emy's camp.
And if he had traveled through a wilderness once he knew the way the
next time as well as any boy knows his way to school.

While Pontiac was training his body, his parents took care that he
should not grow up in ignorance of the religion and the history of his
people. He heard much about the Great Spirit who could see all he did
and was angry when he said or did anything dishonest or cowardly.

The laws of the Great Spirit were fixed in the boy's mind, for his
mother was always repeating them to him. She would say as he left the
wigwam: "Honor the gray-headed person," or "Thou shalt not mimic the
thunder;" "Thou shalt always feed the hungry and the stranger," or "Thou
shalt immerse thyself in the river at least ten times in succession in
the early part of the spring, so that thy body may be strong and thy
feet swift to chase the game and to follow the warpath."[1]

[Footnote 1: Translated from the Ottawa language by A. Blackbird.]

In the evenings the older members of the family and some visiting
Indians sat around the fire and told stones about the Great Spirit and
many other strange beings, some good and some evil. They told, too,
wonderful tales about omens and charms. The same story was told over and
over again, so that in time little Pontiac knew by heart the legends of
the Ottawas. He remembered and firmly believed all his life stories that
as a child he listened to with awe, in his father's wigwam.

In the same way he heard about the great deeds of the warriors of his
tribe; and he came to think there were no people in the world quite
equal to the Ottawas. He heard of other tribes that were their foes and
he was eager to go to war against them.

As he grew older he heard a good deal about men, not only of another
tribe but of another race, the palefaces, who were trying to get the
lands of the Indians. Then he thought less about being an Ottawa and
conquering other Indians; while every day he felt more and more that he
was an Indian and must conquer the white man. He wished he could unite
the tribes in friendship and lead them against these strangers who were
so many and so strong, and who had come to drive the Indians from their
homes and hunting grounds.

Such thoughts made Pontiac very serious. Obeying the commands of the
Great Spirit, the young Indian often blackened his face with a mixture
of charcoal and fish-oil, and went into the depths of the forest, where
he remained for days without