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<font size=3>I've run across this incident before, although my knowledge
of history remains shaky. What I'd read a couple other places is
closely followed by Lang's translation offered at
<<a href="http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~chinook/Innsbruck/2.3.illustrations.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~chinook/Innsbruck/2.3.illustrations.htm</a>>
(the first reference I found at the moment).<br><br>
Records like this were often made sometime after the fact, and therefore
tend be colored by effects of memory and interpretation for the benefit
of the recipient or audience (plus in this case by the varying usage and
understanding of the Jargon across regions and races). However, most
accounts agree the chief was tricked into entering the army camp and
expecting a meeting, but instead was executed immediately upon arrival,
giving him only a surprised moment to blurt a desperate plea for his
life. (Although one reviewer noted, "There are so many versions of
the story of his death it creates mystery.")<br><br>
Under the circumstances described, the "short story" sounds
most plausible to me. As it is terrifying as well as unflattering (to all
involved), it doesn't impress me as a construction.<br><br>
Accounts of other wartime executions (and the few actual recordings of
nearly sudden death we have: spacecraft communications, aircraft
"black boxes") show that elaborate threats of retribution or
expressions of philosophical acceptance or defiance require at least some
anticipation of one's fate to compose. It's impossible when facing an
immediate, unexpected demise.<br><br>
It is a very grisly bit of history, perhaps most illustrative in its
stark, unembellished form.<br><br>
Regards,<br><br>
Jeff </font></body>
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