To crown their enormities, if any man now attempts their destruction, they, immediately upon his defeat, put one or more of their captives to a shameful death, on a turret in sight of all passers-by; so that they have been much less molested of late; and we, although we have burned, for years, to attack these demons and destroy them, dared not, for the sake of their captives, risk the adventure, before we should have reached at least our earliest manhood.
Now, however, we are preparing for the attempt; and the grounds of this preparation are these.

Having only the resolution, and not the experience necessary for the undertaking, we went and consulted a lonely woman of wisdom, who lives not very far from here, in the direction of the quarter from which you have come.

She received us most kindly, and gave us what seems to us the best of advice.

She first inquired what experience we had had in arms.

We told her we had been well exercised from our boyhood, and for some years had kept ourselves in constant practice, with a view to this necessity.
"'But you have not actually fought for life and death ?' said she.
"We were forced to confess we had not.
"'So much the better in some respects,' she replied.