Of the Here and the Hereafter—
Stay and read this rude inscription,
Read this song of Hiawatha!
—Henry W. Longfellow.
Michabo, the Great White Hare
UNLESS you know what river was called the "Father of Waters" it will be a secret as to where the Golden Hearted and the wise men went when they took leave of the Zipa. There are many quaint stories told about this river, and also about the queer mounds and earthworks built by a strange race of men who lived ages ago in that part of our country. Their descendants are not very civilized and seem to have forgotten much that their ancestors knew although they have some very pretty ideas. For instance, they imagine that they hear voices in the growing branches and whispering leaves of the trees, and they see little vanishing men in the cliffs everywhere. They say that the Great Spirit makes the Indian summer by puffing smoke out of his cheeks, from his great peace pipe.
Before the Golden Hearted came they built a medicine lodge—a kind of temple facing the sunrise, in a place called the "Moon of Leaves." When it was finished, Wunzh, a youth of noble character and tender heart, summoned the spirits of the four quarters of the world and the day maker to come to his fire and disclose the hidden things of the distance and future.
No one can tell why they named the Golden Hearted, "Michabo, the Great White Hare," unless it was because he came in the time of the year represented in their calendar by a rabbit. They kept a record of the seasons by crude pictures drawn on the inside bark of trees, and with them the months were called moons.