"And they're over hungry," said Robert, "or they wouldn't let us know so soon that they're in the thickets." "It is told sometimes, among my people, that the soul of a wicked man has gone into the wolf," said Tayoga, not ceasing in his work, his shining blade flashing back and forth. "Then the wolf can understand what we say, although he may not speak himself." "And suppose we kill such a wolf, Tayoga, what becomes of the wicked soul?" "It goes at once into the body of another wolf, and passes on from wolf to wolf, being condemned to live in that foul home forever. Such a punishment is only for the most vile, and they are few. It is but the hundredth among the wicked who suffers thus." "The other ninety-nine go after death to _Hanegoategeh_, the land of perpetual darkness, where they suffer in proportion to the crimes they committed on earth, but _Hawenneyu_, the Divine Being, takes pity on them and gives them another chance. When they have suffered long enough in _Hanegoategeh_ to be purified he calls them before him and looks into their souls. Nothing can be hidden from him. He sees the evil thought, Lennox, as you or I would see a leaf upon the water, and then he judges. And he is merciful. He does not condemn and send to everlasting torture, because evil may yet be left in the soul, but if the good outweighs the bad the good shall prevail and the suffering soul is sent to _Hawenneyugeh_, the home of the just, where it suffers no more. But if the bad still outweighs the good then its chance is lost and it is sent to _Hanishaonogeh_, the home of the wicked, where it is condemned to torture forever." "A reasonable religion, Tayoga. Your _Hanegoategeh_ is like the purgatory, in which the Catholic church believes. Your God like ours is merciful, and the more I learn about your religion the more similar it seems to ours." "I think your God and our Manitou are the same, Lennox, we only see him through different glasses, but our religion is old, old, very old, perhaps older than yours." Although Tayoga did not raise his voice or change the inflection Robert knew that he spoke with great pride. The young Onondaga did not believe his religion resembled the white man's but that the white man's resembled his. Robert respected him though, and knowing the reasons for his pride, said nothing in contradiction. "The whining wolf is hungry," said Tayoga, "and since the soul of a warrior may dwell in his body I will feed him." He took a discarded piece of the deer and threw it far into the bushes. A fearful growling, and the noise of struggling ensued at once. "The wolf with the wicked soul in him may be there," said Robert, "but even so he has to fight with the other wolves for the meat you flung." "It is a part of his fate," said Tayoga gravely. "Seeing and thinking as a man, he must yet bite and claw with beasts for his food. Now I think we have all of the deer we wish."