"Thy wife shall be my sister during her
widowhood; thy children will never want game, until they can themselves
strike the bounding deer."
The two Indians continued their way in silence, till at once the brother
of the murdered one stopped.
"We shall soon reach the chiefs," said he; "I to revenge a brother's
death, thou to quit for ever thy tribe and thy children, Hast thou a
wish? Think, whisper!"
The murderer stood irresolute; his glance furtively took the direction
of his lodge. The brother continued,--
"Go to thy lodge. I shall wait for thee till the setting of the sun,
before the council door. Go! thy tongue is silent, but I know the wish
of thy heart. Go!"
Such traits are common in Indian life. Distrust exists not among the
children of the wilderness, until generated by the conduct of white men.
These stories, and thousand others, all exemplifying the triumph of
virtue and honour over baseness and vice, are every day narrated by the
elders, in presence of the young men and children. The evening
encampment is a great school of morals, where the red-skin philosopher
embodies in his tales the sacred precepts of virtue. A traveller, could
he understand what was said, as he viewed the scene, might fancy some of
the sages of ancient Greece inculcating to their disciples those
precepts of wisdom which have transmitted their name down to us bright
and glorious, through more than twenty centuries.
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