"Let us follow him, and see what will come of it."
So they followed him,--he swimming and they paddling, until night
came. Then a great wind and deep darkness prevailed, and the Great
Serpent commenced hissing in the depths of the ocean. The people were
terribly frightened, and did not think to live till another sun, but
the man-fish kept close to the boats, and bade them not be afraid, for
nothing should hurt them.
When morning came, nothing could be seen of the shore they had left.
The winds still raged, the seas were very high, and the waters ran
into their canoes like melted snows over the brows of the mountains,
but the man-fish handed them large shells, with which they baled the
water out. As they had brought neither food nor water with them, they
had become both hungry and thirsty. Kiskapocoke told the strange
creature they wanted to eat and drink, and that he must supply them
with what they required.
"Very well," said the man-fish, and, disappearing in the depths of the
water, he soon reappeared, bringing with him a bag of parched corn and
a shell full of sweet water.
For two moons and a half the fishermen followed the man-fish, till at
last one morning their guide exclaimed--
"Look there!"
Upon that they looked in the direction he pointed out to them and saw
land, high land, covered with great trees, and glittering as the sand
of the Spirit's Island. Behind the shore rose tall mountains, from the
tops of which issued great flames, which shot up into the sky, as the
forks of the lightning cleave the clouds in the hot moon. The waters
of the Great Salt Lake broke in small waves upon its shores, which
were covered with sporting seals and wild ducks pluming themselves in
the beams of the warm and gentle sun. Upon the shore stood a great
many strange people, but when they saw the strangers step upon the
land and the man-fish, they fled to the woods like startled deer, and
were no more seen.
When the warriors were safely landed, the man-fish told them to let
the canoe go; "for," said he, "you will never need it more." They had
travelled but a little way into the woods when he bade them stay where
they were, while he told the spirit of the land that the strangers he
had promised were come, and with that he descended into a deep cave
near at hand. He soon returned, accompanied by a creature as strange
in appearance as himself. His legs and feet were those of a man. He
had leggings and moccasins like an Indian's, tightly laced and
beautifully decorated with wampum, but his head was like a goat's. He
talked like a man, and his language was one well understood by the
strangers.
"I will lead you," he said, "to a beautiful land, to a most beautiful
land, men from the clime of snows. There you will find all the joys an
Indian covets."
For many moons the Shawanos travelled under the guidance of the
man-goat, into whose hands the man-fish had put them, when he retraced
his steps to the Great Lake. They came at length to the land which the
Shawanos now occupy. They found it as the strange spirits had
described it. They married the daughters of the land, and their
numbers increased till they were so many that no one could count them.
They grew strong, swift, and valiant in war, keen and patient in the
chase. They overcame all the tribes eastward of the River of Rivers,
and south to the shore of the Great Lake.
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty,
at the Edinburgh University Press.
Transcriber's Note.
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
All Native American words have been kept as originally printed,
including those with variation in hyphenation or spelling.
The advertisement has been moved to follow the title page.