armed themselves at the
same fire, and slept' on the same skins, there was a fair sky among
them--it never thundered and lightened in the cabin of the Otto warrior.
One nursed another's child as kindly as if it were her own; one
performed the field-tasks allotted to another, who in return prepared
the bison meat for the fire, and drew home the fuel from the woods.
There was peace, and the calmness of a summer day, in the cabin of
Wasabajinga--he lived the happiest of his nation.

[Footnote A: The Milky Way, the Galaxy.]

His children were many--ten sons were in their father's cabin; each
could bend his father's bow, each poise his father's spear, and each
wield his father's war-club. Daughters he had but one, who grew up the
most beautiful of all the maidens of the land. She had a skin much
whiter than that of Indian maidens generally; her teeth were white and
even; her hair long, black, and glossy, as the feathers of the raven;
her eyes mild as the dove's in the season of its mating; and her step
was that of a deer who is scared a little. And she was good as she was
beautiful. No one ever saw her cross or sulky like other women; nothing
made her angry. Though she was beloved by her parents, and a great
favourite with all the wives of her father, yet she never claimed
exemption from the duties which belong to Indian females. Willingly
would her little hands have laid hold of the faggot, and her small feet
have travelled forth with her mother to the labours of the field of
maize; but the fond affection of all around her, and their belief that
she was something more than mortal, protected her from a call to share
in their labours. She was allowed no part in the cutting-up of the
bison; she was not permitted to pound the corn, or winnow the wild rice,
or bring firing from the woods. It was the pride of the youthful part of
the tribe to prepare ornaments for her person. The young maidens (for
she was envied by none) wove wampum, and made beads for her; the young
men passed half their time in hunting the red and blue heron for the gay
tuft upon his crown, and the Spirit Bird for his train of yellow, green,
and scarlet, that her hair might vie in colours with the beautiful bow
that rests upon the mountains after the rains. They made her bracelets
for her wrists, and anklets for her legs, of the teeth of the fish with
shining scales, and pendants for her ears of the bones of the birds of
night and music. Thus lived Mekaia, or