rest by the way at Lard's celebrated half-way tavern, and to dine at Wemple's, near the Castle. The Indian play-ground was an extensive unenclosed quadrangular lawn, which was kept closely mown, or it was so constantly trodden as to assume such an appearance. Through the grounds ran, within deep banks, the wild waters of Oneida creek; and, except the trees which lined both sides of these banks, no tree could be seen on the play-ground, not even to shade spectators and loiterers ; which peculiarity from the surrounding country, and a total absence of all stumps and under-brush, constituted an abiding curiosity to all beholders. But the greatest attraction of the place consisted in seeing the young warriors play a species of racket, with ball and clubs, while the fathers of the tribe were lounging on the green-sward, and by an occasional guttural interjection, peculiar to Indians, indicating their interest in the agility of the players, as they chased a stricken ball in its aërial course, arrested it by their racket, and hurled it back to some concerted goal. Indian women constituted no portion of the spectators, but they might be seen in distant enclosures, hoeing the forthcoming corn, and often each with an infant hanging at her back, laced so as to be immovable, in a sort of fancifully-decorated perpendicular cradle, made of bark, and ornamented with beads and paint.

The chief of the tribe was named Schonandoah, and was exceedingly old; a relic of the pristine man of the forest, before Indians had become physically degenerated by the fire-water of the whites, or intellectually humbled by a knowledge of the superior skill of civilization, or morally depraved by its communicated vices. He was a tall man, still erect in stature, and apparently venerated by his subjects; but more assiduously attended, in true patriarchal style, by his grandchilden, and perhaps remoter descendants. To visit the old chief in his wigwam was a part of the programme of every pleasurable excursion to Oneida; while he was pleased with the interest thus manifested toward him, mistaking probably for respect to his kingly power what was simply curiosity at his extreme senility. With a pride characteristic of pure Indians, he never condescended to speak English, or to admit he understood it; but aware of the tribute-money which was generally paid by his gay visitors, he was always attended by an Indian to receive it, and who also interpreted the short colloquies that the visits occasioned. Like all old men, Schonandoah delighted to talk over the incidents of the past; and when strangers seemed inquisitive as to the history of the Indians, the old chief would recount various legends, which, had they been collected and preserved, would have embodied traditions that are probably lost now for ever. One narrative has escaped the common oblivion. It seems to evince a knowledge, not too extensively known by white men, of the three-fold nature of man, physical, moral, and intellectual, making him a kind of triune being; or in other words, a being who combines in one person the three distinct and inconvertible properties of intellect, physical motion, and passion. The story may have constituted a sort of moral allegory, though it was always related as a history of the tribe; for like other rude nations, Indians seem ambitious of a supernatural origin. In repeating the story, we shall take the liberty of anglicizing the mythological Indian machinery; just as, if we had occasion to speak of GoD, Physician, and President, we

would use those words, rather than misrepresent the intelligence of red men by translating (as is usual) the Indian names for these ideas or persons into the childish equivalents of Great Spirit, Medicine Man, and Great Father:

The Story.

DURING one of the predatory excursions of a party of the Agoneseah Indians, they fell into an ambuscade of the Satanas, with whom they were almost constantly at war, and the Agoneseah were all killed, excepting one woman, who by good fortune had been left some hours behind on the trail, to pack up and bring on a quantity of dried venison. She arrived, staggering under her load, in time to escape the massacre, and to discover that she alone remained of the busy party who had parted from her in the morning dawn. With true Indian fortitude, she resolved to make the best use she could of her situation; and judging accurately that the Satanas no longer occupied the vicinity around her, she determined to abide there till some chance might bring thither another party of her friends, or she might seek them more securely than she could at present. She soon sheltered herself by the construction of a wigwam, hung around it the venison in her possession, and leisurely made a bow and some arrows, to procure farther sustenance as the occasions therefor should offer. After living unmolestedly thus during several years, she gradually became fond of the exemption which she enjoyed, for the first time in her life, from the slavery which Indian habits impose on woman; and she resolved to end her days in the solitary independence which PROVIDENCE had created for her. Time, however, brought with it infirmities, and as she felt their increasing pressure, she lamented that she possessed no daughter to relieve the tedium of solitude, and to succeed her in the procurement of venison after she should become disabled by debility. she indulged these reflections, she became unhappy at the want which her imagination had created. Her unhappiness increased, as usual, with its indulgence, till she wept often and much, that she possessed no daughter. But she at length became satisfied that crying was not the proper remedy in such a case, and she began to turn her efforts into the wiser direction of devising some means by which her great want could be relieved. The moment her thoughts took this practical direction, she recollected the traditions acquired during her childhood, and which peopled every secret and curious place with supernatural beings, who busied themselves in satisfying the desires of favorite devotees. Just such a place lay in her vicinity, screened from view by trees, whose branches seemed to know so well the mysteries they were formed to conceal, that no light ever penetrated the enclosure, except a gloomy haze, which exhibited a spring of water, swift, pellucid, and phosphorescent, that gushed from the earth toward a deep basin formed out of solid rock at the bottom of a deep declivity. She had suspected that this spring was inhabited by supernatural spirits, for while it was intensely cold in summer, it was never arrested by frost in winter, and was rarely resorted to by deer, who seemed alarmed at its roar. The water that she drank was always procured from another source, and she never passed the spring without a devotional feeling, which began to assume much intensity. To this

