Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 1).djvu/220

 is he a fish, to swim without looking at the sun! The white chief reads in his books, and believes the Hurons are fools!"

"Though no fish, the 'long rifle' can swim. He floated down the stream when the powder was all burnt, and when the eyes of the Hurons were behind a cloud."

"And why did the white chief stay?" demanded the still incredulous Indian. "Is he a stone, that goes to the bottom, or does the scalp burn his head?"

"That I am not a stone, your dead comrade who fell into the falls might answer, were the life still in him," said the provoked young man, using, in his anger, that boastful language which was most likely to excite the admiration of an Indian. "The white man thinks none but cowards desert their women."

Magua muttered a few words inaudibly between his teeth, before he continued, aloud—

"Can the Delawares swim, too, as well as crawl in the bushes? Where is 'le Gros Serpent. [sic]?' "

Duncan, who perceived by the use of