also told her, in the same
spirit, that her husband had been taken by the Indians and slain.

Thus the Indians continued for several weeks wandering about from one
place to another, without any apparent object, and most of the time in
a miserable, half-famished condition. A more joyless, dismal life
imagination can hardly conceive. One day thirty Indians approached the
encampment on horseback, all dressed in the garments which they had
stripped from the English whom they had slain. They wore hats, white
neckcloths, and sashes about their waists. They brought a message from
Quinnapin that Mrs. Rowlandson must go to the foot of Mount Wachusett,
where the Indian warriors were in council, deliberating with some
English commissioners about the redemption of the captives. "My heart
was so heavy before," writes Mrs. Rowlandson, "that I could scarce
speak or go in the path, and yet now so light that I could run. My
strength seemed to come again, and to recruit my feeble knees and
aching heart. Yet it pleased them to go but one mile that night, and
there we staid two days."

They then journeyed along slowly, the whole party suffering extremely
from hunger. A little broth, made from boiling the old and dry feet of
a horse, was considered a great refreshment. They at length came to a
small Indian village, where they found in captivity four English
children, and one of them was a child of Mrs. Rowlandson's sister.
They were all gaunt and haggard with famine. Sadly leaving these
suffering little ones, the journey was continued until they arrived
near Mount Wachusett. Here King Philip met them. Kindly, and with the
courtesy of a polished gentleman, he took the hand of the unhappy
captive, and said, "In two weeks more you shall be your own mistress
again." In this encampment of warriors she was placed again in the
hands of her master and mistress, Quinnapin and Wetamoo. Of this
renowned queen Mrs. Rowlandson says:

"A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every day, in
dressing herself, nearly as much time as any of the gentry
in the land, powdering her hair and painting her face, going
with her necklaces, with jewels in her ears. When she had
dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of wampum and
beads."

Wampum was the money in use among the Indians. It consisted of
beautiful shells very curiously strung together. "Their beads," says
John Josselyn, "are their money. Of these there are two