its
fearful bosom.

No sooner had she reached the waters of that boiling torrent, than
uprose from its bosom the grisly heads of the fell spirits, who were
its inhabitants. Rage filled their countenances, and horrid
imprecations burst from their lips, as they vowed to be avenged on
that arrogant and wicked people, the Andirondacks, who had inflicted
misery upon an adopted and cherished daughter of the flood. The last
the Ottawas saw of them, they were soothing and comforting the
beautiful Menana, whom, after sustaining for a few moments upon the
surface of the water, they bore to their crystal dwelling beneath the
foaming torrent. They first, however, employed an Ottawa messenger to
bear their defiance to their enemies, and to assure them of their
eternal hatred.

It was not long after that a large war-party of the Andirondacks,
composed of the flower of that nation, and headed by Piskaret,
ascended the Mississippi, to make an incursion into the territories of
a nation who dwelt upon its borders above the Falls. It is the custom
of the tribes, when travelling upon the river, to approach to the
verge of the cataract, and then transport their canoes around it. The
Andirondacks were within a bowshot of the cataract, when all at once
the surface of the water became covered with grisly heads, which
grinned hatred and defiance upon the Andirondacks, who, though filled
with courage to dare encounter with men of their own form and nature,
shook with a new sense of fear, as they beheld the hideous
countenances and uplifted arms of the spirits of the flood. In the
centre of the array of water spirits, they beheld the face of the
beautiful Menana, still shining in all its former beauty, her eyes lit
up by the fires of an unquenched and unquenchable love. Raising their
dreadful shout of vengeance, the spirits now gathered about the canoes
of the paralysed Andirondacks, and commenced their work of
destruction. But _one_ was protected by a being of their own
order--the brave and youthful Piskaret found himself, ere an arrow had
been impelled, or a thrust given by a spear, caught and shielded by
the arms of his faithful Menana. While the water-spirits were employed
in dealing death among their enemies, whose resistance availed not,
the beautiful maiden drew her lover from his seat in his canoe, and
disappeared with him beneath the waters. The moment the lovers had
sunk into the flood, the spirits, with a dreadful shout, sunk also,