Squirrel said it was not cowardice to do so. But the
Mad Buffalo never turns on his heel till he has tasted of the blood of
his foes. And the Young Eagle said he had eaten the bitter root, and put
on the new mocassins, and had been made a man, and his father and the
old warriors would cry shame on him if he took no scalp. Both he and the
Mad Buffalo said they would go and attack the Walkullas and their allies
alone. But the young warriors said they would also go to the battle, and
with a great heart, as their fathers had done. And then the Shawanos
rushed upon their foes.

[Footnote A: Backbone of the Great Spirit, the Alleghany Mountains.]

"The Walkullas fell before us like rain in the summer months; it was as
a fire among the dry rushes. We went upon them when they were
unprepared--when they were as children; and for a while the Great Spirit
gave them into our hands. But a power rose against us, which we could
not withstand. The strange men came upon us armed with thunder and
lightning. Why delays my tongue to tell its story? Fathers, your sons
have fallen, like the leaves of the forest-tree in a high wind; like the
flowers of spring after a frost; like drops of rain in the
Sturgeon-Moon. Warriors, the sprouts which shot up from the roots of the
withered oaks have perished. The young Braves of our nation lie, food
for the eagle and the wild cat, by the arm of the Great Lake.

"Fathers, the bolt from the strangers' thunder entered my flesh, yet I
did not fly: these six scalps I tore from the Walkullas; but this has
yellow hair. Have I done well?"

The head chief and counsellors answered he had done well; but Chenos
answered "No. You went into the Walkullas camp," said he, "when the
tribe were feasting to the Great Spirit, and you disturbed the
sacrifice, and wickedly mixed human blood with it. Therefore has this
evil come upon us; for the Great Spirit is very angry."

The head chief and the counsellors asked Chenos what must be done to
appease the Master of Breath.

Chenos answered--"The Mad Buffalo, with the morning, will offer to him
that which he holds dearest."

The Mad Buffalo looked fiercely on the priest, and said--"The Mad
Buffalo fears the Great Spirit; but he will offer none of his kin,
neither his father nor his mother, nor the children of his mother; but
he will kill a deer, and, with the morning, it shall be burned to the
Great Spirit."

Chenos said to him, "You have told the council how the bat