rent. In the hot rays of that
June sun, not even the birds emitted a note, waiting under their leafy
shelters in the darkest recesses of the woods, until the pleasant
coolness of approaching evening should tempt them out and reawaken
their songs. The Indian, seeing that no one was in sight, commenced
collecting brush and sticks of dry wood that lay about, which he
heaped up into a pile upon a rock close to the water's edge. After he
had gathered together a quantity that appeared to him sufficient, he
selected from the stones lying around, a couple of flints which seemed
fittest for his purpose, and by striking them violently together,
soon succeeded in producing a shower of sparks, which falling on the
thoroughly dried and combustible matter, instantly set it on fire,
and shot a tongue of flame into the air. Reverently then inclining
his body towards the cataract, as in an attitude of supplication,
Ohquamehud addressed the Manito, and explained his wishes. He spoke
with dignity, as one who, though standing in the presence of a
superior, was not unmindful of his own worth. The sounds at first were
those of lamentation, so low as scarcely to be audible, and plaintive
and sweet as the sighs of the wind through the curled conch shell.
"Oh Manito," he said, "where are thy children, once as plenty as the
forest leaves? Ask of the month of flowers for the snows that 'Hpoon
scatters from his hand, or of the Yaupaae for the streams he pours
into the great Salt Lake. The sick-skinned stranger, with hair like
the curls of the vine, came from the rising sun. He was weak as a
little child: he shivered with the cold: he was perishing with hunger.
The red man was strong: he wrapped himself in bear skins and was warm;
he built his wigwam of bark, and defied the storm, and meat was plenty
in his pot. He pitied the dying stranger; he brought him on his back
out of the snow, and laid him by the fire; he chafed his limbs and
clothed him in furs; he presented venison with his own hands, and the
daughters of the tribes offered honey and cakes of maize, and wept for
compassion. And the pale face saw that our land was better than his
own, and he envied us, and sent messengers to his people to come and
strip us of our heritage. Then they came as the flights of pigeons in
the spring, innumerable: in multitudes as the shad and salmon, when
they ascend the thawed rivers. They poisoned the air with their
breaths, and the Indians died helpless in the