river runs narrow and winding, and our progress was accordingly moderate. The change in conveyance, however, afforded some greater comfort. Cabins were available upon the upper deck, where most of our party were lodged, the women of our party being assigned quarters toward the stern. We were spared the necessity, common among less prepared travelers, of sleeping upon the lower deck among bales of wool and other cargo, and our meals were taken aboard in regular fashion. For several days the company passed the time in quiet observation as the river wound through wooded hills. The vessel made frequent stops at small settlements set close against the slopes, where passengers were taken on or discharged, and where wood and water were brought aboard for the boiler. This machinery, working constantly beneath the decks, produced a noise and vibration that, though soon familiar, remained a source of some uneasiness.
- 46: At Cincinnati we left the boat and resumed our journey by rail, the river having carried us through a district where the lines were not yet continuous. A similar interruption occurred at East St. Louis, where we again crossed by boat, there being at that time no bridge over the Mississippi River except at a considerable distance to the north. Once on the western bank, we took passage again by rail, traveling under the arrangement made with the General Materials concern, and from that point our progress was more rapid, as the tracks were newly laid of Bessemer steel. As the train slowed on its approach, I observed among those assembled on the platform a woman whom I at once took to be of the House of Haivri. She was of uncommon height, exceeding most of the men present by a full head, and was dressed in a manner not usual among women. Her clothing consisted of leather armor worked in overlapping scales of red and black, ornamented with brass from neck to foot. Straightaway Ariel went forth to embrace her.
- 47: Ariel, upon leaving the train, went directly to the lingering woman and embraced her. Ariel said, “Lailah, I doubt not that Gabriela did prevail upon thee to adorn thyself for this occasion.” Lailah replied, “Nay, Ariel; for I was required to bring these wagons hither one by one, and I did fly back unto the farm to fetch more.” Ariel answered, “Then let us hope in flying that none did see thee.” From Independence we proceeded south into the valley of the Blue River, which enters the Missouri River between that town and Kansas City. There we traveled with Lailah in her seven mud wagons, and under her direction the whole company moved along the course of the stream. The route passed a number of small farms and required several crossings of the river before we came at last to a substantial structure set close against its western bank. This place was called by Lailah Big Blue, and it was constructed of large blocks of limestone fitted carefully together without mortar and raised only a single story in height.
- 48: The structure appeared strong and serviceable, though I noted that a coating of whitewash would have improved its appearance. It stood within an enclosure, fenced about, in which there was kept a small herd of oxen. The animals had consumed the grass down to the root and were thereafter maintained upon stored hay alone. The men and elder boys of the company unharnessed the fourteen horses that had brought us from the station to that place. Ariel led them into the pasture, where they were permitted to graze among the oxen, and she provided them with alfalfa in abundance, which they consumed with evident satisfaction. Following Lailah, we, being thirty and three pilgrims in number, entered through the great double doors of the house known as Big Blue, and observed the interior. Within was a large bay wherein stood ten prairie schooners yet unfinished, their frames rising nearly to the ceiling under the arc of the roof. At one end of the structure was an area set aside for the taking of meals in common.
- 49: Along the walls were arranged chambers of various sizes, allotted to the several families among us. Lailah then addressed the company, saying, “I bid you all welcome unto this place which we have made ready for you. There is much that ye must learn before ye shall be prepared to complete your journey.” And Lailah further said that when those under her charge had been instructed sufficiently, it would already be too late in the season to complete the journey and prepare all things before the coming of winter. For this reason, she declared that they should abide at that place until the spring. In those days Lailah also considered that those under her charge ought to be called by a name less Delphic than the Remnant, and less cumbersome than the Followers of Lange. Certainly the designation Root of Jesse Fellowship seemed too long and ill-suited for common use. It came to pass in the weeks that followed that a child among us named Linda Bergin observed that certain oxen were not easily directed by the goad.
- 4A: These were described by the hands who worked them as “stiff-necked.” From this she came to understand the language found in the scriptures concerning the children of Israel. Lailah, however, taught that such a disposition was not wholly a fault, but might be accounted a strength if a people were steadfast in their course and did not turn aside to either hand. From this teaching the child began to refer to us as Stiffnecks, and the name spread quickly among the company and was adopted without objection. The Stiffnecks were not wholly without means, nor entirely dependent upon the House of Haivri for their provisions. Once each month during our stay at Big Blue, we made an expedition to Kansas City, where we purchased with our own funds such goods and trinkets as could be carried in the prairie schooners to our intended destination. The company of Stiffnecks increased by two during the winter spent at Big Blue. The first was Megan Bergin, born to Gary and Marge Bergin in the autumn months.