As

spring, therefore, she determined to resort. Having waited for a night when the moon was at its full, but so obscured by clouds as to be invisible, (that was the propitious period,) she issued from her cabin and glided slowly toward the indicated spot; though the solemnity of her mission filled her with trepidation. She persisted, however, and parting the thick boughs which screened the source of the gushing stream, she bent over the projecting bank, and throwing into the water a lock of her hair as a propitiatory sacrifice, and three good arrows as an offering, besought the spirits of the spring to be favorable to her wishes. A blast of wind shook the trees, the water sparkled in in its descent, while a soft whisper seemed to say, 'Go home, Catena; you shall have a daughter.' The poor woman was exceedingly delighted, but lest her senses might be suffering under a delusion, she again said, 'Oh! spirits of the rushing spring, give Catena a daughter!' 'Go home, woman; you shall have a daughter,' was again the response, but in a loud voice, that indicated some displeasure. She became alarmed lest she had unwittingly omitted some ceremony, and created offence where she had intended nothing but devotion; she therefore said again, 'Oh! spirits of the spring, Catena would only have a daughter!' Go home!' replied the voice, louder than before; you shall have a daughter with a vengeance!'

The woman was frightened; but being sure of a daughter, she retraced her steps toward home, as she had been commanded; but when she approached her wigwam, which on her egress she had carefully closed to keep out wolves, that occasionally prowled around at night to steal her venison, she found the entrance unclosed. She entered with true Indian stealth, not knowing what she might encounter; but instead of an enemy, she found on the floor three interesting little female pappooses. Each was swathed in an Indian upright cradle, ornamented with hieroglyphics, by which she knew that one of the girls was named Intellecta, another Appetita, and the third Limbina. A daughter with a vengeance!' said Catena, repeating the malediction with which she had been dismissed from the spring; but if the evil was to extend no farther than to give her three daughters, she felt rather benefited thereby than injured, and inferred, perhaps correctly, that as she had repeated her supplication three times, the three-fold response had occasioned three infants instead of one. Something wrong about the children was, however, soon suspected by the foster-mother, for Appetita was the only one of them that could eat; Limbina, the only one that could move its limbs; and Intellecta, the only one that possessed a tongue or could utter words. When poor Catena fully ascertained the organization of her offspring, she regretted that she had ever prayed for a daughter. Why could not a human being receive a benefit once without an attendant evil? She accordingly cried over the calamity of mankind, and over her own particular calamity; and probably would have soon become so weary of the cares which the children imposed, that the consequences to them might have been tragical, had nature not come to their aid by creating in Catena maternal feelings, that gradually made the children's happiness identical with her own. Like all fairy productions, the children grew rapidly, and Limbina, after a few years, was able to assist her mother in the care of Intellecta and Appetita, who could not move of themselves.

Limbina would roll them about the floor, and eventually lift them from place to place, and carry them into the open air. But the mother had long discovered, that though Limbina possessed the power to be thus useful, she would never move hand, foot, or body, unless one of the sisters commanded her; indeed, she seemed unable to understand the commands of any other person. Appetita possessed more influence in this respect than Intellecta, though Appetita could not articulate words and Intellecta could speak fluently. When, however, Intellecta chose to speak authori tatively, as was occasionally her custom, she was implicitly obeyed by both Limbina and Appetita.

