ing the rice harvest, and shoot deer and ducks on
the lake, and to ratify a truce which had been for some time set on foot
between them; but while outwardly professing friendship and a desire for
peace, inwardly the fire of hatred burned fiercely in the breast of the
Black Snake against the Ojebwa chief and his only son, a young man of
great promise, renowned among his tribe as a great hunter and warrior,
but who had once offended the Mohawk chief by declining a matrimonial
alliance with one of the daughters of a chief of inferior rank, who was
closely connected to him by marriage. This affront rankled in the heart
of the Black Snake, though outwardly he affected to have forgiven and
forgotten the slight that had been put upon his relative. The hunting
had been carried on for some days very amicably, when one day the Bald
Eagle was requested, with all due attention to Indian etiquette, to go
to the wigwam of the Black Snake. On entering the lodge, he perceived
the Mohawk strangely disordered; he rose from his mat, on which he had
been sleeping, with a countenance fearfully distorted, his eyes glaring
hideously, his whole frame convulsed, and writhing as in fearful bodily
anguish, and casting himself upon the ground, he rolled and grovelled on
the earth, uttering frightful yells and groans.

The Bald Eagle was moved at the distressing state in which he found his
guest, and asked the cause of his disorder, but this the other refused
to tell. After some hours the fit appeared to subside, but the chief
remained moody and silent. The following day the same scene was
repeated, and on the third, when the fit seemed to have increased in
bodily agony, with great apparent reluctance, wrung seemingly from him
by the importunity of his host, he consented to reveal the cause, which
was, that the Bad Spirit had told him that these bodily tortures could
not cease till the only son of his friend, the Ojebwa chief, had been
sacrificed to appease his anger--neither could peace long continue
between the two nations until this deed had been done; and not only must
the chief's son be slain, but he must be pierced by his own father's
hand, and his flesh served up at a feast at which the father must
preside. The Black Snake affected the utmost horror and aversion at so
bloody and unnatural a deed being committed to save his life and the
happiness of his tribe, but the peace was to be ratified for ever if the
sacrifice was made,--if not, war to