THE AMERICANS AND THE ABORIGINES. 413 



repeated the old man earnestly, but in a fainter 

 voice. 



" He will," replied the young chief. 



" Will he swear to bury Tokeah and his father's 

 bones in the grave of the warriors of the Comanches 1 " 



" He will," said El Sol. 



" So shall the white men not scoff at his ashes, nor 

 at those of his father," groaned the Miko. " But it 

 is the will of the Great Spirit that Tokeah should 

 not see the hunting-grounds of the Comanches; he 

 is doomed to die in the land of the pale-faces." 



A rattling in his throat interrupted the old man ; 

 he murmured a few broken words in the ears of his 

 Oconees, who broke out into a Avild howl of lamenta- 

 tion. Still clasping to his breast the coffin contain- 

 ing his father's bones, he sank back in the boat in 

 the agonies of death. El Sol raised him in his arms, 

 but life had already fled. A bullet had struck him 

 between the shoulders, and inflicted a mortal wound. 

 In silent grief the young chief threw himself upon 

 the corpse, and long after the boat had reached the 

 opposite shore, he lay there, unmindful of aU but his 

 sorrow. Housed at length by the whispers of his 

 companions to a sense of the danger of longer delay, 

 he laid the body across a horse, and himself mount- 

 ing the same animal, took the road to the village of 

 the Pawnees. There, upon the following day, to the 

 wild and mournful music of the death-song, the little 

 party made its sorrowful entrance. 



