faint, and his eye dim, and his heart craven, her faculties were
in full perfection--her cheek still wore the blush of youth, and her
step was lighter than the fawn of four moons. And, if time had abated
nothing of her wondrous beauty and sprightliness, neither had it of her
goodness, and kind attention to the wants of the poor Indians. Her care
that they should want for nothing was as much exerted as ever--still
their hunting-grounds and their rivers were the best stocked of any in
all the land, and their war expeditions for forty seasons were
invariably blest with success. Let not my brother wonder, then, if the
Tetons almost forgot their duty to the Great Spirit, in their affection
for the good being whom they deemed his fatherly care had sent among
them.

At length, the Teton warrior, overcome by years, lay down and died. Then
it was that deep grief visited the bosom of his still beautiful and
still youthful wife. In vain, did the priest remind her that all must
die--she would not be consoled. They dressed the body of the deceased
warrior in his robe of fur, and then laid it, together with his spear,
and bow, and war-hatchet, and sheaf of arrows, and pipe, and
camp-kettle, in the house of death(4). While they were rendering the
last service to the body of the Swift Foot, the wife sat motionless,
looking on--when they had finished, she rose, and spoke to them thus:--

"We have now dwelt together, Tetons, for forty summers, and, during that
time, there has been a pure, unclouded sky in our village. We have been
friends, and so we will part. I cannot abide longer on the earth; I go
to take the soul of my beloved husband to the mansion prepared for him
in my own bright clime of the north. My children I leave to the care of
the brave warriors and good hunters, bidding one to protect, and the
other to feed them, till the Good Spirit sees fit to deprive them of the
life he has given. Be this your recompense.

"It is known that, among all the red men of the forest, none are so fond
of dancing, and none so excellent therein, as the Tetons. Ask any man,
or any woman, of any nation, who best and most gracefully perform the
War Dance, and the Scalp Dance, and the Calumet Dance, and the Dance of
Green Corn, and he will answer, 'The Burntwood Tetons.' Now, if ye will
continue to watch over my helpless children till their days of
helplessness are past, ye shall continue to dance even after death--the
spirit released from the fl