The Princess Pocahontas | Page 7

stretched out on the shady side of the lodges; only the squaws preparing
dinner were still busy.
"Let us go to the waterfall," cried Pocahontas, jumping up suddenly.
"Each of you go and beg some food from her mother and hurry back
here. I will put my work away and await ye here."
The maidens flew down the hill while Pocahontas and Cleopatra
carried the robe and the basket to their lodge. Then, a few minutes later,
they were rejoined by their companions and all started off laughing as
they ran through the woods.
The stream that flowed into the great river below was now still wide

with its spring fulness. A mile away from Werowocomoco it fell over
high rocks, then rushing down a gentle incline bubbled over smooth
rocky slabs, and made a deep pool below them.
The maidens tossed off their skirts and stood for a moment hesitatingly
on the shore. Mocking-birds sang in the oaks above them, startled by
their shrill young voices, and on the bare branches of a sycamore tree
that had been killed by a lightning bolt a score of raccoons lay curled
up in the sunshine.
Pocahontas was the first to spring into the stream, but her comrades
quickly followed her, laughing, pushing, crying out the first chill of the
water. Only Cleopatra remained standing on the shore.
"Come," called Pocahontas to her; "why dost thou tarry, lazy one?"
"I will not come. The water is too cold."
Cleopatra was about to slip on her skirt again when her sister splashed
through the stream to her and half pushed, half pulled her into the pool
and then to the rocks partly submerged in the water. There was much
screaming and calling, slipping from the rocks into the pool and
clambering from the pool back on to the rocks. The water was now
pleasantly warm and the dinner awaiting them was forgotten in the
pleasure of the first bath of the season.
Deer-Eye, in trying to pull herself back on the rock, caught hold of
Cleopatra's foot, who slipped on the mossy surface and fell backwards
into the water, hitting her head against a sharp edge. She lost
consciousness and sank down into the pool.
Almost before she had disappeared beneath the water Pocahontas had
sprung after her, and groping about on the fine smooth sand of the
bottom, she caught hold of her sister and brought her to the surface.
Then, with the aid of the terrified maidens, she lifted her up on the bank,
the blood flowing freely from a cut on her head. After vainly trying to
staunch the wound with damp moss, Pocahontas commanded:

"Hasten as though the Iroquois were coming, and cut me some strong
branches."
They obeyed her, hurriedly throwing their skirts about them, and then
with their stone knives severed branches and tied them together with
deer thongs which they tore from the fringe of their girdles. On top of
these they placed leafy branches and lifted the unconscious Cleopatra
on to this improvised stretcher. In spite of their remonstrances,
Pocahontas insisted upon taking one end of it, while the strongest two
of her playmates bore the other.
Through the woods they walked, as silent now as they had been noisy
before, but Pocahontas thought her heart-beats sounded as loud as the
war drums of the Pamunkeys.
They were still distant many minutes' walk to the village when they
caught sight of Pochins, a medicine man famous among many tribes for
his powerful manitou, his guardian spirit, which enabled him to
communicate with the manitous of the spirit world.
"Pochins, oh Pochins," cried out Pocahontas, "come and help us. I fear
my sister is dying, and that I have killed her. She did not wish to go
into the water, Pochins, and I pulled her in and now she hath cut her
head and the blood floweth from it so that I can not stop it."
The shaman made no answer, but bent down from his great height and
looked carefully at the wound, then he took the end of the stretcher
from Pocahontas, saying:
"I will bear her to my prayer lodge here nearby."
Even then through the trees they caught sight of the bark covering of
the lodge, which few persons had ever entered. The maidens shuddered
at the sight of it, for none of them knew what mysterious terrors might
lie in wait for them there. Nevertheless they followed Pochins as he
bore Cleopatra inside and laid her on the ground. From an earthen bowl
he took certain herbs and bound the leaves, after he had moistened
them, over the wound. Soon Pocahontas, crouching at her sister's side,

could see that the blood had ceased to flow. But no sign of life could be
detected in