raves sought her in marriage, but
she would listen to one only--a handsome chief, who had taken her fancy
some years before. So they were to be married, and great rejoicings were
made, and the two looked forward to a long life of happiness together,
when the very night before the wedding feast a sudden illness seized the
girl, and, without a word to her friends who were weeping round her, she
passed silently away.

The heart of her lover had been set upon her, and the thought of her
remained with him night and day. He put aside his bow, and went neither
to fight nor to hunt, but from sunrise to sunset he sat by the place
where she was laid, thinking of his happiness that was buried there.
At last, after many days, a light seemed to come to him out of the
darkness. He remembered having heard from the old, old people of the
tribe, that there was a path that led to the Land of Souls--that if you
sought carefully you could find it.

So the next morning he got up early, and put some food in his pouch and
slung an extra skin over his shoulders, for he knew not how long
his journey would take, nor what sort of country he would have to go
through. Only one thing he knew, that if the path was there, he would
find it. At first he was puzzled, as there seemed no reason he should go
in one direction more than another. Then all at once he thought he had
heard one of the old men say that the Land of Souls lay to the south,
and so, filled with new hope and courage, he set his face southwards.
For many, many miles the country looked the same as it did round his own
home. The forests, the hills, and the rivers all seemed exactly like the
ones he had left. The only thing that was different was the snow, which
had lain thick upon the hills and trees when he started, but grew less
and less the farther he went south, till it disappeared altogether. Soon
the trees put forth their buds, and flowers sprang up under his feet,
and instead of thick clouds there was blue sky over his head, and
everywhere the birds were singing. Then he knew that he was in the right
road.

The thought that he should soon behold his lost bride made his heart
beat for joy, and he sped along lightly and swiftly. Now his way led
through a dark wood, and then over some steep cliffs, and on the top of
these he found a hut or wigwam. An old man clothed in skins, and holding
a staff in his hand, stood in the doorway; and he said to the young
chief who was beginning to t