son
of his father's wife that he had suffered the bird of his cabin to sow
more corn than she could gather in, and that he must return to the
earth, and see that her shoulders were not bowed by the heavy task of
the harvest. "There were other duties for them to perform," he said,
"and many must yet be their years on the earth."

In obedience to the orders of the Great Master of all, they returned to
the Unalachta village, and again re-animated the bodies they had left.
Tamenund taught his son how to toughen a young ash bow, and splint a
shaken arrow; and the son of his father's wife forgot the dignity of an
approved hunter, to assist his beloved woman in harvesting the corn.
They lived long, and acted well, and when their years were many, when
their limbs had grown feeble and their eyes dark with the mists of age,
when they could no longer bend the bow of their youth, nor run the race
of vigorous manhood, they were called from the earth, to enjoy that
happiness which they had been permitted to behold with the eyes of
humanity.

NOTE.

* * * * *

(1) _Courage had been repeatedly taxed_.--p. 234.

There is nothing which an Indian will not attempt to perform when his
courage is taxed, or the honour of his nation called in question. "An
Omawhaw," says Long, "being on a visit to the Pawnees, was present at a
kind of grand incantation, during which many extraordinary feats were
performed. He there saw, for the first time, the mountebank trick of
appearing to cut off the tongue, and afterwards replacing the severed
portions without a wound. 'There,' said Katterfelto, 'your medicine is
not strong enough to enable you to perform this operation. The stranger,
jealous of his national honour, and unwilling to be exceeded,
unhesitatingly drew forth his knife, and actually cut off nearly the
whole of his tongue, and bled to death before their eyes."

III.--THE HUNTING-GROUNDS OF THE BLACKFOOTS.

The Blackfoot believes that his fathers have told him truly, when they
told him that the people of his tribe, when released from the load of
flesh, come to a steep mountain, up whose huge projecting sides they
have to scramble. After many moons of unwearied labour, tired and
exhausted, they reach the top, from which they behold the land of the
dead. They see stretched out before them an extensive plain,
interspersed with new tents, pitched by the sides of beautiful streams,
the banks of which resou