THE MISSISSIPPI. 95 
flows, its vast extent, and the charm of mystery that 
rests upon its waters. 
The Niagara Falls, with its fearful depths, its rocky 
heights, its thunder, and “ bows of promise,” addresses 
itself to the ear, and the eye; and through these alone 
impresses the beholder with the greatness of its charac- 
ter. The Mississippi, on the contrary, although it may 
have few or no tangible demonstrations of power, al- 
though it has no language with which it can startle the 
senses, yet in a “ still small voice’ addresses the mind 
with its terrible lessons of strength and sublimity, more 
forcibly than any other object in nature. 
The name Mississippi, was derived from the abori- 
gines of the country, and has been poetically rendered 
the ‘“ Father of Waters.” There is little truth in this 
translation, and it gives no idea, or scarcely none, of the 
river itself. The literal meaning of the Indian com- 
pound, Mississippi, as is the case with all Indian names 
in this country, would have been much better, and every 
way more characteristic. From the most numerous In. 
dian tribe in the southwest we derive the name; and it 
would seem that the same people who gave the name to 
the Mississippi, at different times possessed nearly half 
the continent ; judging from the fact that the Ohio in 
the north, and many of the most southern points of the 
peninsula of Florida, are named from the Choctaw lan- 
guage. 
With that tribe the two simple adjectives, Missch 
