LOUISIANA. 171 



^ man, and wUl die as fuch -, therefore I go to 

 ^ take his place *." , 



At thefe words, which expreiTed paternal af- 

 f€<5lion in a very flrong and moving manner, 

 his wife, his fon, his daughter-in-law, and their 

 little children, ihcd -tears round the brave old 

 man ; he embraced them for the laft time, and 

 exhorted them to be faithful to the French, and 

 to die rather than to betray them by any mean- 

 nefs unworthy of his blood : at laft he told them, 

 that his death was a neceffary facriiice to the na- 

 tion, which he was contented and proud to 

 make. With thefe words he prefented his head 

 to the relations of the dead ChrMaw^ and they 

 accepted it : after that he laid himfelf on the 

 trunk of a tree, and they cut off his head imme- 

 diately with one ftroke of a hatchet. 



Every thing was made up by this death ; but 

 the young man was obliged to give them his fa- 

 ther's head f j in taking it up, he faid to it, 



*' Pardon 



* Thefe nations fellow the lex talionis, death is avenged 

 by death ; and it is fuiiicient to fubftitute any one of the na- 

 tion, if even he were not a relation of the criminal 3 ilavei 

 only are excepted. 



t They put it on a pole, and carried it as a trophy into 

 their tribe. 



