caught hold of
Cleopatra's foot, who slipped on the mossy surface and fell backwards
into the water, hitting her head against a sharp edge. She lost
consciousness and sank down into the pool.

Almost before she had disappeared beneath the water Pocahontas had
sprung after her, and groping about on the fine smooth sand of the
bottom, she caught hold of her sister and brought her to the surface.

Then, with the aid of the terrified maidens, she lifted her up on the
bank, the blood flowing freely from a cut on her head. After vainly
trying to staunch the wound with damp moss, Pocahontas commanded:

"Hasten as though the Iroquois were coming, and cut me some strong
branches."

They obeyed her, hurriedly throwing their skirts about them, and then
with their stone knives severed branches and tied them together with
deer thongs which they tore from the fringe of their girdles. On top of
these they placed leafy branches and lifted the unconscious Cleopatra on
to this improvised stretcher. In spite of their remonstrances,
Pocahontas insisted upon taking one end of it, while the strongest two
of her playmates bore the other.

Through the woods they walked, as silent now as they had been noisy
before, but Pocahontas thought her heart-beats sounded as loud as the
war drums of the Pamunkeys.

They were still distant many minutes' walk to the village when they
caught sight of Pochins, a medicine man famous among many tribes for his
powerful manitou, his guardian spirit, which enabled him to communicate
with the manitous of the spirit world.

"Pochins, oh Pochins," cried out Pocahontas, "come and help us. I fear
my sister is dying, and that I have killed her. She did not wish to go
into the water, Pochins, and I pulled her in and now she hath cut her
head and the blood floweth from it so that I can not stop it."

The shaman made no answer, but bent down from his great height and
looked carefully at the wound, then he took the end of the stretcher
from Pocahontas, saying:

"I will bear her to my prayer lodge here nearby."

Even then through the trees they caught sight of the bark covering of
the lodge, which few persons had ever entered. The maidens shuddered at
the sight of it, for none of them knew what mysterious terrors might lie
in wait for them there. Nevertheless they followed Pochins as he bore
Cleopatra inside and laid her on the ground. From an earthen bowl he
took certain herbs and bound the leaves, after he had