They may, indeed, suffer you to live again; but you must return as an infant, in flesh and bones of your own." "The gods have permitted me to return as I have returned; and you well know, Kamaiakan, that, except you use your art to banish me and restore Miriam, there is nothing else that can work a change." "Murder is not lawful, Semitzin; and to do as you desire would be an act not different from murder." "On my head be it, then!" exclaimed the princess.

"Would it be less a murder to send me back to nothingness than to let her remain there?
Mine is the stronger spirit, and has therefore the better right to live.
I ask of you only to do nothing.

None need ever know that Miriam has vanished and that Semitzin lives in her place.

I wear her body and her features, and I am content to wear her name also, if it must be so." Kamaiakan was silent.

He may well be pardoned for feeling troubled in the presence of a situation which had perhaps never before confronted a human being.