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.
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