CREE OF ARROWS

Rippling with sadism, sex and fluent storytelling, this is obviously headed for a paperback future. Told in kennings (i.e. snake-still, sun-toughened, tree-shielded, muscle-strung-- can such a word-jam flourish-live?) it records the destiny of Hawkbow who must slay his tribe's great enemy Tato-Taho of the Onondagas. Hawkbow, the biggest Shawnee ever, is accompanied by Two Winds, the biggest lover ever. While waiting to ambush Tato-Taho, Hawkbow kills a grandfather rattler and is struck senseless by lightning for his deed. He awakens, tied to a stake, and is tortured by women. Two Winds, also captured, is not tortured by the women because his virility is so evident. Finally Tato-Taho appears and frustrated in his attemps to kill Hawkbow and Two Winds, he attacks his whole village ""from the old... from women heavy with child... from warriors tempered in a hundred raids...."" The mystique of the Indians compels a certain acceptance. Three whoops for myth and magic.