know about woman and man? What they do?" She signed with
her fingers to make her meaning plain, and saw that she had succeeded
when the pale eyes woman's face turned a deep red. Redbird wished Yellow
Hair were standing up in the water, so she could see whether the rest of
her body turned red too.

Yellow Hair said she knew a little about what men and women did, but her
mother had died a long time ago and her father never spoke of such
things.

"You want me teach?" Redbird asked.

Yellow Hair turned red again, looked down at the water and nodded.

So, as they waded back to the shore of the lake, Redbird tried with many
gestures and a few words to teach Yellow Hair, as Sun Woman many summers
ago had taught her. When they were out of the water, Redbird picked up a
stick and drew a little picture on the mudbank. When she was finished,
she giggled. Yellow Hair took a good look and turned red again, all the
way down to her waist, Redbird noticed. She turned away, but Redbird saw
to her relief that she was laughing. Redbird scratched out the picture.

They sat on the bank where they had left their clothing, letting the air
dry their bodies. From a pouch she had brought with her Redbird took a
wood-stoppered gourd containing musk oil. She and Yellow Hair rubbed the
oil on their bodies to keep mosquitoes off.

Yellow Hair wanted to know if the first time with a man hurt very much.

"Some women hurt much. Other women little."

She patted Yellow Hair's wrist to reassure her. "I think you hurt
little. After that, feel very, very good." She patted herself between
her legs to make plain what she was talking about, and Yellow Hair
blushed again.

"_Best_ feeling," Redbird added, smiling. It was surprising, Redbird
thought, that Yellow Hair could become a fully grown woman and yet still
have her first time with a man to look forward to.

They sat in silence for a time, Redbird afraid again because now she had
to take the next step.

But before she could speak, tears began to trickle down Yellow Hair's
cheeks. She spoke brokenly, and it was hard for Redbird to follow her.
She seemed to be saying that she expected to die before she ever knew
those good feelings Redbird talked about with a man she loved. She had
already lived for twenty summers, and now it seemed she might not live
much longer. And never have a man.

It was true. There was big danger to Yellow Hair. If anything happened
to White Bear, she would have no prote