Then they bid him stand upon his feet, and tell him how he was found dead upon the plain, and how great was the lamentation of all those who had so long experienced his kindness, and the efforts they had made to restore him. They then give him the compound which had been the means of bringing him again to life, saying “it was the gift of the Great Spirit to man. He alone had directed them in the affairs of the council; had brought the eagle to furnish the heavenly moisture, and give them wisdom in making the preparation, that they might furnish to man a medicine which should be effectual for every wound.”
When they had finished, the animals departed to their forest haunts, the eagle soared again to her eyry, and the birds of the air flew away to their nests in the tall trees, all happy and rejoicing that they had accomplished this great good.
The hunter returned to his home and spread abroad the news of the miracle, and the knowledge of the wonderful medicine, which is used to this day among the Iroquois, who are the favorites of the Great Spirit.
No. 2.
An Indian hunter went forth to hunt, and as he wandered in the forest he heard a strain of beautiful music far off among the trees. He listened but could not tell whence it came, and knew it could not be by any human voice, or from any instrument he had ever heard. As he came [[115]]near it ceased. The next evening he went forth again, but he heard not the music, and again, but in vain.
Then came the Great Spirit to him in a dream and told him he must fast, and wash himself till he was purified, and then he might go forth, and he would hear again the music. So he purified himself and went again among the darkest trees of the forest, and soon his ear caught the sweet strains, and as he drew near they became more beautiful, and he listened till he had learned them, and could make the same sweet sounds. Then he saw that it was a plant, with a tall green stem and long tapering leaves. He took his knife and cut the stalk, but ere he had scarcely finished, it healed and was the same as before. He cut it again, and again it healed, and then he knew that it would heal diseases, and he took it home and dried it by the fire, and pulverized it; and applying a few particles of it to a dangerous wound, no sooner had it touched the flesh than it was whole. Thus the Great Spirit taught the Indian the nature of medicinal plants, and directed him where they were to be found.
A HUNTING LEGEND.
One of the ancient Grecian philosophers, whose life and sayings are deemed worthy of recording, once astonished the people by relating the adventures he had experienced on a long journey through many countries, where he met “speaking trees, pigmies, phœnixes, satyrs and dragons,” and many other things equally marvellous, of which I could not help being reminded when I heard the hunter’s legend.
Of Anaxagoras, another Grecian philosopher, it is related as one of his predictions, that on a certain day a stone would fall from the sun, and on the appointed day, a stone did fall from the sun in a part of Thrace, near the [[116]]river Ægos. And Plutarch states that this stone was not only shown, but in his time greatly reverenced by the Peloponnesians. At another time it was asserted that a large stone fell from heaven, and Anaxagoras said that the whole heavens was composed of stones, and that by its rapid revolutions they were all held together, and when those revolutions get slower, they fall down.