Nor in truth do I do this for you, Hokosa; I do it because I seek power, and thus only can we win it who are fallen.

Also I love all things strange, and desire to commune with the dead and to know that, if for some few minutes only, at least my woman's breast has held the spirit of a king.

Yet, I warn you, make no fault in your magic; for should I die beneath it, then I, who desire to live on and to be great, will haunt you and be avenged upon you!" "Oh! Noma," he said, "if I believed that there was any danger for you, should I ask you to suffer this thing ?--I, who love you more even than you love power, more than my life, more than anything that is or ever can be." "I know it, and it is to that I trust," the woman answered.

"Now begin, before my courage leaves me." "Good," he said.

"Seat yourself there upon the mound, resting your head against the stone." She obeyed; and taking thongs of hide which he had made ready, Hokosa bound her wrists and ankles, as these people bind the wrists and ankles of corpses.