a proud and haughty chief! Love conquers the strongest; and,
rather than be separated, those who love each other well will dare
every danger. Rather than be torn apart, the fond pair, whose
affections were strengthened by the pledge of love which Tatoka bore
about her, determined to fly the anger of the father. The preparations
for flight were made, the night fixed upon came, and they left the
village of the Mahas and the lodge of Mahtoree for the wilderness.

With all their precautions, and supposed exemption from suspicion,
their flight was not unmarked: their intimacy had been for some time
suspected; but it was only the day preceding their elopement that the
mother had discovered undoubted proofs of their guilty intimacy. When
the justly indignant father was made acquainted with the disgrace
which had befallen his house, he called his young men around him, and
bade them pursue the fugitives, promising his daughter to whomsoever
should slay the ravisher. Immediate pursuit was made, and soon a
hundred eager youths were on the track of the hapless pair. With that
unerring skill and sagacity in discovering foot-prints which mark our
race, their steps were tracked, and themselves soon discovered
retreating. But what was the surprise and consternation of the
pursuers, when they found that the path taken by the hapless pair
would carry them to the Mountain of Little Spirits, and that they were
sufficiently in advance to reach it before the pursuers could come up
with them! None durst venture within the supposed limits, and they
halted till the White Crane should be informed of their having put
themselves under the protection of the spirits.

In the mean time the lovers pursued their journey towards the fearful
residence of the little people of the hill. Despair lent them courage
to do an act to which the stoutest Indian resolution had hitherto been
inadequate. They determined, as a last resource, to tell their story
to the spirits, and demand their protection. They were within a few
feet of the hill, when, in a breath, its brow, upon which no object
till now had been visible, became covered with little people, the
tallest of whom was not higher than the knee of the maiden, and many
of them, but these children, were of lower stature than the squirrel.
Their voice was sharp and quick, like the barking of the prairie dog;
a little wing came out at each shoulder; each had a single eye, which
eye was a right in the men, and i