re for venom the fangs of a snake;
their cunning, the cunning of a fox; and their fierceness, the
fierceness of a mountain cat, or a panther. Very nimble they seemed,
and sprang about the legs and arms of the bigger animal, like a
squirrel leaping from one branch of a tree to another branch. One ran
up a rope till it had reached one of the arms; another slid down in
like manner; a third was perched half-way up; a fourth was running to
and fro on the back of the animal. At length, one of the little
animals dropped a great rope, to which was appended an enormous forked
tree, and this operated to tie up the bigger animal, which rolled
about very much, as if in vain attempts to liberate itself from the
thraldom to which they had subjected it.

After a while, there was a smaller animal seen leaving the side of the
bigger, as a kid leaves the side of its mother, similar in shape to
the bigger, but having neither arms nor legs; and, upon the back of
this animal, many of the smaller animals sought the shore. When they
had arrived, they presented themselves to the eyes of the astonished
Abnakis, in a shape which seemed to the sleeper to be that of a
panther, wearing the shape of man, yet fierce and cruel as any ever
found in the wilds of the river of the Abnakis. With this fierce and
cruel disposition was coupled a cunning beyond that of the fox, and a
malignity greater than the rattlesnake's. Their fierceness and
cruelty, and the malignity and savage ferocity of their natures, were
hidden, however, under a show of peace. They laughed, and grinned, and
did the other things, which mortals do when they are, or pretend to
be, pleased, making the unsuspecting Abnakis think that they were
their very good friends, when they were only waiting for a chance to
rend them limb from limb. Nor was their disposition wholly hidden by
the mask, which these worthless and wicked beasts had only assumed for
the purpose of beguiling the poor red man. Occasionally the panther
would show his teeth, and the rattlesnake his malignity, though the
cunning of the fox would soon throw a veil over the one, and hush the
noise of the other.

Strange, indeed were the bodies, tempers, and dispositions of the
beasts, which thus passed in sleep before the eyes of the dreaming
chief. He saw them invested with the habits and feelings of men, as
they appeared to be gifted with their capacities and acquirements.
They had courage, not indeed as the Abnakis have it,