Part 38 (1/2)

The girl turned her head and spoke to the Saguenay in his own gutturals.

I also watched to see what effect such praise might have.

For a few minutes he sat motionless and without any expression upon his narrow visage, yet I knew he must be bursting with pride.

”Tahioni!” I called out. ”Here, also, is a real man who has taken scalps in battle. Shall not our _brother_, Yellow Leaf, of the Montagnais, sing his first scalp-song at an Oneida fire?”

There was a pause, then every Oneida hatchet flashed high in the firelight.

”Koue!” they shouted. ”We give fire right to our brother of the Montagnais, who is a real man and no wolf!”

At that the Saguenay hunter, who, in a single day, had became a warrior, leaped lightly to his feet, and began to trot like a timber wolf around the fire, running hither and thither as an eager, wild thing runs when searching.

Then he shouted something I did not understand; but Thiohero interpreted, watching him: ”He looks in vain for the tracks of a poor Saguenay hunter, which once he was, but he can find only the footprints of a proud Saguenay warrior, which now he has become!”

Now, in dumb show, this fierce and homeless rover enacted all that had pa.s.sed,--how he had encountered the Canienga, how they had mocked and stoned him, how we had captured him, proved kind to him, released him; how he had returned to warn us of ambuscade.

He drew his war-axe and shouted his snarling battle-cry; and all the Oneidas became excited and answered like panthers on a dark mountain.

Then Yellow Leaf began to dance an erratic, weird dance--and, somehow, I thought of dead leaves eddying in a raw wind as he whirled around the fire, singing his first scalp-song:

”Who are the Yanyengi,[13] that a Saguenay should fear them?

They are but Mowaks,[14] and Real men jeer them!

I am a warrior; I wear the lock!

I am brother to the People of the Rock![15]

Red is my hatchet; my knife is red; Woe to the Mengwe, who wail their dead!

I wear the Little Red Foot and the Hawk; Death to the Maquas who stone and mock!

Koue! Ha!”

_An Oneida_

”Hah!

Hawasahsai!

Hah!”

_The Saguenay_

”Who are the Yanyengi, that Real men should obey them?

We People of the Dawn were Born to slay them!

I eat twigs in winter when there is no game; What does he eat, the Maqua? What means his name?

To each of us a Little Red Foot! To each his clan!

Let the Mengwe flee when they scent a Man!