torchlike flame, while he showed another of the tribe one of
the elephants that had caused so much  among his people.
A boy was looking over his shoulder, in dull curiosity, completing
the group.  More in the background eight or ten warriors lay half
recumbent on the ground, or sat with their backs reclining against
trees, so many types of indolent .  Their arms were near
them all, sometimes  against the same trees as themselves,
or were lying across their bodies in careless preparation.  But
the group that most attracted the attention of Deerslayer was that
composed of the women and children.  A1l the females appeared to
be collected together, and, almost as a matter of course, their
young were near them.  The former laughed and chatted in their
rebuked and quiet manner, though one who knew the habits of the
people might have detected that everything was not going on in its
usual train.  Most of the young women seemed to be light-hearted
enough; but one old hag was seated apart with a watchful soured
aspect, which the hunter at once knew betokened that some duty of
an unpleasant character had been assigned her by the chiefs.  What
that duty was, he had no means of knowing; but he felt satisfied it
must be in some measure connected with her own , the aged among