 which in time,
was to become so deeply engrafted in their own characters. A few of a still
older class, and who had heard the whoop in anger, were a little more presuming,
pressing nigher to the chiefs, though far from presuming to mingle in their
Councils, sufficiently distinguished by being permitted to catch the wisdom
which fell from lips so venerated. The ordinary warriors of the band were still
less diffident, not hesitating to mingle among the chiefs of lesser note, though
far from assuming the right to dispute the sentiments of any established brave,
or to call in question the prudence of measures that were recommended by the
more gifted counsellors of the nation.
    Among the chiefs themselves there was a singular compound of exterior. They
were divided into two classes; those who were mainly indebted for their
influence to physical causes and to deeds in arms, and those who had become more
distinguished rather for their wisdom than for their services in the field. The
former was by far the most numerous and the most important class. These were men
of stature and mien, whose stern countenances were often rendered doubly
imposing by those evidences of their valour which had been roughly traced on
their lineaments by the hands of their enemies. That class which had gained its
influence by a moral ascendancy was extremely limited. They were uniformly to be
distinguished by the quick and lively expression of their eyes, by the air of
distrust that marked their movements, and occasionally by the vehemence of their
utterance in those sudden outbreakings of the mind, by which their present
consultations were from time to time, distinguished.
    In the very centre of a ring formed by these chosen counsellors, was to be
seen the person of the disquieted, but seemingly calm, Mahtoree. There was a
conjunction of all the several qualities of the others in his person and
character. Mind as well as matter had contributed to establish his authority.
His scars were as numerous and deep, as those of the whitest head in his nation;
his limbs were in their greatest vigor; his courage at its fullest height.
Endowed with this rare combination of moral and physical influence, the keenest
eye in all that assembly was wont to lower before his threatening glance.
Courage and cunning had established his ascendancy, and it had been rendered, in
some degree sacred by time. He knew so well how to unite the powers of reason
and force, that in a state of society which admitted of a greater display of his
energies, the Teton would in all probability have been both a conqueror and a
despot.
    A little apart from the gathering of the band, was
