"By no path. I left Otsego as you left, crossed the river where you had crossed, recrossed where you did not recross, but where a canoe had landed."
"And then?"
"I saw the Mengwe," he said politely, as the Sagamore came up beside him.
Mayaro smiled his appreciation of the Algonquin term, then he spat, saying:
"The Mengwe were Sinako and Mowawak. One has joined the Eel Clan."
"The Red Wings saw him. The Cat-People of the Sinako sat in a circle around that scalpless thing and sang like catamounts over their dead!"
It is impossible to convey the scorn, contempt, insult, and loathing expressed by the Mohican and the Oneida, unless one truly understand the subtlety of the words they used in speaking of their common enemies.
"The Red Wings came by the Charlotte River?" I asked.
"By the Cherry, Quenevas, and Charlotte to the Ouleout. The Mengwe fired on me as I stood on a high cliff and mocked them."
"Did they follow you?"