Therefore he answered at once and without hesitation:-- "Certainly I will come; the pole is heavy for one man to carry, and where Hokosa goes, there I can go also." "Nay, nay, Messenger," said the king, "the lightning knows Hokosa and will turn from him, but you are a stranger to it and it will eat you up." "King," answered Owen, "I do not believe that Hokosa has any power over the lightning.

It may strike him or it may strike me; but unless my God so commands, it will strike neither of us." "On your head be it, White Man," said Hokosa, with cold anger.

"Come, aid me with the pole." Then they lifted the dead tree, and between them carried it into the middle of the plain, where they set it up in a crevice of the rock.

By this time the storm was almost over them, and watching it Owen perceived that the lightnings struck always along the bank of the stream, doubtless following a hidden line of the bed of ironstone.
"It is but a very little storm," said Hokosa contemptuously, "such as visit us almost every afternoon at this period of the year.

Ah! White Man, I would that you could see one of our great tempests, for these are worth beholding.