HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 79 



wild beasts he slew. Our people, however, seem to have a weak- 

 ness for idols of all colors and stand ready to bow down and 

 serve them. All that is needed is a remote historical episode, 

 recounted by a white Ananias, and an ideal Pocahontas appears. 

 But we soon tire of the old favorites, and one by one the saints, 

 martyrs and heroes of history are knocked off their perch. His- 

 tories are no longer tales agreed upon, but begin to be viewed 

 with suspicion. William Tell is a myth, the Scottish Mary was 

 freckled, even King Richard was not a hunchback, and George 

 Washington swore. Soon shall the frivolous generations pass, 

 and as they die will fade the memory of men once deemed im- 

 mortal. Philip, Tecumseh, Logan, Oceola and Passaconaway 

 have vanished, to be followed by the red drunkard of the reser- 

 vation. 



With as little success we have sought for an aesthetic trait in 

 the Nipmuck character, or for some evidence of a moral sense. 

 Surrounded upon the one hand with beauty and upon the other 

 by terrifying aspects of nature, he was blind to the one and by 

 the other affrighted, A seen enemy he attacked and tried to 

 kill ; before an unknown danger he cowered and prayed, his so- 

 called acts of worship inspired alone by ignorance and fear. 



About him grew myriads of flowering plants and shrubs, in 

 dell or defile, glade or glen, in the natural meadows and over the 

 upland slopes, terraces and plateaus. When following the chase 

 or crouching in wait for game the moccasined foot could scarce- 

 ly fall without crushing a blossom. Here the wind-flower and 

 the blue and yellow violet grew, the laurel and the flower de 

 luce ; the blue closed gentian and its white-fingered sister, and 

 the great fringed orchis. These do not detain the hunter. He 

 hears not the oration of Jack-in-the-Pulpit ; the wild rose spreads 

 its bloom to him who hastens. To such a woodsman the scarlet 

 robe of the cardinal-flower has no meaning, the sweet-brier no 

 fragrance, the queen of the meadow no style. The red scalp or 

 flaming coat of tanager or wood-tapper may allure him, but the 



