164: WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



" ' An eagle who had a mate,' said Yahchilane, in a 

 voice so quick and fierce that the young girl could not 

 recognize it, though she cowered from the threatening 

 shadow and rasping voice that continued. 'And who 

 are you ? The wild cat that killed him.' 



" Nothing more was said, though the mocking-birds 

 that roosted in the grove flew frightened away. If any 

 more, there was, the lamentations from the town, and the 

 hollow drum, prevented it from being heard. And then, 

 down among the mourners, with her proud head at its 

 uttermost height, and her black eye flashing fire, strode 

 the chieftain's daughter. Old chiefs lay there with their 

 lips in the dust, but hers were as proud as a con- 

 queror's ; the women of the tribe were there, with dis- 

 torted faces, beating with hoUow canes the war-drums 01 

 the Apalaches ; the conch shells uttered their loudest 

 wail, and the fairest maidens sat, in their shame, 

 uncovered in the sand ; but with no semblance of sorrow 

 on her sovereign face, Yahchilane walked among the bon- 

 fires that lighted all the town, and across the council- 

 lawn, and went into her father's house. 



" The next morning, when the young girls of the vil- 

 lage, in laughing troops, with palmetto baskets, wound 

 down the path to gather fruit for their simple meal, they 

 found one of their number dead in the grove. A knife 

 of fish-bone, with a beautifully carved handle, was driven 

 in her breast, so deep that the point came out behind, 

 between her shoulders. 



" Hardly had the news been told, before a young war- 



