m the distant sand-banks in the lakes,
glittering in the sun, come stories of enchantresses combing, on the
shore, the long golden hair of a beautiful daughter. The Lorelei of the
Rhine, with her syren song, and the sad events that follow, is found on
the lonely rocks of Lake Superior.

The story to which I now refer, may be found in a book called Life on
the Lakes, or, a Trip to the Pictured Rocks. There are two which purport
to be Indian tales; one is simply a romantic narrative, connected with a
spot at Mackinaw, called Robinson's Folly. This, no less than the other,
was unknown to those persons I saw on the island; but as they seem
entirely beyond the powers of the person who writes them down, and the
other one has the profound and original meaning of Greek tragedy, I
believe they must be genuine legends.

The one I admire is the story of a young warrior, who goes to keep, on
these lonely rocks, the fast which is to secure him vision of his
tutelary spirit. There the loneliness is broken by the voice of sweet
music from the water. The Indian knows well that to break the fast,
which is the crisis of his life, by turning his attention from seeking
the Great Spirit, to any lower object, will deprive him through life of
heavenly protection, probably call down the severest punishment.

But the temptation is too strong for him; like the victims of the
Lorelei, he looks, like them beholds a maiden of unearthly beauty, to
him the harbinger of earthly wo.

The development of his fate, that succeeds; of love, of heart-break, of
terrible revenge, which back upon itself recoils, may vie with anything
I have ever known of stern tragedy, is altogether unlike any other form,
and with all the peculiar expression we see lurking in the Indian eye.
The demon is not frightful and fantastic, like those that haunt the
German forest; but terribly human, as if of full manhood, reared in the
shadow of the black forests. An Indian sarcasm vibrates through it,
which, with Indian fortitude, defies the inevitable torture.

The Indian is steady to that simple creed, which forms the basis of all
this mythology; that there is a God, and a life beyond this; a right and
wrong which each man can see, betwixt which each man should choose; that
good brings with it its reward and vice its punishment. Their moral
code, if not refined as that of civilized nations, is clear and noble in
the stress laid upon truth and fidelity. And all unprejudiced obse