Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/311

294 294 A SIOUX MAIDEN SACKIFICEU. monies, and was then arrayed in her finest attire; al- ter which she was placed in a circle of warriors, who seemed to escort her for the purpose of showing her deference. Besides their wonted arms, each one of these warriors had two jiieces of wood which he had received at the hands of the maiden. The latter had on the previous day carried three posts, which she had helpsd to fell in the neighboring forest; but sup- posing that she was walking to a triumph, and her mind being filled with tlic most pleasing idea, the vic- tim advanced toward the p^ace of her sacrifice with those mingled feelings of joy and timidity which, un- der similar circumstances, would naturally be excited in the bosom of a girl of her age. "Their march was rather long, the silence was in- terrupted only by religious songs and invocations to their Master of Life, so that whatever effected the senses tended to keep up the deceitful delusion, which began to vanish and her eyes were opened to the fate that awaited her. How great must have been her surprise when she found it was no longer pos- sible to doubt of their intentions? Who could de- scribe her poignant anguish? She burst into tears; she raised loud cries to heaven — she begged, en- treated, conjured her executioners to have pity on her youth, her innocence, her parents, but all in vain. Neither tears, nor cries, nor the promises of a trader who happened to be present, softened the hearts of the monsters. She was tied with ropes to the trunk and branches of two trees, and the most sensitive parts of her body were burned with torches made of the wood which she had with her own hands distrib-