Yielding to this rising tumult,
the men drew back a little, signifying to the females that they
left the captive, for a time, in their hands, it being a common
practice on such occasions for the women to endeavor to throw the
victim into a rage by their taunts and revilings, and then to turn
him suddenly over to the men in a state of mind that was little
favorable to resisting the agony of bodily suffering. Nor was this
party without the proper instruments for effecting such a purpose.
Sumach had a notoriety as a scold, and one or two crones,
like the She Bear, had come out with the party, most probably as
the conservators of its decency and moral discipline; such things
occurring in savage as well as in civilized life. It is unnecessary
to repeat all that ferocity and ignorance could invent for such a
purpose, the only difference between this outbreaking of feminine
anger, and a similar scene among ourselves, consisting in the
figures of speech and the epithets, the Huron women calling their
prisoner by the names of the lower and least respected animals that
were known to themselves.
But Deerslayer's mind was too much occupied to permit him to be
disturbed by the abuse of excited hags, and their rage necessarily
increasing with his indifference, as his indifference increased
with their rage, the furies soon rendered themselves impotent by
their own excesses.
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