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diff --git a/6611.txt b/6611.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a3d7e07 --- /dev/null +++ b/6611.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2578 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Central States and Great Lakes, by Charles M. Skinner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Central States and Great Lakes + Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Volume 6. + +Author: Charles M. Skinner + +Release Date: December 14, 2004 [EBook #6611] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CENTRAL STATES AND GREAT LAKES *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + MYTHS AND LEGENDS + OF + OUR OWN LAND + + By + Charles M. Skinner + + Vol. 6. + + + THE CENTRAL STATES AND GREAT LAKES + + + + +CONTENTS: + +An Averted Peril +The Obstinacy of Saint Clair +The Hundredth Skull +The Crime of Black Swamp +The House Accursed +Marquette's Man-Eater +Michel de Coucy's Troubles +Wallen's Ridge +The Sky Walker of Huron +The Coffin of Snakes +Mackinack +Lake Superior Water Gods +The Witch of Pictured Rocks +The Origin of White Fish +The Spirit of Cloudy +The Sun Fire at Sault Sainte Marie +The Snake God of Belle Isle +Were-Wolves of Detroit +The Escape of Francois Navarre +The Old Lodger +The Nain Rouge +Two Revenges +Hiawatha +The Indian Messiah +The Vision of Rescue +Devil's Lake +The Keusca Elopement +Pipestone +The Virgins' Feast +Falls of St. Anthony +Flying Shadow and Track Maker +Saved by a Lightning-Stroke +The Killing of Cloudy Sky +Providence Hole +The Scare Cure +Twelfth Night at Cahokia +The Spell of Creve Coeur Lake +How the Crime was Revealed +Banshee of the Bad Lands +Standing Rock +The Salt Witch + + + + + +THE CENRAL STATES AND THE GREAT LAKES + + + +AN AVERTED PERIL + +In 1786 a little building stood at North Bend, Ohio, near the junction of +the Miami and Ohio Rivers, from which building the stars and stripes were +flying. It was one of a series of blockhouses built for the protecting of +cleared land while the settlers were coming in, yet it was a trading +station rather than a fort, for the attitude of government toward the red +men was pacific. The French of the Mississippi Valley were not +reconciled, however, to the extension of power by a Saxon people, and the +English in Canada were equally jealous of the prosperity of those +provinces they had so lately lost. Both French and English had emissaries +among the Shawnees when it had become known that the United States +intended to negotiate a treaty with them. + +It was the mild weather that comes for a time in October, when +Cantantowit blesses the land from his home in the southwest with rich +colors, plaintive perfumes of decay, soft airs, and tender lights a time +for peace; but the garrison at the fort realized that the situation was +precarious. The Shawnees had camped about them, and the air was filled +with the neighing of their ponies and the barking of their dogs. To let +them into the fort was to invite massacre; to keep them out after they +had been summoned was to declare war. + +Colonel George Rogers Clarke, of Virginia, who was in command, scoffed at +the fears of his men, and would not give ear to their appeals for an +adjournment of the meeting or a change of the place of it. At the +appointed hour the doors were opened and the Indians came in. The pipe of +peace was smoked in the usual form, but the red men were sullen and +insolent, and seemed to be seeking a cause of quarrel. Clarke explained +that the whites desired only peace, and he asked the wise men to speak +for their tribe. A stalwart chief arose, glanced contemptuously at the +officer and his little guard, and, striding to the table where Clarke was +seated, threw upon it two girdles of wampum--the peace-belt and the +war-belt. "We offer you these belts," he said. "You know what they mean. +Take which you like." + +It was a deliberate insult and defiance. Both sides knew it, and many of +the men held their breath. Clarke carelessly picked up the war-belt on +the point of his cane and flung it among the assembled chiefs. Every man +in the room sprang to his feet and clutched his weapon. Then, with a +sternness that was almost ferocious, Clarke pointed to the door with an +imperative action, and cried, "Dogs, you may go!" + +The Indians were foiled in their ill intent by his self-possession and +seeming confidence, which made them believe that he had forces in the +vicinity that they were not prepared to meet. They had already had a +bitter experience of his strength and craft, and in the fear that a trap +had been set for them they fled tumultuously. The treaty was ratified +soon after. + + + + +THE OBSTINACY OF SAINT CLAIR + +When the new First Regiment of United States Infantry paused at Marietta, +Ohio, on its way to garrison Vincennes, its officers made a gay little +court there for a time. The young Major Hamtramck--contemptuously called +by the Indians "the frog on horseback," because of his round +shoulders--found especial pleasure in the society of Marianne Navarre, +who was a guest at the house of General Arthur St. Clair; but the old +general viewed this predilection with disfavor, because he had hoped that +his own daughter would make a match with the major. But Louisa longed for +the freedom of the woods. She was a horsewoman and a hunter, and she had +a sentimental fondness for Indians. + +When Joseph Brandt (Thayendanegea) camped with his dreaded band near the +town, it was she who--without her father's knowledge, and in the disguise +of an Indian girl--took the message that had been entrusted to a soldier +asking the tribe to send delegates to a peace council at the fort. Louisa +and Brandt had met in Philadelphia some years before, when both were +students in that city, and he was rejoiced to meet her again, for he had +made no secret of his liking for her, and in view of the bravery she had +shown in thus riding into a hostile camp his fondness increased to +admiration. After she had delivered the message she said, "Noble warrior, +I have risked my life to obtain this interview. You must send some one +back with me." Brandt replied, "It is fitting that I alone should guard +so courageous a maiden," and he rode with her through the lines, under +the eyes of a wondering and frowning people, straight to the general's +door. Soon after, Brandt made a formal demand for the hand of this +dashing maid, but the stubborn general refused to consider it. He was +determined that she ought to love Major Hamtramck, and he told her so in +tones so loud that they reached the ears of Marianne, as she sat reading +in her room. Stung by this disclosure of the general's wishes, and +doubting whether the major had been true to her--fearful, too, that she +might be regarded as an interloper--she made a pretext to return as +quickly as possible to her home in Detroit, and left no adieus for her +lover. + +It was not long after that war broke out between the settlers and the +Indians, for Brandt now had a personal as well as a race grudge to +gratify, though when he defeated St. Clair he spared his life in the hope +that the general would reward his generosity by resigning to him his +daughter. At all events, he resolved that the "frog on horseback," whom +he conceived to be his rival, should not win her. The poor major, who +cared nothing for Louisa, and who was unable to account for the flight of +Marianne, mourned her absence until it was rumored that she had been +married, when, as much in spite as in love, he took to himself a mate. +After he had been for some time a widower he met Marianne again, and +learned that she was still a maiden. He renewed his court with ardor, but +the woman's love for him had died when she learned of his marriage. +Affecting to make light of this second disappointment, he said, "Since I +cannot be united to you in life, I shall be near you in death." + +"A soldier cannot choose where he shall die," she answered. + +"No matter. I shall sleep in the shadow of your tomb." + +As it fell out they were indeed buried near each other in Detroit. Thus, +the stupidity and obstinacy of General St. Clair, in supposing that he +could make young folks love to order, thwarted the happiness of four +people and precipitated a war. + + + + +THE HUNDREDTH SKULL + +In the early part of this century Bill Quick, trapper and frontiersman, +lived in a cabin on the upper Scioto, not far from the present town of +Kenton, Ohio. One evening when he returned from the hunt he found his +home rifled of its contents and his aged father weltering in his blood on +the floor. He then and there took oath that he would be revenged a +hundredfold. His mission was undertaken at once, and for many a year +thereafter the Indians of the region had cause to dread the doom that +came to them from brake and wood and fen,--now death by knife that +flashed at them from behind a tree, and the next instant whirled through +the air and was buried to the hilt in a red man's heart; now, by bullet +as they rowed across the rivers; now, by axe that clove their skulls as +they lay asleep. + +Bill Quick worked secretly, and, unlike other men of the place and time, +he did not take his trophies Indian-fashion. The scalp was not enough. He +took the head. And presently a row of grinning skulls was ranged upon his +shelves. Ninety-nine of these ghastly prizes occupied his cabin, and the +man was confident that he should accomplish his intent. But the Indians, +in terror, were falling away toward the lakes; they were keeping better +guard; and ere the hundredth man had fallen before his rifle he was +seized with fatal illness. Calling to him his son, Tom, he pointed to the +skulls, and charged him to fulfil the oath he had taken by adding to the +list a hundredth skull. Should he fail in this the murdered ancestor and +he himself would come back to haunt the laggard. Tom accepted the trust, +but everything seemed to work against him. He never was much of a hunter +nor a very true shot, and he had no liking for war; besides, the Indians +had left the country, as he fancied. So he grumbled at the uncongenial +task appointed for him and kept deferring it from week to week and from +year to year. When his conscience pricked him he allayed the smart with +drink, and his conscience seemed to grow more active as he grew older. + +On returning to the cabin after a carouse he declared that he had heard +voices, that the skulls gibbered and cracked their teeth together as if +mocking his weakness, and that a phosphorescent glare shone through the +sockets of their eyes. In his cups he prattled his secret, and soon the +whole country knew that he was under oath to kill a red-skin-and the +country laughed at him. On a certain day it was reported that a band of +Indians had been seen in the neighborhood, and what with drink and the +taunts of his friends, he was impelled to take his rifle and set out once +more on the war-path. A settler heard a shot fired not long after. Next +day a neighbor passing Tom Quick's cabin tapped at the door, and, +receiving no answer, pushed it open and entered. The hundredth skull was +there, on the shelves, a bullet-hole in the forehead, and the scalp gone. +The head was Quick's. + + + + +THE CRIME OF BLACK SWAMP + +Two miles south of Munger, Ohio, in the heart of what used to be called +the Black Swamp, stood the Woodbury House, a roomy mansion long gone to +decay. John Cleves, the last to live in it, was a man whose evil +practices got him into the penitentiary, but people had never associated +him with the queer sights and sounds in the lower chambers, nor with the +fact that a man named Syms, who had gone to that house in 1842, had never +been known to leave it. Ten years after Syms's disappearance it happened +that Major Ward and his friend John Stow had occasion to take shelter +there for the night--it being then deserted,--and, starting a blaze in +the parlor fireplace, they lit their pipes and talked till late. Stow +would have preferred a happier topic, but the major, who feared neither +man nor devil, constantly turned the talk on the evil reputation of the +house. + +While they chatted a door opened with a creak and a human skeleton +appeared before them. + +"What do you want? Speak!" cried Ward. But waiting for no answer he drew +his pistols and fired two shots at the grisly object. There was a +rattling sound, but the skeleton was neither dislocated nor disconcerted. +Advancing deliberately, with upraised arm, it said, in a husky voice, "I, +that am dead, yet live in a sense that mortals do not know. In my earthly +life I was James Syms, who was robbed and killed here in my sleep by John +Cleves." With bony finger it pointed to a rugged gap in its left temple. +"Cleves cut off my head and buried it under the hearth. My body he cast +into his well." At these words the head disappeared and the voice was +heard beneath the floor, "Take up my skull." The watchers obeyed the +call, and after digging a minute beneath the hearth a fleshless head with +a wound on the left temple came to view. Ward took it into his hands, but +in a twinkling it left them and reappeared on the shoulders of the +skeleton. + +"I have long wanted to tell my fate," it resumed, "but could not until +one should be found brave enough to speak to me. I have appeared to many, +but you are the first who has commanded me to break my long silence. Give +my bones a decent burial. Write to my relative, Gilmore Syms, of +Columbus, Georgia, and tell him what I have revealed. I have found +peace." With a grateful gesture it extended its hand to Ward, who, as he +took it, shook like one with an ague, his wrist locked in its bony clasp. +As it released him it raised its hand impressively. A bluish light burned +at the doorway for an instant. The two men found themselves alone. + + + + +THE HOUSE ACCURSED + +Near Gallipolis, Ohio, there stood within a few years an old house of +four rooms that had been occupied by Herman Deluse. He lived there alone, +and, though his farming was of the crudest sort, he never appeared to +lack for anything. The people had an idea that the place was under ban, +and it was more than suspected that its occupant had been a pirate. In +fact, he called his place the Isle of Pines, after a buccaneers' +rendezvous in the West Indies, and made no attempt to conceal the strange +plunder and curious weapons that he had brought home with him, but of +money he never appeared to have much at once. When it came his time to +die he ended his life alone, so far as any knew--at least, his body was +found in his bed, without trace of violence or disorder. It was buried +and the public administrator took charge of the estate, locking up the +house until possible relatives should come to claim it, and the rustic +jury found that Deluse "came to his death by visitation of God." + +It was but a few nights after this that the Rev. Henry Galbraith returned +from a visit of a month to Cincinnati and reached his home after a night +of boisterous storm. The snow was so deep and the roads so blocked with +windfalls that he put up his horse in Gallipolis and started for his +house on foot. + +"But where did you pass the night?" inquired his wife, after the +greetings were over. "With old Deluse in the Isle of Pines," he answered. +"I saw a light moving about the house, and rapped. No one came; so, as I +was freezing, I forced open the door, built a fire, and lay down in my +coat before it. Old Deluse came in presently and I apologized, but he +paid no attention to me. He seemed to be walking in his sleep and to be +searching