Page:Myths of the Iroquois.djvu/72

106 A solemn council was held. All the warriors agreed that he had borne the tortures well, and had stuff in him to make a warrior. "He may forget,^ they said. Still others disagreed and gave their opinion that he ought to be tried still more severely. The majority finally decided that he must die, and in three days should be burned at the stake. When the day arrived a large fire of pine knots was prepared, and they bound the lad to a stake, and placed him in the midst Torches were ready to set fire to them, when an old warrior suddenly approached from the forest. It was the chief who had trained other captive Indians. He stood and looked at the boy. Then he said, ^'His eye is bright. I will take him. I will make a warrior of him. I will inflict our last torture upon him, and if he survives I will adopt him into the tribe.'' He cut the thongs that bound the boy, and led him away to a spring. " Drink I " he said. And as the lad stooped, he pressed him down under the water until he was well nigh strangled. Three times he subjected him to this barbarity; then as he was still alive, although very weak, he took him to his wigwam and dressed his feet, and told him henceforth he should be an Illinois. No one guessed that revenge was in his heart

Time passed. He became a man. He had a chief's daughter as his wife. The tribe thought he had lost all memory of his capture. He fol- lowed the customs of the Illinois, and was as one of them. He was named Ga-gehdjo-wS. They did not permit him to join them in their warlike expeditions, but he joined in their war dances when they re- turned. And so as the years passed on he was much esteemed for his feats as a hunter, and his strength and endurance were by-words among the Illinois.

He had been fifteen years among them when he heard them speak of an expedition against the Senecas. He begged to join, and they listened with delight when he declared that he, Ga-geh-djo-wS, would bring home more scalps than any. ^^He is one of us," they said, and gave him the permission he craved.

Early in the morning the warriors started, and, delighted with his eloquence and readiness to go against his own tribe, they elected him chief of the expedition. They marched on and on for many days, little guessing how his heart beat as they approached the wigwams of the Seneca settlement. He began to issue orders for the attack. "Send scouts," he said, "to the sugar camp, and let them hide in a bush, and return and tell us what they have seen."

Two warriors obeyed his directions, but returned saying there were no signs of the tribe. Then he sent others in a different direction. Their report was the same. Ashes everywhere, they reported, but no smoke and no fires. The Senecas must have left Then at the council held that night Ga-geh-djo-wH proposed to go himself, with another warrior. This was agreed to^ and they set out together. When they had gone five or six miles, the wily chief said to his companion, " Let us sep- arate and each take a different pathway. You go over the hills; I