the still powerful limbs. A fillet of suck-au-hock surmounted by the eagle plume encircled the copper-coloured forehead, which the hand of death had paled to a softer tint. One by one the trio whose hands had touched the body stole from the wigwam, leaving Yo-kee alone with his dead. Anon the pearly gates of morning rolled back and the first beams of the rising sun fell in rosy and amber radiance upon the still, set features of the aged monarch, noble and dignified, even in death. Like a statue wrought in bronze he lay upon his couch, his ponderous bow by his side, a quiver filled with arrows resting against his arm, his tomahawk and knife within his girdle. To the very last hour of his life Poggatticut had steadily opposed the sale of the lands of his tribeoften had his voice been heard in the council, not for opposing the pale-faces in warlike array, but for a steady refusal to resign any portion of his domain. How little dreamed the sorrowing warriors of that powerful tribe that the sinewy hand at the nation's helm would ere long sign away the land of his fathers which the aged king had held with so firm a grasp ! 'To the aboriginal Indian the constraint of a covering to the knee joint or wrists would have been considered intolerable. 'Eagle plume-emblem of royalty among the aborigines. CHAPTER III HEATHER FLOWER "Dim was the woodland and fair was the weather, We sought the shades where the birds were singing Where the branches, ever swaying and swinging, I N the very heart of a dense forest, upon the highlands of Montauk,1 known as the Heather woods, nestled a cluster of lodges, the village of the renowned Montauk Sachem, Wyandance, one of the four brothers, kings of Sea-wan-ha-ka 2 and Manhansett-ahaquash-a-warnuck, and Sachem of the totem tribe, to whom twelve minor tribes paid tribute annually in seawan.3 It was a lovely sylvan spot where the music of the birds and the ceaseless murmur of purling brooks and whispering zephyrs soothed the senses and delighted the ear. The great lodge, standing apart from the cluster, was commodious enough to have sheltered two or even three families, when compared with the usual dimensions of wigwams of warriors and braves, yet here the great Montauk Sachem dwelt in state, with his son, Wyancombone, his queen, Wic-chi-tau-bit, Montauk.-The place of lookout. 1 2 Sea-an-ha-ka.-Island of shells. Seawan.-Indian money. and his daughter, Ash-kick-o-tau-tup, and a woman of burden, Tom-a-la, upon whom devolved the duty of planting his corn, beans and pumpkins, harvesting his winter store, cooking his venison, and performing the many menial services which fall to the lot of the Indian squaw," from which, by the happy circumstance of birth, Ash-kick-o-tau-tup, his beloved daughter, and Wic-chi-tau-bit, his queen, who was of royal race among the Iroquois, were exempt. The afternoon was waning; above the heavilywooded heights floated shoals of fleecy clouds, their amber-tipped edges changing rapidly in form, pencilling a series of cloud-pictures with the rapidity of a panoramic view. Low in the western sky the sun hung like a jewel of flame; the balmy southernbreeze-ruffled waters of Gardiner Bay away to the east; to the south and west the dense forest of maple, oak, ash and walnut had but recently donned the spring attire of tender green, while the dark fir and pine tossed their plumed branches of darker, more sombre hue, in pleasing contrast. Over the placid waters of the bay the seabird winged his way, hovering low over the curling waves; in the tree-tops the birds sang their vespers, bright-eyed squirrels leaped from bough to bough, insects chirped in the long grass, the drowsy hum of the honey-laden bee on his homeward flight, mingled in rhythm with the plash of the brooklet on the boulders that obstructed the placid flow between the green, violet-tufted banks. Sixty feet below the crest of the bold promontory, and at its foot, stretched a long strip of sandy beach, washed by the bright waters of the bay, and *Ash-kick-o-tau-tup.-Heather Flower. The entire labour of planting, harvesting, and making and rearing wigwams, and every item of labour, save hunting and fishing, is performed by the squaws. sparsely clothed with alder and the wales of red willow, with their grey, furry buds beaded upon the slender, pliant twigs. Upon a brow of the promontory, a point overlooking the blue waters of Fort Pond Bay and the eastern end of Long Island Sound, and commanding a view of Man-cho-nock in the distance, and the lesser islands dotting the vista that stretched away to the shores of the mainland to the north, two maidens were standing, looking out seaward. The eldest appeared scarcely twenty years of age. In stature she was tall, with a form beautifully moulded and splendidly developed, the contour revealed by the piquant Indian costume-a garment of finest doeskin, fitting the rounded bust, and confined at the waistline by a glistening belt of brighthued beads and stained quills, fully four inches in width, and falling in strands from the hip to the edge of the skirt reaching to the knee. The leggings and moccasins, of the same material as the tunic, were also fancifully adorned with coloured quills of the porcupine and designs in beads. A fillet of bright-hued feathers. the plumage of the bluebird, the cardinal grosbeak and the snowy pigeon bound back a cascade of purplish black hair which fell in shining mass below the waist. In form and feature Heather Flower was a type of beauty such as is rarely met, even at the courts of Christian kings, among the famed beauties of Circassia, or in sunny Spain. Her face was a per "Man-cho-nock.-Named Island of Wight by its proprietor, Lyon Gardiner; now known as Gardiner Island. In the Indian tongue it signifies Place of many dead." 'The shining black hair of the aborigines was glossy and abundant; but the custom of plucking the hair, leaving only the scalplock, was universal among the males, while the females retained the shining tresses which nature had bountifully bestowed. fect oval, her complexion olive rather than copper, a rich creamy tint flushed with the warm blood that tinged her cheeks and turned the lips to coral. Her large Syrian eyes were brilliant, of intense blackness, with the latent fires of love or hatred smouldering in their depths. It was not so much the brilliant colouring, the regularity of the features, or the statuesque form that attracted the observer, as the promise of wild daring, or unyielding will, powerful either for intense love or fierce hatred, a nature at once passionate, impulsive, fiery, daring, proud, even to haughtiness, and yet gentle and capable of the most intense devotion to a beloved object. Her companion presented a contrast that was almost startling, exhibiting, as it did, such a different type of rare loveliness. She was a slender little creature, childish and almost fairy-like in form, with luminous violet eyes, a complexion of pearly whiteness, a wild-rose flush just staining the rounded cheeks, and a cloud of yellow hair falling over an exquisitely moulded neck and shoulders, shining like gold in the sunshine. The rosebud lips wreathed in smiles, disclosing the pearly teeth, her hands and feet sylph-like in their proportions, her arms of milky whiteness. A Juno from Olympus, and an Undine fresh from a bath beneath the ocean waves, shimmering in the sunbeams, the twain appeared, outlined against the background of forest, an enchanting picture in a grand setting. Side by side they stood, Ash-kick-o-tau-tup, the Indian princess, daughter of a lord of the soil, called Heather Flower by the English, and Damaris Gordon, descendant of a long line of haughty ancestors across the blue sea, in "Merrie England," the |