hat but few ever hunted and that the game I was after was very
plentiful. The reason why it was so little visited by hunters was that
it was reported that great Windegoos, man-eaters, there haunted the deep
forests, and that many hunters had mysteriously disappeared. They had
gone there with great hopes of success, but had never returned. The
man-eating Windegoos, that were so great and high that they could brush
the trees aside as they walked along, they said, had devoured them. So
it was said and believed by many. So great was my love for Shakoona
that I cared for none of these stories, and was willing to run all risks
for her sake; and so I made the many days' journey and reached those
hunting grounds. All winter I worked hard, and met with good success.

"But while I was far away things were going on at the spot where dwelt
Shakoona that were to my hurt. One day there walked into her father's
tent a great chief having on his face and body the scars of many
battles. But while he was surely a brave warrior he was a man of fierce
temper, and some of the wives he already had showed the marks of his
fierce anger. The top of the head of one of them was hard and dry, for
Oosahmekoo--that was his name--had in his anger, because she had not
quickly prepared his dinner, rushed at her and, circling the spot with
his knife, had torn away the scalp; and still she lived. This
Oosahmekoo was the man who came with his gifts to buy from Wahbunoo the
beautiful young Shakoona. He had gone off with another tribe in the
south, called the Sioux and in one of their warlike excursions they had
attacked a band of white people passing over the prairies. They had
crawled up to them in the darkness of night, and as the watchers had
gone to sleep they had killed them all. Among the pillage and plunder
was a bag of gold. The Sioux then knew not of its worth, so they gave
it to Oosahmekoo, and as he had been much among the fur traders he knew
it was valuable and carefully kept it. He had seen Shakoona as she
industriously did her work, and wanted her for another wife. When he
entered the wigwam his manner was so proud and unceremonious that even
Wahbunoo's temper got the mastery over his love for gold, and he refused
to let Shakoona be the sixth wife of a man who had no more respect for
the custom of the tribe, and would thus act before the father whose girl
he wished to buy. So he had to pick up his bag of gold and leave the
wigw