de of buffalo skin, of a circular form; and are used as
a protection against the arrows of their enemies.

"You need not fear your family, Sacred Wind," said her cousin, "nor the
medicine men, nor the spirits of the dead. We will go to one of the
villages, and when we are married, we will come back. Let them be angry,
I will stand between you and them, even as my father's shield did
between him and the foe that sought his life."

But she was firm, and promised nothing more than that she would not
marry the Bear, or any one else; and they returned to her father's
teepee, little thinking that any one had overheard their conversation.
But the "Swan" had heard every word of it.

She loved the Shield, and she had seen him follow his cousin. After
hearing enough to know that her case was a hopeless one, she made up
her mind to make Sacred Wind pay dearly for the love which she herself
could not obtain.

She did not at once tell the news. She wanted to amuse herself with her
victim before she destroyed her; and she had hardly yet made up her mind
as to the way which she would take to inform the family of Sacred Wind
of the secret she had found out.

But she could not resist the temptation of whispering to Sacred Wind her
knowledge of the true reason why she would not marry the Bear. This was
the first blow, and it struck to the heart; it made a wound which was
long kept open by the watchful eye of jealousy.

The grandmother, however, did not hear the remark; if she had she would
not have sat still smoking--not she! she would have trembled with rage
that a Dahcotah maiden, and her grandchild, should be guilty of the
enormous crime of loving a cousin. An eruption of Vesuvius would have
given but a faint idea of her fury.

Most fortunately for herself, the venerable old medicine woman died a
few days after. Had she lived to know of the fatal passion of her
granddaughter, she would have longed to seize the thunderbolts of
Jupiter (if she had been aware of their existence) to hurl at the
offenders; or like Niobe, have wept herself to stone.

Indeed the cause of her death showed that she could not bear
contradiction.

There was a war party formed to attack the Chippeways, and the "Eagle
that Screams as she Flies," (for that was the name of Sacred Wind's
grandmother) wanted to go along.

She wished to mutilate the bodies after they were scalped. Yes, though
near ninety years old, she would go through all the fatigues of a