n her shoulder.

"Where go?--" said a soft female voice, speaking hurriedly, and in
concern.--"Indian--red man savage--wicked warrior--thataway."

This unexpected salutation alarmed the girl no more than the presence of
the fierce inhabitants of the woods. It took her a little by surprise,
it is true, but she was in a measure prepared for some such meeting, and
the creature who stopped her was as little likely to excite terror as
any who ever appeared in the guise of an Indian. It was a girl, not much
older than herself, whose smile was sunny as Judith's in her brightest
moments, whose voice was melody itself, and whose accents and manner had
all the rebuked gentleness that characterizes the sex among a people
who habitually treat their women as the attendants and servitors of the
warriors. Beauty among the women of the aboriginal Americans, before
they have become exposed to the hardships of wives and mothers, is by no
means uncommon. In this particular, the original owners of the country
were not unlike their more civilized successors, nature appearing to
have bestowed that delicacy of mien and outline that forms so great a
charm in the youthful female, but of which they are so early deprived;
and that, too, as much by the habits of domestic life as from any other
cause.

The girl who had so suddenly arrested the steps of Hetty was dressed
in a calico mantle that effectually protected all the upper part of her
person, while a short petticoat of blue cloth edged with gold lace, that
fell no lower than her knees, leggings of the same, and moccasins of
deer-skin, completed her attire. Her hair fell in long dark braids down
her shoulders and back, and was parted above a low smooth forehead, in
a way to soften the expression of eyes that were full of archness and
natural feeling. Her face was oval, with delicate features, the teeth
were even and white, while the mouth expressed a melancholy tenderness,
as if it wore this peculiar meaning in intuitive perception of the fate
of a being who was doomed from birth to endure a woman's sufferings,
relieved by a woman's affections. Her voice, as has been already
intimated, was soft as the sighing of the night air, a characteristic of
the females of her race, but which was so conspicuous in herself as
to have produced for her the name of Wah-ta-Wah; which rendered into
English means Hist-oh-Hist.

In a word, this was the betrothed of Chingachgook, who--having succeeded
in lulli