Wash off all them fiery streaks from your cheeks, put
on these garments, and here is a hat, such as it is, that will give
you an awful oncivilized sort of civilization, as the missionaries
call it. Remember that Hist is at hand, and what we do for the
maiden must be done while we are doing for others. I know it's
ag'in your gifts and your natur' to wear clothes, unless they
are cut and carried in a red man's fashion, but make a vartue of
necessity and put these on at once, even if they do rise a little
in your throat."
Chingachgook, or the Serpent, eyed the vestments with strong disgust;
but he saw the usefulness of the disguise, if not its absolute
necessity. Should the Iroquois discover a red man, in or about
the Castle, it might, indeed, place them more on their guard, and
give their suspicions a direction towards their female captive.
Any thing was better than a failure, as it regarded his betrothed,
and, after turning the different garments round and round, examining
them with a species of grave irony, affecting to draw them on in a
way that defeated itself, and otherwise manifesting the reluctance
of a young savage to confine his limbs in the usual appliances
of civilized life, the chief submitted to the directions of his
companion, and finally stood forth, so far as the eye could detect,
a red man in colour alone.
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