102 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



quills ; and when the old man, the chief of the Apalaches, sat at 

 his door-sill, and the next eldest chief beside him, Yahchilane and 

 her maiden threw all these things at his feet. Then stripping 

 from her head the long white feathers of the egret that shaded her 

 neck, and unwinding 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 the dead that go to-morrow 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 hair like 

 a bear's — with a mantle of moleskin and gold, and a silent tongue 

 — he is alone and a stranger — and to-morrow he dies; and 

 Yahchilane would rather hunt with him in the Happy Land than 

 stay here alone.' 



" When the old chief heard this, he knew what the offering 

 meant ; for it was all of his daughter's goods, and all that she and 

 her maidens had woven through the year. He knew how fast love 

 comes under a tropical sky, where the blood is hot, and how far 

 the wild feeling would carry an Indian girl. He remembered the 

 days when Yahchilane's mother was a maiden ; and he turned 

 away to his brother chieftains, and left his daughter still bent on 

 the sands. 



 At a summons hastily sent, the warriors came again together, 

 and sat as before around the door of their chief. They kindled a 

 fire, and the flames flashed red over many a reed-covered house — 

 over the pickets and lagoons, and the still bowed figure of the girL 

 None looked at the chiefs daughter, though all saw her sitting, and 

 wist why she remained ; and then they talked long and slowly, and 

 from mouth to mouth passed the pipe, fringed with eagle feathers 

 and the long beard of the turkey-cock. Hardly would it have 

 fared with the Spaniard if they had confined themselves to his 

 deserts — for the cruel wars of Narvaez were fresh in their minds, 

 and they remembered Anta, and how their kinsmen had fallen 

 there under the arquebus and the long Spanish blade ; but when 



