ich they
gave eares with a deepe silence." They were bent on making a thorough
savage of him. So they trimmed his hair after their most approved
fashion and plastered it with grease.

He pleased his captors greatly by his good humor and his taking part in
chopping wood, paddling, or whatever might be doing, and chiefly by his
not making any attempt to escape. In truth, he simply was afraid of
being caught and dealt with more severely.

They were traveling the familiar route to the Iroquois country, and in
time they came to a fishing-station, the occupants of which greeted the
returning warriors uproariously. One of them struck Radisson, who, at
a sign from his "keeper," clinched with him. The two fought {194}
furiously, wrestling and "clawing one another with hands, tooth, and
nails." The Frenchman was delighted that his captors encouraged him as
much as their fellow tribesman. He came off best, and they seemed
mightily pleased.

The two men whom he had wounded at the time of his capture, far from
resenting it, showed him "as much charity as a Christian might have
given."

Still things looked squally for Radisson, when he entered the native
village of the party and saw men, women, and boys drawn up in a double
row, armed with rods and sticks, evidently for the savage ordeal of
running the gauntlet. He was on the point of starting, resolved to run
his swiftest, when an old woman took him by the hand, led him away to
her cabin, and set food before him. How different from being tortured
and burned, which was the fate that he expected! When some of the
warriors came and took him away to the council-fire, she followed and
pleaded so successfully that he was given up to her, to be her adopted
son, in the place of one who had been killed.

Now nothing was too good for Radisson. The poor old woman had taken
him to her heart, and {195} she lavished kindness on him. Her
daughters treated him as a brother, and her husband, a famous old
warrior, gave a feast in his honor, presenting him to the company under
the name of Orinha, which was that of his son who had been killed. He
enjoyed the savage life for a time, having "all the pleasures
imaginable," such as shooting partridges and "squerells."

But he soon grew home-sick and eager for an opportunity to escape. One
offered itself unexpectedly. He had gone off on a hunt of several days
with three Indians who invited him to join them. On the second day
out, the