“Thank you,” he replied; “I am Hiawatha.  I have come in search of the body of my grandson, and to seek my revenge.  Come near me that I may put a medal round your neck as a reward for your information.”  The bird unsuspectingly came near, and received a white medal, which can be seen to this day.  While bestowing the medal, he attempted slyly to wring the bird’s head off, but it escaped him, with only a disturbance of the crown feathers of its head, which are rumpled backward.  He had found out all he wanted to know, and then desired to conceal the knowledge obtained by killing his informant.

He went to the sandy beach indicated, and transformed himself into an oak stump.  He had not been there long before the lake became perfectly calm.  Soon hundreds of monstrous serpents came crawling on the beach.  One of the number was beautifully white.  He was the Prince.  The others were red and yellow.  The Prince spoke to those about him as follows:  “I never saw that black stump standing there before.  It may be Hiawatha.  There is no knowing but that he may be somewhere about here.  He has the power of an evil genius, and we should be on our guard against his wiles.”  One of the large serpents immediately went and twisted himself around it to the top, and pressed it very hard.  The greatest pressure happened to be on his throat; he was just ready to cry out when the serpent let go.  Eight of them went in succession and did the like, but always let go at the moment he was ready to cry out.  “It cannot be he,” they said.  “He is too great a weak-heart for that.”  They then coiled themselves in a circle about their Prince.  It was a long time before they fell asleep.  When they did so, Hiawatha, took his bow and arrows, and cautiously stepping over the serpents till he came to the Prince, drew up his arrow with the full strength of his arm, and shot him in the left side.  He then gave a saw-saw-quan and ran off at full speed.

The sound uttered by the snakes on seeing their Prince mortally wounded, was horrible.  They cried, “Hiawatha has killed our Prince; go in chase of him.”  Meantime he ran over hill and valley, to gain the interior of the country, with all his strength and speed, treading a mile at a step.  But his pursuers were also spirits, and he could hear that something was approaching him fast.  He made for the highest mountain, and climbed the highest tree on its summit, when, dreadful to behold, the whole lower country was seen to be overflowed, and the water was gaining rapidly on the highlands.  He saw it reach to the foot of the mountains, and at length it came up to the foot of the tree, but there was no abatement.