made in the crowd, through which the woman
and her conductor reached the presence of the mighty king of the
valley. Behold her, then, before the being of whom she had heard her
people talk morning, noon, and night, but whom no Ottawa had ever
beheld till now. She was beginning to deprecate his anger at her
intrusion on his dominions, when, in a tone intended to be very kind,
but which, nevertheless, was louder than the loudest tones of the
_manza ouackanche_[A], he spoke, and bade her say, "why she had come
uninvited to the marriage-feast of the Pig-faced boy of the Ottawas."

[Footnote A: "Iron possessed by an evil spirit;" their name for a gun
or rifle.]

The woman, gathering boldness from the mild and gentle behaviour of
the questioner, answered, that, for a long time, the young man, whom
the Ottawas called the Child of the Hare, but whom the Elks, it
appeared, knew by another name, had wandered at the beginning of
night, often continuing absent for days together, without their being
able to discover what became of him; and that curiosity had induced
her to follow his footsteps, with the idea of finding out the cause of
his absence. This was all, and here she was.

The reason she gave seemed to content the Great Chief, who merely
laughed a little, and said something about "curiosity"--"a woman
napping"--"a weazel asleep." Then, calling to him the old man, who had
assisted her through the crowd, he bade him bring the Pig-face and the
Little Maiden before him. The old man, making a very low bow after the
fashion of the white people, which is also the fashion of the bear, and
the "child of the Evil Spirit," who are both very mannerly--especially
the last, unless you provoke him, when he is a very naughty
fellow--departed immediately on the mission, leaving the adventurous
Ottawa woman surrounded by the whole nation of the Elks. Does not my
brother suspect that she began to regret that she followed the
Pig-face into the glen at early nightfall?

While he was absent, which was not long, the Great Chief amused
himself with talking to the woman. He asked her a great many questions
about her people, and praised them much for their singular courage and
valour, and their great sagacity, and their coolness and resolution in
bearing the torments inflicted by their enemies. He talked of the
wisdom of his own nation, and told her all about the fits they were so
subject to, and how they cured themselves by rubbing their ears wi