University of Virginia Library

4. CHAPTER IV.
The Indian Maid.

The young Chief, after reaching the water-side, had returned for Ayane,
and placed him in the canoe, still sleeping. He then seized the slender paddle
and propelled the light, birchen bark across the space between the island
and the shore, with the speed of an arrow, the bright, orange-colored
sides of the graceful canoe shining like gold as they glanced in the level
beams of the sun. He soon reached the entrance of the inlet, and shot his
boat forward between its green banks, stooping low as he passed into it to
avoid the bending branches that arched over it, nearly meeting in the centre.

The inlet was winding and narrow, with so dense a covering of foliage
suspended from vines that swung from tree to tree, that the sun-light only
penetrated it here and there, through a larger opening in the verdant canopy.
It was like entering, and sailing far into a cavern of foliage.

Natanis did not regard the solitude or the singular beauty of the tortuous
canal up which he was moving; but with one object in view, the safety and
shelter of his young friend, he steadily ascended the stream, his passage
disturbing many a singing bird on its leafy branch, and startling many a
fawn from its covert. He had been advancing up the inlet for about ten
minutes in this way, when he saw appearing before him through the trees
a bright sunny knoll rising gently from the water; and he pushed forward
to reach the bright scene. In a few moments he emerged from the umbrageous
inlet into the loveliest spot his eyes had ever beheld, or his fancy had
ever painted. He suspended his paddle in the act of cleaving the water to
gaze around him. There was, just before him a lovely basin scooped out
by nature from a table of the purest marble, and into it, from the top of a
dark green rock, leaped a glittering cascade. The sound of its ceaseless
fall filled the place with a soothing murmur, with which was mingled the
rippling of a score of mimic torrents, which, clambering over the brim of
the vast marble basin which was overrunning to its edge, leaped sparkling
and laughing down the rocky sides, or flowed smoothly and shining over
the green sward to mingle with a deep pool in which the inlet up which
he had come, lost itself. The verge of the pool was hung with the richest
mosses, and around the basin, on the terrace above it, clambered vines and
other creeping plants in full and brilliant flower, loading the air with clouds
of perfume. Upon the summit of the white marble precipice, the dazzling
surface of which was every where relieved by a net-work of foliage-laden
tendrils and gorgeous boquets of blooming shrubs planted by the tasteful
hand of nature in every crevice that would nourish a green plant; upon the
summit, over all, was a fringe of cedars and laurel-trees, forming against
the sky a rich and beautiful outline to the lovely scene below. The whole
place was sheltered by the encroaching forest, and seemed a fit abode for
that Indian Fairy, called the `Lady of the Waters and Woods.'

The scenery, however, did not alone command the surprised attention of
the young Chief. His eyes had discovered in a little valley not twenty paces
wide lying between the bright sun-lit knoll and the basin and carpeted
with the softest green, a group of acacia-trees amid which he thought he
discovered a lodge. He gave a few strokes of his paddle lightly in the water
as if fearing to disturb the calm repose of the beauteous place in which
he found himself, and entered the pool beneath the basin. He now saw

plainly that there was a lodge half hid in the group of acacias close by the
water-fall. With a sort of awe and curiosity, but with the situation of
Ayane and his need of succor uppermost in his thoughts, he touched the
moss-clad verge of the dark pool and landed.

