ther side of the lodge he beheld
rows of people seated in orderly array. At a distance he could see two
stately persons, who looked rather more in years than the others, and
who appeared to exact obedience from all around them. One of them, whom
he heard addressed as the Old Spirit-man, spoke to Wassamo. "My son,"
said he, "know it was those foolish girls who brought you hither. They
saw you at the fishing-ground. When you attempted to approach them you
fell senseless, and at the same moment they transported you to this
place. We are under the earth. But be at ease. We will make your stay
with us pleasant. I am the guardian Spirit of the Sand Mountains. They
are my charge. I pile them up, and blow them about, and do whatever I
will with them. It keeps me very busy, but I am hale for my age, and I
love to be employed. I have often wished to get one of your race to
marry among us. If you can make up your mind to remain, I will give you
one of my daughters--the one who smiled on you first, the night you
were brought away from your parents and friends."

Wassamo dropped his head and made no answer. The thought that he should
behold his kindred no more, made him sad.

He was silent, and the Old Spirit continued: "Your wants will all be
supplied; but you must be careful not to stray far from the lodge. I am
afraid of that Spirit who rules all islands lying in the lakes. He is my
bitter enemy, for I have refused him my daughter in marriage; and when
he learns that you are a member of my family, he will seek to harm you.
There is my daughter," added the Old Spirit, pointing toward her. "Take
her. She shall be your wife."

Forthwith Wassamo and the Old Spirit's daughter sat near each other in
the lodge, and they were man and wife.

One evening the Old Spirit came in after a busy day's work out among the
sand-hills, in the course of which he had blown them all out of shape
with great gusts of wind, and strewn them about in a thousand
directions, and brought them back and piled them up in all sorts of
misshapen heaps.

At the close of this busy day, when the Old Spirit came in very much out
of breath, he said to Wassamo, "Son-in-law, I am in want of tobacco.
None grows about this dry place of mine. You shall return to your
people and procure me a supply. It is seldom that the few who pass these
sand-hills offer me a piece of tobacco,--it is a rare plant in these
parts,--but when they do, it immediately comes to me. Just so,"