ANCIENT TEADITIONS. 383 



of ages already hoary with antiquity when Columbus 

 first saw our shores. 



We found ourselves wondering to what race the 

 hidden dead belonged, and whether the unpictured 

 maidens of those days were pleasant to look upon, or 

 true ancestors of the hideous and unromantic crea- 

 tures who, with their savage lords, now roam the 

 plains. Thinking of the tribes of the past brought 

 those of the present to mind, and, not wishing to 

 have our hair presented as tribute to some maiden 

 wooed by treacherous Cheyenne, we turned our 

 horses' heads homeward, bringing the beads with us, 

 safel}'- deposited in one of our entomologist's pocket- 

 cases. They remain among the trophies of our ex- 

 pedition, and Mr. Colon has lately written me that 

 he will have an excavation made, during the present 

 year, at the spot where they were found. 



These beads, I can not but think, form one link in 

 a chain connecting an ancient people, perhaps the 

 mound-builders, with the savage tribes of the present. 

 There is a tradition among some of the Western In- 

 dians that, centuries ago, a people, different in 

 language and form from the red men, came from 

 over the seas to trade beads for ponies. The buf- 

 faloes were then larger, and the climate warmer, 

 than now. Dissensions finally arose, in which the 

 strangers were killed. Is there not reason to believe 

 that this tradition gives us a glimpse of the time 

 when some of the lar^e mammals still existed on 

 the plains, and the genial sun looked down upon 

 pastures clothed in rich vegetation — a time and re- 

 gion, probably, of perennial summer? 



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