shes, and
built a great fire over it. They kept this fire burning two whole moons.
But they were careful to burn no pine, nor the tree which bears
poisonous flowers, nor the vine which yields no grapes, nor the shrub
whose dew blisters the flesh. On the first day of the third moon, they
let the fire go out, and with the next sun all the Shawanos, men, women,
and children, even the aged whose knees trembled so much that they could
not walk, came or were brought together beside the embers. Then the
priest and the head chief brought the beautiful woman from the cabin,
and placed her beside the ashes. The Mequachake tribe, who were the
priests of the nation, stood nearest, then the Kiskapocoke tribe, who
were the greatest warriors. By and by, there was a terrible puffing and
blowing in the ashes, which flew towards the sun, and the great star,
and the River of Rivers, and the land of the Walkullas. At last, the
priests and warriors who could see began to clap their hands, and dance,
crying out "Piqua!" which in the Shawanos tongue means "a man coming out
of the ashes," or a "man made of ashes." They told no lie. There he
stood, a man tall and strait as a young pine, looking like a Shawanos,
but he was handsomer than any man of our nation. The first thing he did
was to utter the war-whoop, and cry for paint, a club, a bow and arrow,
and a hatchet, which were given him. But looking around he saw the white
maiden, and straight dropping all his weapons of war, he walked up to
her and gazed in her eyes. Then he came to the head chief, and said, "I
must have that woman for my wife."

"What are you?" asked the head chief.

"A man made of ashes," he answered.

"Who made you?"

"The Great Spirit. And now let me go, that I may take my bow and arrows,
and kill my deer, and come back, and take the beautiful maiden to be my
wife."

The chief said to Chenos, "Shall he have her? Does the Great Spirit give
her to him?"

Chenos said, "Yes, for they love each other. The Great Spirit has willed
that he shall have her, and from them shall arise a tribe to be called
'Piqua.'"

Brothers, I am a Piqua, descended from the "man made of ashes." If I
have told you a lie, blame not me, for I have but told the story as I
heard it. Brothers, I have done!

* * * * *

Though it could not be doubted that the Indians were delighted with the
tale which had just been related to them, for they relish story-telling
wi