He looked, and seeing that his friend continued to sleep with laboured
and heavy breathing, he hastened forward to the lodge which was
not twenty paces distant, up a gentle ascent of natural lawn. He went
forward with the spear grasped in his hand, for he expected to meet foes in
the hunting-grounds of his foes, yet was prepared to crave that hospitality
which no Indian warrior ever refused to his enemy in distress. He had
not gone five steps when a beautiful doe bounded from the other side of the
knoll where it was quietly browzing, and darted with fear towards the lodge.
He saw with surprise that its neck was encircled by a band or circlet of
wampum beautifully ornamented with shells, which jingled musically as it
bounded away. Softly he advanced with a watchful eye lest he should be
surprized, and with a noiseless step that he might not alarm the inmates of
the lodge ere he should reach its threshold. As he entered under the acacias
he saw white shells sterwn upon the ground, and a sort of path-way
leading to the basin. Every thing had an air of singular neatness. The
lodge was tastefully constructed of interwoven garlands. A white deer
skin elaborately embroidered with dyed threads of bark and the glazed quills
of the porcupine, hung before the entrance for a door, but was now partly
drawn aside. Within, the ground was laid thick with bear-skins, and the
sides of the lodge were hung with dressed doe's-hides with ornaments
worked upon them. On every side, as well as that which formed the door,
Natanis saw conspicuous the representation of a bear's claw grasping a
hunting-spear, which he knew to be the device of the Nerijewic chief, Canassa.
He, therefore, knew that this was not only a lodge of this tribe, but
of some one of Canassa's family; and he was too familiar with the customs
of the Indian race to be told that the occupant of this lodge was a female,
and perhaps a maiden; for there was upon the floor of the lodge, a pair of
mocassins of delicate workmanship, and of a size, both together, not longer
than the length and breadth of Scarlet Feather's hand. He saw, also,
a beautiful tiara of feathers hanging upon an antler above a fawn's skin,
that served as a couch for the occupant, and near it, upon another horn of
the antler, a mantle of golden, orange and green colored feathers curiously
woven together, and forming a magnificent mantle.

When Natanis saw the tiara and the mantle he stepped back with respectful
awe; for he knew that none else than a princess of the tribe could be
the tenant of that fair home. He then remembered that he had heard that
Canassa had a daughter exceedingly beautiful. With an emotion of diffidence
such as became a young Chief, he drew back from the door of the
lodge, refusing to enter it, and looked eagerly around for the mistress of
that charming habitation; for he felt not only a curiosity to behold the
daughter of his foe, but he felt that in her, his young friend would find a
protector and a careful nurse; for he knew the skill and gentleness of the
daughters of the forest and that their benevolence acknowledged no distinction
between friend and foe.

Scarlet Feather was, also, by no means unimpressed with the startling
fact that the lodge of Canassa and those of his warriors could not be far
from the spot where that of the Prince's was found. But Natanis knew no
fear; and, so that he had his friend in safety he thought not of himself.
Nevertheless, he did not intermit that caution and circumspection which
was needful; for, if it were possible to find shelter for Ayane without falling
in with Canassa or any of his people, Natanis would gladly have avoided
meeting them; especially as he reflected that he had brought upon himself
his present difficulties, by an act of hostility upon the very domains of

his hereditary foe. Being, therefore, uncertain how Canassa might receive
him, he was desirous of finding the princess, and securing first her
favor and her protection for his young friend. He therefore turned aside
from the lodge, and followed the shell-path towards the basin, for he had
discovered light foot-prints leading in that direction from the door of the
lodge. He was also quite confident she must be near, as the doe, which he
supposed to be her pet, after skipping to the side of the marble terrace stopped
and gazed wistfully behind a rocky wall by which a portion of the basin
was hidden from him. He approached the doe, when the animal, with
a startled look, made a sudden leap behind the rock and disappered.

`Neta, what has alarmed you, my gentle doe?' said a soft, musical voice
which distinctly reached his ear from that side of the basin which was hidden
from him by the rock behind which the doe had bounded.

He stood transfixed with delightful surprise. The sound of the sweet,
lute-like tones he had heard not only fell upon his ear, but thrilled across
the chords of his heart as if love's invisible finger had swept them. With
a richer color deepening the olive hne of his brow and cheek, he advanced
softly, and lightly ascending the rock which overhung the basin a few feet
above it, he looked down. Ae he gazed, he held his breath lest he should
scare the beautiful vision away which met his eye.

