f the warring nations during the
twentieth century.

The women wore a single light deerskin about their hips, for it was
summer, and quite warm. The men, too, were clothed in a single
garment, usually the pelt of some beast of prey. The hair of both men
and women was confined by a rawhide thong passing about the forehead
and tied behind. In this leathern band were stuck feathers, flowers,
or the tails of small mammals. All wore necklaces of the teeth or
claws of wild beasts, and there were numerous metal wristlets and
anklets among them.

They wore, in fact, every indication of a most primitive people--a race
which had not yet risen to the heights of agriculture or even the
possession of domestic animals. They were hunters--the lowest plane in
the evolution of the human race of which science takes cognizance.

And yet as I looked at their well shaped heads, their handsome
features, and their intelligent eyes, it was difficult to believe that
I was not among my own. It was only when I took into consideration
their mode of living, their scant apparel, the lack of every least
luxury among them, that I was forced to admit that they were, in truth,
but ignorant savages.

Buckingham had relieved me of my weapons, though he had not the
slightest idea of their purpose or uses, and when we reached the camp
he exhibited both me and my arms with every indication of pride in this
great capture.

The inhabitants flocked around me, examining my clothing, and
exclaiming in wonderment at each new discovery of button, buckle,
pocket, and flap. It seemed incredible that such a thing could be,
almost within a stone's throw of the spot where but a brief two
centuries before had stood the greatest city of the world.

They bound me to a small tree that grew in the middle of one of their
crooked streets, but the girl they released as soon as we had entered
the enclosure. The people greeted her with every mark of respect as
she hastened to a large hut near the center of the camp.

Presently she returned with a fine looking, white-haired woman, who
proved to be her mother. The older woman carried herself with a regal
dignity that seemed quite remarkable in a place of such primitive
squalor.

The people fell aside as she approached, making a wide way for her and
her daughter. When they had come near and stopped before me the older
woman addressed me.

"My daughter has told me," she said, "of the manner in which you
rescued