leaving but few of the Andirondacks survivors of their attack. Nearly
the whole had perished from the assaults of beings against whom human
weapons were useless--who laughed at the puny resistance of mortals,
and feared their battle less than the carcajou fears the mouse, or the
canieu the humming-bird.

The Great Being, at the prayer of the water-spirits, bade the souls of
the slaughtered Andirondacks assume the shape of eagles, commanding
them to dwell for ever on the little island which stands just below
the cataract, and within the full hearing of its incessant and
tremendous roar. That they might receive the full reward of their
arrogance, and pride, and cruelty, he so refined their sense of
hearing, that the shaking of the wings of the bat was to them as loud
as the thunder of the hills to a man having but the usual ear. What
then must be the noise of the mighty cataract, which, leaping over a
precipice of rocks, upon a stony bed, flies back again in foam and
spray, higher than an arrow impelled by the toughest bow, bent by the
strongest arm!

If my brother believes my story the song of a bird, let him visit the
cataract, and use his own eyes and ears. If he do not behold that
little island covered with eagles, whose wings never cleave any other
air than its own; if he do not hear the angry voice of the spirits in
the boiling waters, ay, and if he do not see them after nightfall;
then let him call me a liar.

I have no more to say.

NOTE.

(1) _Wampum._--p. 118.

Wampum is an Indian word signifying a muscle. A number of these
muscles strung together is called a string of wampum, which when a
fathom long is termed a belt of wampum, but the word string is
commonly used whether it be long or short. Before the English came to
North America, the Indians used to make their strings of wampum
chiefly of small pieces of wood of equal size, stained either black or
white. Few were made of muscles, which were esteemed valuable and
difficult to make. But the Europeans soon contrived to make strings of
wampum, both neat and elegant, and in great abundance. The Indians
immediately gave up the use of the old wooden substitutes for wampum,
and procured those made of muscles, which, though fallen in price,
were always accounted valuable.

These muscles are chiefly found on the coast of Virginia and Maryland,
and are valued according to their colour--which is brown, violet, and
white. The former are sometimes of so dark