The three young friends did so:  and in the deserted chamber of the great heathen Powow, Tisquantum, the voice of Christian supplication ascended to the throne of a prayer-answering God.  Could it ascend unheeded? or fail to bring down, in His own good time, an answer of peace?

CHAPTER IX

‘The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.’  PSA. lxxiv, 20

The night that followed this conversation, Jyanough passed in Terah’s lodge, and he nursed his suffering relative with gentle patience.  But he saw no signs of recovery, although the women and the Cree Powows assured him that the fatal disease was driven away by Tisquantum’s powerful incantations, and that, when the sun rose, he would see the spirit of Terah revive.  So had the conjuror declared; and so these misguided heathens believed.  But when the first beams of opening day entered the door of the lodge, which was set open to receive them, and fell on the dark and pallid features of the aged sufferer, Jyanough could no longer be deceived into hope.  He saw that his revered uncle was dying, and he hastened to inform Henrich of the fact, and to entreat him to return with him to Terah’s wigwam, and to prey to the Great Spirit in his behalf.

Henrich readily complied:  and he, too, was convinced, by the first glance at the dying Indian, that no human aid, however skilful, could long retain that once powerful spirit in its worn and wasted tenement of clay.  He knelt down by the side of Terah’s couch, and Jyanough knelt with him; and, regardless of the wondering gaze of the ignorant attendants, he offered up a short and simple prayer to God for the soul of the departing warrior.

The Cree Powows who had watched the sick man during the night, had left the lodge as soon as daylight set in, to collect materials for a great burnt offering they deigned to make, as a last resource, in front of the Pince’s dwelling.  As Henrich and Jyanough rose from their knees, the heathen priest entered, bearing strings of wampum, articles of furniture, of clothing, food, tobacco, and everything of any value that they had been able to obtain from the friends of Terah.  All these various articles were displayed before the dim eyes of the invalid, for whose benefit they were to be reduced to a heap of useless ashes; and a faint smile of satisfaction passed over Terah’s countenance:  but he spoke not.  Jyanough then bent down, and pressed his lips to the cold brow of his almost unconscious uncle, and hurried with Henrich from the lodge; for he could not bear again to witness any repetition of the heathen ceremonies that had caused him so much shame the preceding day:  neither could he endure to see his last relative leave the world, surrounded by a spiritual darkness which it was not in his power to dispel.