eping motion of his hand, making it
give back a sound like that of a violin, and seemed satisfied.

He also took from the canoe the quiver, _gadasha_, which was made of
carefully dressed deerskin, elaborately decorated with the stained
quills of the porcupine. It was two feet in length and contained
twenty-five arrows, _gano_.

The arrows were three feet long, pointed with deer's horn, each carrying
two feathers twisted about the shaft. They, like the bow and quiver,
were fine specimens of workmanship and would have compared favorably
with those used by the great English archers of the Middle Ages.

Tayoga examined the sharp tips of the arrows, and, poising the quiver
over his left shoulder, fastened it on his back, securing the lower end
at his waist with the sinews of the deer, and the upper with the same
kind of cord, which he carried around the neck and then under his left
arm. The ends of the arrows were thus convenient to his right hand, and
with one sweeping circular motion he could draw them from the quiver and
fit them to the bowstring.

The Iroquois had long since learned the use of the rifle and musket, but
on occasion they still relied upon the bow, with which they had won
their kingdom, the finest expanse of mountain and forest, lake and
river, ever ruled over by man. Tayoga, as he strung his bow and hung
his quiver, felt a great emotion, the spirit of his ancestors he would
have called it, descending upon him. _Waano_ and he fitted together and
for the time he cherished it more than his rifle, the weapon that the
white man had brought from another world. The feel of the wood in his
hand made him see visions of a vast green wilderness in which the Indian
alone roamed and knew no equal.

"What are you dreaming about, Tayoga?" asked Robert, who also dreamed
dreams.

The Onondaga shook himself and laughed a little.

"Of nothing," he replied. "No, that was wrong. I was dreaming of the
deer that we'll soon find. Come, Lennox, we'll go seek him."

"And while you're finding him," said Willet, "I'll be building the fire
on which we'll cook the best parts of him."

Tayoga and Robert went together into the forest, the white youth taking
with him his rifle, which, however, he did not expect to use. It was
merely a precaution, as the Hurons, Abenakis, Caughnawagas and other
tribes in the north were beginning to stir and mutter under the French
influence. And for that reason, and because they did not wish to a