his time had come to die, that he should rejoin his daughter
and tend her little ones, and be as joyful as the bird of morning on the
banks of the rapid river that glided through the valley of departed
souls.

"How shall I know that the Wahconda has said this?" asked the chief.

"I will do these things for a sign," answered the boy-god. "To-morrow,
when the sun first rises from his slumbers behind the hills of the east,
he shall show himself in a cloudless sky. In the space of a breath,
darkness shall cover the face of the heavens, the thunder(5), which is
the voice of my father, shall roll awfully, but the lightnings, which
are the glances of his eye, shall be spared. Before the Indians shall
have time to raise themselves from the earth, upon whose cold bosom, in
their terror, they will prostrate themselves, the darkness shall be
recalled from the earth and shut up in the cave of night. The moment the
thunders cease, the lightnings, which are the glances of his eye, shall
commence their terrific play over the face of the cloudless sky. By
these signs ye shall know that I am the Wahconda's son."

"If these things shall be done," said the chief, "the maiden shall be
yours."

It was soon told in the village, that the Wahconda's son had come from
his father's lodge among the mountains, to ask the beautiful Star-flower
for his wife. And it was also told, that with the rising of the sun on
the next morning, he would convince the Little Black Bear, that he had
not a forked tongue, nor spoke with the lips of a mocking-bird. There
was little sleep that night in the Otto village. Our nation awaited with
great dread and much trembling the coming of the morning, fearing danger
to themselves and the very earth on which they dwelt, from the
threatened waking of the Wahconda's voice, and the glancing of his eye.

The nation had assembled beside the cabin of the warrior, when the sun
came out from behind the mountains. The young man kept his promise. When
the sun first came in view, there was not a cloud on the face of the
sky. In the space of a breath, thick darkness overspread the earth,
rendering it as dark as the darkest night, and the thunders rolled so
awfully, that the very earth seemed to reel like a man who has drunken
twice of the fire-eater, which the brothers of our friend sell us in the
Village of the High Rock.[A] But what astonished our people most was,
that no lightning accompanied the thunder. In a few minutes the