[17] Waub-ese—­the white swan.

[18] Pe-boan, Winter, is represented as an old man with long white hair and beard.

[19] Segun is Spring (or Summer).  This beautiful allegory has been “done into verse” by Longfellow in Hiawatha.  Longfellow evidently took his version from Schoolcraft.  I took mine originally from the lips of Pah-go-nay-gie-shiek—­“Hole-in-the-day”—­(the elder) in his day head-chief of the Ojibways.  I afterward submitted it to Gitche Shabash-Konk, head-chief of the Misse-sah-ga-e-gun—­(Mille Lacs band of Ojibways), who pronounced it correct.

“Hole-in-the-day,” although sanctioned by years of unchallenged use, is a bad translation of Pah-go-nay-gie-shiek, which means a clear spot in the sky.

[Illustration:  HOLE-IN-THE-DAY. From an original photograph in the author’s possession.]

He was a very intelligent man; had been in Washington several times on business connected with his people, and was always shrewd enough to look out for himself in all his treaties and transactions with the Government.  He stood six feet two inches in his moccasins, was well-proportioned, and had a remarkably fine face.  He had a nickname—­Que-we-zanc—­(Little Boy) by which he was familiarly called by his people.

The Pillagers—­Nah-kand-tway-we-nin-ni-wak—­who live about Leech Lake (Kah-sah-gah-squah-g-me-cock) were opposed to Pa-go-nay-gie-shiek, but he compelled them through fear to recognize him as Head-Chief.  At the time of the “Sioux outbreak” in 1862 “Hole-in-the-day” for a time apparently meditated an alliance with the Po-ah-nuck (Dakotas) and war upon the whites.  The Pillagers and some other bands urged him strongly to this course, and his supremacy as head-chief was threatened unless he complied.  Messengers from the Dakotas were undoubtedly received by him, and he, for a time at least, led the Dakotas to believe that their hereditary enemies, the Ojibways, would bury the hatchet and join them in a war of extermination against the whites.  “Hole-in-the-day,” with a band of his warriors, appeared opposite Fort Ripley (situated on the west bank of the Mississippi River between Little Falls and Crow Wing), and assumed a threatening attitude toward the fort, then garrisoned by volunteer troops.  The soldiers were drawn up on the right bank and “Hole-in-the-day” and his warriors on the left.  A little speech-making settled the matter for the time being and very soon thereafter a new treaty was made with “Hole-in-the-day” and his head men, by which their friendship and allegiance were secured to the whites.  It was claimed by the Pillagers that “Hole-in-the-day” seized the occasion to profit personally in his negotiations with the agents of the Government.

In 1867 “Hole-in-the-day” took “another wife.”  He married Helen McCarty, a white woman, in Washington, D.C., and took her to his home at Gull Lake (Ka-ga-ya-skunc-cock) literally, plenty of little gulls.