Parson Amen pausing a moment to take breath, Ungque, who detected the wavering of Peter’s mind, and who acted far more in opposition to the mysterious and tribeless chief than from any other motive, profited by the occasion thus afforded to speak.  Without this pause, however, the breeding of an Indian would have prevented any interruption.

“I open my mouth to speak,” said The Weasel, in his humblest manner.  “What I say is not fit for the wise chiefs to hear.  It is foolish, but my mind tells me to say it.  Does the medicine-man of the pale-faces tell us that the Son of the Great Spirit came upon earth, and lived among men?”

“I do; such is our belief; and the religion we believe and teach cometh directly from his mouth.”

“Let the medicine-man tell the chiefs how long the Son of the Great Spirit stayed on earth, and which way he went when he left it.”

Now, this question was put by Ungque through profound dissimulation.  He had heard of the death of Christ, and had obtained some such idea of the great sacrifice as would be apt to occur to the mind of a savage.  He foresaw that the effect of the answer would be very likely to destroy most of the influence that the missionary had just been building up, by means of his doctrine and his prayers.  Parson Amen was a man of singular simplicity of character, but he had his misgivings touching the effect of this reply.  Still he did not scruple about giving it, or attempt in any manner to mystify or to deceive.

“It is a humiliating and sad story, my brethren, and one that ought to cause all heads to be bowed to the earth in shame,” he answered.  “The Son of the Great Spirit came among men; he did nothing but good; told those who heard him how to live and how to die.  In return for all this, wicked and unbelieving men put him to death.  After death his body was taken up into Heaven—­the region of departed spirits, and the dwelling-place of his Father—­where he now is, waiting for the time when he is to return to the earth, to reward the good and to punish the wicked.  That time will surely come; nor do I believe the day to be very distant.”

The chiefs listened to this account with grave attention.  Some of them had heard outlines of the same history before.  Accounts savoring of the Christian history had got blended with some of their own traditions, most probably the fruits of the teachings of the earlier missionaries, but were so confused and altered as to be scarcely susceptible of being recognized.  To most of them, however, the history of the incarnation of the Son of God was entirely new; and it struck them as a most extraordinary thing altogether that any man should have injured such a being!  It was, perhaps, singular that no one of them all doubted the truth of the tradition itself.  This they supposed to have been transmitted with the usual care, and they received it as a fact not to be disputed.  The construction that was put on its circumstances will best appear in the remarks that followed.