All 50 Uses of

cunning

in

The Last of the Mohicans

In war, he is daring, boastful, cunning, ruthless, self-denying, and self-devoted; in peace, just, generous, hospitable, revengeful, superstitious, modest, and commonly chaste.†
Chpt Intr.

For a single instant his searching and yet wary glance met the wondering look of the other, and then changing its direction, partly in cunning, and partly in disdain, it remained fixed, as if penetrating the distant air.†
Chpt 1

No, give me a Delaware or a Mohican for honesty; and when they will fight, which they won't all do, having suffered their cunning enemies, the Maquas, to make them women—but when they will fight at all, look to a Delaware, or a Mohican, for a warrior!"†
Chpt 4

If I should go back to him, the cunning varmint would suspect something, and be dodging through the trees like a frightened deer.†
Chpt 4

Come, friends, let us move our station, and in such fashion, too, as will throw the cunning of a Mingo on a wrong scent, or our scalps will be drying in the wind in front of Montcalm's marquee, ag'in this hour to-morrow."†
Chpt 5

"Offer your prayers to Him who can give us wisdom to circumvent the cunning of the devils who fill these woods," calmly interrupted the scout, "but spare your offers of money, which neither you may live to realize, nor I to profit by.†
Chpt 5

Besides, though the Delaware tongue is the same as a book to the Iroquois, the cunning varlets are quick enough at understanding the reason of a wolf's howl."†
Chpt 5

"Such old foxes as Chingachgook and myself are not often caught in a barrow with one hole," said Hawkeye, laughing; "you can easily see the cunning of the place—the rock is black limestone, which everybody knows is soft; it makes no uncomfortable pillow, where brush and pine wood is scarce; well, the fall was once a few yards below us, and I dare to say was, in its time, as regular and as handsome a sheet of water as any along the Hudson.†
Chpt 6

At length, the blanket was slowly raised, and the scout stood in the aperture with a countenance whose firmness evidently began to give way before a mystery that seemed to threaten some danger, against which all his cunning and experience might prove of no avail.†
Chpt 6

"Uncas, call up your father; we have need of all our we'pons to bring the cunning varmint from his roost."†
Chpt 8

The question put by Le Renard had been calm, and with all the dignity of an Indian; but it was quite apparent, by the thoughtful expression of the listener's countenance, that the answer was most cunningly devised.†
Chpt 10

"What would you have?" continued Cora, after a most painful pause, while the conviction forced itself on her mind that the too sanguine and generous Duncan had been cruelly deceived by the cunning of the savage.†
Chpt 11

These Iroquois are cunning, but they outwitted themselves when they placed their firearms out of reach; and had Uncas or his father been gifted with only their common Indian patience, we should have come in upon the knaves with three bullets instead of one, and that would have made a finish of the whole pack; yon loping varlet, as well as his commerades.†
Chpt 12

He was, in truth, a minstrel of the western continent—of a much later day, certainly, than those gifted bards, who formerly sang the profane renown of baron and prince, but after the spirit of his own age and country; and he was now prepared to exercise the cunning of his craft, in celebration of, or rather in thanksgiving for, the recent victory.†
Chpt 12

So I concluded that the cunning varments had seen the twig bent, and had torn the rest, to make us believe a buck had been feeling the boughs with his antlers.†
Chpt 12

"See, and judge with your own eyes," said the scout, advancing toward the eastern brow of the mountain, whither he beckoned for the whole party to follow; "if it was as easy to look into the heart of man as it is to spy out the nakedness of Montcalm's camp from this spot, hypocrites would grow scarce, and the cunning of a Mingo might prove a losing game, compared to the honesty of a Delaware."†
Chpt 14

"Here has the cunning Frenchman been posting a picket directly in our path," he said; "red-skins and whites; and we shall be as likely to fall into their midst as to pass them in the fog!"†
Chpt 14

Cunningly resuming his former position, though with a change of hands, as if the movement had been made merely to relieve the limb, the native awaited the result with a calmness and fortitude that none but an Indian warrior would have known how to exercise.†
Chpt 19

It is true that white cunning has managed to throw the tribes into great confusion, as respects friends and enemies; so that the Hurons and the Oneidas, who speak the same tongue, or what may be called the same, take each other's scalps, and the Delawares are divided among themselves; a few hanging about their great council-fire on their own river, and fighting on the same side with the Mingoes while the greater part are in the Canadas, out of natural enmity to the Maquas—thus throwing…†
Chpt 19

