aven's wing, hung below her waist
in a heavy braid. The short, loose sleeves of her fringed leather
smock gave freedom to her strong brown arms. A belted skirt,
leggings, and embroidered moccasins completed her costume. On
special occasions, like other Indian women, she adorned herself
with a belt and collar of coloured wampum, weaving strands of it
into her hair; and sometimes a necklace of polished elk-teeth
gleamed on her dusky throat. When Tecumseh had learned the use of
his legs, he would romp about the camp with the other black-eyed
children of his tribe. He watched his father, Puckeshinwau, make
the flint arrow-head and split the wooden shaft to receive it, bind
it firmly with a thong, and tip the other end of the shaft with a
feather to wing it on its flight; and saw the men build the birch
canoe, so light that one man could shoulder it, yet strong enough
to carry a heavy load.

During Tecumseh's childhood the Indians north of the Ohio were in
a state of unrest. They had been subdued by Bouquet, [footnote:
See _The War Chief of the Ottawas_ in this Series.] but the leniency
of that humane leader, in merely exacting that they should return
their white prisoners and remain at peace, was looked on by the
tribes as a mark of weakness; and, while no open war broke out,
young warriors occasionally attacked traders and settlers. By the
Treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1768, the Six Nations had ceded to the
whites the land between the Ohio and the Tennessee. But this was
the common hunting-ground of all the tribes, and the Indians both
south and north of the Ohio resented the action of the Six Nations
and opposed the entrance of white settlers into this region. They
were encouraged in their opposition by the action of the British
government in proclaiming the territory west of the Alleghanies
Indian country and forbidding settlers to enter it. But the hardy
Virginians could not be kept out, and slowly but surely ever westward
the smoke of their woodland huts ascended, and the forests of what
are now Kentucky and Tennessee were falling beneath the axe of the
frontiersmen. Resentful of the encroachments of the Virginians on
their hunting-grounds, frequent war-parties of Shawnees, Delawares,
Mohicans, Cherokees, and Mingoes crossed the Ohio and crept stealthily
on some unguarded settlement, to slay and scalp the inhabitants
and carry off their horses and cattle. The chiefs disclaimed
responsibility for these raids, but in word