Wallace Bruce.
Alps of the Hudson, whose bold summits rise
Into the upper ether of the skies,
Cleaving with calm content
The cloudless crystal of the firmament.
Joel Benton.
The Catskills were called by the Indians On-ti-o-ras, or mountains of the sky, as they sometimes seem like clouds along the horizon. This range of mountains was supposed by the Indians to have been originally a monster who[page 161] devoured all the children of the red men, until the great spirit touched him when he was going down to the salt lake to bathe, and here he remains. "Two little lakes upon the summit were regarded the eyes of the monster, and these are open all the summer; but in the winter they are covered with a thick crust or heavy film; but whether sleeping or waking tears always trickle down his cheeks. In these mountains, according to Indian belief, was kept the great treasury of storm and sunshine, presided over by an old squaw spirit who dwelt on the highest peak of the mountains. She kept day and night shut up in her wigwam, letting out only one at a time. She[page 162] manufactured new moons every month, cutting up the old ones into stars," and, like the old Æolus of mythology, shut the winds up in the caverns of the hills:—
Where Manitou once lived and reigned,