for something. All night long I could hear his footsteps about +the house, in pauses of the storm." + +The clergyman's wife and son looked at each other, and a friend who was +present--a lawyer, named Maren--remarked, "You did not know that Deluse +was dead and buried?" The clergyman was speechless with amazement. "You +have been dreaming," said the lawyer. "Still, if you like, we will go +there to-night and investigate." + +The clergyman, his son, and the lawyer went to the house about nine +o'clock, and as they approached it a noise of fighting came from +within--blows, the clink of steel, groans, and curses. Lights appeared, +first at one window, then at another. The men rushed forward, burst in +the door, and were inside--in darkness and silence. They had brought +candles and lighted them, but the light revealed nothing. Dust lay thick +on the floor except in the room where the clergyman had passed the +previous night, and the door that he had then opened stood ajar, but the +snow outside was drifted and unbroken by footsteps. Then came the sound +of a fall that shook the building. At the same moment it was noticed by +the other two men that young Galbraith was absent. They hurried into the +room whence the noise had come. A board was wrenched from the wall there, +disclosing a hollow that had been used for a hiding-place, and on the +floor lay young Galbraith with a sack of Spanish coins in his hand. His +father stooped to pick him up, but staggered back in horror, for the +young man's life had gone. A post-mortem examination revealed no cause of +death, and a rustic jury again laid it to a "visitation of God." +MARQUETTE'S MAN-EATER + +Until it was worn away by the elements a curious relief was visible on +the bluffs of the Mississippi near Alton, Illinois. It was to be seen as +late as 1860, and represented a monster once famous as the "piasa bird." +Father Marquette not only believed it but described it as a man-eater in +the account of his explorations, where he mentions other zoological +curiosities, such as unicorns with shaggy mane and land-turtles three +feet long with two heads, "very mischievous and addicted to biting." He +even showed a picture of the maneater that accorded rudely with the +picture on the rocks. It was said to prey on human flesh, and to be held +in fear by the Indians, who encountered it on and near the Mississippi. +It had the body of a panther, wings like a bat, and head and horns of a +deer. Father Marquette gave it a human face. The sculpture was +undoubtedly made by Indians, but its resemblance to the winged bulls of +Assyria and the sphinxes of Egypt has been quoted as confirmation of a +prehistoric alliance of Old and New World races or the descent of one +from the other. It has also been thought to stand for the totem of some +great chief-symbolizing, by its body, strength; by its wings, speed; by +its head, gentleness and beauty. But may not the tradition of it have +descended from the discovery of comparatively late remains, by primitive +man, of the winged saurians that crawled, swam, dived, or flew, lingering +on till the later geologic period? The legend of the man-eater may even +have been told by those who killed the last of the pterodactyls. + + + + +MICHEL DE COUCY'S TROUBLES + +Michel De Coucy, of Prairie de Rocher, Illinois, sat before his door +humming thoughtfully, and trying to pull comfort out of a black pipe.. He +was in debt, and he did not like the sensation. As hunter, boatman, +fiddler he had done well enough, but having rashly ventured into trade he +had lost money, and being unable to meet a note had applied to Pedro +Garcia for a loan at usurious interest. Garcia was a black-whiskered +Spaniard who was known to have been a gambler in New Orleans, and as +Michel was in arrears in his payments he was now threatening suit. +Presently the hunter jumped up with a glad laugh, for two horsemen were +approaching his place--the superior of the Jesuit convent at Notre Dame +de Kaskaskia and the governor of the French settlements in Illinois, of +whom he had asked advice, and who had come from Fort Chartres, on the +Mississippi, to give it in person. It was good advice, too, for the +effect of it was that there was no law of that time--1750--by which a +Spaniard could sue a Frenchman on French territory. Moreover, the bond +was invalid because it was drawn up in Spanish, and Garcia could produce +no witness to verify the cross at the bottom of the document as of +Michel's making. + +Great was the wrath of the Spaniard when Michel told him this, nor was it +lessened when the hunter bade him have no fear--that he might be obliged +to repudiate part of the interest, but that every livre of the principal +would be forthcoming, if only a little time were allowed. The money +lender walked away with clenched fists, muttering to himself, and Michel +lit his pipe again. + +At supper-time little Genevieve, the twelve-year-old daughter of Michel, +did not appear. The table was kept waiting for an hour. Michel sat down +but could not eat, and, after scolding awhile in a half-hearted fashion, +he went to the clearing down the road, where the child had been playing. +A placard was seen upon a tree beside the way, and he called a passing +neighbor to read to him these words: "Meshell Coosy. French rascal. Pay +me my money and you have your daughter. Pedro Garcia." + +Accustomed as he was to perils, and quick as he generally was in +expedient, Michel was overwhelmed by this stroke. The villagers offered +to arm themselves and rescue the child, but he would not consent to this, +for he was afraid that Garcia might kill her, if he knew that force was +to be set against him. In a day or two Michel was told to go to Fort +Chartres, as favorable news awaited him. He rode with all speed to that +post, went to the official quarters, where the governor was sitting, and +as he entered he became almost insane with rage, for Garcia stood before +him. Nothing but the presence of others saved the Spaniard's life, and it +was some time before Michel could be made to understand that Garcia was +there under promise of safe conduct, and that the representatives of King +Louis were in honor bound to see that he was not injured. The points at +issue between the two men were reviewed, and the governor gave it as his +decision that Michel must pay his debt without interest, that being +forfeit by the Spaniard's abduction of Genevieve, and that the Spaniard +was to restore the girl, both parties in the case being remanded to +prison until they had obeyed this judgment. + +"But I have your promise of safe conduct!" cried the Spaniard, blazing +with wrath. + +"And you shall have it when the girl returns," replied the governor. "You +shall be protected in going and coming, but there is no reference in the +paper that you hold as to how long we may wish to keep you with us." + +Both men were marched away forthwith, but Michel was released in an hour, +for in that time the people had subscribed enough to pay his debt. The +Spaniard sent a messenger to a renegade who had little Genevieve in +keeping, and next day he too went free, swearing horribly, but glad to +accept the service of an armed escort until he was well out of town. +Michel embraced his child with ardor when once she was in his arms again; +then he lighted his pipe and set out with her for home, convinced that +French law was the best in the world, that Spaniards were not to be +trusted, and that it is safer to keep one's earnings under the floor than +to venture them in trade. + + + + +WALLEN'S RIDGE + +A century ago this rough eminence, a dozen miles from Chattanooga, +Tennessee, was an abiding place of Cherokee Indians, among whom was +Arinook, their medicine-man, and his daughter. The girl was pure and +fair, and when a white hunter saw her one day at the door of her father's +wigwam he was so struck with her charm of person and her engaging manner +that he resolved not to return to his people until he had won her for his +wife. She had many lovers, though she favored none of them, and while the +Cherokees were at first loth to admit a stranger to their homes they +forgot their jealousy when they found that this one excelled as a hunter +and fisherman, that he could throw the knife and tomahawk better than +themselves, and that he was apt in their work and their sports. + +They even submitted to the inevitable with half a grace when they found +that the stranger and the girl of whom they were so fond were in love. +With an obduracy that seems to be characteristic of fathers, the +medicine-man refused his consent to the union, and the hearts of the +twain were heavy. Though the white man pleaded with her to desert her +tribe, she refused to do so, on the score of duty to her father, and the +couple forlornly roamed about the hill, watching the sunset from its top +and passing the bright summer evenings alone, sitting hand in hand, +loving, sorrowing, and speaking not. In one of their long rambles they +found themselves beside the Tennessee River at a point where the current +swirls among rocks and sucks down things that float, discharging them at +the surface in still water, down the stream. Here for a time they stood, +when the girl, with a gush of tears, began to sing--it was her +death-song. The white man grasped her hand and joined his voice to hers. +Then they took a last embrace and flung themselves into the water, still +hand in hand. + +When the river is low you may hear their death-song sounding there. The +manitous of the river and the wood were offended with the medicine-man +because of his stubbornness and cruelty, although he suffered greatly +because of the death his daughter died, and he the cause of it. For now +strange Indians appeared among the Cherokees and drove the deer and bear +away. Tall, strong, and large were these intruders, and they hung about +the village by day and night--never speaking, yet casting a fear about +them, for they would throw great rocks farther than a warrior could shoot +an arrow with the wind behind him; they had horns springing from their +heads; their eyes were the eyes of wild-cats, and shone in the dark; they +growled like animals, shaking the earth when they did so, and breathing +flame; they were at the bedside, at the council-fire, at the banquet, +seeming only to wait for a show of enmity to annihilate the tribe. + +At length the people could endure their company no longer, and taking +down their lodges they left Wallen's Ridge and wandered far away until +they came to a valley where no foot had left its impress, and there they +besought the Great Spirit to forgive the wrong their medicine-man had +done, and to free them from the terrible spirits that had been living +among them. The prayer was granted, and the lodges stood for many years +in a safe and happy valley. + + + + +THE SKY WALKER OF HURON + +Here is the myth of Endymion and Diana, as told on the shores of Saginaw +Bay, in Michigan, by Indians who never heard of Greeks. Cloud Catcher, a +handsome youth of the Ojibways, offended his family by refusing to fast +during the ceremony of his coming of age, and was put out of the paternal +wigwam. It was so fine a night that the sky served him as well as a roof, +and he had a boy's confidence in his ability to make a living, and +something of fame and fortune, maybe. He dropped upon a tuft of moss to +plan for his future, and drowsily noted the rising of the moon, in which +he seemed to see a face. On awaking he found that it was not day, yet the +darkness was half dispelled by light that rayed from a figure near +him--the form of a lovely woman. + +"Cloud Catcher, I have come for you," she said. And as she turned away he +felt impelled to rise and follow. But, instead of walking, she began to +move into the air with the flight of an eagle, and, endowed with a new +power, he too ascended beside her. The earth was dim and vast below, +stars blazed as they drew near them, yet the radiance of the woman seemed +to dull their glory. Presently they passed through a gate of clouds and +stood on a beautiful plain, with crystal ponds and brooks watering noble +trees and leagues of flowery meadow; birds of brightest colors darted +here and there, singing like flutes; the very stones were agate, jasper, +and chalcedony. An immense lodge stood on the plain, and within were +embroideries and ornaments, couches of rich furs, pipes and arms cut from +jasper and tipped with silver. While the young man was gazing around him +with delight, the brother of his guide appeared and reproved her, +advising her to send the young man back to earth at once, but, as she +flatly refused to do so, he gave a pipe and bow and arrows to Cloud +Catcher, as a token of his consent to their marriage, and wished them +happiness, which, in fact, they had. + +This brother, who was commanding, tall, and so dazzling in his gold and +silver ornaments that one could hardly look upon him, was abroad all day, +while his sister was absent for a part of the night. He permitted Cloud +Catcher to go with him on one of his daily walks, and as they crossed the +lovely Sky Land they glanced down through open valley bottoms on the +green earth below. The rapid pace they struck gave to Cloud Catcher an +appetite and he asked if there were no game. "Patience," counselled his +companion. On arriving at a spot where a large hole had been broken +through the sky they reclined on mats, and the tall man loosing one of +his silver ornaments flung it into a group of children playing before a +lodge. One of the little ones fell and was carried within, amid +lamentations. Then the villagers left their sports and labors and looked +up at the sky. The tall man cried, in a voice of thunder, "Offer a +sacrifice and the child shall be well again." A white dog was killed, +roasted, and in a twinkling it shot up to the feet of Cloud Catcher, who, +being empty, attacked it voraciously. + +Many such walks and feasts came after, and the sights of earth and taste +of meat filled the mortal with a longing to see his people again. He told +his wife that he wanted to go back. She consented, after a time, saying, +"Since you are better pleased with the cares, the ills, the labor, and +the poverty of the world than with the comfort and abundance of Sky Land, +you may return; but remember you are still my husband, and beware how you +venture to take an earthly maiden for a wife." + +She arose lightly, clasped Cloud Catcher by the wrist, and began to move +with him through the air. The motion lulled him and he fell asleep, +waking at the door of his father's lodge. His relatives gathered and gave +him welcome, and he learned that he had been in the sky for a year. He +took the privations of a hunter's and warrior's life less kindly than he +thought to, and after a time he enlivened its monotony by taking to wife +a bright-eyed girl of his tribe. In four days she was dead. The lesson +was unheeded and he married again. Shortly after, he stepped from his +lodge one evening and never came back. The woods were filled with a +strange radiance on that night, and it is asserted that Cloud Catcher was +taken back to the lodge of the Sun and Moon, and is now content to live +in heaven. + + + + +THE COFFIN OF SNAKES + +No one knew how it was that Lizon gained the love of Julienne, at L'Anse +Creuse (near Detroit), for she was a girl of sweet and pious disposition, +the daughter of a God-fearing farmer, while Lizon was a dark, ill-favored +wretch, who had come among the people nobody knew whence, and lived on +the profits of a tap-room where the vilest liquor was sold, and where +gaming, fighting, and carousing were of nightly occurrence. Perhaps they +were right in saying that it was witchcraft. He impudently laid siege to +her heart, and when she showed signs of yielding he told her and her +friends that he had no intention of marrying her, because he did not +believe in religion. + +Yet Julienne deserted her comfortable home and went to live with this +disreputable scamp in his disreputable tavern, to the scandal of the +community, and especially of the priest, who found Lizon's power for evil +greater than his own for good, for as the tavern gained in hangers-on the +church lost worshippers. One Sunday morning Julienne surprised the people +by appearing in church and publicly asking pardon for her wrong-doing. It +was the first time she had appeared there since her flight, and she was +as one who had roused from a trance or fever-sleep. Her father gladly +took her home again, and all went well until New-Year's eve, when the +young men called d'Ignolee made the rounds of the settlement to sing and +beg meat for the poor--a custom descended from the Druids. They came to +the house of Julienne's father and received his welcome and his goods, +but their song was interrupted by a cry of distress--Lizon was among the +maskers, and Julienne was gone. A crowd of villagers ran to the cabaret +and rescued the girl from the room into which the fellow had thrust her, +but it was too late--she had lost her reason. Cursing and striking and +blaspheming, Lizon was at last confronted by the priest, who told him he +had gone too far; that he had been a plague to the people and an enemy to +the church. He then pronounced against him the edict of excommunication, +and told him that even in his grave he should not rest; that the church, +abandoned by so many victims of his wiles and tyrannies, should be swept +away. + +The priest left the place forthwith, and the morals of the village fell +lower and lower. Everything was against it, too. Blight and storm and +insect pest ravaged the fields and orchards, as if nature had engaged to +make an expression of the iniquity of the place. Suddenly death came upon +Lizon. A pit was dug near his tavern and he was placed in a coffin, but +as the box was lowered it was felt to grow lighter, while there poured +from it a swarm of fat and filthy snakes. The fog that overspread the +earth that morning seemed to blow by in human forms, the grave rolled +like a wave after it had been covered, and after darkness fell a blue +will-o'-the-wisp danced over it. A storm set in, heaping the billows on +shore until the church was undermined, and with a crash it fell into the +seething flood. But the curse had passed, and when a new chapel was built +the old evils had deserted L'Anse Crease. + + + + +MACKINACK + +Not only was Mackinack the birthplace of Hiawatha: it was the home of God +himself--Gitchi Manitou, or Mitchi Manitou--who placed there an Indian +Adam and Eve to watch and cultivate his gardens. He also made the beaver, +that his children might eat, and they acknowledged his goodness in +oblations. Bounteous sacrifices insured entrance after death to the happy +hunting-grounds beyond the Rocky Mountains. Those who had failed in these +offerings were compelled to wander about the Great Lakes, shelterless, +and watched by unsleeping giants who were ten times the stature of +mortals. + +These giants still exist, but in the form of conical rocks, one of +which-called Sugar-Loaf, or Manitou's Wigwam--is ninety feet high. A cave +in this obelisk is pointed out as Manitou's abiding-place, and it was +believed that every other spire in the group had its wraith, whence has +come the name of the island--Michillimackinack (place of great dancing +spirits). Arch Rock is the place that Manitou built to reach his home +from Sunrise Land the better. There were many such monuments of +divinities in the north. They are met with all about the lakes and in the +wooded wilderness, the most striking one being the magnificent spire of +basalt in the Black Hills region of Wyoming. It is known as Devil's +Tower, or Mateo's Tepee, and by the red men is held to be the wigwam of a +were-animal that can become man at pleasure. This singular rock towers +above the Belle Fourche River to a height of eight hundred feet. + +Deep beneath Mackinack was a stately and beautiful cavern hall where +spirits had their revels. An Indian who got leave to quit his body saw it +in company with one of the spirits, and spread glowing reports of its +beauties when he had clothed himself in flesh again. When Adam and Eve +died they, too, became spirits and continued to watch the home of +Manitou. + +Now, there is another version of this tradition which gives the, original +name of the island as Moschenemacenung, meaning "great turtle." The +French missionaries and traders, finding the word something too large a +mouthful, softened it to Michillimackinack, and, when the English came, +three syllables served them as well as a hundred, so Mackinack it is to +this day. Manitou, having made a turtle from a drop of his own sweat, +sent it to the bottom of Lake Huron, whence it brought a mouthful of mud, +and from this Mackinack was created. As a reward for his service the +turtle was allowed to sleep there in the sun forever. + +Yet another version has it that the Great Spirit plucked a sand-grain +from the primeval ocean, set it floating on those waters, and tended it +until it grew so large that a young wolf, running constantly, died of old +age before reaching its limits. The sand became the earth. Prophecy has +warned the Winnebagoes that Manibozho (Michabo or Hiawatha) shall smite +by pestilence at the end of their thirteenth generation. Ten are gone. +All shall perish but one pure pair, who will people the recreated world. +Manibozho, or Minnebojou, is called a "culture myth," but the Indians +have faith in him. They say that he lies asleep on the north shore of +Lake Superior, beneath the "hill of four knobs," known as the Sleeping +Giant. There offerings are made to him, and it was a hope of his speedy +rising that started the Messiah craze in the West in 1890. + + + + +LAKE SUPERIOR WATER GODS + +There were many water gods about Lake Superior to whom the Indians paid +homage, casting implements, ornaments, and tobacco into the water +whenever they passed a spot where one of these manitous sat enthroned. At +Thunder Cape, on the north shore, lies Manibozho, and in the pillared +recess of La Chapelle, among the Pictured Rocks, dwelt powerful rulers of +the storm to whose mercy the red men commended themselves with quaint +rites whenever they were to set forth on a voyage over the great unsalted +sea. At Le Grand Portal were hidden a horde of mischievous imps, among +whose pranks was the repetition of every word spoken by the traveller as +he rested on his oars beneath this mighty arch. The Chippewas worked the +copper mines at Keweenaw Point before the white race had learned of a +Western land, but they did so timidly, for they believed that a demon +would visit with injury or death the rash mortal who should presume to +pillage his treasure, unless he had first bestowed gifts upon him. Even +then they went ashore with fear, lighted fires around a surface of native +copper, hacked off a few pounds of the softened metal, and ran to their +canoes without looking behind them. + +There was another bad manitou at the mouth of Superior Bay, where +conflicting currents make a pother of waters. This spirit sat on the +bottom of the lake, gazing upward, and if any boatman ventured to cross +his domain without dropping a pipe or beads or hatchet into it, woe +betide him, for his boat would be caught in a current and smashed against +a rocky shore. Perhaps the most vexatious god was he who ruled the +Floating Islands. These islands were beautiful with trees and flowers, +metal shone and crystals sparkled on their ledges, sweet fruits grew in +plenty, and song-birds flitted over them. In wonder and delight the +hunter would speed toward them in his canoe, but as he neared their turfy +banks the jealous manitou, who kept these fairy lands for his own +pleasure, would throw down a fog and shut them out of sight. Never could +the hunter set foot on them, no matter how long he kept up his search. + + + + +THE WITCH OF PICTURED ROCKS + +On the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior dwelt an Ojibway woman, a widow, +who was cared for by a relative. This relative was a hunter, the husband +of an agreeable wife, the father of two bright children. Being of a mean +and jealous nature, the widow begrudged every kindness that the hunter +showed to his wife--the skins he brought for her clothing, the moose's +lip or other dainty that he saved for her; and one day, in a pretence of +fine good-nature, the old woman offered to give the younger a swing in a +vine pendent from a tree that overhung the lake. + +The wife accepted, and, seating herself on the vine, was swayed to and +fro, catching her breath, yet laughing as she swept out over the water. +When the momentum was greatest the old woman cut the stem. A splash was +heard--then all was silent. Returning to the lodge, the hag disguised +herself in a dress of the missing woman, and sitting in a shadow, +pretended to nurse the infant of the household. The hunter, returning, +was a little surprised that his wife should keep her face from him, and +more surprised that the old woman did not appear for her share of the +food that he had brought; but after their meal he took his little ones to +the lake, to enjoy the evening breeze, when the elder burst into tears, +declaring that the woman in the lodge was not his mother, and that he +feared his own mother was dead or lost. + +The hunter hurled his spear into the earth and prayed that, if his wife +were dead, her body might be found, so he could mourn over it and give it +burial. Instantly a bolt of lightning came from a passing cloud and shot +into the lake, while the thunder-peal that followed shook the stones he +stood on. It also disturbed the water and presently something was seen +rising through it. The man stepped into a thicket and watched. In a few +moments a gull arose from the lake and flew to the spot where the +children were seated. Around its body was a leather belt, embroidered +with beads and quills, which the hunter recognized, and, advancing +softly, he caught the bird--that changed at once into the missing woman. +The family set forth toward home, and as they entered the lodge the +witch--for such she was--looked up, with a start, then uttered a cry of +despair. Bending low, she moved her arms in both imprecation and appeal. +A moment later a black, ungainly bird flew from the wigwam and passed +from sight among the trees. The witch never came back to plague them. + + + + +THE ORIGIN OF WHITE-FISH + +An Indian who lived far in the north was so devoted to the chase that he +was never at home for the whole of a day, to the sorrow of his two boys, +who liked nothing so much as to sport with him and to be allowed to +practise with his weapons. Their mother told them that on no account were +they to speak to him of the young man who visited the lodge while their +father was away, and it was not until they were well grown and knew what +the duty of wives should be that they resolved to disobey her. The hunter +struck the woman dead when he learned of her perfidy. So greatly did her +spirit trouble them, however, that they could no longer abide in their +old home in peace and comfort, and they left the country and journeyed +southward until they came to the Sault Sainte Marie. + +As they stood beside the falls a head came rolling toward them on the +earth--the head of the dead woman. At that moment, too, a crane was seen +riding on the surface of the water, whirling about in its strongest +eddies, and when one of the boys called to it, "O Grandfather, we are +persecuted by a spirit; take us across the falls," the crane flew to +them. "Cling to my back and do not touch my head," it said to them, and +landed them safely on the farther shore. + +But now the head screamed, "Come, grandfather, and carry me over, for I +have lost my children and am sorely distressed," and the bird flew to her +likewise. "Be careful not to touch my head," it said. The head promised +obedience, but succumbed to curiosity when half-way over and touched the +bird's head to see what was the matter with him. With a lurch the crane +flung off his burden and it fell into the rapids. As it swept down, +bumping against the rocks, the brains were pounded out and strewn over +the water. "You were useless in life," cried the crane. "You shall not be +so in death. Become fish!" And the bits of brain changed to roe that +presently hatched to a delicate white fish, the flesh whereof is esteemed +by Indians of the lakes, and white men, likewise. The family pitched a +lodge near the spot and took the crane as their totem or name-mark. Many +of their descendants bear it to this day. + + + + +THE SPIRIT OF CLOUDY + +Among the lumbermen of Alger, Michigan, was William Cloud, an Indian, +usually called Cloudy, who was much employed on a chute a mile and a half +out of the village. The rains were heavy one spring, and a large raft of +logs had been floated down to the chute, where they were held back by a +gate until it was time to send them through in a mass. When the creek had +reached its maximum height the foreman gave word to the log-drivers to +lower the gate and let the timber down. This order came on a chilly April +night, and, as it was pitchy dark and rain was falling in sheets, the +lumbermen agreed to draw cuts to decide which of them should venture out +and start the logs. Cloudy drew the fatal slip. He was a quiet fellow, +and without a word he opened the door, bent against the storm, and passed +into the darkness. An hour went by, and the men in the cabin laughed as +they described the probable appearance of their comrade when he should +return, soaked through and through, and they wondered if he was waiting +in some shelter beside the path for the middle of the night to pass, for +the Indians believed that an evil spirit left the stream every night and +was abroad until that hour. + +As time lengthened the jest and talk subsided and a moody silence +supervened. At length one of the number resolved to sally out and see if +any mishap had fallen to the Indian. He was joined by three others, and +the party repaired to the creek. Above the chute it was seen that the +gate--which was released by the withdrawal of iron pins and sank of its +own weight-had not quite settled into place, and by the light of a +lantern held near the surface of the rushing current an obstruction could +be dimly seen. The gate was slightly raised and the object drawn up with +pike-poles. It was the mangled body of Cloudy. He was buried beside the +creek; but the camp was soon abandoned and the chute is in decay, for +between the hours of ten and twelve each night the wraith of the Indian, +accompanied by the bad spirit of the stream, ranges through the wood, his +form shining blue in the gloom, his groans sounding above the swish and +lap of the waters. + + + + +THE SUN FIRE AT SAULT SAINTE MARIE + +Father Marquette reached Sault Sainte Marie, in company with Greysolon Du +Lhut, in August, 1670, and was received in a manner friendly enough, but +the Chippewas warned him to turn back from that point, for the Ojibways +beyond were notoriously hostile to Europeans, their chief--White +Otter--having taken it on himself to revenge, by war, his father's +desertion of his mother. His father was a Frenchman. Inspired