[FN] At which were slain "ninety-nine bears, thirty-six moose, eighty-two wild-cats, thirty-eight porcupines," and a long list of other animals of various names.
We are inclined to hazard the hypothesis, that this Saint was no other than our Sagamore; that Agamenticus was the retreat of Wonolanset, or at least of his father, during and subsequent to Philip's war; and that the latter obtained his new name from his new friends, and the title attached to it from an English source. It certainly would be remarkable, that so many and such particulars should appear of the death of a man never before heard of. And on the other hand, the reputation and the age attributed to Aspinquid, agree strikingly with those of Passaconaway. By his "preaching" must be meant his sacred character and the great exertions he made to keep peace with the English; and the date of the alleged "conversion," we suppose to have been the same with that of his first acquaintance with the whites in 1629.
Our sketch may be fitly concluded with one of those popular traditions concerning the old Chief, which happens still to be in such preservation as to form now and then, in some sections of the country, the burden of a fireside tale. It is probably a fair illustration of the opinion entertained of his abilities by the credulous of his own era.
He said, that Sachem once to Dover came, From Penacook, when eve was setting in. With plumes his locks were dressed, his eyes shot flame; He struck his massy club with dreadful din, That oft had made the ranks of battle thin; Around his copper neck terrific hung A tied-together, bear and catamount skin; The curious fishbones o'er his bosom swung, And thrice the Sachem danced, and thrice the Sachem sung. Strange man was he! 'T was said, he oft pursued The sable bear, and slew him in his den; That oft he howled through many a pathless wood, And many a tangled wild, and poisonous fen, That ne'er was trod by other mortal men. The craggy ledge for rattlesnakes he sought, And choked them one by one, and then O'ertook the tall gray moose, as quick as thought And then the mountain cat he chased, and chasing caught. A wondrous wight! For o'er 'Siogee's ice, With brindled wolves, all harnessed three and three, seated on a sledge, made in a trice, On mount Agiocochook, [FN-1] of hickory, He lashed and reeled, and sung right jollily; And once upon a car of flaming fire, The dreadful Indian shook with fear, to see The king of Penacook, his chief, his sire, Ride flaming up towards heaven, than any mountain higher. [FN-2]
[FN-1] The Indian name applied to the White Mountains. There is a curious tradition, preserved in Josselyn's New England, of the veneration of the Indians for the summits of these mountains. They considered them the dwelling places of invisible beings, and never ventured to ascend them. They had also a tradition, that the whole country was once drowned, with all its inhabitants except one Indian with his wife, who, foreseeing the flood, fled to these mountains, were preserved, and afterwards re-peopled the country.—Ed.
[FN-2] See F. and M. His. Coll.