As they wandered about,
wondering what had happened to the palefaces, they heard the sound of
voices issuing from a rough shed beyond. They seemed neither to be
talking nor shrieking but chanting in a kind of rhythm such as she had
never heard. Quietly the two maidens followed the sound to the shed. It
was made of wood, open at the sides and roofed over with a piece of
sail-cloth. Crouched behind some sumac bushes still bearing aloft their
crimson torches, the girls looked on in wonderment, themselves unseen.
The sun was sinking behind them, behind the backs too of the colonists
who all faced the east. Then Pocahontas whispered to her sister:

"See, Cleopatra, they must be worshiping their Okee. Yon man all in
white before them must be a shaman."

A keen curiosity kept her there, though Cleopatra pulled in fright at
her skirt, whispering entreaties to be gone before some dire medicine
should fall upon them. She saw them all, when the chanting had ceased,
kneel down on the bare ground and heard them repeat some incantation
which she felt sure must be of great strength, to judge by the firmness
of the tone in which they all recited it. Their Okee, she thought, must
be a very powerful one; and there came to her as she crouched there, the
hidden witness of this evening service, the conviction that her father,
if he would, and even with all his tribes, could never conquer this
handful of determined men.

She was afraid that "her brother" might be angry with her for having
looked on at ceremonies that were perhaps forbidden to women or members
of other tribes; so, greatly to Cleopatra's relief, they slipped away,
leaving at the fort the provisions they had borne on their strong young
backs.

A few days later news came from Opechanchanough that the big canoe, so
eagerly expected by the strangers, had been seen at Kecoughtan and was
now on its way up the river. Powhatan was astounded, for it was the very
day the white captain had foretold its arrival. Truly a man who could
see so far across the waves of the big water was one to be feared. And
from that day the werowance had deep respect for John Smith and his
powers.

Now that the ship had brought provisions there was for a time no need of
aid from Werowocomoco. But only for a time. One day when Smith had
conducted Pocahontas over the ship to show her the wonders of this
monster canoe, he asked her to have her people bring food once more to
Jamestown.

[Illustration: V