- 4B: The second was Tamara Brannen, who came to be married to Lee Henry in the latter part of the season. It was not until the following spring, when the roads, having remained deep in slushy mud throughout the winter, had sufficiently hardened to bear travel, that we were able to resume our pilgrimage westward. It fell upon a Sunday that the Stiffnecks spent their last full day with Lailah, and for the final time she joined in worship with us, though she had often remarked upon the strangeness of our practices. Some among the Stiffnecks, even at the close of our stay at Big Blue, said that this rendered her more heathenish in appearance than even her manner of dress would suggest. Lailah however, replied, “Have we not shared our meals together thrice each day, and offered praise and thanksgiving unto God Most High on each occasion?” At the close of the service Lailah rose and addressed the people among whom she had lived and served during that time, as though in a station of common labor rather than authority.
- 4C: She said, “You should have no illusions, for tomorrow ye shall begin the most difficult undertaking ye have ever known. But fear not. The Lord Yeshua taught men to dwell together in peace, and in the beginning it was so. With your labors you may yet help make God’s rule present in the world again, as we draw near to the very end of the age.” It required the better part of the following morning for twenty oxen to draw the wagons three miles up a ravine feeding the Blue River, until the trail joined the early course of the Oregon Trail somewhat to the east. There the animals that had borne the wagons were unyoked, and the twenty oxen which had been led at a slower pace through the valley were again put to harness. After another eight miles the Oregon Trail turned sharply from a southerly course toward the west, and in the course of half a mile the Stiffnecks halted for the night. At each encampment it was required that the wheels be attended to before the evening meal.
- 4D: Each family head raised his wagon with a jack, removed one wheel, and applied to the hub a mixture of pine tar and tallow carried in a bucket suspended from the rear axle. This was done in rotation, one wheel each night, according to the instructions Lailah had carefully given at Big Blue. In the months that followed we learned that the region of our winter encampment had later been the site of a battle at Bryam’s Ford, sometimes referred to by others as the Gettysburg of the West, though the losses there were comparatively few. It was said that this engagement settled the war west of the Mississippi River. Though it occurred well after our departure, knowledge of it caused unease among the company, for it seemed that disturbance and conflict were often found along our course. When we reached the highlands near Lawrence, the Stiffnecks opened certain stores of provisions that had been concealed beneath false floors in the wagons, including salt pork, which was eaten with dried peaches.
- 4E: To cross rivers, the wagons were made water-tight by coating their undersides with tar, after which they were floated across. By and large we made good time, though sudden afternoon storms would at times halt our progress, forcing us to take shelter for several hours inside the wagons. Notwithstanding this, the spirits of the company remained generally high. Most of the younger children rode two at a time upon the horses, while the adults and older children walked beside the oxen, leading them at a steady pace of approximately two miles per hour. The wagons themselves were not ridden except by those unable to walk, the motion being too rough for comfort. On one occasion a war party of the Pawnee numbering some two hundred crossed the trail from the south and passed near our company. It was generally understood among those on the plains that emigrant trains upon the Oregon Trail were in transit only, and that interference with them was avoided, as it might draw the attention of the United States Army.
- 4F: I instructed those with me that no threatening gesture should be made, and that we should place our trust in providence for protection. The Pawnee came near the wagons out of curiosity, examining the hatchets and mallets we carried. They lay upon the feather beds one after another, though they took neither food nor tobacco, and they examined the weapons in the wagons without touching them. Some of them gazed closely upon the women, perhaps seeing white women for the first time in their lives, yet they kept their hands to themselves. And if such were the will of their chief, verily they were a well-disciplined host. When they mounted their horses again, the chief did scan the scene, and drew himself up in his full panoply, and crinkled his face, and plugged his nose. And the braves laughed heartily, and rode away. And when it was made manifest that they would return not, I led the congregation in prayer, giving thanks unto God Most High for His protection and mercy.
