Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/261

Rh He does not mention the sixty warriors from Sandy Lake, who decided the fate of the battle, and which swelled the ranks of Waub-o-jeeg to three hundred and sixty warriors. The tradition of this event is still clearly related by the Ojibways of the Mississippi, they having learned it from the lips of their fathers who were present at the battle.

After giving in verse the plaintive lament of Waub-o-jeeg for the warriors who fell at St. Croix Falls, Mr. Schoolcraft, who, through his long official connection with the Ojibways, obtained an accurate knowledge of their general customs and mode of passing the different seasons of the year, continues in his forcible and lucid style to give a faithful picture of Indian life:

"It is the custom of these tribes to go to war in the spring and summer, which are not only comparatively seasons of leisure with them, but it is at these seasons that they are concealed and protected by the foliage of the forest, and can approach the enemy unseen. At these annual returns of warmth and vegetation, they also engage in festivities and dances, during which the events and exploits of past years are sung and recited: and while they derive fresh courage and stimulus to renewed exertion, the young, who are listeners, learn to emulate their fathers, and take their earliest lessons in the art of war.

"Nothing is done in the summer months in the way of hunting. The small furred animals are changing their pelt, which is out of season. The doe retires with her fawns from the plains and open grounds, into thick woods. It is the general season of reproduction, and the red man, for a time, intermits his war on the animal creation, to resume it against man. As the autumn approaches, he prepares for his fall hunts, by retiring from the outskirts of the settlements and from the open lakes, shores, and streams, which have been the scenes of his summer festivities, and proceeds, after a short preparatory hunt, to his wintering