it of its harsher features, and left it so interwoven with golden light. that we half forget the unwelcome truth, and think hopefully of the departed. The Southern Indians of our day, when sitting beside their "council fires," and speaking of the times that are past, tell us:
That a young Natchez chief, famed for his virtue and bravery, became enamored of a beautiful maiden, and that his passion was returned. His interviews were stolen ones, and few and far between. On one occasion, when the young chief was keeping his night-watch over the sacred fire of the temple, he heard the plaintive song of a day-bird; and flying to the neighboring groves, there met his mistress, and exchanged the solemn vows of eternal love. Returning to the temple, the young chief, to his horror, discovered that the flame had expired in his, unconsciously to him long absence, and the altars, which had ever glowed with living fire, were cold.
Alarm filled the young warrior's breast; despair was impressed upon his features; and as the sun illumined the hills, and made the homes of the Natchez glisten in its refreshing, and to them sacred radiance, there was no response of ascending sacrifice, and the chief priests rushed with precipitation to the temple, to learn the cause.
Terrible indeed were the wailings that ascended from the soul-stricken worshippers. It was deemed that a curse had fallen upon the nation; that its speedy extinction was shadowed forth; and amidst the excitement, by order of the great Sun, the young maiden was sacrificed, not only as a propitiation, but that her surpassing beauty should no longer tempt the guardians of the sacred altars to neglect their vigils.
The young chief was doomed to make expiation in fastings and prayers; and after due ceremonies, he was imprisoned in the centre of the great mound, there to remain until he wooed back the lost fire from heaven. It was in vain that he essayed the comparatively easy task of lighting the proper combustibles by rapid friction. Over-whelmed by religious fear, his strength of arm appeared to have departed; and even when, from long and patient labor, the fire was about to descend, a tear of regret for the memory of his mistress would fall upon the just-igniting wood, and leave his interminable task to be again renewed.
