ounded bird.
Frightened and in pain, it appeared to roll its eyeballs
completely round.

By their conversation and familiar remarks, I observed that they were
habitually under the influence of their peculiar mythology and religion.
They referred to classes of _monetos_, which are spirits, in a manner
which disclosed the belief that the woods and waters were replete with
their agency. On the second day, we reached and entered the Tacquimenon
River. It carried a deep and strong current to the foot of the first
falls, which they call Fairy Rocks. This Indian word denotes a species
of little men or fairies, which, they say, love to dwell on rocks. The
falls are broken into innumerable cascades, which give them a peculiarly
sylvan air. From the brink of these falls to the upper falls, a distance
of about six miles, the channel of the river is a perfect torrent, and
would seem to defy navigation. But before I was well aware of it, they
had the canoe in it, with a single man with a long pole in the bow and
stern. I took my seat between the centre bars, and was in admiration at
the perfect composure and _sangfroid_ with which these two men managed
it--now shooting across the stream to find better water, and always
putting in their poles exactly at the right instant, and singing some
Indian cantata all the while. The upper falls at length burst on our
view, on rounding a point. The river has a complete drop, of some forty
feet, over a formation of sandstone. The water forms a complete curtain.
There is nothing to break the sheet, or intercept it, till it reaches
the deep water below. They said there was some danger of the canoe's
being drawn under the sheet, by a kind of suction. This' stream in fact,
geologically considered, crosses through, and falls over, the high ridge
of sandstone rock which stretches from Point Iroquois to the Pictured
Rocks. I took sketches of both the upper and lower falls.

Being connected by marriage with an educated and intelligent lady, who
is descended, by her mother's side, from the former ruler of the
Chippewa nation--a man of renown--I was received, on this trip, with a
degree of confidence and cordiality by the Indians, which I had not
expected. I threw myself, naked handed, into their midst, and was
received with a noble spirit of hospitality and welcome. And the
incidents of this trip revealed to me some of the most interesting
scenes of Indian domestic life.

CHAPTER XXI.

Oral tales