2A8 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



Years before, the inhabitants of the little village, 

 on their return from a hunting exjDedition, discovered 

 the cross we have described ; its marks then were such 

 as would be exhibited a few da3'S after its erection. 

 Footsteps were seen about its base, which, from their 

 variance with the mark left by the moccasin, satisfied 

 the Indians that it was not erected by any of their 

 people. The huge limbs that had been shorn from the 

 trunk bore fresh marks of terrible cuts, which the stone 

 hatchet could not have made. 



As is natural to the Indian mind, on the display of 

 power which they cannot explain, they appropriately, 

 though accidentally, associated the cross with the Great 

 Spirit, and looked upon it with wonder and admiration. 



Beside the cross there was found an axe, left by 

 those who had used it. This was an object of the 

 greatest curiosity to its finders. They struck it into 

 the trees, severed huge limbs, and performed other pow- 

 erful feats with it, and yet fancied that their own rude 

 stone instruments failed to do the same execution, from 

 want of a governing spirit, equal to that which they 

 imagined presided over the axe, and not from difference 

 of material. 



The cross and the axe were associated together in 

 the Indians' minds ; and the crucifix of Rousseau con- 

 nected him with both. They treated him, therefore, 

 with all the attention they would bestow upon a being 

 who is master of a superior power. 



