e Indians, breeds storms in the air, and utters
the fearful sound in the black clouds, had carefully abstained from
attempting to visit it. Nor was it altogether a mere uncertain dread
of evil, which had operated on their minds to people it with living
and moving beings. They could see at times men of monstrous stature
moving rapidly over the island, and at all seasons in the calm
evening, or when the winds blew from it, could hear sounds of anger or
wailing, or of music and merriment, proceeding from its gloomy shades.
And some pretended to have seen distinctly the form of a tall man
wading into the water to grasp whales. The forced visit to its shores
of Tackanash, the Pawkunnawkut, made them see it was not the dream of
a sleeper who has eaten too much meat, but like that which men see
with their eyes when they are awake, and would talk only what the Good
Spirit may hear.

[Footnote A: A brook in Barnstable County, respecting which this
tradition is current among the Indians.]

When Tackanash and his dog arrived at Nope, he found the man whose
existence had been doubted by many of the Indians, and believed to
have been only seen by deceived eyes, heard by foolish ears, and
talked of by lying tongues, living in a deep cave near the end of the
island, nearest the setting sun. And this was the account which
Tackanash on his return gave the chiefs of the strange creature. He
was taller than the tallest tree upon Nope, and as large around him as
the spread of the tops of a vigorous pine, that has seen the years of
a full grown warrior. His skin was very black; but his beard, which he
had never plucked nor clipped, and the hair of his head, which had
never been shaved, were of the colour of the feathers of the grey
gull. His eyes were very white, and his teeth, which were only two in
number, were green as the ooze raked up by the winds from the bottom
of the sea. He was always good-natured and cheerful, save when he
could not get plenty of meat, or when he missed his usual supply of
the Indian weed, and the strong drink which made him see whales
chasing deer in the woods, and frogs digging _quawhogs_. His principal
food was the meat of whales, which he caught by wading after them into
the great sea, and tossing them out, as the Indian boys do black bugs
from a puddle. He would, however, eat porpoises, when no larger fish
were to be had, and even tortoises, and deer, and rabbits, rather than
be hungry. The bones of the wha