Strange and mysterious did it
seem to them, and warily did they watch the unconscious object of their
wonder.
The knowledge that she possessed of the language of her friend Indiana,
enabled Catharine to comprehend a great deal of what was said; yet she
prudently refrained from speaking in the tongue of one, to whose whole
nation she knew these people to be hostile, but she sedulously endeavoured
to learn their own peculiar dialect, and in this she succeeded in an
incredibly short time, so that she was soon able to express her own wants,
and converse a little with the females who were about her.
She had noticed that among the tents there was one which stood apart from
the rest, and was only visited by the old chief and his granddaughter, or
by the elder women. At first she imagined it was some sick person, or a
secret tent set apart for the worship of the Great Spirit; but one day when
the chief of the people had gone up the river hunting, and the children
were asleep, she perceived the curtain of skins drawn back, and a female of
singular and striking beauty appeared standing in the open space in front.
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