The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16

(Copyrighted by Martha Youne1.
 In the early autumn of the year 1540 De Soto. and his Spanish Cavaliers had in their march of invasion and search for gold crossed Florida and Georgia, and had reached the pleasant, breezy highland regions of Alabama.
 Men os noble spanish blood marched with the 500 of De Soto. De. Soto, now Governor of Cuba, and Adelantado of Florida, felt assured of the ;ruition of all his bravest hopess for never had an expedition for conquest so gorgeous as his sailed from the shores of there tofore always victorious Spain. There was with De Soto, don Carlos Enriques, Luis Bravo de Heres. Nuno Tobar, bold Baltasar de Gallegos and his brother, Fray Juan. a Dominican friar; the two Guzmans. Juan and Diego gayest and most handsome young cavaliers of Cas- tile; andf many others enuallY noble and eauaIay IennVfned. <f9fssk saf
 They we're 1narehfng, the 9ennB na- tive King of coosas held as their hest age, to Talase.
 the chukko thoccos the great house the great leader of the tribe. the gste pacacHA thlocco of his people. and his councillors, the Micalgee; and his war rIors, the Tnsseki nIgee, were met 70 consult as to the reception to be ac- corded to the men clothed in iron. with hair and beard like the sunshine, who were mounted upon steeds strange to sight and most fearful in battle. Away from the council house, close against the walls of the Micculgee-in- topah, cabin of the Micco, sat the Mic co.'s daughter listening to the stories of the old women.
 She was seated In the sunshine upon a mat of woven reeds and her maidens held over her head fans of long feath- CTS. No daughter of Spain could boast of more beauty than was the dover of this child of the forest.
 Fine and slender were her hands and her feet, and, most 1.-the was her body, red and glowing as if steeped in sum rise and sunsetting. She was Ah-chah- kah, Beloved One.
 She fas of the proud tribe of the Eagle, the Lum- -ulgee, Her father, Micco of that tribe. was Iste pacacha thlocco of many tribes. Ah-chah-k kah loved to listen to the traditions of her people. Today the old women had talked of the Pos-ke- tah. the Dance of the Green Corn. They told of the ceaseless blessings it's celebration brought to the tribes. It's annual cele- bratfon was teaching of war, to the young men, it was love e-making time to the young women; it was court of aps peals and true judgment; for at that celebration all disputes were laid be- fore the wise men of the tribe and sets tied.
 It was time of religious revival for the tribes; for when the warriors cut the great logs hewed them four square and laid them at right angles. the four ends making a cross. one end pointing to the North. one to the South, one tn the East, one to the West, and lit>at the centre of the four beams tot-kah- chase, the new firedid not that tot-kah burn toward the sky for the sins of the people? For four days the hewn logs in their crucl-form shape must burn while the warriors con fessed the sins of the year and drHa k the usse pus-sah, the black drink. Every morning for four days the war riors must rub the ashes of the new fire on face and body and then, running swiftly to the falling water, they must plunge into the flood one after tho other, crying aloud to the clear and cleansing water:
 -muc-culIe! Ah-muc- culle!
 Pour upon me! Pour upon me!
 The last day of the four days of the celebration, the warriors ate salt and that night they danced the Long Dance; the Obunkah- chopco. Already EnG WOltEH oL lAAE AAADF AeaFC hdHNGQ the Ech- -opunchah; the Gun Dance. AL ready the women have swept clean the hearths of the wigwams, already they have refilled the hearths with white sand, fresh from the water side; al- ready they have kindled the home blaze anew with torches lit from the tot-kah muchasse, the new fire.
 All is new. fresh, pure after the great feast of the Pos ke-tah
 That celebration cleansed the war riors from all crimes of the past year, that celebration restored the criminal to his people purified and forgiven,- even the remembrance of guilt is burned out by the fire of the hewn logs. the tot-kah of Pos-ke- tah.
 But the maiden Ah-chahk h, Below ed One, loved better now to listen to the tales of the strange people coming to them; people like children of the sun and the moon, f:!7e brothers of the stars.
 The Indian runners had come sir sly together to TalIase t9 tell the Micco that these strangers hau weapons more keen than the flint pointed arrows Of the great warriors. weapons far more deadly than the lances of th2 mighty warriors. The noise of their marching was like the noise of we wocah: the roaring waters. They came not silent