248 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 
Years before, the inhabitants of the little village, 
on their return from a hunting expedition, discovered 
the cross we have described; its marks then were such 
as would be exhibited a few days 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. 
