kes its second leap,
Is a spring of sparkling water
Like a river broad and deep."

The spring pours out of the earth near the fall in a great natural
fountain, emerald-green, clear as crystal, bordered with water-cresses,
and mingles its waters with the clouded surges of the Missouri. If a
person looks down into this fountain from a point near enough for him to
touch his nose to the water, all the fairy-like scenes of the Silver
Springs and the Waukulla Spring in Florida appear. The royal halls and
chambers of Undine meet the view, with gardens of emeralds and gem-bearing
ferns. It kindles one's fancy to gaze long into these crystal caverns, and
a practical mind could hardly resist here the poetic sense of Fouque that
created Undine.

The Black Eagle Falls, with its great nest and marvelous fountains, was a
favorite resort of the Blackfeet Indians and other Indian tribes. It is
related in the old traditions that the Piegans, on one of their
expeditions against the Crows, rested here, and became enchanted with the
fountain:

"Hither came the warrior Piegans
On their way to fight the Crow;
Stood upon its verge, and wondered
What could mean the power below."

The Piegans were filled with awe that the fountain rose and fell and
gurgled, as if in spasms of pain. They sent for a native medicine-man.

"Why is the fountain troubled?" they asked.

"This," said the Indian prophet, "is the pure stream that flows through
the earth to the sun. It asks for offerings. We cast the spoils of war
into it, and it carries them away to the Sun's _tepee_, and the Sun is
glad, and so shines for us all."

The Blackfeet worshiped the Sun. The Sun River, a few miles above this
cataract, was a medicine or sacred river in the tribal days, and it was in
this region of gleaming streams and thundering waterfalls that the once
famous Sun-dances were held.

There was a barbarous splendor about these Sun-dances. The tribes gathered
for the festival in the long, bright days of the year. They wore ornaments
of crystal, quartz, and mica, such as would attract and reflect the rays
of the sun. The dance was a glimmering maze of reflections. As it reached
its height, gleaming arrows were shot into the air. Above them, in their
poetic vision, sat the Sun in his _tepee_. They held that the thunder was
caused by the wings of a great invisible bird. Often, at the close of the
Sun-dance on the sultry days, the clouds w