1638-48.] IROQUOIS AND HURON. 339 



render him insensible to pain. Thinking him 

 nearly spent, his tormentors scalped him, when, 

 to their amazement, he leaped up, snatched the 

 brands that had been the instruments of his tor- 

 ture, drove the screeching crowd from the scaffold, 

 and held them all at bay, while they pelted him 

 from below with sticks, stones, and showers of 

 live coals. At length he made a false step and 

 fell to the ground, when they seized him and 

 threw him into the fire. He instantly leaped out, 

 covered with blood, cinders, and ashes, and rushed 

 upon them, with a blazing brand in each hand. 

 The crowd gave way before him, and he ran 

 towards the to^vn, as if to set it on fire. They 

 threw a pole across his way, which tripped him 

 and flung him headlong to the earth, on which 

 they all fell upon him, cut off his hands and feet, 

 and again threw him into the fire. He rolled him- 

 self out, and crawled forward on his elbows and 

 knees, glaring upon them with such unutterable 

 ferocity that they recoiled once more, till, seeing 

 that he was helpless, they threw themselves upon 

 him, and cut off his head.^ 



When the Iroquois could not win by force, they 

 were sometimes more successful with treachery. In 

 the summer of 1645, two war-parties of the hostile 

 nations met in the forest. The Hurons bore them- 

 selves so well that they had nearly gained the day, 

 when the Iroquois called for a parley, displayed a 

 great number of wampum-belts, and said that they 



^ Lalemant, Rehiiion des Hurons, 1639, 68. It was this chief whose 

 severed hand was thrown to the Jesuits. See ante, p. 137. 



