Chapter
XXIV
Uncas manages to have a brief word with Heyward, telling him
that Hawkeye, Munro and Chingachgook are safe. Heyward goes
outside and searches briefly for Alice, but finds no trace of
her. Then he slips back into the lodge, where an elder warrior
tells him that the wife of his son is possessed by an evil spirit.
The warrior wants Heyward to frighten it away. Heyward agrees
to try, hoping to turn the situation to his own advantage. At
that point Magua enters the lodge. He has been gone for two
days on a hunt. He recognizes Uncas and the two gaze at each
other. Magua issues a cry of ferocious joy, and tells the others
that the prisoner is the renowned “Le Cerf Agile”
(the bounding elk).This causes general excitement. Magua tells
Uncas that he will die. Uncas remains defiant, and Magua, who
is known as a great orator, gives an impressive speech, stimulating
the Hurons’ desire for revenge. After Magua finishes,
a warrior throws a tomahawk at Uncas, but Magua deflects it
and it passes harmlessly above Uncas. Uncas is led away. Then
the warrior who had appealed for Heyward’s help leads
him to a cavern in the nearby mountain. Heyward is nervous because
a bear has been following them. He enters the cavern, which
has been divided into living quarters, and is taken to the bedside
of the afflicted woman. The bear follows. In the cavern, Heyward
finds David, who has been trying to heal her through the singing
of hymns. When David sees Heyward, he leaves the cavern.
Chapter XXV
As Heyward begins to improvise some incantations that will give
the appearance of healing rites, the bear growls. The Huron
warrior decides to leave the cavern, leaving Heyward alone with
the woman and the bear. Heyward expects the bear to attack him,
but instead, the bear reveals itself to be Hawkeye in disguise.
Hawkeye reveals that he borrowed his costume from an Indian
medicine-man, whom he knocked on the head and tied up. Hawkeye
reveals that Alice is being kept in the village, and tells Heyward
where she may be found. Heyward removes the paint from his face,
since he does not want to greet Alice in such a guise. He leaves
the cavern and is soon united with Alice. Heyward tells her
he has her father’s permission to ask for her hand in
marriage. They are interrupted by the entrance of Magua, who
immediately seals off any escape route for them. Magua makes
it clear that they will die at the stake. The bear appears.
Magua assumes that the bear is some disguised Indian, and tells
it to go play with the women and children. But as he tries to
pass, the bear puts him in a bear hug, and this allows Heyward
to tie Magua up. They leave him gagged and helpless on his back.
Heyward carries Alice, and he and Hawkeye return to the cavern
where the sick woman lies. At Hawkeye’s suggestion, Heyward
tells the Indians waiting outside that he must take the woman
he is carrying—he pretends that it is the sick woman—to
the woods in order to find some strengthening herbs. He says
she is now free of the evil spirit, which is shut up in a rock.
Then the three of them make their way beyond the village. Hawkeye
tells Heyward to take Alice to the neighboring Delaware village,
where the Indians will be friendly. Hawkeye returns to the Huron
lodges to see what he can do to save Uncas.
Chapter XXVI
Still disguised as a bear, Hawkeye finds the hut where David
is living. At first, David thinks his visitor is a real bear,
until Hawkeye reveals himself. Hawkeye asks David to take him
to the lodge where Uncas is held, which is in the middle of
the village. On Hawkeye’s instruction, David explains
to the warriors on guard outside the lodge that the conjurer
(Hawkeye in his disguise) has come to instill fear into Uncas,
a fear that they will be able to observe when Uncas goes to
his death. The warriors willingly stand aside and allow David
and Hawkeye to enter. Uncas soon recognizes Hawkeye, and Hawkeye
frees him from his bonds. Uncas puts on the bear skin, while
Hawkeye takes from David his blanket, hat, book, spectacles
and pitch-pipe. David is to lie down in the lodge impersonating
Uncas, while Uncas and Hawkeye make their escape. David willingly
agrees to this dangerous mission. Uncas and Hawkeye pass the
guards without serious incident—helped by a fierce and
natural-sounding growl from Uncas—and get clear of the
village. Then they hear a series of shouts which announce that
the Hurons have discovered that Incas is missing. They head
for the forest, knowing they will be pursued.
