Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 26, 2025
The tracks were deep sunken in the snow, but he was not yet expert enough to tell their probable age. "How old would you say they are, Pehansan?" he asked. "Made to-day," replied the Indian, bending his glowing eyes upon the trail. "Two, three hour ago. He not far away." "Then he's ours. A big mountain buffalo fresh on the hoof will be welcome in the village."
With so many to lift and pull they were able to remove the entire robe from the giant buffalo, the finest skin that many of them had ever seen. It was so vast that it was a cause of great wonder and admiration. "It belongs," said Xingudan, "to Waditaka, Pehansan and Roka, the three brave warriors who slew the buffalo."
Will and his comrades, taking off their snowshoes, worked with frantic energy, clearing away the snow with their mittened hands, bringing vast quantities of the dead wood, lighting several fires in a circle about the bull, and keeping themselves, with the surplus wood, inside the circle. Then, while Will fed the fires, Roka and Pehansan carefully cut the arrows out of the body.
To sleep well every night and to wake every morning as keen for the chase as ever! to have your friends with you always, and to strive with them in the hunt in generous emulation! Aye, Pehansan, that would be the life!" "Some day I shall find the life of which you speak so well, Waditaka! A happy death on the battlefield and lo! I have it!"
Will and the Crane, otherwise Pehansan, formed a warm friendship, and he found a similar friend in Roka, the stalwart warrior who had come with the order for his death by torture. Soon after he received the gift of the great bow the three decided on a hunting expedition toward the upper end of the valley, all traveling on snowshoes. "Beware of the wild beasts, my son," said Inmutanka.
"We may need them all before morning," said Roka. "It is so, if the growling be a true sign," said Pehansan. The two warriors partly skinned the body and cut off great chunks of meat, which they broiled over the fires, and all three ate. Meanwhile, Will, bow and arrows ready, watched the bushes beyond the circle of flame.
Pehansan and Roka uttered warning shouts, and the youth, who in his enthusiasm had gone too near, made a convulsive leap to one side. Had he been on hard ground and in his moccasins he might easily have escaped that maddened rush, but the long and delicate snowshoes caught in a bush, and he fell at full length on his side. Then it was the very completeness of his fall that saved him.
"Not thinking of such a thing," whispered Will. They pushed their way farther, crossed a small ravine and, resting a moment or two on the other side, heard a puffing, a low sound but of great volume. "Pteha," whispered Pehansan. "Among the cedars, scarce fifty yards away," said Roka. "Now suppose we separate and approach from three points.
"Don't know mammoth and don't know mastodon," replied Pehansan, shaking his head, "but do know it is the biggest of all animals my eyes have ever seen." "It is a woods or mountain buffalo that has far outgrown its kind, just as there are giants among men," said Roka.
"Just beyond he dig in the snow for bunches of the sweet grass that grow here in summer and that keep alive under the snow." "Then he is not a half hour away," said Roka. "Not more than that," said Pehansan. "We barely creep now." Will began to feel excitement.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking