aquaphenogan, and the lake of the same name, and became the wives
and mothers of hunters and warriors. They were at times very stormy in
their tempers, but upon the whole not worse than other women. Their
faces were at times those of April days, alternately shining and
showery, but there were women in our nation, who were not at all akin
to the sun, nor ever saw Ouaquaphenogan, that were as like them as if
they had been sisters. Their eyes did, indeed, sometimes send out
volleys of lightnings, and their tongues give forth heavy thunders,
but neither were louder nor sharper than those of the women, who had
for ages given the beam of the one and the music of the other to the
men of the Creeks. And, if they did at times term their husbands
"brutes," it was no more than other husbands had been called before.
And if they did, in the moment of a hurricane, drive their husbands
from their fire-sides, they were by no means the first who had done
so. Upon the whole, the four hunters had no particular reason to
regret their bewilderment in the marsh Ouaquaphenogan.

THE MAIDEN AND THE BIRD.

It cannot be new to my pale-faced brother, for he has been told it
often enough, that, besides the Great Master of Life, the red men of
the forest worship a great multitude of spirits with whom they believe
every part of the world to be peopled. According to our belief, a
Manitou dwells upon every hill, and in every valley; in every open
glade and dark morass; in the chambers of every cavern, and the heart
of every rock; in every fountain, and watery depth, and running
stream. These spirits dislike white men very much, because they are
always intruding upon their quiet, robbing both hill and valley of
their stately trees, breaking up the bosom of the earth, penetrating
into every dark morass and cavern, and polluting, by some means or
other, every fountain, and watery depth, and running stream. Indians
do not wish to provoke them, and so try to propitiate them by innocent
and unbloody offerings. We spread on the mountain tops, or hang on the
cliffs, or lay on the shelves of the caves, or drop into the waters,
wreaths of flowers, belts of wampum, clusters of the wild grape,
shining ears of maize, and other gifts which attach them to us. When
an Indian child is born, whether it is a man-child or woman-child, a
spirit is immediately chosen to protect it, and its future life is
expected to be prosperous or not as the guardian spirit is p