STORY OF AN INDIAN WOMAN. 157 



EDWARD. 



Is that different from a common shoe ? 



MOTHER. 



It is made of an oblong wooden rim, with cords 

 woven like a net, from side to side, something like 

 the rackets with which you play, but much longer 

 and wider than the foot ; it is fastened to the sole 

 of the foot, and is used to prevent the person who 

 wears it from sinking in the soft snow. 



The party followed the track, and came at last 

 to a little hut, where they discovered a young 

 woman sitting alone. They soon found that she 

 understood their language, and was one of a 

 western tribe of Indians, who, with some others, 

 had been taken prisoners by another tribe. The 

 savages, according to their custom, surprised her 

 party in the night ; and her father, mother, hus- 

 band, and even her young child who was only 

 five months old, were put to death. This act of 

 cruelty gave her such an abhorrence to those In- 

 dians, although she herself was treated with kind- 

 ness, that she resolved to leave them, if possible, 

 and to return to her own country, at the hazard 

 of the greatest misery and danger : and she 

 succeeded in escaping; but the windings of the 

 rivers and lakes were so numerous, that she lost 

 her way, and was obliged, with her own hands, to 