by his +mission, and full of the enthusiasm of youth and of the faith that had +led him safely through a host of dangers and troubles, Marquette refused +to change his plans, and even ventured the assertion that he could tame +the haughty Otter and bring him to the cross. At dawn he and his doughty +henchman set off in a war-canoe, but, on arriving in White Otter's camp +and speaking their errand, they were seized and bound, to await death on +the morrow. The wife of the chief spoke, out of the kindness of her +heart, and asked mercy for the white men. To no avail. The brute struck +her to the ground. That night his daughter, Wanena, who had seen Du Lhut +at the trading post and had felt the stir of a generous sentiment toward +him, appeared before the prisoners when sleep was heaviest in the camp, +cut their bonds, led them by an obscure path to the river, where she +enjoined them to enter a canoe, and guided the boat to the Holy Isle. +This was where the Ojibways came to lay offerings before the image of +Manitou, whose home was there believed to be. There the friendly red men +would be sure to find and rescue them, she thought, and after a few hours +of sleep she led them into a secluded glen where stood the figure rudely +carved from a pine trunk, six feet high, and tricked with gewgaws. As +they stood there, stealthy steps were heard, and before they could +conceal themselves White Otter and eight of his men were upon them. Du +Lhut grasped a club from among the weapons that--with other +offerings--strewed the earth at the statue's feet and prepared to sell +his life dearly. The priest drew forth his crucifix and prayed. The girl +dropped to the ground, drew her blanket over her head, and began to sing +her death-song. + +"So the black-coat and the woman-stealer have come to die before the +Indian's god?" sneered the chief. + +"If it be God's will, we will die defying your god and you," replied +Marquette. "Yet we fear not death, and if God willed he could deliver us +as easily as he could destroy that worthless image." He spoke in an +undertone to Du Lhut, and continued, confidently, "challenge your god to +withstand mine. I shall pray my God to send his fire from the sky and +burn this thing. If he does so will you set us free and become a +Christian?" + +"I will; but if you fail, you die." + +"And if I win you must pardon your daughter." + +White Otter grunted his assent. + +The sun was high and brought spicy odors from the wood; an insect hummed +drowsily, and a bird-song echoed from the distance. Unconscious of what +was being enacted about her, Wanena kept rocking to and fro, singing her +death-song, and waiting the blow that would stretch her at her father's +feet. The savages gathered around the image and watched it with eager +interest. Raising his crucifix with a commanding gesture, the priest +strode close to the effigy, and in a loud voice cried, in Chippewa, "In +the name of God, I command fire to destroy this idol!" + +A spot of light danced upon the breast of the image. It grew dazzling +bright and steady. Then a smoke began to curl from the dry grass and +feathers it was decked with. The Indians fell back in amazement, and when +a faint breeze passed, fanning the sparks into flame, they fell on their +faces, trembling with apprehension, for Marquette declared, "As my God +treats this idol, so can he treat you!" + +Then, looking up to see the manitou in flames, White Otter exclaimed, +"The white man's God has won. Spare us, O mighty medicine!" + +"I will do so, if you promise to become as white men in the faith and be +baptized." Tamed by fear, the red men laid aside their weapons and knelt +at a brook where Marquette, gathering water in his hands, gave the rite +of baptism to each, and laid down the moral law they were to live by. +Wanena, who had fainted from sheer fright when she saw the idol burning, +was restored, and it may be added that the priest who Christianized her +also married her to Du Lhut, who prospered and left his name to the city +of the lake. News of the triumph of the white men's God went far and +wide, and Marquette found his missions easier after that. Du Lhut alone, +of all those present, was in the father's secret. He had perpetrated a +pious fraud, justified by the results as well as by his peril. A +burning-glass had been fastened to the crucifix, and with that he had +destroyed the idol. + +Trading thus on native ignorance a Frenchman named Lyons at another time +impressed the Indians at Dubuque and gained his will by setting a creek +on fire. They did not know that he had first poured turpentine over it. + + + + +THE SNAKE GOD OF BELLE ISLE + +The Indian demi-god, Sleeping Bear, had a daughter so beautiful that he +kept her out of the sight of men in a covered boat that swung on Detroit +River, tied to a tree on shore; but the Winds, having seen her when her +father had visited her with food, contended so fiercely to possess her +that the little cable was snapped and the boat danced on to the keeper of +the water-gates, who lived at the outlet of Lake Huron. The keeper, +filled with admiration for the girl's beauty, claimed the boat and its +charming freight, but he had barely received her into his lodge when the +angry Winds fell upon him, buffeting him so sorely that he died, and was +buried on Peach Island (properly Isle au Peche), where his spirit +remained for generations--an oracle sought by Indians before emprise in +war. His voice had the sound of wind among the reeds, and its meanings +could not be told except by those who had prepared themselves by fasting +and meditation to receive them. Before planning his campaign against the +English, Pontiac fasted here for seven days to "clear his ear" and hear +the wisdom of the sighing voice. + +But the Winds were not satisfied with the slaying of the keeper. They +tore away his meadows and swept them out as islands. They smashed the +damsel's boat and the little bark became Belle Isle. Here Manitou placed +the girl, and set a girdle of vicious snakes around the shore to guard +her and to put a stop to further contests. These islands in the straits +seem to have been favorite places of exile and theatres of +transformation. The Three Sisters are so called because of three Indian +women who so scolded and wrangled that their father was obliged to +separate them and put one on each of the islands for the sake of peace. + +It was at Belle Isle that the red men had put up and worshipped a natural +stone image. Hearing of this idol, on reaching Detroit, Dollier and De +Galinee crossed over to it, tore it down, smashed it, flung the bigger +piece of it into the river, and erected a cross in its place. The sunken +portion of the idol called aloud to the faithful, who had assembled to +wonder at the audacity of the white men and witness their expected +punishment by Manitou, and told them to cast in the other portions. They +did so, and all the fragments united and became a monster serpent that +kept the place from further intrusion. Later, when La Salle ascended the +straits in his ship, the Griffin, the Indians on shore invoked the help +of this, their manitou, and strange forms arose from the water that +pushed the ship into the north, her crew vainly singing hymns with a hope +of staying the demoniac power. + + + + +WERE-WOLVES OF DETROIT + +Long were the shores of Detroit vexed by the Snake God of Belle Isle and +his children, the witches, for the latter sold enchantments and were the +terror of good people. Jacques Morand, the _coureur de bois_, was in love +with Genevieve Parent, but she disliked him and wished only to serve the +church. Courting having proved of no avail, he resolved on force when she +had decided to enter a convent, and he went to one of the witches, who +served as devil's agent, to sell his soul. The witch accepted the slight +commodity and paid for it with a grant of power to change from a man's +form to that of a were-wolf, or _loup garou_, that he might the easier +bear away his victim. Incautiously, he followed her to Grosse Pointe, +where an image of the Virgin had been set up, and as Genevieve dropped at +the feet of the statue to implore aid, the wolf, as he leaped to her +side, was suddenly turned to stone. + +Harder was the fate of another maiden, Archange Simonet, for she was +seized by a were-wolf at this place and hurried away while dancing at her +own wedding. The bridegroom devoted his life to the search for her, and +finally lost his reason, but he prosecuted the hunt so vengefully and +shrewdly that he always found assistance. One of the neighbors cut off +the wolf's tail with a silver bullet, the appendage being for many years +preserved by the Indians. The lover finally came upon the creature and +chased it to the shore, where its footprint is still seen in one of the +bowlders, but it leaped into the water and disappeared. In his crazy +fancy the lover declared that it had jumped down the throat of a catfish, +and that is why the French Canadians have a prejudice against catfish as +an article of diet. + +The man-wolf dared as much for gain as for love. On the night that Jean +Chiquot got the Indians drunk and bore off their beaver-skins, the wood +witches, known as "the white women," fell upon him and tore a part of his +treasure from him, while a were-wolf pounced so hard on his back that he +lost more. He drove the creatures to a little distance, but was glad to +be safe inside of the fort again, though the officers laughed at him and +called him a coward. When they went back over the route with him they +were astonished to find the grass scorched where the women had fled +before him, and little springs in the turf showed where they had been +swallowed up. Sulphur-water was bubbling from the spot where the wolf +dived into the earth when the trader's rosary fell out of his jacket. +Belle Fontaine, the spot was called, long afterward. + + + + +THE ESCAPE OF FRANCOIS NAVARRE + +When the Hurons came to Sandwich, opposite the Michigan shore, in 1806, +and camped near the church for the annual "festival of savages," which +was religious primarily, but incidentally gastronomic, athletic, and +alcoholic, an old woman of the tribe foretold to Angelique Couture that, +ere long, blood would be shed freely and white men and Indians would take +each other's lives. That was a reasonably safe prophecy in those days, +and, though Angelique repeated it to her friends, she did not worry over +it. But when the comet of 1812 appeared the people grew afraid--and with +cause, for the war soon began with England. The girl's brothers fought +under the red flag; her lover, Francois Navarre, under the stars and +stripes. + +The cruel General Proctor one day passed through Sandwich with prisoners +on his way to the Hurons, who were to put them to death in the usual +manner. As they passed by, groaning in anticipation of their fate, +foot-sore and covered with dust, Angelique nearly swooned, for among them +she recognized her lover. He, too, had seen her, and the recognition had +been noticed by Proctor. Whether his savage heart was for the moment +softened by their anguish, or whether he wished to heighten their pain by +a momentary taste of joy, it is certain that on reaching camp he paroled +Francrois until sunset. The young man hastened to the girl's house, and +for one hour they were sadly happy. She tried to make him break his +parole and escape, but he refused, and as the sun sank he tore himself +from her arms and hastened to rejoin his companions in misery. + +His captors admired him for this act of honor, and had he so willed he +could have been then and there received into their tribe. As it was, they +allowed him to remain unbound. Hardly had the sun gone down when a number +of boats drew up at the beach with another lot of prisoners, and with +yells of rejoicing the Indians ran to the river to drive them into camp. +Francois's opportunity was brief, but he seized it. In the excitement he +had been unobserved. He was not under oath now, and with all speed he +dashed into the wood. Less than a minute had elapsed before his absence +was discovered, but he was a cunning woodman, and by alternately running +and hiding, with gathering darkness in his favor, he had soon put the +savages at a distance. + +A band of English went to Angelique's home, thinking that he would be +sure to rejoin her; but he was too shrewd for that, and it was in vain +that they fired guns up the chimneys and thrust bayonets into beds. +Angelique was terrified at this intrusion, but the men had been ordered +not to injure the woman, and she was glad, after all, to think that +Francois had escaped. Some days later one of the Hurons came to her door +and pointed significantly to a fresh scalp that hung at his belt. In the +belief that it was her lover's she grew ill and began to fade, but one +evening there came a faint tap at the door. She opened it to find a cap +on the door-step. + +There was no writing, yet her heart rose in her bosom and the color came +back to her cheeks, for she recognized it as her lover's. Later, she +learned that Francois had kept to the forest until he reached the site of +Walkerville, where he had found a canoe and reached the American side in +safety. She afterward rejoined him in Detroit, and they were married at +the end of the war, through which he served with honor and satisfaction +to himself, being enabled to pay many old scores against the red-coats +and the Indians. + + + + +THE OLD LODGER + +In 1868 there died in Detroit a woman named Marie Louise Thebault, more +usually called Kennette. She was advanced in years, and old residents +remembered when she was one of the quaintest figures and most assertive +spirits in the town, for until a few years before her death she was rude +of speech, untidy in appearance, loved nothing or respected nothing +unless it might be her violin and her money, and lived alone in a little +old house on the river-road to Springwells. Though she made shoes for a +living, she was of so miserly a nature that she accepted food from her +neighbors, and in order to save the expense of light and fuel she spent +her evenings out. Yet she read more or less, and was sufficiently +acquainted with Volney, Voltaire, and other skeptics to shock her church +acquaintances. Love of gain, not of company, induced her to lease one of +her rooms to a pious old woman, from whom she got not only a little rent, +but the incidental use of her fuel and light. + +When the pious one tried to win her to the church it angered her, and +then, too, she had a way of telling ghost stories that Kennette laughed +at. One of these narratives that she would dwell on with especial +self-conviction was that of Lieutenant Muir, who had left his mistress, +when she said No to his pleadings, supposing that she spoke the truth, +whereas she was merely trying to be coquettish. + +He fell in an attack on the Americans that night, and came back, +bleeding, to the girl who had made him throw his life away; he pressed +her hand, leaving the mark of skeleton fingers there, so that she always +kept it gloved afterward. Then there was the tale of the two men of +Detroit who were crushed by a falling tree: the married one, who was not +fatally hurt, begged his mate to call his wife, as soon as his soul was +free, and the woman, hearing the mournful voice at her door, as the +spirit passed on its way to space, ran out and rescued her husband from +his plight. She told, too, of the _feu follet_, or will-o'-the-wisp, that +led a girl on Grosse Isle to the swamp where her lover was engulfed in +mire and enabled her to rescue