Possibly it was about these rights that the
quarrel originated, but if so, it was not openly avowed between the "Black
Snake," (that was the totem borne by the Mohawk chief,) and the "Bald
Eagle" (the totem of the Ojebwa).
These chiefs had each a son, and the Bald Eagle had also a daughter of
great and rare beauty, called by her people, "The Beam of the Morning;" she
was the admiration of Mohawks as well as Ojebwas, and many of the young men
of both the tribes had sought her hand, but hitherto in vain. Among
her numerous suitors, the son of the Black Snake seemed to be the most
enamoured of her beauty; and it was probably with some intention of winning
the favour of the young Ojebwa squaw for his son, that the Black Snake
accepted the formal invitation of the Bald Eagle to come to his hunting
grounds during 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.
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