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Show 24.2 T!IE LILY AND TilE TOTEM. over which the power is denied thee. Go then, with :'11ico \Va.ba-la,'-such was the name of his son-' go then with him into the great lake of the forest, nod como not back for a season. Depart thou thus, always, when tho maize is ready for the harvest.' " 1 obeyed him; but not until I found that I was endangering my own safety to attempt further expostulation; and then it wn.s that my companions perished, all MVC the one who now sits before thoo with myself, and whom I sa\•cd because of a service which I rcidcrcd to the lawn, and whom I persuaded to take my white brother inOO his wigwam. He went, even before myself, but through my means, into the service ofOnathaqua." Here Cnptnio Laudonoicrc interrupted the speaker. u For what reason," said he," being such a favorite with the king of Calos and hi" son, didst thou at last leave his service for that of the King Onathaqua ?" " Alas, Sei'lor Laudonnicre1 thy question shames me again, since it requires of me to lay bare another of the vices of my evil heart, and to confess how the bad passions thel'eof could lead me into follies which proved fatal to my better fortune. I had gained great honor among the sa\·ages by my prudence and my 11kill in war, my strength in battle, and the cxecllence of my counsel in tl1e country of the enemy. I had gaiued the good will and protection of the great king of Calos, and the affection of his son, the noble young Mico Wa-ha-la. ! But these contented me nothing, though they brought pl<'nty and security to my wigwam, and such delights as might sa.tisfy the man, a dweller in the wilderness. I have said th"at I was greatly trusted by the king, the prince, and the head men of the country. These then, a.fter I bad been eight years in their service, confided to my Til£ ADVENTURE OF LE BARBU. 243 charge a great and sacred commission. The time had come when it became proper tha.t this l\fico Wa-ha-la should take to llimself a wife. Now, tidings had reached Calos of a creature, lovely as a. daughter of the sun, who was the youngest child of the King Onathnqua. A treaty was agreed upon between the two kings for the marriage of their children; aud J was dispatched, with a select body of warriors, to bring the maiden home to her ne'v 80\'Creign. It was not the custom for a chief desiring a wife, that he should seek her in person. Acccordingly 1 was dispatched, and I reached the territories of Onathaqua in safety. Here I beheld the maiden in pursuit of whom I came, and my froward heart instantly conceived tho wildest affection for her beauty. Denutiful she was as any of our Castilian maidens, and as delicate and mode.~tly proper in her beariug, as one may see in the gentlest dnmscl of a Christian country. Deeply was I smitten with this new flame, and greatly did 1 strive to please the maiden who had fired me with these fresh fancies': I spakc with her in the Indian langungc, with charms of thought which had been taken from the Castilian, such as were vastly superior to those which belonged to Indian courtship. 1 sang to her many· a glorious ballad of tho sweet romance of my country 1 discoursing of the tender loves between the Castilian cavaliers and tho dark-eyed and dark-tressed maidens of Grenada: Verily, tho benuty of tho delicate daughter of Onatbaqua, the precious lstaknlina-by which tho people of Onathaqua understand the w!Jite lily of the lake before it opens-was no unbecoming representative of that choice dark beauty wbich made tbe cbarm of the Moorish damsel of my land, ere Doabdil gave up his sceptre into the hands of tho holy Ferdinand. For Istakalina, I rendered tho language of the Castilian romance into the dialect of |