y of terror which burst from the letans when a painted man of the
Ottoes crept with an uplifted hatchet into their camp by midnight, and
took five scalps as they slept. Then one arose and sung a song of
marriage. Brothers, this was the song he sung:

OTTO SONG OF MARRIAGE.

Who is that?
Oh, it is the Master's fair-haired son,
Come to wed the warrior's beauteous daughter.
Tall and manly is his form;
Beautiful and fair is she;
See his step how light,
See his eyes how bright with love and joy;
How glad he looks:
So turns his eyes the husband-dove
Upon its gentle little wife.

He came and caught the maiden in his arms,
He pressed her to his bosom as a mother
Presses her infant.
She was pleased, and wept,
But her's were tears of joy;
Hung her head, and hid her beautuous face,
Yet was she not ashamed.
Her's was maiden bashfulness.
Blushes she to be so caught in love?
See her stolen glances! sunlit glances! see!
She doth not altogether hate the youth.

Why dost thou weep, mother of the bride?
Weepst thou to be parted from thy daughter?
Weep no more.
What is life?
A reed beat down by every wind that stirs,
A flower nipt by the first autumnal blast,
A deer that perishes by prick of thorn,
Here at morning,
Gone at evening.
Weep not, tender mother of the bride;
Soon thou'lt meet her in the happy vales
Beyond the setting sun:
Ask the lover, he will tell thee so.

[Illustration: _Designed & Etched by W. M. Brookefield R. H. A._

Then mounting the noble Horse they bade farewell.]

When the feast was concluded, the songs and dances, and sacrifices,
finished, the Wahconda's son prepared to take his departure to the
mountains where his father dwelt. The tribe attended him to the edge of
the forest, which had been the hunting-grounds of the Ottoes ever since
the rivers ran, and there they left him to pursue his journey with his
beautiful and happy wife to the abodes of spirits, and great warriors,
and just men. But before the chief parted from his daughter, he made her
husband a long speech, and prayed that peace might ever be between them
and their people. He told him he had given him his all--his dearly
beloved daughter, to whom he must be kind and affectionate. He must not
put heavy burdens upon her; he must not send her to cut wood, nor bring
home the bison's flesh, nor poun