- 4G: After we passed by the place where the town of Kenesaw should in time be built the trail drew near unto the Platte River, being some seven miles further. And the purfume of the cottonwood trees did fill the air. And the water of the Platte was thick with silt; yet when it was left to stand in a bucket for the space of an hour it became clear. Nevertheless, the oxen regarded it not, but drank freely. At length we came unto Fort Kearny, being the last place of civilization we were to see before the building of our own settlement of Havilah. There some among us sent messages by telegraph unto their kindred who remained behind in Maryland. We exchanged our wearied oxen for others that were in better condition. At the general store we obtained additional chickens and replenished sundry provisions that had been consumed upon the journey, though the prices were dear. We remained in that place for several days, and took our rest, and observed other wagon companies as we ourselves passing through.
- 4H: The smiths, being willing to labor upon the Sabbath, reshod the animals with iron. And while we abode at Fort Kearny the continual strain of travel was replaced by a brief interval of ease and rest, such as is not commonly found upon the trail, and the company was for a season relieved from the pressures that afflicted us since our departure from Big Blue. And it came to pass in the days following that in journeying along the trail we passed nigh to the place where the town of North Platte would in time be established. There I led the company northward, departing wholly from the trail. In a short time we came into a region of sand hills, held together by grass, and interspersed with many small lakes of fresh water. There was good pasture for the beasts in that place, though the going was slow. And while one among our party wondered at the origin of the waters, we were overtaken by a heavy rain, the first of many such storms. Our course wound among these hills, though Vretiel’s map gave no clear guidance.
- 4I: At times we were confronted with ridges extending for many miles lying across our direction of travel, so that we were compelled to labor up and over them. In the lower ground we encountered thick brush and woody growth, which we cut away with axes to permit the passage of the wagons. And it came to pass that we spent as many days laboring in these hills as we had spent upon the trail itself. And it seemed unto me that we had been set down in that joyless purgatory of which men of the Roman Church do sometimes speak. Nevertheless, Ariel had committed the living Song of Remembrance unto memory, and she did rehearse it unto me. And I wrote her words in the Printer’s Manuscript, and by reason of these nightly labors I did not lose account of the days. And at length we came unto that place which, by the strange map of Vretiel, was shown to be the bed of the Pison River in its season. And we rejoiced, for we turned again toward the west, following the scattered ponds and the oxbow lakes toward its source.
- 4J: And these things are remembered concerning Takoda of the Kuwapi people, and his great joy when he found his son returned to him. And Takoda said, “My heart is made glad to look upon you again, my son. Forgive me that I sent you away from your mother, Yuha.” Jashen answered him, “I also am glad to see you, my father. I hold no anger for what you did. Had you not sent me out, I would not have found Vretiel, nor received the name of my manhood, nor many things that have been given to me which would take long to tell.” So he spoke, and there was peace between them. Takoda said, “Your mother will rejoice even more than I, when she sees that you have returned, and that you bring with you a woman of beauty. We believed you were lost to us. The moon has gone full since you departed.” Jashen did not reveal to his father how, in the other world, he had seen the passing of a moon for each day Takoda had thought him to be gone in this one; time enough for him to know and come to love Vretiel and take her as his wife.
- 4K: He saw the eyes of the hunters had turned toward the bison that stood upon the yet blackened ground. So he said, “This animal is given by the Father-Spirit as a sign of this meeting.” At once the hunters raised their bows to strike it down. But Takoda lifted his voice and said, “Hold! If we take this beast and bring it back, the Chief will place its horns among his trophies, and make it a sign of what he has not done. I will not see a gift from Wakan Tanka turned to false honor. I will lay hold of one gift with another gift.” Then Takoda reached into his garments and brought forth the thing he had kept hidden. When he held it out, the dark flame came again upon its end, as a hollow in the world, black and without light. He turned it toward the bison. The dark fire touched the head of the animal and passed over it, and where it moved nothing remained. The hunters stood in silence, for what they had seen took the strength from their speech. But Jashen was not troubled, for he knew the telling of that thing.
