the clay daubing, the women of the tribe washed him, and painted him
black and white. The indignation of Why-Why may readily be conceived.
Why, he kept asking, should you shave a fellow's head, knock out his
teeth, cut off his little finger, daub him with clay, and paint him like
a pelican, because he is fourteen years old? To these radical questions,
the braves (who had all lost their own front teeth) replied, that this
was the custom of their fathers. They tried to console him, moreover, by
pointing out that now he might eat oysters, and catch himself a bride
from some hostile tribe, or give his sister in exchange for a wife. This
was little comfort to Why-Why. He had eaten oysters already without
supernatural punishment, and his sister, as we have seen, had suffered
the extreme penalty of the law. Nor could our hero persuade himself that
to club and carry off a hostile girl in the dark was the best way to win
a loving wife. He remained single, and became a great eater of oysters.

THE MANHOOD OF WHY-WHY.

As time went on our hero developed into one of the most admired braves of
his community. No one was more successful in battle, and it became
almost a proverb that when Why-Why went on the war-path there was certain
to be meat enough and to spare, even for the women. Why-Why, though a
Radical, was so far from perfect that he invariably complied with the
usages of his time when they seemed rational and useful. If a little
tattooing on the arm would have saved men from a horrible disease, he
would have had all the tribe tattooed. He was no bigot. He kept his
word, and paid his debts, for no one was ever very "advanced" all at
once. It was only when the ceremonious or superstitious ideas of his age
and race appeared to him senseless and mischievous that he rebelled, or
at least hinted his doubts and misgivings. This course of conduct made
him feared and hated both by the medicine-men, or clerical wizards, and
by the old women of the tribe. They naturally tried to take their
revenge upon him in the usual way.

A charge of heresy, of course, could not well be made, for in the infancy
of our race there were neither Courts of Arches nor General Assemblies.
But it was always possible to accuse Why-Why of malevolent witchcraft.
The medicine-men had not long to wait for an opportunity. An old woman
died, as old women will, and every one was asking "Who sent the evil
spirit that destroyed poor old Dada?