without removing their
clothing, their weapons near them, as slept all the tribe, ever fearful
of attack from neighbors tempted by the multitude of their flocks.

At daybreak they went down to the meadow where the body of Endovellicus
was exposed. The whole tribe was gathered on the plain near the river;
the young men on horseback with their lances, and in full armor; the old
men seated in the shade of the oak trees; the women and children near
the pyre of logs upon which lay the corpse of their chief.

Endovellicus was arrayed in his war costume. His faded hair escaped
beneath the borders of his triple-crested helmet; his silvery beard
rested upon a cuirass of bronze scales; his muscular arms were naked,
and his hands were clasped over the Celtiberian sword, short and
slender, with broadened point, and his legs were bound by the broad
straps of his sandals. His shield, engraved with a representation of the
gods of the tribe struggling with two lions, served as a cushion for his
head.

When the two young men arrived the same elder who had spoken to Alorcus
the day before advanced. He was the wisest of the tribe, and had
counselled Endovellicus many times before undertaking audacious
expeditions. Under extraordinary circumstances he had laid open with his
sacred knife the viscera of his prisoners to read the future in the
quiverings of their entrails. Again he had cut off the hands of the
conquered to dedicate them to the god of the tribe, nailing them to the
chieftain's door to placate the divinity. Mystery used him as a
mouthpiece and all the tribe regarded him with awe and fear, as if he
were capable of changing the course of the sun and of destroying in a
night the crops of an enemy.

"Advance, son of Endovellicus!" he said solemnly. "Look upon your people
who choose you as most valiant and most worthy to succeed your father!"

He questioned the assemblage with a look, and the warriors answered by
beating on their shields, uttering the same shouts with which they
infuriated themselves on plunging into battle.

"You have become our king!" continued the elder. "You shall be father
and guardian of your people! That you may fulfill your mission receive
the great inheritance of your father! Bring hither the shield."

Two young men climbed to the top of the pyre, and raising Endovellicus'
head, they brought down the shield engraved with the image of the god,
and delivered it to Alorcus.

"With this shield," conti