bosom,
or the swallow skimming along, catching the flies as they rose from
the quenching of their thirst. The brown eagle was wheeling in spiral
mazes towards his beloved sun, and I heard the chirping of the
grasshopper, and the hum of the bee, each carolling away in his
light-hearted labour. Afar lay the headlands, jutting into the lake,
and the precipitous cliffs which rise over the deeper portion of its
waters. Behind me were the smokes of the cabins of my people, and
before me the beautiful expanse of the unruffled lake.

"As I brushed my light bark along, I saw, standing on the water at a
distance from me, a very beautiful woman. My tongue has not the power
to paint the charms of this stately and bright-eyed creature. She was
tall, and as straight as a youthful fir, and her eyes shone with such
brilliancy, that you could not endure to look upon them, any more than
upon the sun, but turned away to contemplate other objects. She was
clothed in a garment which glittered in the sun like the sparkling
sand of the Spirits' Island[A], and her locks, which were yellow as
the beams of that sun falling upon the folds of a cloud, flowed down
her beautiful form till they swept the surface of the waters. Filled
with sudden love for this beautiful creature, and anxious to secure
her to myself, I spread the blanket of friendship to the wind[B], and
paddled my canoe towards her. As I came near her, I could perceive a
strange alteration in her appearance. Her shape gradually altered, her
arms imperceptibly disappeared, her complexion assumed a different
hue, her cheek no more glowed with life, her eyes had lost their
brilliancy, her before glittering locks glittered no longer, and, when
I came to the spot where she stood, I found only a shapeless monument
of stone, having a human face and the fins and tail of a fish. For a
long time I sat in amazement and uncertainly of purpose, fearing
either to approach nearer, or to speak to the once loved, but now
fearful object. At length, having made an offering of tobacco to
propitiate the spirit, and deprecated its wrath for having dared to
love it, I addressed it in these words:

[Footnote A: See note, vol. i. page 59.]

[Footnote B: See note, vol. i. page 253.]

"'Spirit, that wast beautiful but now, and hast only become divested of
thy unequalled brilliancy because a poor mortal approaches thee!
guardian spirit of our nation! messenger to myself from the Great
Spirit! or whatever ot