e indeed, loudly and wildly singing her dirge, an invocation
to the Spirit of the Rock, calm and unconcerned in her dangerous
position, while all was terror and excitement among her friends
below her.

The hunters, so soon as they perceived her, hastily ascended the bluff,
while her parents called to her and entreated her to go back from the
edge of the rock. "Come down to us, my child," they cried; "do not
destroy your life; you will kill us, we have no child but you."

Having finished her song, the maiden answered her parents. "You have
forced me to leave you. I was always a good daughter, and never
disobeyed you; and could I have married the man I love, I should have
been happy, and would never have left you. But you have been cruel to
me; you have turned my beloved from the wigwam; you would have forced me
to marry a man I hated; I go to the house of spirits."

By this time the hunters had nearly reached her. She turned towards them
for a moment with a smile of scorn, as if to intimate to them that their
efforts were in vain. But when they were quite near, so that they held
out their arms towards her in their eagerness to draw her from her
dangerous station, she threw herself from the rock.

The first blow she received from the side of the rock must have killed
her, for she fell like a dead bird, amidst the shouts of the hunters
above, and the shrieks of the women below.

Her body was arrayed in her handsomest clothing, placed upon a scaffold,
and afterwards buried.

But the Dahcotahs say that her spirit does not watch over her earthly
remains; for her spirit was offended when she brought trouble upon her
aged mother and father.

Such is the story told by the Dahcotahs; and why not apply to them for
their own traditions?

Neither is there any reason to doubt the actual occurrence of the
incident.

Not a season passes away but we hear of some Dahcotah girl who puts an
end to her life in consequence of jealousy, or from the fear of being
forced to marry some one she dislikes. A short time ago a very young
girl hung herself, rather than become the wife of a man who was already
the husband of one of her sisters.

The parents told her they had promised her, and insisted upon her
fulfilling the engagement. Even her sister did not object, nay, rather
seemed anxious to forward the scheme, which would give her a rival from
among her nearest relations.

The young girl finally ran away, and the lover, leaving his