The league of the Iroquois and other legends : from the Indian muse

262 THE GREAT SNAKE OF CANANDAIGVA.
Replied the braves "If :
all unslain,
Yet death were certain all the same ;
For from the wood and from the plain
Were soon devoured the hunter's game.
" And if with famine fierce subdued,
More sore were their destruction then ;
And coward life is never good,
But always good to die like men."
The while the bolder chieftains spoke,
With valor shone each kindling eye ;
Till forth the cry of vengeance broke :
"The Snake must die ! the Snake must die ! !"
The warriors 1
trusty weapons laid
In secret place, from thence were drawn ;
And spear and shaft were sharper made
For fiercest conflict at the dawn.
While in the wigwams, glooming nigh,
Throbbed many a woman's troubled breast ;
That watched the dawn with tearful eye
More close her little ones she pressed.