of
that which they most valued, and bestow upon them a scourge and
affliction adequate to their offences. The Spirit obeyed his master,
and descended to the earth, lighting down upon the lands occupied by
the Kickapoos. It was not long before he discovered what it was which
that people and the other Indians most valued. He saw, from the pains
they took in decorating their tails with gay paints, and beads, and
shells, and wampum, that they prized them above every other
possession. Calling together all the red men, he acquainted them with
the will of his master, and demanded the instant sacrifice of the
article upon which they set so much value. It is impossible to
describe the sorrow and compunction which filled their bosoms, when
they found that the forfeit for their wickedness was to be that
beautiful and beloved appendage. But their prayers and entreaties, to
be spared the humiliation and sacrifice, were in vain. The Spirit was
inexorable, and they were compelled to place their tails on the block
and to behold them amputated.

The punishment being in part performed, the Spirit next bethought
himself of a gift which should prove to them "a scourge and affliction
adequate to their offences." It was to convert the tails thus lopped
off into vain, noisy, chattering, laughing creatures, whose faces
should he like the sky in the Moon of Plants, and whose hearts should
be treacherous, fickle, and inconstant; yet, strange to relate, who
should be loved above all other things on the earth or in the skies.
For them should life often be hazarded--reputation, fame, and virtue,
often forfeited--pain and ignominy incurred. They were to be as a
burden placed on the shoulders of an already overloaded man; and yet,
a burden he would rather strive to carry than abandon. He further
appointed that they should retain the frisky nature of the material
from which they were made, and they have retained it to this day.

The Great Spirit, deeming that the trouble wherewith he had provided
the red man would not sufficiently vex and punish him, determined to
add another infliction, whose sting, though not so potent and irksome,
should be without any alleviation whatever. He sent great swarms of
musquitoes. Deprived of tails, by which flies could be brushed away at
the pleasure of the wearers, the Indians dragged out for a long time a
miserable existence. The musquitoes stung them, and their tails
teased them. The little insects worried them co