Soft Voice. "Well, well! So be it! But I greatly fear the test shall prove too severe for the virtue of the poor, vain boy. He has a lively fancy, and the moccasins are very beautiful; their glitter and gleam would dazzle--have dazzled older eyes than his! Yes, so be it! And, after all, why deplore it? For---- "When the Manitou race is run, Which shall be ere set of sun, All is ended, all well done, And Wahcondah smiling!" Then, after a momentary pause, the two voices joined and sang, or chanted in cadences weirdly, musically, the following song: "Manitou Lords of birds and beast, Hark, to the voice that comes from the East! Great Wahcondah calling you forth, Some to South and some to North, Some to meet the rising sun, Some to the setting moon to run, Each to creature he hath in charge; Govern their way, their lives enlarge; Make them less than beastly rude, Teach them more than instinct rude, Lead them on to Manitou-Land, Where Wahcondah's powerful hand Waits to give them Manitou-being, Manitou-hearing, Manitou-seeing. Him to know, and knowing, adore, Manitou all forever more. Up and forth to meet the day, Over the hills and far away; Many a race must be begun, Some be finished ere set of sun, All in Manitou fashion run, All in Manitou mercy done, Great Wahcondah wills it!" CHAPTER XV. The Manitou Eye. The song had hardly begun when Sprigg could hear a huge stir in the cave, as if the call had awakened a multitude of living things from the slumber of the night. The hubbub was neither boisterous nor loud, yet it seemed to come, not only from near at hand, but from far and wide. It was an infinite mingling of confused, indistinct sounds, like the inarticulate murmurs rising from innumerable voices--talking, singing and shouting, intermixed with laughter and with the cries of beasts and birds. On hearing the commotion around him, the boy had risen to his feet, and now, with strained eyes, was vainly striving to pierce the red mist in which he was enveloped. Before the song was ended, the multitude, from whom the hubbub rose, were evidently in rapid motion, and all in the same direction, sweeping past him so that he felt as if he were standing upon a rock, in the midst of a wide and swiftly flowing river, on whose waters rested an impenetrable fog. Closely intermingled with the voice-like sounds were now to be distinguished a variety of other noises, resembling the sharp, light clattering of cloven hoofs, the muffled pattering of hairy paws, or the wind-like whirring of fluttering wings.