he Lord, if the Oneidas are outlying upon the trail, we
shall be flanked by devils on every side of us! Now, to white eyes there
is no difference between this bit of skin and that of any other Indian,
and yet the Sagamore declares it came from the poll of a Mingo; nay, he
even names the tribe of the poor devil with as much ease as if the scalp
was the leaf of a book, and each hair a letter. What right have
Christian whites to boast of their learning, when a savage can read a
language that would prove too much for the wisest of them all! What say
_you_, lad; of what people was the knave?"

Uncas raised his eyes to the face of the scout, and answered, in his
soft voice,--

"Oneida."

"Oneida, again! when one Indian makes a declaration it is commonly true;
but when he is supported by his people, set it down as gospel!"

"The poor fellow has mistaken us for French," said Heyward; "or he would
not have attempted the life of a friend."

"He mistake a Mohican in his paint for a Huron! You would be as likely
to mistake the white-coated grenadiers of Montcalm for the scarlet
jackets of the 'Royal Americans'," returned the scout. "No, no, the
sarpent knew his errand; nor was there any great mistake in the matter,
for there is but little love atween a Delaware and a Mingo, let their
tribes go out to fight for whom they may, in a white quarrel. For that
matter, though the Oneidas do serve his sacred majesty, who is my own
sovereign lord and master, I should not have deliberated long about
letting off 'Killdeer' at the imp myself, had luck thrown him in my
way."

"That would have been an abuse of our treaties, and unworthy of your
character."

"When a man consorts much with a people," continued Hawkeye, "if they
are honest and he no knave, love will grow up atwixt them. It is true
that white cunning has managed to throw the tribes into great confusion
as respects friends and enemies; so that the Hurons and the Oneidas, who
speak the same tongue, or what may be called the same, take each other's
scalps, and the Delawares are divided among themselves; a few hanging
about their great council-fire on their own river, and fighting on the
same side with the Mingos, while the greater part are in the Canadas,
out of natural enmity to the Maquas--thus throwing everything into
disorder, and destroying all the harmony of warfare. Yet a red natur' is
not likely to alter with every shift of policy; so that the love atwixt
a Mohican and