Just beneath him, upon a bank of moss softer in texture than the velvets
that cover the thrones of Empresses, and of a richer green thau the emeralds
that sparkle upon their diadems was seated, half-reelining, a young Indian
girl. She could not be eighteen summers old. She sat with one little
bewitching brown foot dropped to the depth of the exquisitely turned ancle,
into the pellucid water, her fringed leggings of the softest doe-skin being
rolled up to keep them dry. Upon her knee rested its fellow, upon which
she was fastening, with the loveliest fingers in the world, a mocassin no bigger
than Cinderrella's slipper. Her hair was as black as the coat of a raven,
and hung around her in luxuriant, wavy masses, covering her like a veil; but
beneath it could be seen the folds of a robe of swan's skin, ermined with
the dark azure feathers of the blue-jay. This robe was, however, now partly
thrown back, leaving exposed her perfectly rounded arm naked to the
shoulder. Upon the wrist were half a dozen massive silver bracelets, but
upon the shapely, taper fingers of her hand there was no ring. By her
side watching her, yet trembling from his recent alarm stood the doe which
she still addressed.

`You are easily terrified of late, Neta. Even a buck showing his branching
head upon the top of the cliff, only to look down upon you, and envy
you your happy lot here with me, sets you scampering as if a hunter's cry
had fallen on your timid ears.'

Neta moved her head to this side and that as if listening and trying to
understand her young mistress' words, but still showing signs of fear and
snuffing the air.

`I will soon go and see what has alarmed you. It may be my father with
his warriors has returned from the lake of the Islands, and has sent for me.'
While she was speaking in those soft, melodious accents of her native language
which had fallen so delightfully upon the ear of Natanis, she drew
the other foot from the water, dried it by folding it up as if it were a bird
in the nest of her long, dark hair, and then hid it in the other fairy-like
moccassin. She then rose from her seat and began to gather up the magnificent
mantle of her inky locks, entwining her round, polished arm among
them, and evolving their bewildering mazes through her fiugers, or sweeping
them over her shoulders; her figure displaying in every motion of the
act an elegance, grace, and physical beauty the most perfect. Her face was
now visible as she gracefully threw back her head, and turned half round
in the act of binding the abundant folds of her hair together upon the back
and neck.

The sight of her countenance caused Natanis to experience a sensation
of the most enthusiastic delight. Its faultless beauty filled him with surprise
and admiration, and as he gazed upon it, his heart throbbed with emotions
he had never known before.

Her olive and delicately-rounded forehead, half-hid by, and lying deep in
the shadow cast by her hair; her pencilled brows; her large, glorious eyes,
black as the starless night, yet flashing with fire like the dark cloud from
which the lightning darts forth: the long lashes, so long that they lay upon
the soft cheek, and curved laughingly back; the exquisite finish of her narrow,
strait nose; the short, upper lip carved so delicately, yet so beautifully
matching its mate, which was a thought riper and fuller; the small, round
chin, and exquisitely turned throat, the proud, deer-like carriage of the superb
head, with the slender grace of her plant, ungirded figure presented a
model for the Grecian sculptor who would create a youthful Dian in her
native charms.

The expression of her face was gentle, kind and sweet-tempered, with a
certain spirited tone which increased its fascination. Having bound her
tresses low upon the back of her head, with a narrow band of scarlet wampum,
she said to Neta in a playful, reproachful tone,

`Now, my wild one, let us see who has frightened you. I could not go
with you bare-footed, and with my locks sweeping the ground, lest, instead
of my tather, I should meet some one of the young braves of my own
tribe.'

She then lightly bounded across a little chasm through which a stream of
water gushed, and swinging herself round the rock, followed by the doe,
proceded towards the cabin, her step light as a roe's, and full of incomparable
grace. Natanis remained unseen upon the rock above her, and suffered
her to pass him, admiring her as she moved. He then rose, and gently
followed her. The doe, with quicker instincts to detect a stranger's presence
instantly saw the first movement made by the young chief, and stopping,
gazed full upon him with ears erect! The maiden turned round to see
what produced Neta's alarm, and her eyes fell upon the stately form of the
youthful chieftain. She saw at a glance that he was not a warrior of her
father's tribe; yet, instead of flying in alarm she stopped to gaze, struck
with admiration at his noble and manly beauty; and perhaps equally arrested
by the tenderness and gentle interest with which he fixed his eyes
upon her.

