or singers of brave deeds as long as
his nation endured.

"Let me go, my father," he pleaded. "Thou, who thyself hast conquered
thirty tribes, grudge not this fame to thy son."

"Wait!" was Powhatan's only answer.

The shamans and priests had advised the werowance thus. Not yet had they
fathomed Okee's intentions in regard to these newcomers, though they had
climbed to the top of the red sandy hills at Uttamussack where stood the
three great holy lodges filled with images, and they had fasted and
prayed that Okee would reveal to them what he desired. Powhatan, in
spite of his years, felt the urge of action, and his heart leaped up
when his favorite son gave voice to his own wishes. He longed to take
the warpath, to glide through the forest, to spy upon the strangers who
had dared make a place for themselves in his dominion, and then to fall
upon them, terrifying them with his awful war-cry as he had terrified so
many of his enemies. Yet he dared not do this yet: he was not only a
great war chief, but a leader of his people in peace. Okee had not yet
spoken. Perchance the men with strange faces and strange tongues would
of their own accord acknowledge his sovereignty, and there might be no
need of sacrificing against them the lives of his young men.

All this he was thinking when he bade Nautauquas wait; but there was no
one who read his mind, yet no one who dared to disobey him.

When Nautauquas came out from his father's lodge he took his bow and
quiver and went into the forest to hunt. In his disappointment he had a
hatred of more words and a longing for deeds. He ran swiftly and had
reached a spot where he felt sure that he would find a flock of wild
turkeys, when he saw Pocahontas ahead of him. She too was hurrying, bent
evidently on some errand that absorbed her, for she did not stop to peer
up at the birds or to pull the flowers as she was wont to do.

"Matoaka," he called, "whither goest thou?"

"To see the strangers and their great white birds again which I beheld
from Kecoughtan, Brother. I cannot rest for my eagerness to know what
they are like nearby."

"Hast thou not heard our father's word that no one shall go near the
island where the strangers be?" he asked.

"My father meaneth not me," she answered proudly. "As thou knowest, he
permitteth me much that is forbidden to others."

"But not this, little Sister. Only just this moment did he forbid me to
go thither. His mind is set thereon; tempt not