him. There was Grand'mere Duchene, +likewise, who worked at her spinning-wheel for many a night after death, +striking fear to her son's heart, by its droning, because he had not +bought the fifty masses for the repose of her soul, but when he had +fulfilled the promise she came no more. Another yarn was about the +ghost-boat of hunter Sebastian that ascends the straits once in seven +years, celebrating his return, after death, in accordance with the +promise made to Zoe, his betrothed, that--dead or alive--he would return +to her from the hunt at a certain time. + +To all this Kennette turned the ear of scorning. "Bah!" she cried. "I +don't believe your stories. I don't believe in your hell and your +purgatory. If you die first, come back. If I should, and I can, I will +come. Then we may know whether there is another world." + +The bargain was made to this effect, but the women did not get on well +together, and soon Kennette had an open quarrel with her lodger that +ended by her declaring that she never could forgive her, but that she +would hold her to her after-death compact. The lodger died, and while +talking of her death at the house of a neighbor a boy, who had arrived +from town, casually asked Kennette--knowing her saving ways--why she had +left the light burning in her house. Grasping a poker, she set off at +once to punish the intruder who had dared to enter in her absence, but +when she arrived there was no light. On several evenings the light was +reported by others, but as she was gadding in the neighborhood she never +saw it until, one night, resolved to see for herself, she returned early, +softly entered at the back door, and went to bed. Hardly had she done so +when she saw a light coming up-stairs. Sitting bolt upright in bed she +waited. The light came up noiselessly and presently stood in the +room--not a lantern or candle, but a white phosphorescence. It advanced +toward her, changing its form until she saw a cloudy likeness to a human +being. For the first time in her life she feared. "Come no nearer!" she +cried. "I know you. I believe you, and I forgive." + +The light vanished. From that night it was remarked that Kennette began +to age fast--she began to change and become more like other women. She +went to church and her face grew softer and kinder. It was the only time +that she saw the spirit, but the effect of the visit was permanent. + + + + +THE NAIN ROUGE + +Among all the impish offspring of the Stone God, wizards and witches, +that made Detroit feared by the early settlers, none were more dreaded +than the Nain Rouge (Red Dwarf), or Demon of the Strait, for it appeared +only when there was to be trouble. In that it delighted. It was a +shambling, red-faced creature, with a cold, glittering eye and teeth +protruding from a grinning mouth. Cadillac, founder of Detroit, having +struck at it, presently lost his seigniory and his fortunes. It was seen +scampering along the shore on the night before the attack on Bloody Run, +when the brook that afterward bore this name turned red with the blood of +soldiers. People saw it in the smoky streets when the city was burned in +1805, and on the morning of Hull's surrender it was found grinning in the +fog. It rubbed its bony knuckles expectantly when David Fisher paddled +across the strait to see his love, Soulange Gaudet, in the only boat he +could find--a wheel-barrow, namely--but was sobered when David made a +safe landing. + +It chuckled when the youthful bloods set off on Christmas day to race the +frozen strait for the hand of buffer Beauvais's daughter Claire, but when +her lover's horse, a wiry Indian nag, came pacing in it fled before their +happiness. It was twice seen on the roof of the stable where that +sour-faced, evil-eyed old mumbler, Jean Beaugrand, kept his horse, Sans +Souci--a beast that, spite of its hundred years or more, could and did +leap every wall in Detroit, even the twelve-foot stockade of the fort, to +steal corn and watermelons, and that had been seen in the same barn, +sitting at a table, playing seven-up with his master, and drinking a +liquor that looked like melted brass. The dwarf whispered at the sleeping +ear of the old chief who slew Friar Constantine, chaplain of the fort, in +anger at the teachings that had parted a white lover from his daughter +and led her to drown herself--a killing that the red man afterward +confessed, because he could no longer endure the tolling of a mass bell +in his ears and the friar's voice in the wind. + +The Nain Rouge it was who claimed half of the old mill, on Presque Isle, +that the sick and irritable Josette swore that she would leave to the +devil when her brother Jean pestered her to make her will in his favor, +giving him complete ownership. On the night of her death the mill was +wrecked by a thunder-bolt, and a red-faced imp was often seen among the +ruins, trying to patch the machinery so as to grind the devil's grist. It +directed the dance of black cats in the mill at Pont Rouge, after the +widow's curse had fallen on Louis Robert, her brother-in-law. This man, +succeeding her husband as director of the property, had developed such +miserly traits that she and her children were literally starved to death, +but her dying curse threw such ill luck on the place and set afloat such +evil report about it that he took himself away. The Nain Rouge may have +been the Lutin that took Jacques L'Esperance's ponies from the stable at +Grosse Pointe, and, leaving no tracks in sand or snow, rode them through +the air all night, restoring them at dawn quivering with fatigue, covered +with foam, bloody with the lash of a thorn-bush. It stopped that exercise +on the night that Jacques hurled a font of holy water at it, but to keep +it away the people of Grosse Pointe still mark their houses with the sign +of a cross. + +It was lurking in the wood on the day that Captain Dalzell went against +Pontiac, only to perish in an ambush, to the secret relief of his +superior, Major Gladwyn, for the major hoped to win the betrothed of +Dalzell; but when the girl heard that her lover had been killed at Bloody +Run, and his head had been carried on a pike, she sank to the ground +never to rise again in health, and in a few days she had followed the +victims of the massacre. There was a suspicion that the Nain Rouge had +power to change his shape for one not less offensive. The brothers +Tremblay had no luck in fishing through the straits and lakes until one +of them agreed to share his catch with St. Patrick, the saint's half to +be sold at the church-door for the benefit of the poor and for buying +masses to relieve souls in purgatory. His brother doubted if this benefit +would last, and feared that they might be lured into the water and turned +into fish, for had not St. Patrick eaten pork chops on a Friday, after +dipping them into holy water and turning them into trout? But his good +brother kept on and prospered and the bad one kept on grumbling. Now, at +Grosse Isle was a strange thing called the rolling muff, that all were +afraid of, since to meet it was a warning of trouble; but, like the _feu +follet_, it could be driven off by holding a cross toward it or by asking +it on what day of the month came Christmas. The worse of the Tremblays +encountered this creature and it filled him with dismay. When he returned +his neighbors observed an odor--not of sanctity--on his garments, and +their view of the matter was that he had met a skunk. The graceless man +felt convinced, however, that he had received a devil's baptism from the +Nain Rouge, and St. Patrick had no stancher allies than both the +Tremblays, after that. + + + + +TWO REVENGES + +It is no more possible to predicate the conduct of an Indian than that of +a woman. In Detroit lived Wasson, one of the warriors of the dreaded +Pontiac, who had felt some tender movings of the spirit toward a girl of +his tribe. The keeper of the old red mill that stood at the foot of +Twenty-fourth Street adopted her, with the consent of her people, and did +his best to civilize her. But Wasson kept watch. He presently discovered +that whenever the miller was away a candle shone in the window until a +figure wrapped in a military cloak emerged from the shadows, knocked, and +was admitted. On the night that Wasson identified his rival as Colonel +Campbell, an English officer, he stole into the girl's room through the +window and cut her down with his hatchet. Colonel Campbell, likewise, he +slew after Pontiac had made prisoners of the garrison. The mill was +shunned, after that, for the figure of a girl, with a candle in her hand, +frightened so many people by moving about the place that it was torn down +in 1795. + +But the red man was not always hostile. Kenen, a Huron, loved a +half-breed girl, whom he could never persuade into a betrothal. One day +he accidentally wounded a white man in the wood, and lifting him on his +shoulder he hurried with him to camp. It was not long before he found +that the soft glances of the half-breed girl were doing more to cure his +victim than the incantations of the medicine-man, and in a fit of anger, +one day, he plucked forth his knife and fell upon the couple. Her look of +innocent surprise shamed him. He rushed away, with an expression of +self-contempt, and flung his weapon far into the river. Soon after, the +white man was captured by the Iroquois. They were preparing to put him to +the torture when a tall Indian leaped in among them, with the cry, "I am +Kenen. Let the pale face go, for a Huron chief will take his place." And, +as the bonds fell from the prisoner's wrists and ankles, he added, "Go +and comfort the White Fawn." The white man was allowed to enter a canoe +and row away, but as he did so his heart misgave him: the words of a +deathsong and the crackling of flames had reached his ears. + + + + +HIAWATHA + +The story of Hiawatha--known about the lakes as Manabozho and in the East +as Glooskapis the most widely disseminated of the Indian legends. He came +to earth on a Messianic mission, teaching justice, fortitude, and +forbearance to the red men, showing them how to improve their handicraft, +ridding the woods and hills of monsters, and finally going up to heaven +amid cries of wonder from those on whose behalf he had worked and +counselled. He was brought up as a child among them, took to wife the +Dakota girl, Minnehaha ("Laughing Water"), hunted, fought, and lived as a +warrior; yet, when need came, he could change his form to any shape of +bird, fish, or plant that he wished. He spoke to friends in the voice of +a woman and to enemies in tones like thunder. A giant in form, few dared +to resist him in battle, yet he suffered the common pains and adversities +of his kind, and while fishing in one of the great lakes in his white +stone canoe, that moved whither he willed it, he and his boat were +swallowed by the king of fishes. He killed the creature by beating at its +heart with a stone club, and when the gulls had preyed on its flesh, as +it lay floating on the surface, until he could see daylight, he clambered +through the opening they had made and returned to his lodge. + +Believing that his father had killed his mother, he fought against him +for several days, driving him to the edge of the world before peace was +made between them. The evil Pearl Feather had slain one of his relatives, +and to avenge that crime Hiawatha pressed through a guard of +fire-breathing serpents which surrounded that fell personage, shot them +with arrows as they struck at him, and having thus reached the lodge of +his enemy he engaged him in combat. All day long they battled to no +purpose, but toward evening a woodpecker flew overhead and cried, "Your +enemy has but one vulnerable point. Shoot at his scalp-lock." Hiawatha +did so and his foe fell dead. Anointing his finger with the blood of his +foe, he touched the bird, and the red mark is found on the head of every +woodpecker to this day. A duck having led him a long chase when he was +trying to capture it for food, he angrily kicked it, thus flattening its +back, bowing its legs, despoiling it of half of its tail-feathers, and +that is why, to this day, ducks are awkward. + +In return for its service in leading him to where the prince of serpents +lived, he invested the kingfisher with a medal and rumpled the feathers +of its head in putting it on; hence all kingfishers have rumpled knots +and white spots on their breasts. After slaying the prince of serpents he +travelled all over America, doing good work, and on reaching Onondaga he +organized a friendly league of thirteen tribes that endured for many +years. This closed his mission. As he stood in the assemblage of chiefs a +white bird, appearing at an immense height, descended like a meteor, +struck Hiawatha's daughter with such force as to drive her remains into +the earth and shattered itself against the ground. Its silvery feathers +were scattered, and these were preserved by the beholders as ornaments +for their hair--so the custom of wearing feather head-dresses endures to +our time. Though filled with consternation, Hiawatha recognized the +summons. He addressed his companions in tones of such sweetness and terms +of such eloquence as had never been heard before, urging them to live +uprightly and to enforce good laws, and unhappy circumstance!