Half-flying, yet fixed to the spot, Willewa stood for several seconds regarding
him with curiosity and wonder. His respectful manner excluded
from the first all sense of fear. At length Natanis advanced, crossing his
hands upon his breast in token of amity. She moved not, but stood trembling
even as her doe had done when receiving its chiding from her lips.—
With her dark, Castillian eyes lowered timidly to the earth, the olive hue of
her cheek becoming each moment rosier and rosier, she awaited his approach.

`Daughter of Canassa,' he said with that native courtesy of manner which
in the Indian is so polished, `Stur of the forest, Natanis, Chief of the Abanaquies
craves your hospitality.'

`Natanis, the Abanaquis!' she repeated, raising her eyes and fixing them
full upon him with surprise, while she drew back with a slight emotion of
fear.

`Such is your suppliant, fair maiden of the Fountains!' he said involuntarily
dropping before her own; `a warrior and chief of a nation hostile to
thine, yet,' he added in a tone which love modulated most musically, `but
not to thee!'

`Why art thou here, Natanis!' she asked quickly and earnestly, her heart
evidently interested in the stranger, foe though he was to her race.—

`Knowest thou not that these are the hunting-grounds of Canassa? Why
art thou here, except,' she added, resting her eyes steadily upon his face,
`except thou comest as an enemy at the head of thy braves?'

`No, fair Rose of the Woodland,' he said smiling. `I am not here to war
with Canassa! I came with the hunting-knife in my belt, not with the war-hatchet
in my hand. I and a party of thirty hunters were on our way to
the mountains, and I passed through these forests, hunting as we went.'

`And yet thou sayest thou dost not come for war! Will Canassa let his
foe traverse his hunting-grounds and not offer him battle?'

`Nay, I sought not hostilities with thy father, fair Strawberry of the wil
derness! Last year Canassa and his braves pursued my deer through the
very smokes of lodges of my people when I and my warriors were absent
I have now entered his territories to show the haughty Nerijewec that
Natanis will not suffer an insult like this to pass without retaliation.'

`True, Natanis; I know my father was the aggressor. But why art thou
here alone? why crave the hospitality of the daughter of the foe?'

`Maiden! gentle Fawn of the forest, Natanis prays thee to hear his words
In our chase I came upon the beautiful lake not far distant in which is an
island. Seeing upon it a stately stag, I took a boat and accompanied by a
young warrior Ayane, landed upon the island. After a severe battle, the
stag was slain, first slaying my faithful dog, and then grievously wounding
my young brave, a youth dearer to me than a brother, nay! I love him as
would love a sister! he was gored by the antlers of the enraged stag, tossed
into the air and fell severely hurt. He has been, since then insensible, and
seeing on the main-land in this direction the smoke of a lodge, I placed him
in the canoe and found this place. I stood before your lodge, but finding
from its furniture that it was that of a daughter of the chief I did not enter
but sought you following your doe which I alarmed. I beheld you at the
fountain, and, unseen by you, gazed upon you; and as I gazed, my heart
was filled with love, and I no more remembered that thy father and I went
foes.'

The Indian maiden listened with blushes and a look of sweet delight
playing about her lovely mouth, and sparkling within the depth of her
heavily-fringed, down-cast eyelids.

`If Natanis seeks the hospitality of Willewa for his friend, her lodged
open to him!' she answered with animation, yet with a modesty which
beautifully became her at such a time. `Where is the youth?'

