98 
a call to lead the warriors to victory, to sweep away all the pestilent Mohawks with 
her 'broom. Then Grandmother Moon visited her again and said ‘ You were only 
sleeping and dreaming of the misery your countrymen endure at the hands of the 
trouble-makers. Now go forth in secret and warn the people that all the manidos 
throughout the land have summoned you to lead them to victory and peace. Cali 
Nzagima, the boss of the serpents, the guard of the buffaloes. He will come to 
your aid.’ 
The girl told her parents of her vision, and her parents announced it to their 
countrymen, who gathered together a war-party. She then summoned Nzagima, 
and heard his voice asking ‘What is it you want?’ 1 The Mohawks and their allies 
are destroying our people and intend to exterminate all our bands,’ she replied. 
‘The great manidos have therefore decreed that they shali be swept away, and that 
victory and peace shall follow our arms. Go forth and proclaim the news that we 
are about to drive our enemies from the country.’ 
‘ That is what I wish also, something to devour,* said Nzagima, as he sped away 
in fury. The path that he and his fellow-serpents travelled became a mighty torrent 
that flooded a portion of the land and gave the canoes of the Ojibwa quick transit to 
their enemies. Some of the Mohawks met them on the water, but the great serpents 
overturned their canoes and drowned them. At Rama, and again near Toronto, the 
Mohawks attempted to make a stand; their thunder held at bay the thunder of the 
Ojibwa and killed many warriors until Nzagima attacked and destroyed it from 
beneath the earth. Then the Mohawks retreated eastward as fast as they could travel, 
and the Ojibwa pursued them. At last the girl commanded Nzagima to retire and 
remain quiet. Had she not done so all the Mohawks would have been destroyed ” 
(Mary Sugedub). 
There was a definite purpose in the unusual duration of a girl’s first 
seclusion, its ten or twenty days, as contrasted with subsequent periods of 
only three or four. In the eyes of the Indians she had reached a crisis in 
her training, and her conduct on this occasion would largely determine 
her conduct in future years. If she was industrious and cheerful throughout 
her hours of solitude, she would be industrious all her life; but if she was 
idle and given to weeping, she would be idle and good-for-nothing in later 
years. Mothers, therefore, supplied their daughters with abundant material 
for mats and baskets, and urged them to weave diligently that their days 
of trial might be crowned with happiness and good fortune. 
Although boys and girls were kept apart before marriage they had 
recognized ways of meeting one another. Thus a girl might join her lover 
in the early morning on a high rock or a sandy beach, whither he would 
bring her nuts in lieu of candy. Her parents would not accept him as a 
suitor, however, until he had proved his skill in hunting, so that while 
girls usually wed at the age of about 16, youths could seldom marry before 
18. Marriage between parallel cousins was disallowed because they 
belonged to the same clan, and the clan was an exogamous unit; 1 but cross- 
cousin marriage, i.e., the union of the children of a brother and sister, was 
both permissible and common. A man frequently married his deceased 
wife’s sister, and sometimes two sisters at the same time, for he could have 
as many wives as he could support. Occasionally a woman married her 
deceased husband’s brother, but the Parry Islanders disapproved of such a 
union because the shade of the dead husband might become jealous and 
bring misfortune or death to the new household. 
A youth who wanted to marry a certain maiden informed his parents, 
who broached the subject to the girl’s parents. The lad then killed a deer 
J The prohibition has lapsed now that the clans have disappeared. 
