ured over the rock, falling
heavily among the gathering shadows into the pool below. Sometimes,
also, but more rarely, he was seen in the early twilight before
sun-rise, preparing to retreat from the fountain; and fortunate was
the hunter to whom he showed himself at that hour, for it was an omen
of success in the chace. None of the spirits of the surrounding
country were oftener beheld in dreams by the Indians that made their
haunts above the mountains; and, when the forms of the dead from the
land of souls came to their friends in the visions of night, they were
often led by the hand of the gigantic warrior in the wolf-skin and the
eagle-plumes. He was never known to inflict personal injury on any
one, and, therefore, was always considered as a kind and beneficent
genius, who would befriend mortals in all cases of distress, and loved
to behold them peaceful and happy.

Several generations have passed away--trees that were young and
thrifty have become aged and mossy; and men have forgotten the number
of the moons that have passed since there lived among the tribe who
owned the broad lands above the mountains[A], whose banks frown upon
the rapid river, a beautiful maiden, the daughter of a proud chief,
whose name has not reached my time. But this we are told, that he was
the greatest warrior of his day, fierce as the panther, and cunning as
the fox; and she more beautiful than the sky lit up with stars, and
gentler than a summer day, or a young fawn. She had lost her mother in
early childhood; and, ere the suns of ten seasons had beamed on her
head, her father, who loved her tenderly, and had brought her up not
to do the tasks which are generally allotted to Indian women and
girls, fell by the hand of disease, and she was left alone. A
remembrance of his affection, and of the agony she felt, and of the
deep tears she shed, at his loss, infused into her heart a softness
and pity which continued through life, and rendered her ever after an
unwilling witness of the scenes of fire and torture to which the
customs of war among her countrymen gave occasion. When her beloved,
and to her, kind father, left the earth for the land of spirits, she
lived in the lodges of the older warriors who had been his companions
in arms and brother councillors in the cabin where men met to debate
on war and peace. Not in the cabins of the aged alone was she met
with joy. She was welcomed wherever she went with kindness and
affection; endeare