MAN. 81 



lowing of death. All were killed except one male, the 

 fiercest of the race, and him, even the artillery of the skies 

 assailed in vain. He ascended the bluest summit which 

 shades the source of the Monongahela, and, roaring aloud, 

 bid defiance to every vengeance. The red lightning scorch- 

 ed the lofty firs, and rived the knotty oaks, but only 

 glanced upon the enraged monster. At length, maddened 

 with fury, he leaped over the waves of the west at a bound, 

 and this moment reigns the uncontroled monarch of the 

 wilderness, in despite even of Omnipotence itself.^' 



While the ideas of this tradition may be essentially In- 

 dian, the language is certainly English and highly colored. 

 The second account is taken from volume eight of "Jef- 

 ferson's Works." "In ancient times a herd of these tre- 

 mendous animals came to the Big-Bone licks, and began 

 an universal destruction of the bear, deer, elks, buffaloes, 

 and other animals which had been created for the use 

 of the Indians ; that the Great Man above, looking down 

 and seeing this, was so enraged that he seized his light- 

 ning, descended on the earth, seated himself on a neigh- 

 boring mountain, on a rock of which his seat and the print 

 of his feet are still to be seen, and hurled his bolts among 

 them till the whole were slaughtered, except the big bull, 

 who, presenting his forehead to the shafts, shook them off 

 as they fell ; but missing one at length, it wounded him in 

 the side ; whereon, springing round, he bounded over the 

 Ohio, over the Wabash, the Illinois, and finally over the 

 great lakes, where he is living at this day." 



It is mere assumption to claim that this tradition refers 

 to the mastodon. Some regard it as more probable that 

 the Great Bufialo was intended, — the remains of this ani- 

 mal has been met with in Kentucky and elsewhere. How- 

 ever, little credence can be attached to Indian traditions. 

 They are notoriously superstitious and invent stories or 

 legends which they attach to almost any unusual circum- 



