Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 3).djvu/46

 an Indian, and sought, in the privacy of his own abode, the sympathy of one like himself, aged, forlorn, and childless.

The Indians, who believe in the hereditary transmission of virtues and defects in character, suffered him to depart in silence. Then, with an elevation of breeding that many in a more cultivated state of society might profitably emulate, one of the chiefs drew the attention of the young men from the weakness they had just witnessed by saying, in a cheerful voice, addressing himself in courtesy to Magua, as the newest comer—

"The Delawares have been like bears after the honey-pots, prowling around my village. But who has ever found a Huron asleep!"

The darkness of the impending cloud which precedes a burst of thunder, was not blacker than the brow of Magua, as he exclaimed

"The Delawares of the Lakes!"

"Not so. They who wear the petticoats of squaws on their own river. One of them has been passing the tribe."