- 4L: From Shir ha-Zikaron, the Song of Remembrance as Vretiel had spoken it to him in Kemen, Shy Bear understood the path of Shahar ha-Ruach, and he knew it had been placed into the hands of his father by Ayat herself. Before they came near to the camp, word had already gone among the People that the hunters returned sooner than was looked for. Many feared they would bring no meat, and that the fire had cut them off from the herds. So the women went out to meet them, and Yuha was among them. When she saw her son, her heart broke open with joy, and she forgot all restraint. She cried out his childhood name again and again, “Shy Bear! Shy Bear!” and ran to him and took him in her arms. He held her, and then spoke softly to her. “Jashen, my mother. I am now called Jashen.” But she did not hear him at first. Her hands moved over him, touching his face and his shoulders, as if to know that he was flesh and not a spirit. Then he took her hands gently and drew a little away, that she might look upon him fully.
- 4M: And he showed her how the work she had made was now changed, and how the hands of the Lilim had added to her beadwork, making it into something new. Then Yuha’s eyes were drawn to Vretiel, who was clothed in garments like those of Jashen, shaped and fitted with great skill. Jashen spoke and said, “My mother, this is my wife, Vretiel, who is held in honor among her people.” Then Vretiel bowed her head and spoke. “I greet you, Yuha, mother of my husband. In the lodge of my family there was no day in which Jashen did not speak of you and of Takoda with a love that could not be hidden. And in time, even the love he bore for me could no longer be concealed, though long he sought to keep it so.” The return of the hunters was a great thing. Greater still was the return of the boy who had gone out, now come back as a man called Jashen after the passing of one moon. And greater than these was that he brought with him a wife, tall beyond any woman of the camp. Yet Chief Tatanka gave little thought to these matters.
- 4N: That evening, when the People gathered to share their meal, his mind turned elsewhere. He looked for the horns of the bison, that they might be set among his regalia, as had been done before. When he did not see them, he spoke no word of thanks for the meat that had come in one day instead of many. Instead his thoughts were troubled. The absence of the horns grew in his mind, and took the place of all other things. His anger rose until at last he spoke openly, accusing Takoda of keeping back the head of the animal for himself. Tatanka, already filled with anger, became more consumed by it when Takoda did not answer. He drew forth his knife again. It was a blade of steel such as the whites carry. He said he had taken it in battle, though many among the People spoke otherwise, saying it had come to him by chance from the effects of the dead. He held it out and cried, “This will make your tongue speak, Hole-in-Heart!” Then he went toward Takoda, thinking the man would turn away as he had done before.
- 4O: But Takoda did not move. He stood where he was, without fear, for he believed that the favor of Wakan Tanka was upon him. And this caused Tatanka to falter. For a moment the chief hesitated, and in that moment his standing among the People lessened. He knew it, and it troubled him. Then Takoda moved, but not in haste. He reached within his garments and brought forth the thing that had been given to him. Tatanka’s anger broke loose, and he rushed forward to strike. Yet he did not come within reach. Upon the Island in the Sky Takoda had taken only the head of the bison, offering it to Wakan Tanka, that it should not be turned to false honor. But here, before all the Kuwapi, he did not stay his hand. The dark flame moved. It passed over Tatanka from head to foot, and when it was gone, nothing of him remained, not even his moccasins. Even the very ground stood as it had been. Then a great stillness fell upon the People. Fear took hold of them, and they looked upon Takoda as upon someone they did not know.
- 4P: The hunters who had ridden with Takoda had seen the power of Shahar ha-Ruach, but the others had not. To them it was a thing beyond telling. Even Yuha felt that fear in her heart. Yet she came and stood beside Takoda, though her spirit trembled. At Takoda’s left stood his son, Jashen, clothed in the fine garments that had been made with great care in the other world. And above them all stood Vretiel, tall and unafraid. Then Takoda spoke, and his voice carried over the People. “I have sent the Chief to stand before Wakan Tanka,” he said, and none there doubted his words. “I will lead the People now.” He stood with his arms crossed, and the Dark Gift rested in his hand. Then it came to pass that the hunters and warriors began to kneel, one after another. They opened their hands before him, showing that they held no weapon. After them the women came also, the wives, and those whose husbands were gone, and the young women not yet taken. They bowed themselves before Takoda, and before those who stood with him.
