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Updated: June 25, 2025
He hailed their return with open arms; and he opened his arms so very wide, that when he closed them he not only embraced Wassamo and his wife, but all of the tobacco-sacks which they had brought with them. The requests of the Indian people were made known to him; he replied that he would attend to all, but that he must first invite his friends to smoke with him.
He returned to the fire, and sat down. He mused upon the absence of Wassamo with a sorely-troubled heart. "He may have been playing me a trick," he thought; but it was full time that the trick should be at an end, and Wassamo returned not. The cousin cherished other hopes, but they all died away in the morning light, when he found himself alone by the hunting-fire.
"Cousin," said Wassamo, "some person is near us. I hear a laugh; awake and let us look out!" The cousin made no answer. Again Wassamo heard the laughter in mirthful repetition, like the ripple of the water-brook upon the shining pebbles of the stream. Peering out as far as the line of the torchlight pierced into the darkness, he beheld two beautiful young females smiling on him.
"Here are two young women;" but he received no answer, for his cousin was locked in his deepest slumbers. Wassamo started up and advanced to the strange women. He was about to speak to them, when he fell senseless to the earth. A short while after his cousin awoke. He looked around and called Wassamo, but could not find him. He searched the woods and all the shores around, but could not find him.
"How shall I answer to his friends for Wassamo?" thought the cousin. "Although," he said to himself, "his parents are my kindred, and they are well assured that their son is my bosom-friend, will they receive that belief in the place of him who is lost. No, no; they will say that I have slain him, and they will require blood for blood. Oh! my cousin, whither are you gone?"
It suddenly became broad day, as they came upon a high bank; they passed, unwet, for a short distance under the lake, and presently emerged from the water at the sand-banks, just off the shore where Wassamo had set his nets on the night when he had been borne away by the two strange females. He now left his wife sheltered in a neighboring wood, while he advanced toward the village alone.
Musing sadly, and from time to time breaking forth in mournful cries, as he walked the shore, it was his cousin that Wassamo beheld as he turned the first point of land by the lake. With the speed of lightning the cousin rushed forward. "Netawis! Netawis!" he cried, "is it indeed you? Whence have you come, oh, my cousin?" They fell upon each other's necks, and wept aloud.
Their countenances appeared to be perfectly white, like the fresh snow. He crouched down and pushed his cousin, saying, in a low voice, "Awake! awake! here are two young women." But he received no answer. His cousin seemed lost to all earthly sense and sound; for he lay unmoved, smiling, in the calm light of the moon. Wassamo started up alone, and glided toward the strange females.
They did so, and were rejoiced, as they drew them up, to see the meshes white here and there with fish. They landed in good spirits, and put away their canoe in safety from the winds. "Wassamo," said his cousin, "you cook that we may eat." Wassamo set about it immediately, and soon got his kettle on the flames, while his cousin was lying at his ease on the opposite side of the fire.
The pain of his mind had changed his features, and wherever he turned his eyes, they were dazzled with the sight of the red blood of his friend. The parents of Wassamo, far gone in despair, and weary with watching for his return, now demanded the life of Netawis.
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