dise. As darkness descended upon
the village the women stole out to mourn by the new-made
graves. During four nights they faithfully kept long vigil
until the lurid light of the funeral fires paled against the
brightening dawn. Then, after these last solemn tribal rites
had been performed, the Shawnees gathered together their few
remaining possessions and followed the trail, leading about
thirty miles in a north-westerly direction, to the Great Miami,
where they rebuilt their houses. [Footnote: See _Handbook of
American Indians_, vol. ii, p. 260.] A modern American city,
with its great mills and costly residences, preserves the
Shawnee name of Piqua, and marks the site where these poor
Indian fugitives set up their wigwams in the autumn of 1780.

The feud between the Indians and the whites continued with unabated
fury. Cheeseekau was now as noted a warrior as his father had been,
and became the leading spirit in many fierce frontier encounters.
At the camp-fire Tecumseh listened eagerly as his brother told his
thrilling tales. So persistent was Tecumseh's plea to be allowed
to go on the war-path that Cheeseekau promised to let him taste
real fighting in an attack on a party of whites encamped a few
miles south of Piqua. The youth, impatient for the fray, set out
bravely with Cheeseekau and his warriors, but when the actual
horrors of war, with its blood and confusion, burst upon him, he
fled from the field. It may be recalled that Frederick the Great,
when first under fire, did the same.

The time soon came when, according to Indian custom, Tecumseh must
undergo the solemn ordeal of initiation. He must establish his
personal relationship with the unseen world before taking rank as
a warrior in his tribe. For this purpose he must go into the
solitary woods or ascend some lonely mountain, where, by virtue of
fasting, he should receive supernatural help and a revelation of
the unknown. He entered alone into the green gloom of the forest.
Wild things at which he had been wont to draw his bow now peered
at him from the bushes and crossed his path unharmed. For many days
he saw the rising sun shine through the dewy woods and watched it
sink in splendour below the tree-tops. He slept the tired sleep of
youth, and woke refreshed to resume his sacred quest. One day,
weary with continual wandering and exhausted from persistent fasting,
he threw himself down where a little stream poured its waters into
a rocky basin. Lulled by