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Show 23-1 TilE LIL\' Al'D 'l'IIE T OTE:\!. cars, scr:mcd to our "'Oc-strickcn souls, as the step of one who came as an executioner ; wlJilc we labored in the gloomy thicket, gathering fuel for the winter fires, the same f~ar was hanging over us with a threat of the impending doom. We li,·ed and sle1lt in a continual dread of death, which made tlu~ hair whiten on e\·ery brow, c\·eu of the youngest, before that terrible winter was gone "To us it was assigned to put away the body of our murdered comrade. Dut this was only after the three days of the feast was elapsed, and when the duty was tenfold distressing. Still, though all our senses revolted at the task, a. fearful curiosity compelled a close examination of tlJC victim. 1'hcn it was that we saw how the execution had been dono, though we knew not then, nor until some time after, tlmt the cell wl1ich enshrined and kept the heart Lad been torn open, and the sacred possession wrenched away with violent hands, even while t!Jc wretched victim had eyes to sec, ns well as sensibilities to feel, tho !!acrilcgious and bloody theft. We bore the body far into the woods, wrapping it with leaves so ns to hide it from our eyes, while we carried i~ in the bottom of an old canoe which we found fo1· this purpose. Our burial was conducted after the fashion of tl1e red-men. We laid tho corsc of our comrade upon a bed of leaves on the naked earth, and laid heavy fragments of pine and other combustible wood about him. With this we made a. great pile, wllich we set on fire, and let to bum until O\'Crything was consumed. \-Vc then, witb sad, sorrowing, and trembling hearts, returned, each one of us, in a mournful silence that wist not what to say, to our separate tasks, and the place.~ which had been assigned us. "Now, many months l1ad passed in this manner, and still I wo.s employed about the king's household. This lord of Calos THE AlWl::"TUll£ OF LC IJ.AllllU. 235 distinrrui!<hed me, ns I ha\'C s::~id, beyoml my comrades. I had a grc:t vigor of limb which is not common among this people, except in so much as it moves them to grca~ a.gility. They arc rather lil•ht swif~ and expert, than powerful m war i and tr~st rather t: g;cat cunning tban superior strength, in. tho mcctmg with thl'ir enemies. Tho king of Calos greatly ndulll'cd to sec me lift bcavy logs of tim bel·, such as would have borne down :my nmoJw his people if laid upon his shoulders. But be !Jimsclf had a str:ngth superior to his people, and Lo wondered even _more when, stri,·ing to lift the logs which I laid down, he found It beyoml his mastery. Then, he put !Jis bow into my. hand, _and giving me a. cloth-yard ~;haft of reed, well tipped wLth a. ~mty barb and dressed with an eagle's feather, he bade me draw It to the ;Jca.d, and send it ns I would. Upon which, doil~g so, lJe grcnlly wondered to sec how rapid and distant was the flight, for \veil he knew that the ability to shoot the arrow far comes rather from sleight than from strength, and is :m art t~Jat only growli from practice. )3ut. this, perhaps, had not fully ~1vcn ~nc to the confidence of the king, bad it not been for a scrvJCC wluch I rendered on one occasion to his favorite sou, a boy of but twelve years of age, whom I plucked from beneath the feet of a great starr, which the hunters bad wounded in the forest. 'fbo red-mr:n grc:tly delight to sec their sons take part in the chase, eve~ while their gristle is yet soft and their limbs feeble; for by tins early practice they desired to make them strong and skilful. The so~ of tho lord of Culos was a youth, tall and strong beyond Ius years; and because of tho fouduess of his father, exceedingly audneious in all manner of sports and strifes. Thus it was that, ha\·ing seen a great stag wounded by the shaft of l1is sire, he had run in upon him with his slender spear. The staff of the spen.r |
