lies between the Hudson and the vast lakes of the west. Then he rested
and looking upon what he had done he was satisfied because he knew it to
be the best in all the world, created by him."

"How do you know it to be the best, Tayoga?" asked Willet. "You haven't
seen all the countries. You haven't been across the sea."

"Because none other can be so good," replied the Iroquois with simple
faith. "When Hawenneyu, in your language the Great Spirit, found the
land that he had made so good he did not know then to whom to give it,
but in the greatness of his wisdom he left it to those who were most
fitted to come and take it. And in time came the tribes which Tododaho,
helped by Hayowentha, often called by the English Hiawatha, formed into
the great League of the Hodenosaunee, and because they were brave and
far-seeing and abided by the laws of Tododaho and Hayowentha, they took
the land which they have kept ever since, and which they will keep
forever."

"I like your good, strong beliefs, Tayoga," said the hunter heartily.
"The country does belong to the Iroquois, and if it was left to me to
decide about it they'd keep it till the crack of doom. Now you boys roll
in your blankets. I'll take the first watch, and when it's over I'll
call one of you."

But Tayoga waited a little until the last glow of the sun died in the
west, looking intently where the great orb had shone. Into his religion
a reverence for the sun, Giver of Light and Warmth, entered, and not
until the last faint radiance from it was gone did he turn away.

Then he took from the canoe and unfolded _eyose_, his blanket, which was