But the surpassing fineness of their
taste was best manifested by their enthusiastic appreciation of boys
full of lively red blood, and of girls in full bloom fresh from cool
Scotland or England. On these it was pleasant to witness their
enjoyment as they feasted. Indians, we were told, believed that if
they were brave fighters they would go after death to a happy country
abounding in game, where there were no mosquitoes and no cowards. For
cowards were driven away by themselves to a miserable country where
there was no game fit to eat, and where the sky was always dark with
huge gnats and mosquitoes as big as pigeons.
We were great admirers of the little black water-bugs. Their whole
lives seemed to be play, skimming, swimming, swirling, and waltzing
together in little groups on the edge of the lake and in the meadow
springs, dancing to music we never could hear. The long-legged
skaters, too, seemed wonderful fellows, shuffling about on top of the
water, with air-bubbles like little bladders tangled under their hairy
feet; and we often wished that we also might be shod in the same way
to enable us to skate on the lake in summer as well as in icy winter.
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