Chapter XXVII
When the Hurons discover that Uncas has gone and David lies
in his place they are furious, but they spare his life. The
whole tribe gathers around the chief’s lodge, waiting
for instructions about how to respond. The medicine-man that
Hawkeye robbed of his bearskin tells his story, as does the
father of the sick woman. A group of warriors goes to the cavern
where she lies. She is dead. Then Magua appears, having broken
free of his bonds. He soon realizes what has happened, and explains
that their enemies have deceived them. Magua then gives a speech
that establishes him as the leader of their tribe. Spies are
dispatched to the neighboring tribe of the Delawares, where
the Hurons suspect the fugitives have fled. Before morning,
Magua and twenty warriors set off into the forest. In deference
to one of the warriors, who carries a depiction of a beaver
on his clothes, Magua stops at an artificial lake that has been
created by beavers, and speaks respectfully to the animals.
After he finishes his address, the head of a large beaver pokes
out from behind the door of a lodge that the warriors had believed
to be uninhabited. The warriors take this to be a good sign.
The beaver is in fact Chingachgook in disguise.
Chapter XXVIII
Magua arrives in the camp of the Delawares. His intention is
to recover possession of Cora, and he engages in a wary dialogue
with the Delaware chief. He presents the Delawares with gifts,
mainly small trinkets he plundered from Fort William Henry.
Friendship appears to have been established, but then the cunning
Magua insinuates that the Delawares have won a reputation amongst
the English for deserting their French allies. This alarms the
Delaware chief, since the Delawares live within French territory.
Magua tells the Delaware chief that the enemy of the French,
Hawkeye, is known to come and go freely in the Delaware camp.
He is even there now, but as a prisoner. The Delawares are alarmed
by this and call a big tribal conference. Over a thousand Delawares
attend. The patriarch of the Delawares, a hundred-year-old man
named Tamenund who is venerated by all, presides over the meeting.
Chapter XXIX
Cora, Alice, Heyward and Hawkeye are brought before Tamenund.
Tamenund asks which one is “La Longue Carabine.”
Heyward fears that Hawkeye will be quickly put to death, so
he tries to claim that he himself is “La Longue Carabine.”
But Hawkeye steps forward and insists that the name belongs
to him. The Delawares do not know whom to believe, so they set
up a shooting contest. Each man must shoot at an earthen vessel
fifty yards away. Heyward goes first and his bullet lands very
near the vessel. But Hawkeye shatters the vessel without even
appearing to take aim. Some of the Delawares, as well as Heyward,
declare that Hawkeye’s success was due to chance, so another
contest is arranged. The marksmen must break the shell of a
gourd hanging from a tree a hundred yards away. Heyward shoots
and narrowly misses. Hawkeye hits the target, which establishes
beyond doubt that he is “La Longue Carabine.” Magua
makes another speech that reminds the Delawares of their former
greatness, and he then addresses Tamenund, asking for the return
of the prisoners. Tamenund grants his wish. But then Cora rushes
to Tamenund and pleads with him, saying that they are not enemies
of the Delaware, but simply desire to return to their own people
in peace. She begs that Tamenund hear from Uncas, who is one
of the Delawares. Tamenund asks that Uncas be brought to the
assembly.
Analysis
Although for the most part, the novel is an adventure written
in realistic terms, Cooper sometimes departs from that formula
and presents fantastic episodes. These are designed not only
for comic relief but also to effect plot developments. The best
example is the fake bear that appears in Chapters XXIV to XXVI.
The bear is of course Hawkeye in disguise, but, amazingly, Heyward
is completely fooled by it and thinks it is a real bear. David
is also fooled. Even Uncas, the warrior most attuned to the
life of the forest, takes a minute or so to recognize the truth.
Cooper gives a clue
to his comic intent here in the epigraphs that he places at
the beginning of Chapters XXV and XXVI. They are both taken
from Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
In that play, a character in the play-within-the-play, put on
by a group of humble rustics, must play a lion. The effect is
comic, although the rustics actually believe that the ladies
in the audience will be frightened because they will think that
the human in disguise is a real lion. Cooper takes this as his
cue, and presents an obviously fake bear which is taken for
the real thing. Nor does he stop at bears. In Chapter XXVII,
there is an even more bizarre example—the beaver that
is really Chingachgook. This beaver apparently fools even the
Indians who spend their lives getting to know their natural
environment intimately. Obviously, this incident cannot be taken
at face value. Cooper seems to be enjoying himself, and the
effect is to momentarily undermine the seriousness of the situation.
Chapter XXVI is interesting
also because it shows the inner growth of David. Because he
is grateful to Uncas for his support, David is willing to stay
in the Huron village and face great danger by impersonating
Uncas. This wins him more respect from Hawkeye, even though
Hawkeye finds it hard to understand David’s wish that
if he is killed, Hawkeye should not avenge his death but only
pray for the eternal salvation of the murderers. |
Studyhall