--promising +to come back when the time was ripe. The expectancy of his return has led +to ghost-dances and similar demonstrations of enmity against the whites. +When he had ended he entered his stone canoe and began to rise in air to +strains of melting music. Higher and higher he arose, the white vessel +shining in the sunlight, until he disappeared in the spaces of the sky. + +Incidents of the Hiawatha legend are not all placed, but he is thought to +have been born near the great lakes, perhaps at Mackinack. Some legends, +indeed, credit him with making his home at Mackinack, and from that +point, as a centre, making a new earth around him. The fight with his +father began on the upper Mississippi, and the bowlders found along its +banks were their missiles. The south shore of Lake Superior was the scene +of his conflict with the serpents. He hunted the great beaver around Lake +Superior and brought down his dam at the Sault Sainte Marie. A depression +in a rock on the southern edge of Michipicotea Bay is where he alighted +after a jump across the lake. In a larger depression, near Thunder Bay, +he sat when smoking his last pipe. The big rocks on the east side of +Grand Traverse Bay, near Antrim City, Michigan, are the bones of a stone +monster that he slew. + +So trifling an incident as the kicking of the duck has been localized at +Lake Itasca. [It is worth passing mention that this name, which sounds as +if it were of Indian origin, is held by some to be composed of the last +syllables of _veritas_ and the first letters of _caput_, these +words-signifying "the true head"--being applied by early explorers as +showing that they were confident of having found the actual source of the +Mississippi.] Minnehaha lived near the fall in Minneapolis that bears her +name. The final apotheosis took place on the shores of Lake Onondaga, New +York, though Hiawatha lies buried under a mountain, three miles long, on +the east side of Thunder Bay, Lake Superior, which, from the water, +resembles a man lying on his back. The red man makes oblation, as he rows +past, by dropping a pinch of tobacco into the water. Some say that +Hiawatha now lives at the top of the earth, amid the ice, and directs the +sun. He has to live in a cold country because, if he were to return, he +would set the earth on fire with his footsteps. + + + + +THE INDIAN MESSIAH + +The promise of the return to earth of various benign spirits has caused +much trouble among the red men, and incidentally to the white men who are +the objects of their fanatic dislike. The New Mexicans believed that when +the Emperor Montezuma was about to leave the earth he planted a tree and +bade them watch it, for when it fell he would come back in glory and lead +them to victory, wealth, and power. The watch was kept in secret on +account of the determination of the Spaniards to breakup all fealty to +tribal heroes and traditions. As late as 1781 they executed a sentence of +death on a descendant of the Peruvian Incas for declaring his royal +origin. When Montezuma's tree fell the people gathered on the house-tops +to watch the east-in vain, for the white man was there. In 1883 the +Sanpoels, a small tribe in Washington, were stirred by the teaching of an +old chief, who told them that the wicked would soon be destroyed, and +that the Great Spirit had ordered him to build an ark for his people. The +remains of this vessel, two hundred and eighty-eight feet long, are still +to be seen near one of the tributaries of the Columbia. + +A frenzy swept over the West in 1890, inspiring the Indians by promise of +the coming of one of superhuman power, who was generally believed to be +Hiawatha, to threaten the destruction of the white population, since it +had been foretold that the Messiah would drive the white men from their +land. Early in the summer of that year it was reported that the Messiah +had appeared in the north, and the chiefs of many tribes went to Dakota, +as the magi did to Bethlehem, to learn if this were true. Sitting Bull, +the Sioux chief, told them, in assembly, that it was so, and declared +that he had seen the new Christ while hunting in the Shoshone Mountains. +One evening he lost his way and was impelled by a strange feeling to +follow a star that moved before him. At daybreak it paused over a +beautiful valley, and, weary with his walk, he sank on a bed of moss. As +he sat there throngs of Indian warriors appeared and began a spirit +dance, led by chiefs who had long been dead. Presently a voice spoke in +his ear, and turning he saw a strange man dressed in white. The man said +he was the same Christ who had come into the world nineteen hundred years +before to save white men, and that now he would save the red men by +driving out the whites. The Indians were to dance the ghost-dance, or +spirit dance, until the new moon, when the globe would shiver, the wind +would glow, and the white soldiers and their horses would sink into the +earth. The Messiah showed to Sitting Bull the nail-wounds in his hands +and feet and the spear-stab in his side. When night came on the form in +white had disappeared--and, returning, the old chief taught the +ghost-dance to his people. + + + + +THE VISION OF RESCUE + +Surmounting Red Banks, twelve miles north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, on the +eastern shore, and one hundred feet above the water, stands an earthwork +that the first settlers found there when they went into that country. It +was built by the Sauks and Outagamies, a family that ruled the land for +many years, rousing the jealousy of neighboring tribes by their wealth +and power. The time came, as it did in the concerns of nearly every band +of Indians, when war was declared against this family, and the enemy came +upon them in the darkness, their canoes patroling the shore while the +main body formed a line about the fort. So silently was this done that +but one person discovered it--a squaw, who cried, "We are all dead!" + +There was nothing to see or hear, and she was rated for alarming the camp +with foolish dreams; but dawn revealed the beleaguering line, and at the +lifting of the sun a battle began that lasted for days, those within the +earthworks sometimes fighting while ankle-deep in the blood of their +fellows. The greatest lack of the besieged was that of water, and they +let down earthen jars to the lake to get it, but the cords were cut ere +they could be drawn up, the enemy shouting, derisively, "Come down and +drink!" Several times they tried to do so, but were beaten back at every +sally, and it seemed at last as if extermination was to be their fate. + +When matters were at their darkest one of the young men who had been +fasting for ten days--the Indian custom when divine direction was sought +addressed his companions to this effect: "Last night there stood by me +the form of a young man, clothed in white, who said, 'I was once alive, +but I died, and now I live forever. Trust me and I will deliver you. Be +fearless. At midnight I will cast a sleep on your enemies. Go forth +boldly and you shall escape.'" The condition was too desperate to +question any means of freedom, and that night all but a handful of +disbelievers left the fort, while the enemy was in a slumber of +exhaustion, and got away in safety. When the besiegers, in the morning, +found that the fort had been almost deserted, they fell on the few that +remained to repent their folly, and put them to the knife and axe, for +their fury was excessive at the failure of the siege. + + + + +DEVIL'S LAKE + +Any of the noble rivers and secluded lakes of Wisconsin were held in +esteem or fear by the northern tribes, and it was the now-forgotten +events and superstitions connected with them, not less than the frontier +tendency for strong names, that gave a lurid and diabolical nomenclature +to parts of this region. Devils, witches, magicians, and manitous were +perpetuated, and Indians whose prowess was thought to be supernatural +left dim records of themselves here and there--as near the dells of the +Wisconsin, where a chasm fifty feet wide is shown as the ravine leaped by +chief Black Hawk when flying from the whites. Devil's Lake was the home +of a manitou who does not seem to have been a particularly evil genius, +though he had unusual power. The lake fills what is locally regarded as +the crater of an extinct volcano, and the coldness and purity kept by the +water, in spite of its lacking visible inlets or outlets, was one cause +for thinking it uncanny. + +This manitou piled the heavy blocks of Devil's Door-Way and set up Black +Monument and the Pedestalled Bowlder as thrones where he might sit and +view the landscape by day--for the Indians appreciated the beautiful in +nature and supposed their gods did, too--while at night he could watch +the dance of the frost spirits, the aurora borealis. Cleft Rock was +sundered by one of his darts aimed at an offending Indian, who owed his +life to the manitou's bad aim. The Sacrifice Stone is shown where, at +another time, a girl was immolated to appease his anger. Cleopatra's +Needle, as it is now called, is the body of an ancient chief, who was +turned into stone as a punishment for prying into the mysteries of the +lake, a stone on East Mountain being the remains of a squaw who had +similarly offended. On the St. Croix the Devil's Chair is pointed out +where he sat in state. He had his play spells, too, as you may guess when +you see his toboggan slide in Weber Canon, Utah, while Cinnabar Mountain, +in the Yellowstone country, he scorched red as he coasted down. + +The hunter wandering through this Wisconsin wilderness paused when he +came within sight of the lake, for all game within its precincts was in +the manitou's protection; not a fish might be taken, and not even a drop +of water could be dipped to cool the lips of the traveller. So strong was +this fear of giving offence to the manitou that Indians who were dying of +wounds or illness, and were longing for a swallow of water, would refuse +to profane the lake by touching their lips to it. + + + + +THE KEUSCA ELOPEMENT + +Keusca was a village of the Dakota Indians on the Wisconsin bluffs of the +Mississippi eighteen hundred miles from its mouth. The name means, to +overthrow, or set aside, for it was here that a tribal law was broken. +Sacred Wind was a coquette of that village, for whose hand came many +young fellows wooing with painted faces. For her they played the bone +flute in the twilight, and in the games they danced and leaped their +hardest and shot their farthest and truest when she was looking on. +Though they amused her she cared not a jot for these suitors, keeping her +love for the young brave named the Shield--and keeping it secret, for he +was her cousin, and cousins might not wed. If a relative urged her to +marry some young fellow for whom she had no liking, she would answer that +if forced to do so she would fling herself into the river, and spoke of +Winonah and Lovers' Leap. + +She was afraid to wed the Shield, for the medicine-men had threatened all +who dared to break the marriage laws with unearthly terrors; yet when the +Shield had been absent for several weeks on the war-path she realized +that life without his companionship was too hollow to be endured--and she +admired him all the more when he returned with two scalps hanging at his +belt. He renewed his wooing. He allayed her fears by assurances that he, +too, was a medicine-man and could counteract the spells that wizards +might cast on them. Then she no longer repressed the promptings of her +heart, but yielded to his suit. They agreed to elope that night. + +As they left the little clearing in the wood where their interview had +taken place, a thicket stirred and a girl stole from it, looking intently +at their retreating forms. The Swan, they had named her; but, with a +flush in her dusky cheeks, her brows dark, her eyes glittering, she more +recalled the vulture--for she, too, loved the Shield; and she had now +seen and heard that her love was hopeless. That evening she alarmed the +camp; she told the parents of Sacred Wind of the threatened violation of +custom, and the father rose in anger to seek her. It was too late, for +the flight had taken place. The Swan went to the river and rowed out in a +canoe. From the middle of the stream she saw a speck on the water to the +southward, and knew it to be Sacred Wind and her lover, henceforth +husband. She watched until the speck faded in the twilight--then leaning +over the side of the boat she capsized it, and passed from the view of +men. + + + + +PIPESTONE + +Pipestone, a smooth, hard, even-textured clay, of lively color, from +which thousands of red men cut their pipe-bowls, forms a wall on the +Coteau des Prairies, in Minnesota, that is two miles long and thirty feet +high. In front of it lie five bowlders, the droppings from an iceberg to +the floor of the primeval sea, and beneath these masses of granite live +the spirits of two squaws that must be consulted before the stone can be +dug. This quarry was neutral ground, and here, as they approached it, the +men of all tribes sheathed their knives and belted up their axes, for to +this place the Great Spirit came to kill and eat the buffalo, and it is +the blood of this animal that has turned the stone to red. Here, too, the +Thunder Bird had her nest, and her brood rent the skies above it with the +clashing of their iron wings. + +A snake having crawled into this nest to steal the unhatched thunders, +Manitou caught up a piece of pipestone, hastily pressed it between his +hands, giving it the shape of a man, and flung it at the reptile. The +stone man's feet stuck fast in the ground, and there he stood for a +thousand years, growing like a tree and drawing strength and knowledge +out of the earth. Another shape grew up beside him--woman. In time the +snake gnawed them free from their foundations and the red-earth pair +wandered off together. From them sprang all people. + +Ages after, the Manitou called the red men to the quarry, fashioned a +pipe for them, told them it was a part of their flesh, and smoked it over +them, blowing the smoke to north, south, east, and west, in token that +wherever the influence of the pipe extended there was to be brotherhood +and peace. The place was to be sacred from war and they were to make +their pipes from this rock. As the smoke rolled about him he gradually +disappeared from view. At the last whiff the ashes fell out and the +surface of the rock for miles burst into flame, so that it melted and +glazed. Two ovens opened at its foot, and through the fire entered the +two spirits Tsomecostee and Tsomecostewondee--that are still its +guardians, answering the invocations of the medicine-men and accepting +the oblations of those who go to make pipes or carve their totems on the +rock. + + + + +THE VIRGINS' FEAST + +A game of lacrosse was played by Indian girls on the ice near the present +Fort Snelling, one winter day, and the victorious trophies were awarded +to Wenonah, sister of the chief, to the discomfiture of Harpstenah, her +opponent, an ill-favored woman, neglected by her tribe, and jealous of +Wenonah's beauty and popularity. This defeat, added to some fancied +slights, was almost more than she could bear, and during the contest she +had been cut in the head by one of the rackets--an accident that she +falsely attributed to her adversary in the game. She had an opportunity +of proving her hatred, for directly that it was known how Wenonah had +refused to marry Red Cloud, a stalwart boaster, openly preferring a +younger warrior of the tribe, the ill-thinking Harpstenah sought out the +disappointed suitor, who sat moodily apart, and thus advised him, +"To-morrow is the Feast of Virgins, when all who are pure will sit at +meat together. Wenonah will be there. Has she the right to be? Have you +not seen how shamelessly she favors your rival's suit? Among the Dakotas +to accuse is to condemn, and the girl who is accused at the Virgins' +Feast is disgraced forever. She has shown for Red Cloud nothing but +contempt. If he shows no anger at it the girls will laugh at him." + +With this she turned away and left Red Cloud to his meditations. Wenonah, +at the door of her brother's wigwam, looked into the north and saw the +stars grow pale through streams of electric fire. "The Woman of the North +warns us of coming evil," muttered the chief. "Some danger is near. Fire +on the lights!" And a volley of musketry sent a shock through the still +air. + +"They shine for me," said Wenonah, sadly. "For I shall soon join our +father, mother, and sister in the land of spirits. Before the leaves fell +I sat beside the Father of Waters and saw a manitou rise among the waves. +It said that my sisters in the sunset world were calling to me and I must +soon go to them." The chief tried to laugh away her fancies and comforted +her as well as he might, then leading her to the wigwam he urged her to +sleep. + +Next day is the Virgins' Feast and Wenonah is among those who sit in the +ring, dressed in their gayest. None who are conscious of a fault may +share in the feast; nor, if one were exposed and expelled, might any +interpose to ask for mercy; yet a groan of surprise and horror goes +through the company when Red Cloud, stalking up to the circle, seizes the +girl roughly by the shoulder and orders her away. No use to deny or +appeal. An Indian warrior would not be so treacherous or unjust as to act +in this way unless he had proofs. Without a word she enters the adjacent +wood, draws her knife, and strikes it to her heart. With summer came the +fever, and it ravaged through the band, laying low the infant and the +counsellor. Red Cloud was the first to die, and as he was borne away +Harpstenah lifted her wasted form and followed him with dimming eyes, +then cried, "He is dead. He hated Wenonah because she slighted him. I +hated her because