wives and by several of his subjects. The lesser Suns took care to
follow the same custom. The law likewise condemned every Natchez to
death who had married a girl of the blood of the Suns as soon as she
was expired. On this occasion I must tell you the history of an
Indian who was noways willing to submit to this law. His name was
_Elteacteal_; he contracted an alliance with the Suns, but the
consequences which this honor brought along with it had like to have
proved very unfortunate to him. His wife fell sick; as soon as he
saw her at the point of death he fled, embarked in a piragua on the
_Mississippi_, and came to New Orleans. He put himself under the
protection of M. de Bienville, the then governor, and offered to be
his huntsman. The governor accepted his services, and interested
himself for him with the Natchez, who declared that he had nothing
more to fear, because the ceremony was past, and he was accordingly
no longer a lawful prize.

_Elteacteal_, being thus assured, ventured to return to his nation,
and, without settling among them, he made several voyages thither.
He happened to be there when the Sun called the _Stung Serpent_,
brother to the Great Sun, died. He was a relative of the late wife
of _Elteacteal_, and they resolved to make him pay his debt. M. de
Bienville had been recalled to France, and the sovereign of the
Natchez thought that the protector's absence had annulled the
reprieve granted to the protected person, and accordingly he caused
him to be arrested. As soon as the poor fellow found himself in the
hut of the grand chief of war, together with the other victims
destined to be sacrificed to the _Stung Serpent_, he gave vent to
the excess of his grief. The favorite wife of the late Son, who was
likewise to be sacrificed, and who saw the preparations for her
death with firmness, and seemed impatient to rejoin her husband,
hearing _Elteacteal's_ complaints and groans, said to him: "Art thou
no warrior?" He answered, "Yes: I am one." "However," said she,
"thou cryest; life is dear to thee, and as that is the case, it is
not good that thou shouldst go along with us; go with the women."
_Elteacteal_ replied: "True; life is dear to me. It would be well if
I walked yet on earth till to the death of the Great Sun, and I
would die with him." "Go thy way," said the favorite, "it is not fit
thou shouldst go with us, and that thy