234 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



shirt — the trophies of honorable warfare, and the skins 

 of birds of beautiful plumage. The corners of the hide 

 were then brought together, and tied with thongs ; the 

 bundle was set afloat upon the stream, and its owner 

 dashed on the rear, guiding it to the opposite shore 

 with its contents unharmed. 



Again ' decking himself, and bearing his wooing to- 

 kens before him, he ran with the swiftness of the deer 

 to the lodge that contained his mistress, leaving the 

 simplest of all the water-craft of the back-woods to de- 

 cay upon the ground. 



The helplessness of age, the appealing eyes and hands 

 of infancy, the gallantry of the lover, the hostile excur- 

 sion of a tribe, are natural incentives to the savage 

 mind to improve upon the mere bundle of inanimate 

 things that could be safely floated upon the water. To 

 enlarge this bundle, to build up its sides, would be his 

 study and delight, and we have accordingly next in the 

 list of back-woods craft, what is styled by the white man, 

 — the Buffalo-sJcin boat. This craft is particularly the 

 one of the prairie country, where the materials for its 

 construction are always to be found, and where its build- 

 ers are always expert. 



A party of Indians find themselves upon the banks 

 of some swift and deep river — there is no timber larger 

 than a common walking stick to be seen for miles around; 

 the Indians are loaded with plunder — for they have 

 made a successful incursion into the territory of some 



