On the other hand, the Indian warrior was a man still more likely to be
remarked. The habits of his people had brought him, as usual, into the
field, with naked limbs and nearly uncovered body. The position of his
frame was that of one prepared to leap; and it would have been a
comparison tolerated by the license of poetry, to have likened his
straight and agile form to the semblance of a crouching panther. The
projecting leg sustained the body, bending under its load more with the
free play of muscle and sinew than from any weight, while the slightly
stooping head was a little advanced beyond the perpendicular. One hand was
clenched on the helve of an axe, that lay in a line with the right thigh
while the other was placed, with a firm gripe, on the buck-horn handle of
a knife, that was still sheathed at his girdle. The expression of the face
was earnest, severe, and perhaps a little fierce, and yet the whole was
tempered by the immovable and dignified calm of a chief of high qualities.
The eye, however, was gazing and riveted; and, like that of the youth
whose life he threatened, it appeared singularly contracted with wonder.
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