cunning

and after all, the cunningest scout of the whole Dahcotah nation might pass his life in searching for the spot where it fell, and be no wiser when his eyes grew dim, than when they were first opened.

I am far from believing the timid maxim of Lord Falkland ("that for ceremony there must go two to it; since a bold fellow will go through the cunningest forms"), and am of opinion that the gentleman is the bold fellow whose forms are not to be broken through; and only that plenteous nature is rightful master which is the complement of whatever person it converses with.

'You are the demdest, knowing hand,' replied Mr Mantalini, in an admiring tone, 'the cunningest, rummest, superlativest old fox--oh dem!--to pretend now not to know that it was the little bright-eyed niece--the softest, sweetest, prettiest--'

(27) One commentator remarks that she is "the cunningest one around." (28) Her wisdom is not entirely her own--it is at once an alacrity in following a leading from beyond her and a clarity about applying that guidance.

'Hostile nature' and the domineering tendencies of the 'cunningest and strongest' led to the creation of institutions that belie the caricature of the barbarian, with the resolution of feuds achieved by appeal to the whole community and authority resting primarily in the 'moral' realm.