men were all off on a hunting expedition. At once, without waiting a
moment, the poor lonely bachelors plucked up courage. Then, armed with
ropes and straps, they marched in a body to the village in the valley
below. There, they seized each man a girl, not waiting for any maid to
comb her hair, or put on a new frock, or pack up her clothes, or carry
any thing out of her home, and made off with her, as fast as one pair
of legs could move with another pair on top.

At first, this looked like rough treatment--for a lovely girl, thus to
be strapped to a brawny big fellow; but after a while, the girls
thought it was great fun to be married and each one to have a man to
caress, and fondle, and scold, and look for, and boss around; for each
wife, inside of her own hut was quite able to rule her husband. Every
one of these new wives was delighted to find a man who cared so much
for her as to come after her, and risk his life to get her, and each
one admired her new, brave husband.

Yet the brides knew too well that their men folks, fathers and
brothers, uncles and cousins, would soon come back to attempt their
recapture.

And this was just what happened. When a runner brought, to the valley
men now far away, the news of the rape of their daughters, the hunters
at once ceased chasing the deer and marched quickly back to get the
girls and make them come home.

The hill men saw the band of hunters coming after their daughters.
They at once took their new wives into a natural rocky fortress, on
the top of a precipice, which overlooked the lake.