es not
help forward the denouement, but is tedious and witless to the last
degree. The gems of the legends--the essential points--the invention and
thought-work are all preserved.

Their chief value I have ever thought to consist in the insight they
give into the dark cave of the Indian mind--its beliefs, dogmas, and
opinions--its secret modes of turning over thought--its real philosophy;
and it is for this trait that I believe posterity will sustain the book.

A literary friend, of good judgment, of Detroit, writes (19th): "Your
tales have reached me, and I have read them over with a deep interest,
arising from a double source--the intrinsic value of such stories and
the insight they give of Indian intellect and modes of thought. They
form a truly important acquisition to our literary treasures, as they
throw a light oft the Indian character which has been imparted from no
other quarter. They form a standard by which to determine what is true
and what is false in the representations made heretofore of the
aboriginal nations on most prominent subjects. No one will doubt that
you render the genuine Indian mind and heart. Those who conform to
these renderings will pass muster; the rest will be rejected. Let Mr.
Cooper and others be thus measured."

_24th_. Muk-kud-da Ka-niew (or the Black War Eagle), chief of the coasts
of Arenac, brought me an antique pipe of peculiar construction,
disinterred at Thunder Bay. It was found about six feet underground; and
was disclosed by the blowing down of a large pine, which tore up a
quantity of earth by its roots. The tree was two fathoms round, and
would make a large canoe. With the pipe were found two earthen vases,
which broke on taking them up. In these vases were some small bones of
the pickerel's spine. He saw also the leg bones of an Indian, but the
upper part of the skeleton appeared to be decomposed, and was not
visible. He thinks the tree must have grown up on an old grave. The pipe
consisted of a squared and ornamented bowl, with a curved and tapering
handle, all made solid from a sort of coarse _terra cotta_. He says it
was used by taking the small end in the mouth, and thinks such was the
practice of the ancient Indians, although the mode is now so different
by their descendants. The chief ornament consists of eight dots on each
face, separated by longitudinal strokes, leaving four in a compartment.
If the tree was four feet diameter, as he states, it denotes an ancient