One day in summer the mother determined on taking a rather long stroll through the woods to collect ginseng-root, which she was fond of chewing, and accustomed to dry for use during the winter. She entreated Limbina to keep the door closed during her absence, not to move her sisters where they could be hurt, and to be especially careful not to disturb the embers which had been covered with a hes, after having been used in cooking the family breakfast, with many other directions which a careful old woman usually thinks necessary to give her volatile daughters before leaving home. The mother might, however, as well have spoken to a log of wood, for Limbina neither heeded the commands nor heard them. The mother, therefore, was scarcely out of sight before Limbina took up the children, at the command of Appetita, and strolled with them over a small patch of planted corn in search of strawberries, which grew wild in the vicinity. In this excursion the corn became trodden down and broken; but when the girls were carried back to the wigwam by Limbina, Intellecta discovered that Limbina had omitted to shut the door, and that the wind had k ndled the embers left of the morning fire. The fire scorched and ruined a quantity of deer-skins that had been carefully prepared for winter moccasins and other articles of clothing, and been placed by the mother where the smoke from the covered embers could dry them.

The mother returned before farther mischief had been consummated; but when she saw that her injunctions had been disobeyed, that her deerskins were rendered almost worthless, that her corn had been trodden down, she lamented more fervently than ever that she had wished to procure a daughter; the foregoing events being but a specimen of the constant waywardness of Appetita and stupidity of Limbina. Intellecta escaped blame, because the mother knew that she never participated in disobedience, and always prevented it when she happened to be awake; but Appetita usually watched till Intellecta was asleep, before she induced Limbina to gratify her unruly desires.

Poor Catena cried till bed-time, and when she was in bed she cried till midnight, which is the period when unearthly spirits, of every kind, are permitted to visit human beings; and presently she heard a great shout of laughter, which caused her instinctively to raise her head and look around. The room was filled with a dim light, like the phosphorescence of water, and three little women, of whom the tallest was not an inch high, were dancing and shouting with an activity and noise that seemed wholly disproportioned to their diminutive bodies. When they had amused themselves till they were apparently exhausted, the shortest of

the three, but who seemed the most important of the group, hopped near to the old woman's cheek, and told her that they had been laughing at the trick which they had played her at the enchanted spring, in separating her daughter into the three constituent parts of a human being-the intellectual, physical and moral parts. But they had come to remedy the evil, and to unite the three into one person, and that the united parts should become just such a comfort as old age required.

In the morning Catena seemed to awake from a profound sleep; and seeing nothing supernatural around her, she began to suspect that the events of the night were a dream. Resuming the few simple articles which constituted all her dress, she walked sorrowfully out of her little cabin, to prepare, as usual, under the shade of an adjoining maple, some pounded corn for breakfast; but she found the corn already prepared, with an addition of ripe whortleberries and savory succotash. No body was visible but Limbina, who, running toward her mother, kissed her, and wished her good-morning. This was the first time that Limbina had ever spoken, and the voice sounded like that of Intellecta, while the kiss seemed the affectionate pressure of Appetita. 'How now!' exclaimed the astonished Catena; 'I am happy to hear you speak; but where are your sisters?' To this question Limbina could give no definite answer, except that three very little women had appeared before her in a dream, and said that hereafter she and her two sisters should occupy but one body; that the two sisters immediately disappeared, Intellecta seeming to jump up into Limbina's head, and to sink down into it, leaving nothing on it that could be felt externally but certain bumps, of various sizes, which she desired her mother to examine by way of confirmation. Appetita had seemed also to spring upward, but alighted on Limbina's breast, and then seemed gradually to vanish by dispersing herself therein, into Limbina's heart, gall, liver and spleen.

From this time Catena began to realize the comforts of possessing a daughter, while previously she had known nothing as a mother but solicitude and trouble. Appetita and Intellecta could still make their wishes known to Limbina; but she soon ascertained that the wishes and commands of Intellecta always led to good results, while the wishes and commands of Appetita were often productive of evil, especially when they were disapproved by Intellecta. Limbina, therefore, determined eventually that she would never obey Appetita till she first obtained the consent of Intellecta, who by such continual consultation lost all her former drowsiness, and became wakeful and active.

The old wigwam soon put on a new appearance of neatness, cheerfulness and abundance, for Limbina was self-denying of her own appetites, and sought only to make Catena happy. One day, when she was some distance from home, in pursuit of deer, she suddenly came upon the newly-formed camp of Indians, who were also in search of game. Limbina attempted to avoid them, but they had seen her, and escape became impracticable. The party proved to be under the command of a young chief, who was agreeably surprised when he discovered that Limbina could understand and speak the language of the Agoneaseah, which was his own nation. The interview resulted in a visit of all the party to the wigwam of Catena, when she recognized the warriors as