To Martin Atherton, the English priest, as he gazed in at the wild, weird scene, it seemed like the very entrance of hell, and that hideous figure, the chief medicine-man, looked not unlike the evil one himself, as he danced and yelled, followed closely by the others. Then all the people sent forth a groan, and the chief medicine-man threw many of the offerings the people had brought into the fire, which caused a great crackling and spluttering. The groans of the people rose dolefully, and the wild yell of the medicine-man completed the frightful scene.
When Iosco passed from the little group outside, and stood in the firelight before his people, they thought he had come out of the fire, and waited one moment to see if he would vanish into it again. As he did not, they pressed their hands to their hearts and yelled for joy, till the very rocks seemed to tremble.
At a sign from Iosco his people were silent. He spoke to them of his father, and of his Christian faith; of the whites, and how Powhatan had killed most of them; of the canoes now in the river; of how he had heard they had wanted him, and he had come. Now did they wish him to remain? With a great cry they called him their chief, while the medicine-men strewed corn before him, as a sign that all should be his, and poor old Adwa, the squaw who had nursed him, ran to the fire, and would have thrown herself in as a thank-offering had not Iosco caught her and pointed to Virginia, who still stood in the doorway. She ran to her, and held the head of soft wavy hair to her breast as tenderly as any mother would have done.
Martin Atherton looked on in amazement, at the squaws gathered about Virginia, and showed how tenderly they loved her. He could see that she loved them, and for each she seemed to have a few kind words. The children seemed to rain down, more than a dozen having gathered around her in a minute. As he watched her caress them lovingly, and saw her pick up one brown little boy, who was scarcely more than a papoose, and hold him close to her heart, he wondered if she could ever be happy in a conventional English life, and what the drawing-room would say and think of this forest maiden.