smith; a sure revenge. 105 



You have stolen a helpless woman and a little hoy from among them. I 

 shall never forget it. If I am spared you will all lose your scalps." The 

 Illiuois warriors understood not a word; they thought he was joining in 

 their triumph, and were satisfied that he would soon forget his own 

 people. 



After they had marched three days the woman became exhausted, 

 and she was too faint to be dragged further. The warriors held a council, 

 and she meanwhile spoke to the Seneca boy in earnest tones. " Avenge 

 my blood!" said she; "and when you return to your own people tell 

 them how the cruel Illinois took my life. Promise me you will never 

 cease to be a Seneca." As he finished promising all she asked, she was 

 slain and left dead on the ground. 



Then they hurried forward, nearing their own settlement early in the 

 evening. Next day two runners were sent to the village to proclaim 

 their success and return, and all the population turned out with shouts 

 and cries of joy to meet them. 



Now the fate of the boy had to be determined. He listened as the 

 chief, with exaggerated gestures and exclamations, gave an account of 

 the successful expedition. The people, as they listened, grew so excited 

 that they beat the ground with their clubs and wished they could ex- 

 terminate every Seneca in the world. They longed to kill the boy, but 

 the chiefs held a council and decided that there was stuff in him, and 

 they would therefore torture him, and if he stood the test, adopt him 

 into their own tribe. The boy meantime had dreamed a dream, in which 

 he had been forewarned that the Illinois would inflict horrible tortures 

 upon him. "If he can live through our tortures," said the chief, "he 

 shall become an Illinois." The council fire glowed red with burning 

 heat. They seized the captive and held him barefooted on the coals 

 until his feet were one mass of blisters. Then they pierced the blisters 

 with a needle made of fish bone and filled up the blisters with sharp 

 flint- stones. "Now run a race," they recommended; "run twenty 

 rods." In his dream he had been told that if he could reach the Long 

 House and find a seat on the wild-cat skin, they would vote him worthy 

 of his life. His agony was intense, but up in his heart rose the 

 memory of his tribe ; and as the signal for his start was given he com- 

 menced singing with all his might, saying, as they thought, their war 

 song, but in reality the words: "I shall never forget this; never for- 

 give your cruelty. If I am spared you shall every one of you lose your 

 scalps." This gave him courage. He forgot his agony. He bounded 

 forward and flew so swiftly that the Indians, who stood in rows ready 

 to hit him as he passed with thorn-brier branches, could not touch him. 

 He rushed into the Long House; it was crowded, but he spied a wild- 

 cat skin on which an old warrior sat, and he managed to seat himself 

 upon the tail, remembering his dream. The chiefs noticed his endur- 

 ance and said again, "If we spare his life he will be worthy to become 

 au Illinois; but he knows the trail, so we had better kill him." 



