published, the book-trade had hardly awakened to that wide and
diffusive impulse which it has since received. No attention had
been given to topics so obscure as inquiries into the character
of the Indian mind--if, indeed, it was thought the Indian had any
mind at all. It was still supposed that the Indian was, at all
times and in all places, "a stoic of the woods," always
statuesque, always formal, always passionless, always on stilts,
always speaking in metaphors, a cold embodiment of bravery,
endurance, and savage heroism. Writers depicted him as a man who
uttered nothing but high principles of natural right, who always
harangued eloquently, and was ready, with unmoved philosophy on
all occasions, to sing his death song at the stake to show the
world how a warrior should die.

[4] The songs and chants which form so striking a part of the
original legends, and also the poetic use of aboriginal ideas,
are transferred to the end of the volume, and will thus, it is
apprehended, relieve and simplify the text.

CONTENTS.

Page

Hiawatha; or, Manabozho 13

Paup-puk-keewiss 52

Osseo; or, the Son of the Evening Star 71

Kwasind; or, the fearfully Strong Man 77

The Jeebi; or, Two Ghosts 81

Iagoo 85

Shawondasee 88

Puck Wudj Ininees; or, the Vanishing Little Men 90

Pezhiu and Wabose; or, the Lynx and Hare 95

Peboan and Seegwun. An Allegory of Winter and Spring 96

Mon-daw-min; or, the Origin of Indian Corn 99

Nezhik-e-wa-wa-sun; or, the Lone Lightning 105

The Ak Uk O Jeesh; or, the Groundhog Family 107

Opeechee; or, the Origin of the Robin 109

Shingebiss. An Allegory of Self-reliance 113

The Star Family; or, the Celestial Sisters 116

Ojeeg Annung; or, the Summer-Maker 121

Chileeli; or, the R