I looked around, and saw I was the only red man that
had this awful mark on his face, and I interrogated my mother and she
said:
"'Son of the chiefs of the Beard,
Thou shall know the mystery
In which thy curious eye wishes to pry,
When thy beard from black becomes red.'
"Let there be joy in the hearts of the Natchez! A hunter is born to
them--a hunter of the race of the Suns. Ask of the bears, of the
buffaloes, of the tigers, and of the swift-footed deer, whose arrows
they fear most! They tremble and cower when the footstep of the hunter
with the beard on his chin is heard on the heath. But I was born with
brains in my head as well as a beard on my chin, and I pondered on my
mother's words. One day, when a panther which I slaughtered had torn my
breast, I painted my beard with my own blood, and I stood smiling
before her. She said nothing; but her eye gleamed with wild delight,
and she took me to the temple when, standing by the sacred fire, she
thus sang to me:
"'Son of the chiefs of the Beard,
Thou shall know the mystery,
Since, true to thy nature, with thine own blood
Thy black beard thou hast turned to red.
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