m at
Roland; whereby the latter was made acquainted with the cause of his
sorrow. This, it appeared, was nothing less than the loss of a son killed
in battle with the Kentuckians, and left to moulder, with two or three
Shawnee corses, in the cave by the river-side; which loss he commemorated
a dozen times over, and with a most piteous voice, in a lament that
celebrated the young warrior's virtues: "Lost son," he ejaculated; "good
huntaw: kill bear, kill buffalo, catch fish, feed old squaw, and young
squaw, and little papoose--good son! mighty good son! Good fighting-man:
kill man Virginnee, kill man Kentucky, kill man Injun-man; take scalp,
squaw scalp, papoose scalp, man scalp, all kind scalp--debbil good
fighting man! No go home no more Piankeshaw nation; no more kill bear; no
more kill buffalo; no more catch fish; no more feed old squaw, and young
squaw, and little papoose; no more kill man, no more take scalp--lose own
scalp, take it Long-knife man Kentucky; no more see old Piankeshaw
son,--leave dead, big hole Kentucky; no more see no more Piankeshaw son,
Piankeshaw nation!"

With such lamentations, running at times into rage against his prisoner,
as the representative of those who had shed the young warrior's blood,
the old Piankeshaw whiled away the hours of travel; ceasing them only
when seized with a fit of affection, or when some mis-step of the horse
sent a louder gurgle, with a more delicious odour, from the cask at his
back; which music and perfume together were a kind of magic not to be
resisted by one who stood so greatly in need of consolation.

The effect of such constant and liberal visitations to the comforter and
enemy of his race, continued for several hours together, was soon made
manifest in the old warrior, who grew more loquacious, more lachrymose,
and more foolish every moment; until, by and by, having travelled till
towards sunset, a period of six or seven hours from the time of setting
out, he began to betray the most incontestable evidences of intoxication.
He reeled on the horse's back, and finally, becoming tired of the weight
of his gun, he extended it to Roland, with a very magisterial, yet
friendly nod, as if bidding him take and carry it. It was snatched from
him, however, by one of the younger warriors, who was too wise to intrust
a loaded carbine in the arms of a prisoner, and who had perhaps noted the
sudden gleam of fire, the first which had visited them since the moment
of his ca