your wife is wanting in our eyes; but it is not alone for you we weep,
it is for the fate of mankind.

"Often, very often, has the widower exclaimed, 'O Death, how cruel,
how relentless thou art to take away my beloved friend in the spring
of her youth, in the pride of her strength, and in the bloom of her
beauty! If thou wilt permit her once more to return to my abode, my
gratitude shall never cease; I will raise up my voice continually to
thank the Master of Life for so excellent a boon. I will devote my
time to study how I can best promote her happiness while she is
permitted to remain; and our lives shall roll away like a pleasant
stream through a flowing valley!' Thus also has the father prayed for
his son, the mother for her daughter, the wife for her husband, the
sister for her brother, the lover for his mistress, the friend for his
bosom companion, until the sounds of mourning and the cries of the
living have pierced the very recesses of the dead.

"The Great Spirit has at length consented to make a trial of the
sincerity of these prayers by sending us upon the earth. He has done
this to see how we should be received,--coming as strangers, no one
knowing from where. Three moons were allotted to us to make the trial,
and if, during that time, no impatience had been evinced, no angry
passions excited at the place where we took up our abode, all those in
the land of spirits, whom their relatives had desired to return, would
have been restored. More than two moons have already passed, and as
soon as the leaves began to bud our mission would have been
successfully terminated. It is now too late. Our trial is finished,
and we are called to the pleasant fields whence we came.

"Brother, it is proper that one man should die to make room for
another. Otherwise, the world would be filled to overflowing. It is
just that the goods gathered by one should be left to be divided
among others; for in the land of spirits there is no want, there is
neither sorrow nor hunger, pain nor death. Pleasant fields, filled
with game spread before the eye, with birds of beautiful form. Every
stream has good fish in it, and every hill is crowned with groves of
fruit-trees, sweet and pleasant to the taste. It is not here, brother,
but there that men begin truly to live. It is not for those who
rejoice in those pleasant groves but for you that are left behind that
we weep.

"Brother, take our thanks for your hospitable treatment. Regret n