FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   344   345   346   347   348   349   350   351   352   >>  
itou that lived in them. The lithia springs of Londonderry, New Hampshire, used to be visited by Indians from the Merrimack region, who performed incantations and dances to ingratiate themselves with the healing spirit that lived in the water. Their stone implements and arrow-heads are often found in adjacent fields. The curative properties of Milford Springs, New Hampshire, were revealed in the dream of a dying boy. A miracle spring flowed in the old days near the statue of the Virgin at White Marsh, Maryland. Biddeford Pool, Maine, was a miracle pond once a year, for whoso bathed there on the 26th of June would be restored to health if he were ill, because that day was the joint festival of Saints Anthelm and Maxentius. There was a wise and peaceable chief of the Ute tribe who always counselled his people to refrain from war, but when he grew old the fiery spirits deposed him and went down to the plains to give battle to the Arapahoe. News came that they had been defeated in consequence of their rashness. Then the old man's sorrow was so keen that his heart broke. But even in death he was beneficent, for his spirit entered the earth and forthwith came a gush of water that has never ceased to flow--the Hot Sulphur Springs of Colorado. The Utes often used to go to those springs to bathe--and be cured of rheumatism--before they were driven away. Spring River, Arkansas, is nearly as large at its source as at its mouth, for Mammoth Spring, in the Ozark Mountains, where it has its rise, has a yield of ninety thousand gallons a minute, so that it is, perhaps, the largest in the world. Here, three hundred years ago, the Indians had gathered for a month's feast, for chief Wampahseesah's daughter--Nitilita--was to wed a brave of many ponies, a hundred of which he had given in earnest of his love. For weeks no rain had fallen, and, while the revel was at its height, news came that all the rivers had gone dry. Several young men set off with jars, to fill them at the Mississippi, and, confident that relief would come, the song and dance went on until the men and women faltered from exhaustion. At last, Nitilita died, and, in the wildness of his grief, the husband smote his head upon a rock and perished too. Next day the hunters came with water, but, incensed by their delay, the chief ordered them to be slain in sacrifice to the manes of the dead. A large grave was dug and the last solemnities were begun when there was
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   344   345   346   347   348   349   350   351   352   >>  



Top keywords:

miracle

 

Springs

 
hundred
 

Nitilita

 

Indians

 
spirit
 
springs
 
Hampshire
 

Spring

 

Mammoth


gathered
 

rheumatism

 

daughter

 
Mountains
 
ponies
 
Wampahseesah
 
minute
 

Arkansas

 

source

 
thousand

gallons

 

largest

 

driven

 

ninety

 

husband

 
perished
 

wildness

 

faltered

 

exhaustion

 

solemnities


sacrifice

 

incensed

 
hunters
 

ordered

 

fallen

 

height

 

earnest

 
rivers
 

confident

 

Mississippi


relief

 

Several

 

Virgin

 

Maryland

 

Biddeford

 
statue
 
spring
 

flowed

 

restored

 

health