The brilliant eyes of Daganoweda glittered in his dark face. He knew
that Tayoga would not pay the Mohawks so high a compliment unless he
meant it.
"Tayoga," he said, "we belong to the leading nations of the great
League of the Hodenosaunee, you to the Onundahgaono and I to the
Ganeagaono. You are first in the council and we are first on the
warpath. It was Tododaho, the Onondaga, who first formed the great
League and it was Hayowentha, the Mohawk, who combed the snakes out of
his hair and who strengthened it and who helped him to build it so
firmly that it shall last forever. Brothers are we, and always shall
be."
He touched his forehead in salute, and the Onondaga touched his in
reply.
"Aye, brothers are we," he said, "Mohawk and Onondaga, Onondaga and
Mohawk. The great war of the white kings which draws us in it has
come, but I know that Hayowentha watches over his people, and Tododaho
over his. In the spring when I went forth in the night to fight the
Hurons I gazed off there in the west where shines the great star on
which Tododaho makes his home, and I saw him looking down upon me, and
casting about me the veil of his protection."
Daganoweda looked up at the gleaming blue of the heavens, and his eyes
glittered again.
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