she was happy. I told him to denounce her. But she was +innocent." + + + + +FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY + +Several of the Dakotas, who had been in camp near the site of St. Paul, +left their families and friends, when the hunting season opened, and went +into the north. On their arrival at another village of their tribe, they +stayed to rest for a little, and one of the men used the time to +ill-advantage, as it fell out, for he conceived an attachment for a girl +of this northern family, and on his way southward he wedded her and took +her home with him. Proper enough to do, if he had not been married +already. The first wife knew that any warrior might take a second, if he +could support both; but the woman was stronger than the savage in her +nature, and when her husband came back, with a red-cheeked woman walking +beside him, she felt that she should never know his love again. The man +was all attention to the young wife, whether the tribe tarried or +travelled. When they shifted camp the elder walked or rowed behind with +her boy, a likely lad of ten or twelve. + +It was when they were returning down the river after a successful hunt +that the whole company was obliged to make a carry around the quick water +near the head of St. Anthony's Falls. While the others were packing the +boats and goods for transportation by hand to the foot of the cataract, +the forsaken wife chose a moment when none were watching to embark with +her boy in one of the canoes. Rowing out to an island, she put on all her +ornaments, and dressed the lad in beads and feathers as if he were a +warrior. Her husband, finding her absent from the party, looked anxiously +about for some time, and was horrified to see her put out from the island +into the rapid current. She had placed the child high in the boat, and +was rowing with a steady stroke down the stream. He called and beckoned +franticly. She did not seem to hear him, nor did she turn her head when +the others joined their cries to his. For a moment those who listened +heard her death-song, then the yeasty flood hid them from sight, and the +husband on the shore fell to the earth with a wail of anguish. + + + + +FLYING SHADOW AND TRACK MAKER + +The Chippewas and Sioux had come together at Fort Snelling to make merry +and cement friendships. Flying Shadow was sad when the time came for the +tribes to part, for Track Maker had won her heart, and no less strong +than her love was the love he felt for her. But a Chippewa girl might not +marry among the Sioux, and, if she did, the hand of every one would be +against her should ever the tribes wage war upon each other, and war was +nearer than either of them had expected. The Chippewas left with feelings +of good will, Flying Shadow concealing in her bosom the trinkets that +testified to the love of Track Maker and sighing as she thought of the +years that might elapse ere they met again. + +Two renegade Chippewas, that had lingered behind the band, played the +villain after this pleasant parting, for they killed a Sioux. Hardly was +the news of this outrage received at the fort ere three hundred warriors +were on the trail of their whilom guests and friends, all clamoring for +revenge. Among them was Track Maker, for he could not, as a warrior, +remain behind after his brother had been shot, and, while his heart sank +within him as he thought of the gentle Flying Shadow, he marched in +advance, and early in the morning the Chippewas were surprised between +St. Anthony's Falls and Rum River, where they had camped without fear, +being alike ignorant and innocent of the murder for which so many were to +be punished. + +The Sioux fell upon them and cut down all alike--men, women, and +children. In the midst of the carnage Track Maker comes face to face with +Flying Shadow, and with a cry of gladness she throws herself into his +arms. But there is no refuge there. Gladly as he would save her, he knows +too well that the thirst for blood will not be sated until every member +of that band is dead. He folds her to his bosom for an instant, looks +into her eyes with tenderness--then bowing his head he passes on and +never glances back. It is enough. She falls insensible, and a savage, +rushing upon her, tears the scalp from her head. + +The Sioux win a hundred scalps and celebrate their victory with dance and +song. Track Maker has returned with more scalps than any, and the maidens +welcome him as a hero, but he keeps gravely apart from all, and has no +share in the feasting and merry-making. Ever the trusting, pleading, +wondering face of Flying Shadow comes before him. It looks out at him in +the face of the deer he is about to kill. He sees it in the river, the +leaves, the clouds. It rises before him in dreams. The elder people say +he is bewitched, but he will have none of their curatives. When war +breaks out he is the first to go, the first to open battle. Rushing among +his enemies he lays about him with his axe until he falls, pierced with a +hundred spears and arrows. It is the fate he has courted, and as he falls +his face is lighted with a smile. + + + + +SAVED BY A LIGHTNING-STROKE + +There was rough justice in the West in the old days. It had to be dealt +severely and quickly, for it was administered to a kind of men that +became dangerous if they saw any advantage or any superiority in their +strength or numbers over the decent people with whom they were cast. They +were uncivilized foreigners and native renegades, for the most part, who +had drifted to the frontier in the hope of making a living without work +more easily than in the cities. As there were no lawyers or courts and +few recognized laws, the whole people constituted themselves a jury, and +if a man were known to be guilty it was foolishness for any one to waste +logic on his case. And there is almost no record of an innocent man being +hanged by lynchers in the West. For minor offences the penalty was to be +marched out of camp, with a warning to be very cautious about coming that +way again, but for graver ones it was death. + +In 1840 a number of desperate fellows had settled along Cedar River, near +its confluence with the Iowa, who subsisted by means of theft from the +frugal and industrious. Some of these men applied themselves especially +to horse-stealing, and in thinly settled countries, where a man has often +to go twenty or thirty miles for supplies, or his mail, or medical +attendance, it is thought to be a calamity to be without a horse. + +At last the people organized themselves into a vigilance committee and +ran down the thieves. As the latter were a conscienceless gang of +rascals, it was resolved that the only effectual way of reforming them +would be by hanging. One man of the nine, it is true, was supposed before +his arrest to be a respectable citizen, but his evil communications +closed the ears of his neighbors to his appeals, and it was resolved that +he, too, should hang. + +Not far away stood an oak with nine stout branches, and to this natural +gallows the rogues were taken. As a squall was coming up the ceremonies +were short, and presently every limb was weighted with the form of a +captive. The formerly respectable citizen was the last one to be drawn +up, and hardly had his halter been secured before the storm burst and a +bolt of lightning ripped off the limb on which he hung. During the delay +caused by this accident the unhappy man pleaded so earnestly for a +rehearing that it was decided to give it to him, and when he had secured +it he conclusively proved his innocence and was set free. The tree is +still standing. To the ruffians it was a warning and they went away. Even +the providential saving of one man did not detract from the value of the +lesson to avoid bad company. + + + + +THE KILLING OF CLOUDY SKY + +In the Dakota camp on the bank of Spirit Lake, or Lake Calhoun, Iowa, +lived Cloudy Sky, a medicine-man, who had been made repellent by age and +accident, but who was feared because of his magic power. At eighty years +of age he looked for a third wife, and chose the daughter of a warrior, +his presents of blankets and calicoes to the parents winning their +consent. The girl, Harpstenah (a common name for a third daughter among +the Sioux), dreaded and hated this man, for it was rumored that he had +killed his first wife and basely sold his second. When she learned what +had been decided for her she rushed from the camp in tears and sat in a +lonely spot near the lake to curse and lament unseen. As she sat there +the waters were troubled. There was no wind, yet great waves were thrown +up, and tumbled hissing on the shore. Presently came a wave higher than +the rest, and a graceful form leaped from it, half shrouded in its own +long hair. + +"Do not tremble," said the visitant, for Harpstenah had hidden her face. +"I am the daughter of Unktahe, the water god. In four days your parents +will give you to Cloudy Sky, as his wife, though you love Red Deer. It is +with you to wed the man you hate or the man you love. Cloudy Sky has +offended the water spirits and we have resolved upon his death. If you +will be our agent in destroying him, you shall marry Red Deer and live +long and happily. The medicine-man wandered for years through the air +with the thunder birds, flinging his deadly fire-spears at us, and it was +for killing the son of Unktahe that he was last sent to earth, where he +has already lived twice before. Kill him while he sleeps and we will +reward you." + +As Harpstenah went back to the village her prospective bridegroom ogled +her as he sat smoking before his lodge, his face blackened and blanket +torn in mourning for an enemy he had killed. She resolved to heed the +appeal of the manitou. When Red Deer heard how she had been promised to +the old conjurer, he was filled with rage. Still, he became thoughtful +and advised caution when she told him of the water spirit's counsel, for +the dwellers in the lakes were, of all immortals, most deceitful, and had +ever been enemies of the Dakotas. "I will do as I am bidden," she said, +sternly. "Go away and visit the Tetons for a time. It is now the moon of +strawberries" (June), "but in the moon when we gather wild rice" +(September) "return and I will be your wife." + +Red Deer obeyed, after finding that she would not elope with him, and +with the announcement that he was going on a long hunt he took his leave +of the village. Harpstenah made ready for the bridal and greeted her +future husband with apparent pleasure and submissiveness. He gave a +medicine feast in token of the removal of his mourning, and appeared in +new clothing, greased and braided hair, and a white blanket decorated +with a black hand--the record of a slain enemy. + +On the night before the wedding the girl creeps to his lodge, but +hesitates when she sees his medicine-bag hanging beside the door--the +medicine that has kept its owner from evil and is sacred from the touch +of woman. As she lingers the night-breeze seems to bring a voice from the +water: "Can a Dakota woman want courage when she is forced to marry the +man she hates?" + +She delays no longer. A knife-blade glitters for an instant in the +moonlight--and Cloudy Sky is dead. Strange, is it not, that the thunder +birds flap so heavily along the west at that moment and a peal of +laughter sounds from the lake? She washes the blood from the blade, +steals to her father's lodge, and pretends to sleep. In the morning she +is loud in her grief when it is made known to her that the medicine-man +was no more, and the doer of the deed is never discovered. In time her +wan face gets its color and when the leaves begin to fall Red Deer +returns and weds her. + +They seem to be happy for a time, and have two sons who promise to be +famous hunters, but consumption fastens on Red Deer and he dies far from +the village. The sons are shot by enemies, and while their bodies are on +their way to Harpstenah's lodge she, too, is stricken dead by lightning. +The spirit of Cloudy Sky had rejoined the thunder birds, and the water +manitou had promised falsely. + + + + +PROVIDENCE HOLE + +The going of white men into the prairies aroused the same sort of +animosity among the Indians that they have shown in other parts of the +country when retiring before the advance of civilization, and many who +tried to plant corn on the rolling lands of Iowa, though they did no harm +to the red men, paid for the attempt with their lives. Such was the fate +of a settler who had built his cabin on the Wyoming hills, near +Davenport. While working in his fields an arrow, shot from a covert, laid +him low, and his scalp was cut away to adorn the belt of a savage. His +little daughter, left alone, began to suffer from fears and loneliness as +the sun went lower and lower, and when it had come to its time of setting +she put on her little bonnet and went in search of him. As she gained the +slope where he had last been seen, an Indian lifted his head from the +grass and looked at her. + +Starting back to run, she saw another behind her. Escape seemed hopeless, +and killing or captivity would have been her lot had not a crevice opened +in the earth close to where she stood. Dropping on hands and knees she +hastily crawled in, and found herself in what seemed to be an extensive +cavern. Hardly had she time to note the character of the place when the +gap closed as strangely as it had opened and she was left in darkness. +Not daring to cry aloud, lest Indians should hear her, she sat upright +until her young eyes could keep open no longer; then, lying on a mossy +rock, she fell asleep. In the morning the sun was shining in upon her and +the way to escape was open. She ran home, hungry, but thankful, and was +found and cared for by neighbors. "Providence Hole" then passed into the +legends of the country. It has closed anew, however. + + + + +THE SCARE CURE + +Early in this century a restless Yankee, who wore the uninspiring name of +Tompkinson, found his way into Carondelet--or Vuide Poche, the French +settlement on the Mississippi since absorbed by St. Louis--and cast about +for something to do. He had been in hard luck on his trip from New +England to the great river. His schemes for self-aggrandizement and the +incidental enlightenment and prosperity of mankind had not thriven, and +it was largely in pity that M. Dunois gave shelter to the ragged, +half-starved, but still jaunty and resourceful adventurer. Dunois was the +one man in the place who could pretend to some education, and the two got +on together famously. + +As soon as Tompkinson was in clothes and funds--the result of certain +speculations--he took a house, and hung a shingle out announcing that +there he practised medicine. Now, the fellow knew less about doctoring +than any village granny, but a few sick people that he attended had the +rare luck to get well in spite of him, and his reputation expanded to +more than local limits in consequence. In the excess of spirits that +prosperity created he flirted rather openly with a number of virgins in +Carondelet, to the scandal of Dunois, who forbade him his house, and of +the priest, who put him under ban. + +For the priest he cared nothing, but Dunois's anger was more serious--for +the only maid of all that he really loved was Marie Dunois, his daughter. +He formally proposed for her, but the old man would not listen to him. +Then his "practice" fell away. The future looked as dark for him as his +recent past had been, until a woman came to him with a bone in her throat +and begged to be relieved. His method in such cases was to turn a +wheel-of-fortune and