blem formed of stone,
Fashioned in the well-known outlines of a thing they called their own.
In the caverns of his store-house, deeply sunken in the ground,
Lay the mystical red pipe-stone, never yet by sachem found.
With his strong right hand almighty, rent he now the ground in twain,
Broke the red stone of the quarry, and, resounding o'er the plain,
Came this message to the warriors:--"Let this be to you a sign:
Make you calumets of pipe-stone, pledge you peace and love divine,
By the smoking of this signet. Let it pass from hand to hand.
Cease you from your wars and wrangling, and be brothers in the land."

The Great Spirit's words were heeded, and the calumet, the pipe
Which they often smoked together in their councils, was the type
Of good-will and peace thereafter, and upon the quarry's site,
Hostile tribes and tongues and races meeting, never meet to fight.

Many legends and traditions cluster round this sacred spot;
Many histories and records deep with hidden meaning fraught,
Have been chiseled on the ledges at the ancient bowlders' base,
Who, like strangers in the valley, drifted to a resting place.

[Illustration]

Here, ere Manitou had given to the tribes the pipe of peace,
Saw he mighty war and bloodshed, saw the tribes of men decrease,
Until fleeing from destruction, come three maidens to the rocks--
The last remnant of all women, hiding from the fearful shocks
Of the deadly fight and carnage which was raging through the air,
Driven to these three large bowlders, as a refuge in despair.
Now in memory of the conflict and the part the bowlders bore,
They are named in weird tradition, "The Three Maidens," evermore.

[Illustration]

Here the thunder-bird portentous, Wakan, terrible in might,
Made his home in awful grandeur on the cliff's mysterious height.
Here the flapping of his pinions brought the fierce, hot lightning's
glare,
Glazing all the fissured surface like enamel smooth and fair;
Melting all the red rock's substance till a foot-print of the bird,
Plastic then, took form and hardened for a witness of the word.

[Illustration: _Falls of Winnewissa._]

Northward, just beyond the quarry, stands the famous "Leaping Rock,"
With its proud head reared to heaven, with an air that seems to mock
And to set at stern defiance, boastful braves who seek for fame,
And from agile feats to gather for themselves an envied name.
Hither came to try his daring, with brave heart to valor nerved,
Hopefully a