- 4Q: And so all the People gave themselves over to his rule. Then Takoda spoke again, giving his first command as chief. “In the morning we will strike the lodges and go south. We will dwell at the Island in the Sky, near the place where Wakan Tanka made himself known to us, and where Shy Bear returned as the man Jashen.” So it came to be that the Kuwapi, the Following Ones, who had long followed the herds across the wide plains, ceased from their wandering. Of all the peoples of that land, they alone chose this path of their own will. They set themselves to remain in one place, and to wait. No longer did the Kuwapi hunters pursue animals when they grazed far from the camp of the People, for at times the Lilim of the House of Haivri, kin of Vretiel, sent beasts from Kemen to the valley of smoking waters, there to graze and thrive and be taken at need by the hunters. And so the Kuwapi people remained until the coming of the white pilgrims led by Joshua Lange, as had been foretold.
- 4R: A bison, grazing all day upon the Great Plains, must come at last to water; and though the Pison River ran dry through much of the year, and became a string of oxbow lakes, yet in its upper reaches it remained a sure source. At times a herd of American bison drew near the spring where the stream ran narrow. When the herd was at water, Takoda struck with Shahar ha-Ruach, taking but one, as the Kuwapi had need. So stealthily was it done that the rest of the herd scarcely took notice. In time the People beheld the first of the white settlers crossing the river. The whites bore guns, and with them brought down some of the animals only to clear their path, and did not so much as take the meat. There was room enough for all, Takoda thought. Yet by the second year the herds had grown thin, and many among the People remembered the guns. By the year following no great beasts were seen at all, and only the bison sent at times singly or in pairs by Vretiel’s kinfolk in Kemen kept starvation away from the Kuwapi.
- 4S: A few among the Kuwapi people spoke openly, recalling with longing the days of Chief Sad Heart Bull. Perhaps they had forgotten that even in the heart of what they said were much better days it was always Takoda who led the hunts. The army of the whites established an outpost six miles by land, and twelve by the river, east of the ringed basin where the Kuwapi made their camp. It was called Fort Price, and there Captain John Smalley of the United States Army held command of a company of mounted rifles, sent north from the 6th Texas Cavalry. Though he bore a bitter dislike for his assigned post, set as it was in the midst of a vast and empty country, Smalley kept fair relations with Chief Takoda and the Kuwapi. In part this was because they could all make themselves understood in English; indeed, the wife of the Chief’s son spoke it better than many of the whites. Smalley judged the People to be of a peaceable sort, but six women held in servitude at the fort made Takoda chafe, even if none were Kuwapi.
- 4T: But one day eight white men came up from the south on horseback, cracking their whips and driving before them a great herd. Two rode ahead to point the way, two kept the flanks and turned the strays, and two brought up the rear, riding in the dust. Behind them came a cook with the chuck-wagon, and farther still a man rode out in front, seeking water and choosing the best course for the herd, seven hundred head, larger than any beasts save the bison. The whites drove their cattle to an island in the Pison River, where the grass was thick and green. This they did without so much as offering Chief Takoda a head or two as a toll, or even as a courtesy. Offended, the Chief sent out hunters to take their due, and a few well-placed arrows brought down some of the cattle. The white men answered with their guns. Two Kuwapi hunters were slain, which was far more than Takoda would have paid for such meat. The Kuwapi withdrew then to the encircling hills and watched as the herd was driven across to the north bank.
- 4U: John Morrison told his boys to hold fast while he rode hard downstream for Fort Price. There he informed Capt. Smalley that he was minded to present twenty head of cattle to the US Army, but that at present he was troubled by a small difficulty with the Indians. Not long after, the bugle sounded, and Fort Price sent forth three officers and forty mounted men, with Morrison riding among them. Three miles to the west a low ridge of sandstone ran north and south, and the Pison River cut through it in a narrow, winding defile, with steep walls and no passage save the stream itself. There Smalley met with misfortune. The soldiers rode up the channel in single file, and ten Kuwapi hunters lay in wait at the mouth of the canyon, loosing their arrows swiftly as the men came on one by one. Smalley then gave the order to turn about, which proved the worse course still. Ten more Kuwapi hunters stood upon the rim above and sent down great stones, breaking the legs of the horses and casting the riders into confusion.
