fit subjects for ridicule.

[Footnote A: Cape Cod.]

Though exceedingly ugly, as I have told my brother, there was one
faculty she possessed in a more remarkable degree than any woman that
had ever lived in the tribe--it was that of singing. Nothing--unless
such could be found in the land of spirits--could equal the sweetness
of her voice, or the beauty of her songs. Her favourite place of
resort was a small hill, a little removed from the river of her
people, and there, seated beneath the shady trees, she would while
away the hours of summer with her charming songs. So soft and
beautiful were the things she uttered, that, by the time she had sung
a single sentence, the branches above her head would be filled with
the birds that came thither to listen, and the thickets around her,
and the waters rolling beside her, would be crowded with beasts and
fishes attracted to the nearest brink or covert by the same sweet
sounds. From the minnow to the porpoise, from the sparrow to the
eagle, from the snail to the lobster, from the mouse to the mole--all
hastened to the spot to listen to the charming songs of the hideous
Marshpee maiden. And various, but sufficiently noisy and dissonant,
were the means by which the creatures testified the delight and
admiration produced by the sounds which had drawn them thither.

Amongst the fishes, who repaired every night to the vicinity of the
Little Hillock, which was the chosen resting-place of the ugly
songstress, was the great war-chief of the Trouts, a tribe of fishes
inhabiting the river near by, and who, as my brother knows, generally
make the cold and pebbly stream their place of residence. It is a
chosen sport of theirs to hide among the roots of trees which stand
near the brink of their favourite streams. They are a very cunning and
shy people, and seldom fail, by their cunning and shyness, to escape
all the snares laid for them by their enemies. The chief of the
tribe, who dwelt in the river of the Marshpees, and who was also their
guardian spirit, was of a far larger size than the people of his
nation usually are, being as long as a man, and quite as thick, which
my brother knows is a size that few of his people attain. But, to
enable my brother to account for his great size, it is only necessary
to tell him that the mother of this great trout was a monstrous
flounder.

Of all the creatures which came to listen to the singing of Awashanks,
none appeared to enjoy it so highly