nds.

CHAPTER IV

THE PROPHET

Tecumseh was now pondering a great plan. Year after year
he had seen his people pushed farther and farther back
from their streams and hunting-grounds. When he looked
into the future, he saw that the red race was doomed
unless a strong and united effort was made to check this
aggression. He did not at once take his followers into
his confidence, but meditated long on a plan to gather
the tribes into one great confederacy to oppose the
encroachments of the whites and to prevent the extermination
of the Indian race. Pontiac, that towering figure in
Indian speech and legend, was ever in his mind. Before
Tecumseh's birth Pontiac had formed an Indian confederation
against the English in America. But his was only a
temporary union of the Indians, while Tecumseh planned
to unite the tribes in a great and permanent empire.

To further his great plan of bringing about a confederation
of the tribes, Tecumseh resolved to take advantage of
the superstitions of the people. An Indian familiar with
the lore of his tribe believes himself to be continually
surrounded by spirits, of whose power he is in constant
dread. He sees them dimly in visions and recognizes them
in many signs and omens--in gliding snake, flying bird,
the lightning, the wind, the rustling of leaves, the
noise of the tempest, the roaring cataract, the sound of
thunder. To the hunter roaming through the forest the
trees take on weird shapes, and ghostly shadows lurk in
dark defiles. At twilight he sees gnomelike figures
dancing before him and anon swallowed up in the darkness;
again he sees them, holding their elfin revels on some
moonlit cliff. Thus it is that the Indian imagination
peoples the gloom of the ancient forests.

It has been mentioned that Tecumseh had a younger brother
named Laulewasikaw, who had been born a twin, and, in
consequence, would be supposed by the Indians to possess
supernatural power. One day, while Laulewasikaw was
smoking in his wigwam, his pipe dropped from his hand,
and he fell prone upon the ground. His body remained so
long without sign of life that his friends assembled to
administer the last rites for the dead. Suddenly, however,
he awoke from his deathlike trance, and announced to the
startled mourners that he had been transported to the
spirit-world, where marvellous things had been revealed
to him. After this he frequently retired to secret places
to hold converse with the Great S