aker party, which made
them more than a match(4) for any thing breathing, as doubtless our
brother knows. And it is because our people rescued the good Elks from
the fangs of their cruel and merciless ancestors that the Carcajous
have been, and to this day are, such bitter enemies to our people, and
open their jugulars, and take their scalps whenever they can.

[Footnote A: The Indians affirm that the Elk has a bone in his heart,
which, being reduced to powder, and taken in broth, facilitates
delivery, and softens the pains of child-bearing.--_Charlevoix._]

I am not able to tell my brother in what moon it was that a woman of
our nation, determined to learn why the Child of the Hare absented
himself so frequently from the village, followed him at early
nightfall into the thick and gloomy forest which adjoined the lands of
the Ottawas. It was a dark, and wild, and thickly wooded, dell, into
which this fearless woman precipitated herself at early nightfall, but
she had a powerful motive to encounter danger--there was a secret to
be caught, a mystery to be unravelled, and she went with alacrity and
pleasure. It is much that a woman will do to come at the bottom of a
mystery, which has for some time baffled her and put her nose at
fault; and many dangers and inconveniences, and much toil and trouble,
must that journey promise, whose danger and inconvenience, and toil
and trouble, shall deter her from attempting it when its object is the
learning what, in spite of her, has long remained hidden. So the
curious woman followed the Child of the Hare into the deep dell at
early nightfall.

They travelled onward, he ahead, and she behind, keeping him
constantly in view for a long time, until they came, all at once, just
as the sun was rising, to a deep valley surrounded by high hills,
through which there was but one path--a beaten and travelled
path--that in which they came. But what most surprised this
adventurous woman was, that though this valley lay but a little boy's
journey of half a sun from the Ottawa village, and though she had, as
she supposed, visited every part of the contiguous wilderness, she had
never beheld it till now, nor heard it spoken of by her people. But
that circumstance did not prevent her from admiring the beautiful
spot--it was indeed the most lovely ever beheld by mortal eyes, and
well did it deserve the many fond epithets she heaped upon it.
Stretched out as far as the eye could reach, this valley l