156 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH. 



ward and forward, with his arms clasped around his 

 knee. 



" It was the old story of Pocahontas anticipated among 

 a gentler people, and Yahchilane did not need to throw 

 herself under the war-club to gain the prisoner's pardon. 

 She came, when the moon was up, to her father's house, 

 and with her came one of the young girls of the tribe, 

 the friend of the chieftain's daughter. They brought 

 a roll of cloth, finely woven from the inner bark ol 

 trees ; they brought tatooed gourds, filled with the pre- 

 cious stones that Indians prize so well, and w^ampum 

 belts of amber-colored shells ; they brought their gayest 

 kirtles of the skins of the merganser and wood-duck ; 

 and the moccasin, deftly sewed with the porcuj)ine's 

 quills ; and when the old man, the chief of the Apala- 

 ches, sat at his door sill, and the next eldest chief beside 

 him, Yachilane and her maiden threw all these thmgs at 

 his feet. Then stripping from her head the long white 

 feathers of the egret that shaded her neck, and unwind- 

 mg from her waist the cocoa-fibred skirt, she tossed them 

 on the pile and sat down in the sand, saying : 



" ' Yahchilane is sick, and will need these things no 

 more — she is ready to go with tlie dead that go to-mor- 

 row morning^.' 



" The old chief sat silently looking at his daughter ; 

 but he understood her not. 



" ' Where will the Young Swan go to-morrow morn ; 

 and why is she ill ?' 



" ' She sees a great man, with eyes like an eagle's, and 