Natanis led the way to the canoe, and pointed in silent grief to the young
brave who still lay as he had left him. The pity and compassion of her
sex was at once awakened, and forgetful of all else but her hospitality, she
made Natanis bear the wounded Abanaquis to her lodge, and heaping up the
skins for his couch had him laid carefully upon them. She then placed her
fingers upon his pulse, and as she held them them there, Natanis thought
he would gladly take Ayane's place to have her gentle touch thus laid upon
him. Willewa, like all Indian maidens was a skilful leech, and knew not
only how to dress wounds, but what was good for healing them, and also
she knew how to prepare and apply the medicaments her skill extracted
from the numerous plants which grew in the forests.

She saw at once that bleeding must first be resorted to, and, assisted by
Natanis, who, by her direction bound up his arm with his wampum girdle,
she performed the operation with a very sharp flint. The result bore honorable
testimony to her skill. for in a few minutes the heavy breathing of
the sleeper subsided, his pulse became calm, and the fever diminished. He
soon opened his eyes, smiled on seeing Natanis, and gazed with admiring
surprise upon the beauteous Indian girl. Willewa then gave him a small
piece of fragrant gum to dissolve in his mouth. It was a narcotic, and
under its influence Ayane again slept, but this time in a natural manner.

`He will wake with strength,' said the maiden.

`I cannot thank you, fairest Willewa,' said Natanis with grateful emotion.
`You have saved the life of my friend, and filled my bosom with joy. But
lovely Willewa, Pearl of my eyes,' he said with deep passion, `you have inflicted
in the heart of Natanis a deeper wound than even Ayane has received,
and you only can heal it.'

`Natanis is not hated by Willewa,' softly answered the maiden with touching
naturalness of word and air.

`Can Wilewa love Natanis?'

`Scarlet Feather is the foe of our race!'

`Willewa shall be as the incense of the Calumet of Peace to both nations.
In the loves of Willewa and Natanis, the hatred of the Abanaquies
and Nerijewecs shall be forgotten; the tribes of our people shall be one, and
the Kennebis shall no longer divide our hunting-grounds; for the smokes
of the council fires of Canassa and Natanis shall mingle together, and the
young Ahanaquis hunter shall pursue the stag side by side with the young
men of thy tribe.'

`Willewa's heart speaks with Natanis; but with her lips she says that the
daughter of Canassa can never be the wife of Abanaquis.'

`Canassa shall hear Natanis speak,' answered the young chief with energy,
while his eye sparkled with hope and joy. `If Willewa loves Natanis
with her heart, Canassa shall yet take the hand of Natanis and clasp it in
peace,'

An hour passed, an hour of exquisite happiness to the young lover, when
they were startled by a shrill cry which rung through the forest, and reechoed
from the marble cliff above their heads.

`It is my father: he has returned from the lake!' cried Willewa in alarm.
`He may visit me here; fly!'

`And leave Ayane?'

`I will protect him, noble Natanis. Let not Canassa behold you now. I
must first talk with my father. Come with me.'

Prevailed upon by her, Natanis suffered her to guide him by a steep path
up the precipice, passing, as they went directly underneath, the sheet of
water which formed the cascade. The day had already closed, and it was
now moonlight. On reaching the top, which was eighty feet above the basin,
she led him through the low wood of cedars and laurel, and stopping
on the verge of a precipice on the other side bade him look down. He
obeyed her, and saw by the clear light of the moon an extensive valley below
varied by mound and gave and shining lakes. From the midst, the
blaze of a hundred lodge-fires flashed upon his sight, and far and wide he
discovered the smokes of habitations.

`You see the danger you have exposed yourself to, Natanis,' said the maiden
earnestly. `Those are the national lodges of the Nerijewecs. That
lodge to the right, not far distant, is that of Canassa. Remain here until I
return for you; for you and my father must not meet before I have placed in
your path the calumet of peace.'

As she spoke, she left him and descended the precipice by a path-way
leading down into the valley at his feet. In a few moments he saw her light
form in motion in the direction towards the lodge of Canassa.