"Give me your mocassins," said the young wife of Markeda to old John; "they are torn, and I will mend them. You have come from afar, and are welcome. Sleep, and when you awake, you will find them beside you." As she assisted him to take them off, the medicine man looked admiringly into her face. "The young wife of Markeda is as beautiful as the white flowers that spring up on the prairies. Her husband would mourn for her if the giant should close her eyes. They are bright now, as the stars, but death would dim them, should not the anger of the giant be appeased." The "Bounding Fawn" turned pale at the mention of the angry giant; she sat down, without replying, to her work; wondering the while, if the soul of her early love thought of her, now that it wandered in the Spirit's land. It might be that he would love her again when they should meet there. The sound of her child's voice, awakening out of sleep, aroused her, and called to her mind who was its father. "They tore me away from my lover, and made me come to the teepee of the chief," was her bitter reflection. "Enah! that I cannot love the father of my child." She rose and left the teepee. "Where is the heaven of the Dahcotahs," she murmured, as she looked up to the silent stars. "It may be that I shall see him again. He will love my child too, and I will forget the many tears I have shed." CHAPTER III. The dance to the Giant is always performed inside the wigwam. Early in the morning the dancers were assembled in the chief's lodge. Their dress was such as is appointed for the occasion. Their hats were made of the bark of trees, such as tradition says the Giant wears. They were large, and made forked like the lightning. Their leggins were made of skins. Their ear-rings were of the bark of trees, and were about one foot long. The chief rose ere the dawn of day, and stood before the fire. As the flames flickered, and the shadows of the dancers played fantastically about the wigwam, they looked more like Lucifer and a party of attendant spirits, than like human beings worshipping their God. Markeda stood by the fire without noticing his guests, who awaited his motions in silence. At last, moving slowly, he placed a kettle of water on the fire, and then threw into it a large piece of buffalo meat. Lighting his pipe, he seated himself, and then the dancers advanced to the fire and lit theirs; and soon they were enveloped in a cloud of smoke. When the water began to boil, the Indians arose, and, dancing round the fire, imitated the voice of the Giant.