This was a young man somewhat older than himself, named Chitta, which means the snake.

Their quarrel was one of long standing, and nobody seemed to know how it had begun; but everybody said that Chitta was such a cross, ugly fellow that he must needs quarrel with somebody, and had chosen Has-se for an enemy because everybody else loved him.
One afternoon Has-se asked Rene to go out on the river with him in his canoe, as he had that to tell him which he did not wish to run any risk of being overheard by others.

Rene willingly agreed to go with him, and taking his cross-bow and a couple of steel-tipped bolts, he seated himself in the bow of the light craft, which Has-se paddled from the stern.

Going for some distance down the river, they turned into a small stream from the banks of which huge, moss-hung oaks and rustling palm-trees cast a pleasant shade over the dark waters.

Here the canoe was allowed to drift while Has-se unburdened his mind to his friend.
It seemed that the day of the Ripe Corn Dance, the great feast day of his tribe, was set for that of the next full moon.