Chapter 29

"The ugly bear now minded not the stake,
Nor how the cruel mastiffs do him tear,
The stag lay still unroused from the brake,
The foamy boar feared not the hunter's spear:
All thing was still in desert, bush, and briar:"

Thomas Sackville; "The Complaint of Henry Duke of Buckingham,"
lxxxi.

Twas one of the common expedients of the savages, on such occasions,
to put the nerves of their victims to the severest proofs. On the
other hand, it was a matter of Indian pride to betray no yielding
to terror, or pain, but for the prisoner to provoke his enemies
to such acts of violence as would soonest produce death. Many a
warrior had been known to bring his own sufferings to a more speedy
termination, by taunting reproaches and reviling language, when he
found that his physical system was giving way under the agony of
sufferings produced by a hellish ingenuity that might well eclipse
all that has been said of the infernal devices of religious
persecution. This happy expedient of taking refuge from the ferocity
of his foes, in their passions, was denied Deerslayer however, by
his peculiar notions of the duty of a white man, and he had stoutly
made up his mind to endure everything, in preference to disgracing
his colour.

No sooner did the young men understand that they were at liberty
to commence, than some of the boldest and most forward among them
sprang into the arena, tomahawk in hand. Here they prepared to
throw that dangerous weapon, the object being to strike the tree as
near as possible to the victim's head, without absolutely hitting
him. This was so hazardous an experiment that none but those who
were known to be exceedingly expert with the weapon were allowed
to enter the lists at all, lest an early death might interfere with
the expected entertainment. In the truest hands it was seldom that
the captive escaped injury in these trials, and it often happened
that death followed, even when the blow was not premeditated. In
the particular case of our hero, Rivenoak and the older warriors
were apprehensive that the example of the Panther's fate might
prove a motive with some fiery spirit suddenly to sacrifice his
conqueror, when the temptation of effecting it in precisely the
same manner, and possibly with the identical weapon with which the
warrior had fallen, offered. This circumstance of itself rendered
the ordeal of the tomahawk doubly critical for the Deerslayer. It
would seem, however, that all who now entered what we shall call
the lists, were more disposed to exhibit their own dexterity, than
to resent the deaths of their comrades. Each prepared himself
for the trial with the feelings of rivalry, rather than with the
desire for vengeance, and, for the