Island. He was, besides,
on excellent terms with Moshup, and so escaped all taxes,
contributions, and tenths, merely now and then making him a present of
a few baskets of grapes, or a few terrapins. This Sachem had a
daughter, young, and more beautiful than any maiden that had ever been
seen in Nope. She was taller than Indian maidens generally are, her
hair was long and glossy as the raven's, and her step very light and
graceful. Then she excelled very far the women of her tribe in the
exercises which belong to the other sex. None drew the bow with equal
strength, or tortured the prisoner with so much ingenuity, or danced
the war-dance with equal agility, or piped the war-song with lungs as
efficient. I must tell my brother that, according to the tradition of
our nation, the Indian females were first taught by her to introduce
the crab's claw into the cartilage of the nose, and to insert the
shell of a clam into the under-lip, as ornaments. She was, indeed, a
beautiful creature, and understood better than any one else the art of
attracting all the brave and best of the land; the love and
admiration of the other sex followed her whithersoever she went. Her
father's wigwam was filled with the suitors who came to solicit her
love. There were the chiefs of the tribes which dwelt at Neshamoyes,
Chabbaquiddic, Popannessit, Suckatasset, and many other places;
warriors, famed and fearless, who asked her of the Grand Sachem in
marriage. But no, she was deaf to their entreaties, laughed at all
their presents of conch-shells, terrapins, and eagle's feathers, and
carefully and scrupulously barred the doors of her father's wigwam
against all the suitors, who, according to the Indian forms of
courtship, came when the lights were extinguished and the parents were
sleeping, to whisper soft tales at the side of her couch. The truth,
which must be told my brother, is, that she had long before placed her
affections upon a young warrior, stern to his enemies, but to her all
gentleness, who dwelt at the western end of the Island, and was
reckoned the favourite, some said he was the son, of the Devil of Cape
Higgin. They had loved each other long, and with the truest
affection(1), and all their hopes centered in a union.

But my brother knows--if he does not I will tell him--that fathers and
mothers will not always permit daughters to have their own way in
marriage. The proud father objected to the lover, because he had
slain but three fo