les, and the coals of the fire in which
he roasted them, are to be seen now at the place where he lived. I
have not yet told my brothers the name of this big man of Nope--it
was Moshup.

I hear the stranger ask, "Who was he?" I hear my brothers ask, "Was he
a spirit from the shades of departed men, or did he come from the
hills of the thunder? I answer, he was a Spirit, but whence he came,
when first he landed in our Indian country, I know not. It was a long
time ago, and the Island[A] was then very young, being just placed on
the back of the Great Tortoise which now supports it. As it was very
heavy the tortoise tried to roll it off, but the Great Spirit would
not let him, and whipped him till he lay still. Moshup told the
Pawkunnawkut that he once lived upon the main land. He said that much
people grew up around him, men who lived by hunting and fishing, while
their women planted the corn, and beans, and pumpkins. They had
_powwows_, he said, who dressed themselves in a strange dress,
muttered diabolical words, and frightened the Indians till they gave
them half their wampum. Our fathers knew by this, that they were their
ancestors, who were always led by the priests--the more fools they!
Once upon a time, Moshup said, a great bird whose wings were the
flight of an arrow wide, whose body was the length of ten Indian
strides, and whose head when he stretched up his neck peered over the
tall oak-woods, came to Moshup's neighbourhood. At first, he only
carried away deer and mooses; at last, many children were missing.
This continued for many moons. Nobody could catch him, nobody could
kill him. The Indians feared him, and dared not go near him; he in his
turn feared Moshup, and would seek the region of the clouds the moment
he saw him coming. When he caught children, he would immediately fly
to the island which lay towards the hot winds. Moshup, angry that he
could not catch him, and fearing that, if the creature hatched others
of equal appetite and ferocity, the race of Indians would become
extinct, one day waded into the water after him, and continued in
pursuit till he had crossed to the island which sent the hot winds,
and which is now called Nope. There, under a great tree, he found the
bones of all the children which the great bird had carried away. A
little further he found its nest, with seven hatched birds in it,
which, together with the mother, he succeeded after a hard battle in
killing. Extremely fatigued, h