"If you judge of Indian cunning by the rules you find in books, or by white sagacity, they will lead you astray, if not to your death," returned Hawkeye, examining the signs of the place with that acuteness which distinguished him.†
Chpt 20

"Such cunning is not without its deviltry," exclaimed Hawkeye, when he met the disappointed looks of his assistants.†
Chpt 21

The sticks were removed, and the stones lifted; for Indian cunning was known frequently to adopt these objects as covers, laboring with the utmost patience and industry, to conceal each footstep as they proceeded.†
Chpt 21

"The cunning devils know half the trade already, for they beat the time with their tails, as you heard just now; and in good time it was, too, or 'killdeer' might have sounded the first note among them.†
Chpt 22

You will have occasion for your best manhood, and for a sharper wit than what is to be gathered in books, afore you outdo the cunning or get the better of the courage of a Mingo.†
Chpt 22

"Do the cunning men of the Canadas paint their skins?" the Huron coldly continued; "we have heard them boast that their faces were pale."†
Chpt 23

The squalid and withered person of this hag might well have obtained for her the character of possessing more than human cunning.†
Chpt 23

The cunning beaver may be caught.†
Chpt 23

Can the cunning stranger frighten him away?†
Chpt 24

"My brother is a great medicine," said the cunning savage; "he will try?"†
Chpt 24

Instead of manifesting any womanish curiosity to feast his eyes with the sight of a captive from a people he was known to have so much reason to hate, Magua continued to smoke, with the meditative air that he usually maintained, when there was no immediate call on his cunning or his eloquence.†
Chpt 24

This cunning savage beheld, and instantly profited by his advantage.†
Chpt 24

"The cunning ones are jealous," said the Huron; "I go.†
Chpt 25

When Magua had effected his object he approached his prisoners, and said in English: "The pale faces trap the cunning beavers; but the red-skins know how to take the Yengeese."†
Chpt 25

Practise all your cunning, for it is a lawful undertaking.†
Chpt 25

He is cunning, and will bury himself in the mountain, when he sees how many are ready to fight him.†
Chpt 25

Then let him step aside, and the cunning man will blow upon the dog.†
Chpt 26

But the bear, instead of obeying, maintained the seat it had taken, and growled: "The cunning man is afraid that his breath will blow upon his brothers, and take away their courage too," continued David, improving the hint he received; "they must stand further off."†
Chpt 26

and trust to cunning for want of speed.
Chpt 26 *

cunning = cleverness

If you stay, it must be to sit down here in the shadow, and take the part of Uncas, until such times as the cunning of the Indians discover the cheat, when, as I have already said, your times of trial will come.†
Chpt 26

In such a sudden demand on their wisdom, the presence of the cunning Magua could scarcely fail of being needed.†
Chpt 27

These two narratives gave a proper direction to the subsequent inquiries, which were now made with the characteristic cunning of savages.†
Chpt 27

Of the dog who carries the heart and cunning of a Huron under a pale skin—La Longue Carabine.†
Chpt 27

With the advantage of possessing this important intelligence, the chief warily laid his plans before his fellows, and, as might have been anticipated from his eloquence and cunning, they were adopted without a dissenting voice.†
Chpt 27

When he perceived that, while the old men applauded his moderation, many of the fiercest and most distinguished of the warriors listened to these politic plans with lowering looks, he cunningly led them back to the subject which they most loved.†
Chpt 27

Magua had now attained one great object of all his cunning and enterprise.†
Chpt 27

In the division of the baubles the cunning Huron discovered no less art than in their selection.†
Chpt 28

He gave them tongues like the false call of the wildcat; hearts like rabbits; the cunning of the hog (but none of the fox), and arms longer than the legs of the moose.†
Chpt 29

With his tongue he stops the ears of the Indians; his heart teaches him to pay warriors to fight his battles; his cunning tells him how to get together the goods of the earth; and his arms inclose the land from the shores of the salt-water to the islands of the great lake.†
Chpt 29

There was at first a fierce and manifest display of joy, and then it was instantly subdued in a look of cunning coldness.†
Chpt 30

A few of the older and more cunning Hurons, who had not been deceived by the artifice which had been practiced to draw their fire, now made a close and deadly discharge of their pieces and justified the apprehensions of the scout by felling three of his foremost warriors.†
Chpt 32

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Definition:

(cunning as in: a cunning thief)
being good at achieving goals through cleverness -- and typically through deception as well (tricking others)

cunning in The Last of the Mohicans

cunning

in

The Last of the Mohicans