obey it. The arrow this time pointed to the word, +"Bleeding." + +He grasped a scalpel and advanced upon his victim, who, supposing that he +intended to cut her throat open to extract the obstacle, fell a-screaming +with such violence that the bone flew out. What was supposed to be his +ready wit in this emergency restored him to confidence, and he was able +to resume the practice that he needed so much. In a couple of years he +displayed to the wondering eyes of Dunois so considerable an accumulation +of cash that he gave Marie to him almost without the asking, and, as +Tompkinson afterward turned Indian trader and quadrupled his wealth by +cheating the red men, he became one of the most esteemed citizens of the +West. + + + + +TWELFTH NIGHT AT CAHOKIA + +It was Twelfth Night, and the French village of Cahokia, near St. Louis, +was pleasantly agitated at the prospect of a dance in the old court +saloon, which was assembly-room and everything else for the little place. +The thirteen holy fires were alight--a large one, to represent Christ; a +lesser one, to be trampled out by the crowd, typing Judas. The twelfth +cake, one slice with the ring in it, was cut, and there were drink and +laughter, but, as yet, no music. Gwen Malhon, a drift-wood collector, was +the most anxious to get over the delay, for he had begged a dance from +Louison. Louison Florian was pretty, not badly off in possessions and +prospects, and her lover, Beaurain, had gone away. She was beginning to +look a little scornful and impatient, so Gwen set off for a fiddler. + +He had inquired at nearly every cabin without success, and was on his way +toward the ferry when he heard music. Before him, on the moonlit river, +was a large boat, and near it, on the bank, he saw a company of men +squatted about a fire and bousing together from a bottle. At a little +distance, on a stump, sat a thin, bent man, enveloped in a cloak, and it +was he who played. Gwen complimented him and pleaded the disappointment +of the dancers in excuse of an urgent appeal that he should hurry with +him to the court saloon. The stranger was courteous. He sprang into the +road with a limping bound, shook down his cloak so as to disclose a +curled moustache, shaggy brows, a goat's beard, and a pair of glittering +eyes. "I'll give them a dance!" he exclaimed. "I know one tune. They call +it 'Returned from the Grave.' Pay? We'll see how you like my playing." + +On entering the room where the caperish youth were already shuffling in +corners, the musician met Mamzel Florian, who offered him a slice of the +cake. He bent somewhat near to take it, and she gave a little cry. He had +found the ring, and that made him king of the festival, with the right to +choose the prettiest girl as queen. A long drink of red wine seemed to +put him in the best of trim, and he began to fiddle with a verve that was +irresistible. In one minute the whole company--including the priest, some +said--was jigging it lustily. "Whew!" gasped one old fellow. "It is the +devil who plays. Get some holy water and sprinkle the floor." + +Gwen watched the musician as closely as his labors would allow, for he +did not like the way the fiddler had of looking at Louison, and he +thought to himself that Louison never blushed so prettily for him. +Forgetting himself when he saw the fiddler smile at the girl, he made a +rush for the barrel where that artist was perched. He bumped against a +dancer and fell. At that moment the light was put out and the hall rang +with screams and laughter. The tones of one voice sounded above the rest: +"By right of the ring the girl is mine." + +"He has me," Louison was heard to say, yet seemingly not in fear. Lights +were brought. Louison and the fiddler were gone, the stranger's cloak and +half of a false moustache were on the floor, while Gwen was jammed into +the barrel and was kicking desperately to get out. When released he +rushed for the river-side where he had seen the boat. Two figures flitted +before him, but he lost sight of them, and in the silence and loneliness +his choler began to cool. Could it really have been the devil? An owl +hooted in the bush. He went away in haste. There was a rumor in after +years that Beaurain was an actor in a company that went up and down the +great river on a barge, and that a woman who resembled Louison was also +in the troupe. But Gwen never told the story of his disappointment +without crossing himself. + + + + +THE SPELL OF CREVE CIUR LAKE + +Not far west of St. Louis the Lake of Creve Coeur dimples in the breezes +that bend into its basin of hills, and there, in summer, swains and +maidens go to confirm their vows, for the lake has an influence to +strengthen love and reunite contentious pairs. One reason ascribed for +the presence of this spell concerns a turbulent Peoria, ambitious of +leadership and hungry for conquest, who fell upon the Chawanons at this +place, albeit he was affianced to the daughter of their chief. The girl +herself, enraged at the treachery of the youngster, put herself at the +head of her band--a dusky Joan of Arc,--and the fight waged so furiously +that the combatants, what were left of them, were glad when night fell +that they might crawl away to rest their exhausted bodies and nurse their +wounds. Neither tribe daring to invite a battle after that, hostilities +were stopped, but some time later the young captain met the girl of his +heart on the shore, and before the amazon could prepare for either fight +or flight he had caught her in his arms. They renewed their oaths of +fidelity, and at the wedding the chief proclaimed eternal peace and +blessed the waters they had met beside, the blessing being potent to this +day. + +Another reason for the enchantments that are worked here may be that the +lake is occupied by a demon-fish or serpent that crawls, slimy and +dripping, through the underbrush, whenever it sees two lovers together, +and listens to their words. If the man prove faithless he would best +beware of returning to this place, for the demon is lurking there to +destroy him. This monster imprisons the soul of an Ozark princess who +flung herself into the lake when she learned that the son of the Spanish +governor, who had vowed his love to her, had married a woman of his own +rank and race in New Orleans. So they call the lake Creve Coeur, or +Broken Heart. On the day after the suicide the Ozark chief gathered his +men about him and paddled to the middle of the water, where he solemnly +cursed his daughter in her death, and asked the Great Spirit to confine +her there as a punishment for giving her heart to the treacherous white +man, the enemy of his people. The Great Spirit gave her the form in which +she is occasionally seen, to warn and punish faithless lovers. + + + + +HOW THE CRIME WAS REVEALED + +In 1853 a Hebrew peddler, whose pack was light and his purse was full, +asked leave to pass the night at the house of Daniel Baker, near Lebanon, +Missouri. The favor was granted, and that was the last seen of Samuel +Moritz; although, when some neighbors shook their heads and wondered how +it was that Baker was so well in funds, there were others who replied +that it was impossible to keep track of peddlers, and that if Moritz +wanted to start on his travels early in the morning, or to return to St. +Louis for goods, it mattered to nobody. On an evening in 1860 when there +was a mist in the gullies and a new moon hung in the west, Rev. Mr. +Cummings, a clergyman of that region, was driving home, and as he came to +a bridge near "old man" Baker's farm he saw a man standing on it, with a +pack on his back and a stick in his hand, who was staring intently at +something beneath the bridge. The clergyman greeted him cheerily and +asked him if he would like to ride, whereat the man looked him in the +face and pointed to the edge of the bridge. Mr. Cummings glanced down, +saw nothing, and when he looked up again the man with the pack had +disappeared. His horse at the same moment gave a snort and plunged +forward at a run, so that the clergyman's attention was fully occupied +until he had brought the animal under control again; when he glanced back +and saw that the man was still standing in the bridge and looking over +the edge of it. The minister told his neighbors of this adventure, and on +returning with two of them to the spot next morning they found the body +of old man Baker swinging by the neck from a beam of the bridge exactly +beneath where the apparition had stood--for it must have been an +apparition, inasmuch as the dust, damped though it had been with dew, +showed no trace of footprint. In taking down the body the men loosened +the earth on a shelving bank, and the gravel rolling away disclosed a +skeleton with some bits of clothing on it that were identified as +belongings of Samuel Moritz. Was it conscience, craziness, or fate that +led old man Baker to hang himself above the grave of his victim? + + + + +BANSHEE OF THE BAD LANDS + +"Hell, with the fires out," is what the Bad Lands of Dakota have been +called. The fearless Western nomenclature fits the place. It is an +ancient sea-bottom, with its clay strata worn by frost and flood into +forms like pagodas, pyramids, and terraced cities. Labyrinthine canons +wind among these fantastic peaks, which are brilliant in color, but +bleak, savage, and oppressive. Game courses over the castellated hills, +rattlesnakes bask at the edge of the crater above burning coal seams, and +wild men have made despairing stand here against advancing civilization. +It may have been the white victim of a red man's jealousy that haunts the +region of the butte called "Watch Dog," or it may have been an Indian +woman who was killed there, but there is a banshee in the desert whose +cries have chilled the blood that would not have cooled at the sight of a +bear or panther. By moonlight, when the scenery is most suggestive and +unearthly, and the noises of wolves and owls inspire uneasy feelings, the +ghost is seen on a hill a mile south of the Watch Dog, her hair blowing, +her arms tossing in strange gestures. + +If war parties, emigrants, cowboys, hunters, any who for good or ill are +going through this country, pass the haunted butte at night, the rocks +are lighted with phosphor flashes and the banshee sweeps upon them. As if +wishing to speak, or as if waiting a question that it has occurred to +none to ask, she stands beside them in an attitude of appeal, but if +asked what she wants she flings her arms aloft and with a shriek that +echoes through the blasted gulches for a mile she disappears and an +instant later is seen wringing her hands on her hill-top. Cattle will not +graze near the haunted butte and the cowboys keep aloof from it, for the +word has never been spoken that will solve the mystery of the region or +quiet the unhappy banshee. + +The creature has a companion, sometimes, in an unfleshed skeleton that +trudges about the ash and clay and haunts the camps in a search for +music. If he hears it he will sit outside the door and nod in time to it, +while a violin left within his reach is eagerly seized and will be played +on through half the night. The music is wondrous: now as soft as the stir +of wind in the sage, anon as harsh as the cry of a wolf or startling as +the stir of a rattler. As the east begins to brighten the music grows +fainter, and when it is fairly light it has ceased altogether. But he who +listens to it must on no account follow the player if the skeleton moves +away, for not only will it lead him into rocky pitfalls, whence escape is +hopeless, but when there the music will intoxicate, madden, and will +finally charm his soul from his body. + + + + +STANDING ROCK + +The stone that juts from one of the high banks of the Missouri, in South +Dakota, gives its name to the Standing Rock Agency, which, by reason of +many councils, treaties, fights, feasts, and dances held there, is the +best known of the frontier posts. It was a favorite gathering place of +the Sioux before the advent of the white man. The rock itself is only +twenty-eight inches high and fifteen inches wide, and could be plucked up +and carried away without difficulty, but no red man is brave enough to do +that, for this is the transformed body of a squaw who was struck into +stone by Manitou for falsely suspecting her husband of unfaithfulness. + +After her transformation she not only remained sentient but acquired +supernatural powers that the Sioux propitiated by offerings of beads, +tobacco, and ribbons, paint, fur, and game--a practice that was not +abandoned until the teachings of missionaries began to have effect among +them. Soldiers and trappers think the story an ingenious device to +prevent too close inquiry into the lives of some of the nobility of the +tribe. The Arickarees, however, regard this stone as the wife of one of +their braves, who was so pained and mortified when her husband took a +second wife that she went out into the prairie and neither ate nor drank +until she died, when the Great Spirit turned her into the Standing Stone. +The squaws still resort to it in times of domestic trouble. + + + + +THE SALT WITCH + +A pillar of snowy salt once stood on the Nebraska plain, about forty +miles above the point where the Saline flows into the Platte, and white +men used to hear of it as the Salt Witch. An Indian tribe was for a long +time quartered at the junction of the rivers, its chief a man of blood +and muscle in whom his people gloried, but so fierce, withal, that nobody +made a companion of him except his wife, who alone could check his +tigerish rages. + +In sooth, he loved her so well that on her death he became a recluse and +shut himself within his lodge, refusing to see anybody. This mood endured +with him so long that mutterings were heard in the tribe and there was +talk of choosing another chief. Some of this talk he must have heard, for +one morning he emerged in war-dress, and without a word to any one strode +across the plain to westward. On returning a full month later he was more +communicative and had something unusual to relate. He also proved his +prowess by brandishing a belt of fresh scalps before the eyes of his +warriors, and he had also brought a lump of salt. + +He told them that after travelling far over the prairie he had thrown +himself on the earth to sleep, when he was aroused by a wailing sound +close by. In the light of a new moon he saw a hideous old woman +brandishing a tomahawk over the head of a younger one, who was kneeling, +begging for mercy, and trying to shake off the grip from her throat. The +sight of the women, forty miles from the village, so surprised the chief +that he ran toward them. The younger woman made a desperate effort to +free herself, but in vain, as it seemed, for the hag wound her left hand +in her hair while with the other she raised the axe and was about to +strike. + +At that moment the chief gained a view of the face of the younger +woman-it was that of his dead wife. With a snarl of wrath he leaped upon +the hag and buried his own hatchet in her brain, but before he could +catch his wife in his arms the earth had opened and both women +disappeared, but a pillar of salt stood where he had seen this thing. For +years the Indians maintained that the column was under the custody of the +Salt Witch, and when they went there to gather salt they would beat the +ground with clubs, believing that each blow fell upon her person and kept +her from working other evil. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Central States and Great Lakes +by Charles M. 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