and made the feet of our young warriors swift in the
chase, and their hearts strong in the combat, and had given to our
maidens the power to win, by their soft smiles and softer words, and
endearing glances, and whispers of affection, the hearts of whomsoever
they would. The Great Spirit loves to bestow gifts upon mortals, and to
see them happy, and never withholds his blessings from them when they
have duly besought his aid, and remembered to walk in the path he has
pointed out to them. When our tribe drove the Mahas from their
hunting-grounds, and came back with many scalps, it was because they
invoked his protection ere they went, and offered him frequent
sacrifices--when they left the bones of half their warriors to whiten on
the prairies which skirt the distant Wisconsan, it was because, in the
pride of their hearts, they remembered him not, and forgot that death
and destruction go before the steps of the hardened and contumacious.

I have said, that the warriors of my nation had assembled to the dance
and the feast. They had, and there were gathered together with them that
part of the tribe which better loved the pursuits of peace than those of
war--were better pleased to gather in the maize and nuts of autumn, and
to spear the gliding tenants of the waters, and to follow the trail of
the deer through the leafy coverts which he makes his hiding-place, than
to join in the tumult, and fatigues, and bloodshed, of the strife of
men. While the blithe young warriors danced their dance, the crowd
around them, from time to time, approved of their performances, by loud
and oft-repeated shouts of joy and delight. They said, that more expert
and graceful dancers had never been seen in the tribe, and predicted,
that limbs so light and agile in the dance, and eyes so true in
directing the spear to the painted post, around which they were dancing,
must needs show their agility and truth in the first expedition they
should undertake against a foe. And the young maidens--those whose
praise is sweetest, at least to the ears of youth--were equally loud in
their commendations of the sprightly Tetons, who were worshipping the
Master of Life in the manner supposed to be the most acceptable to him.

While our people were thus employed in their worship and dance, although
it was the hottest month of summer, and the day was one of singular and
overpowering heat, they were surprised and terrified by a sudden
darkness, accompanied by a gr