ur arm has made; where have you hung your scalps?
Have you ever proved your fortitude, by suffering protracted pain,
enduring continued hunger, or sustaining great fatigue? Is your name
known beyond the humble limits of your native village? Do the warriors
of distant tribes relate your splendid deeds, and, when they speak of a
war with the Chippewas, take into account the lance of the son of
Kayneewee? Go then, young man, and earn a name for yourself. It is none
but the brave that can ever hope to claim an alliance with the house of
Wanawosh. Think not my ancient and honoured blood shall mingle with the
humble mark of the Awausees, fit _totem_ for fishermen."

The intimidated lover departed, but he resolved to do a deed that should
render him worthy of the daughter of Wanawosh, or perish in the attempt.
He called together several of his young companions and equals in years,
imparted to them his design of conducting an expedition against the
enemy, and requested their assistance. Several embraced the proposal
immediately; others were soon brought to acquiesce, and, before ten suns
had set, he saw himself at the head of a formidable party of young
warriors, all eager, like himself, to distinguish themselves in battle.
Each warrior was armed, according to the custom of the period, with a
bow and quiver of arrows, tipped with flint or jasper, and each carried
a _mushkeemoot_ upon his back, provided with a small quantity of parched
and pounded corn, mixed with a little pemmican or pounded meat. Each was
furnished with a kind of stone knife, and a war-club of hard wood,
fastened to a girth of deer-skin. In addition to this, some carried the
ancient sheemaugun or Indian lance, consisting of a smooth pole above
one fathom in length, with a spear of flint firmly tied on with splints
of hard wood, bound down with deer's sinews. Thus equipped, and each
warrior painted in a manner to suit his fancy, and ornamented with
appropriate feathers, they repaired to the spot appointed for the
war-dance.[A]

[Footnote A: See the description of this dance in a note to The
Expedition of the Lenni Lenape in vol. ii.]

A level grassy plain extended for some distance from the lodge of
Wanawosh, towards a point of land jutting into the lake. Lodges of green
bark were promiscuously interspersed over this spot, with here and there
a cluster of trees, or a solitary pine, which had escaped the fury of
tempests for a thousand years. A belt of yellow