It was while
making her way slowly through some bushes, in this manner, with
averted face and eyes riveted on the immovable animals, that the
girl suddenly found her steps arrested by a human hand, that was
laid lightly on her shoulder.
"Where go? -" said a soft female voice, speaking hurriedly, and
in concern. -"Indian - red man savage - wicked warrior- thataway."
This unexpected salutation alarmed the girl no more than the presence
of the fierce inhabitants of the woods. It took her a little by
surprise, it is true, but she was in a measure prepared for some
such meeting, and the creature who stopped her was as little likely
to excite terror as any who ever appeared in the guise of an Indian.
It was a girl, not much older than herself, whose smile was sunny
as Judith's in her brightest moments, whose voice was melody itself,
and whose accents and manner had all the rebuked gentleness that
characterizes the sex among a people who habitually treat their
women as the attendants and servitors of the warriors. Beauty among
the women of the aboriginal Americans, before they have become
exposed to the hardships of wives and mothers, is by no means
uncommon. In this particular, the original owners of the country
were not unlike their more civilized successors, nature appearing
to have bestowed that delicacy of mien and outline that forms
so great a charm in the youthful female, but of which they are so
early deprived; and that, too, as much by the habits of domestic
life as from any other cause.
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