east, stained with
strange figures, hung a chain of small bones, and the scalp locks of his
enemies fringed his moccasins. No player could be more skillful in
gesture and expression, no poet more nice in the choice of words, no
general more quick to raise a wild enthusiasm in the soldiers to whom he
called. All Indians are eloquent, but this savage was a leader among
them.

He spoke now to some effect. Commencing with a day in the moon of
blossoms when for the first time winged canoes brought white men into
the [v]Powhatan, he came down through year after year to the present
hour, ceased, and stood in silence, regarding his triumph. It was
complete. In its wild excitement the village was ready then and there to
make an end of us, who had sprung to our feet and stood with our backs
against a great bay tree, facing the maddened throng. Much the best
would it be for us if the tomahawks left the hands that were drawn back
to throw, if the knives that were flourished in our faces should be
buried to the haft in our hearts; and so we courted death, striving with
word and look to infuriate our executioners to the point of forgetting
their former purpose in the passion for instant vengeance. It was not to
be. The werowance spoke again, pointing to the hills which were dimly
seen through the mist. A moment, and the hands clenched upon the weapons
fell; another, and we were upon the march.

As one man, the village swept through the forest toward the rising
ground that was but a few bowshots away. The young men bounded ahead to
make the preparation; but the approved warriors and the old men went
more sedately, and with them walked Diccon and I, as steady of step as
they. The women and children for the most part brought up the rear,
though a few impatient hags ran past us. One of these women bore a great
burning torch, the flame and smoke streaming over her shoulder as she
ran. Others carried pieces of bark heaped with the [v]slivers of pine of
which every wigwam has store.

The sun was yet to rise when we reached a hollow amongst the low red
hills. The place was a natural amphitheater, well fitted for a
spectacle. Those Indians who could not crowd into the narrow level
spread themselves over the rising ground and looked down with fierce
laughter upon the driving of the stakes which the young men had brought.
The women and children scattered into the woods beyond the cleft between
the hills and returned bearing great armfuls of