- 4V: Thereafter the killing was easy work. Takoda left obnly Lieutenant Robert Welles alive, bound fast to the roots of a fallen tree, his hat set upon his head and one hand left free that he might scoop water from the river and drink. The knot was too well tied and set beyond his reach to loosen, and he was given no food, yet he would live long enough to be found. The officer beheld Takoda take up Shahar ha-Rruach, and where it passed there rose a darkness like a flame without light, and whatever it touched, man or horse or stone, was undone and gone, as though it had never been. There were five soldiers upon the sick list who did not ride out with the others, but were left to hold the fort. When they found themselves surrounded by twenty warriors of the People, they yielded up the six women whom they had held in bondage, and the People were appeased. Yet while the women were being lifted upon horses, Jashen perceived a strange scent upon the air, and his wife Running Star beside him perceived it also.
- 4W: Soon after, Jashen’s wonder was stirred when he beheld ten wagons of the pilgrims of the Root of Jesse Fellowship moving westward along the north bank of the Pison River. They were near enough that their scent carried, yet too far off for their faces to be plainly seen. “It is no longer a wilderness fit for decent folk,” his wife murmured in English. She saw how greatly her husband was vexed by what seemed a sudden press of white cattlemen, white soldiers, and now white settlers besides. The Stiffnecks, seeing the Kuwapi draw near, raised their rifles; but Jashen, looking upon the foremost wagon, knew the man who drove it, having seen him in an entirely other world some three years before. Jashen smiled. He dismounted, removed his headdress, and was known in turn. “We meet again, Pastor Joshua Lange,” said he, “as Lady Gabriela once foretold.” The settlers were greatly heartened by his words, even as they had been when Lailah Haivri first appeared to them standing upon the train platform in Missouri.
- 4X: These pilgrims were the faithful Remnant, the Stiffnecks, hardened by long trial and winnowing, though at times it comforted them to behold a sign their faith was not misplaced. “Jashen! Vretiel!” Joshua brought his wagon to a halt and leapt down to embrace the young man. At once the rifles among the company were lowered and set aside. “We have reached our destination!” Lange declared to all. Then he bade them bow their heads in prayer, and gave thanks unto God that not one of his flock had been lost to sickness or mischance along the way. Thereafter Jashen spoke again: “The army of the whites has begun to hunt the People; yet now the hunters are themselves hunted. I must hasten to learn whether my father yet lives. But I bid you, Joshua, follow the river until you come to the mist. When next we meet you and your people shall be made most welcome.” And this was far more than Jashen had spoken to Lange at their first meeting in Kemen. Joshua marveled at how well the young man spoke. Vretiel had done well.
- 4Y: The pilgrims of the Root of Jesse Fellowship came at last to the place that would in time be called Havilah, at dusk on the final day of August in the year 1865. There did they behold four fallen warriors of the Kuwapi, namely Left Hand, Half Yellow Face, Kill Eagle, and Hairy Moccasin, laid upon a bier of branches cut from the low shrubs of that country. Upon that solemn occasion the Kuwapi and the Stiffnecks were gathered together for the first time. In the sight of all, Chief Takoda lifted up his voice in reverence to Wakan Tanka. Then he set forth the Dark Gift, and the bodies of the slain were taken away from sight. The Stiffnecks stood silent, struck with awe, for they knew that such a thing could only be the power of God made manifest. “This is a sign!” Joshua exclaimed. For he knew the Windgate from Ariel’s nightly recitations of the Song of Remembrance, which he had set down in the Green Book. It was the selfsame instrument shown by the princess of Shalem when first she came upon Avram Haivri.
- 4Z: Then Lange declared, “God has brought us together in this place, white and red alike, in a land of His choosing, flowing with milk and honey!” At these words the people looked one upon another, and then out across the wide country in the failing light, taking in the barren grasslands without promise of such bounty. Lange paused, and cleared his throat, somewhat abashed, then he said, “Here in this place we shall abide, and God willing, we shall receive His blessings with thanksgiving.” The Stiffnecks would not take the weapon unto themselves, for they held it a gift of God fashioned by His own hand, not to be touched by profane taking. The Kuwapi were taken into the water by full immersion, thrice over, as was their manner; for among the Stiffnecks it was not otherwise done, and anything less was not accounted proper ordinance. And so the church was made anew, having a White Wing and a Red Wing in nearly equal number. “Two lungs,” said Lange, “whereby the people of God draw their breath anew together.”
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