“‘Follow,’ he said; and she followed to a place in the forest where smoke rose.  There she saw a fire, and, around it, eight chiefs sitting, with white feathers on their heads.

“‘These chiefs are the Eight Thunders,’ she thought; ’now they will help me.’  And she said:  ’A Dancer has fallen out of the sky and a Mohawk youth has plunged for it.’

“’The blue otter has turned into a serpent, and the Mohawk youth beheld her eye under the waters,’ they said, one after the other.  The maid wept and laid the wampum at her feet.  Then she rubbed ashes on her lips and on her breasts and in the palms of her hands.

“‘The Mohawk youth has wedded the Lake Serpent,’ they said, one after the other.  The maid wept; and she rubbed ashes on her thighs and on her feet.

“‘Listen,’ they said, one after another; ’take strawberries and go to the lake.  You will know what to do.  When that is done we will come in the form of a cloud on the lake, not in the sky.’

“So she found strawberries in the starlight and went to the lake, calling, ‘Friend!  Friend!  I am going away and wish to see you!’

“Out on the lake the water began to boil, and coming out of it she saw her friend.  He had a spot on his forehead and looked like a serpent, and yet like a man.  Then she spread the berries on the shore and he came to the land and ate.  Then he went back to the shore and placed his lips to the water, drinking.  And the maid saw him going down through the water like a snake.  So she cried, ’Friends!  Friends!  I am going away and wish to see you!’

“The lake boiled and her friend came out of it.  The lake boiled once more; not in one spot alone, but all over, like a high sea spouting on a reef.

“Out of the water came her friend’s wife, beautiful to behold and shining with silver scales.  Her long hair fell all around her, and seemed like silver and gold.  When she came ashore she stretched out on the sand and took a strawberry between her lips.  The young maid watched the lake until she saw something moving on the waters a great way off, which seemed like a cloud.

“In a moment the stars went out and it grew dark, and it thundered till the skies fell down, torn into rain by the terrible lightning.  All was still at last, and it grew lighter.  The maid opened her eyes to find herself in the arms of her friend.  But at their feet lay the dying sparks of a shattered star.

“Then as they went back through the woods the eight chiefs passed them in Indian file, and they saw them rising higher and higher, till they went up to the sky like mists at sunrise.”

Dorothy’s voice died away; she stretched out one arm.

[Illustration:  “This is the end, O you wise men and sachems!".]

“This is the end, O you wise men and sachems, told since the beginning to us People of the Morning.  Hiro [I have spoken]!”