38 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. L 



not by downright force and open onset, but by sub- 

 tle strategy, tricks, or magic art, achieved marvellous 

 triumphs over the brute force of their assailants. 

 Sometimes the tale will breathe a different spirit, 

 and tell of orphan children abandoned in the heart 

 of a hideous wilderness, beset with fiends and can- 

 nibals. Some enamored maiden, scornful of earth- 

 ly suitors, plights her troth to the graceful manito 

 of the grove ; or bright aerial beings, dwellers of 

 the sky, descend to tantalize the gaze of mortals 

 with evanescent forms of loveliness. 



The mighty giant, the God of the Thunder, who 

 made his home among the caverns, beneath the cat- 

 aract of Niagara, was a characteristic conception 

 of Iroquois imagination. The Algonquins held a 

 simpler faith, and maintained that the thunder was 

 a bird who built his nest on the pinnacle of tow- 

 ering mountains. Two daring boys once scaled the 

 height, and thrust sticks into the eyes of the por- 

 tentous nestlings ; which hereupon flashed forth 

 such wrathful scintillations, that the sticks were 

 shivered to atoms. ^ 



1 For Algonquin legends, see Schoolcraft, in Algic Researches and 

 Oneota. Le Jeiine early discovered these legends among the tribes of his 

 mission. Two centuries ago, among the Algonquins of Lower Canada, a 

 tale was related to him, which, in its principal incidents, is identical with 

 the story of the " Boy who set a Snare for the Sun," recently found by 

 Mr. Schoolcraft among the tribes of the Upper Lakes. Compare Relation, 

 1637, p. 172, and Oneota, p. 75. The coincidence affords a curious proof 

 of the antiquity and wide diffusion of some of these tales. 



The Dacotah, as weU as the Algonquins, believe that the thunder is 

 produced by a bird. A beautiful illustration of this idea will be found in 

 Mrs. Eastman's Legends of the Sioux. An Indian propounded to Le Jeune 

 a doctrine of his own. According to his theory, the thunder is produced 

 by the eructations of a monstrous giant, who had unfortunately swallowed 



