using only their figures,
types, and similitudes, and rejecting all inappropriate phrases, and
those which savoured of a foreign origin. I cheerfully submit to the
public whether I have not faithfully executed the task which I proposed
to myself--that of giving a collection of genuine Indian traditions in
the peculiar phraseology, and in strict consonance with the known habits
and customs, of that singular people.

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

* * * * *

Introduction v
The Man of Ashes 1
Pomatare, the Flying Beaver 47
The Alarm of the Great Sentinel. A Tradition of the Delawares 61
The Mother of the World. A Tradition of the Dog-Ribs 73
The Fall of the Lenape 87
The Marriage of the Snail and the Beaver 103
The Choice of a God 117
The Resurrection of the Bison 143
The Wahconda's Son 147
The Idols. A Tradition of the Ricaras 173
Discovery of the Upper World. A Tradition of the Minnatarees 201
Love and War 213
Legends of the Happy Hunting-Grounds.
I. Akkeewaisee, the Aged 225
II. The Delaware Heaven 233
III. The Hunting-Grounds of the Blackfoots 245
IV. The Stone Canoe 255
V. The Little White Dove 269
VI. The Teton's Paradise 279

INTRODUCTION.

In the year 1695, a number of _savans_ associated in Paris for the
purpose of procuring information respecting the American Indians. They
were called shortly _The Theoretical and Speculative Society of Paris_,
but their title at large was _The Society for Prosecuting Researches in
the Western Hemisphere, and for procuring Speculations to be made, and
Theories drawn up, of the Origin and History of its Ancient and its
Present Inhabitants_. The undertaking met with almost prompt and cordial
support; the proudest nam