254 TRIBES AND DIALECTS OF CONNECTICUT [eth. ann. 43 



The Mohegan call this Uncas's Fort. Here the famous chief sup- 

 posedly had one of his inland strongholds, enveloped by a high 

 stone wall on three sides at least. 



Now the environs of the old fort are destitute of all signs of life, 

 though several families of the Mohegan still live almost under tlio 

 shadow of the hill and the trees that crown it. The vireos sing 

 there through the long summer days from the oaks, whose trunks, 

 a foot thick, rise from the inclosure, and the woodchuck makes his 

 burrow beneath the tumble-down of rocks that marks the place, in 

 the northeast corner, where the kitchen stood in the days when the 

 Mohegan women plied theii- nourishing industry for those who sought 

 refuge in the stockade. The rose-breasted grosbeak is not an un- 

 common frequenter of the premises. A ghost still holds forth on 

 the steep hillside among the rocks. Some of the Indians, in fact 

 most of them, have at one time or another heard the clinldng maul 

 and wedge of some one splitting stone there on dark nights. 



It is furthermore asserted that persons passing by this place on 

 the roadway after dark are likely to perceive stones being thrown 

 at them. Some even have felt themselves struck by the missiles. 

 An old general Algonkian belief perpetuated. Somewhere, also, in 

 the vicinity a murdered Indian is said to have been buried. The 

 sound of digging has been fancied to come from the place, even 

 within the last few years. 



No. 2. Old Church (pi. 34, a).— The old Mohegan church, erected 

 in 1831, was a factor in the conversion of the Mohegans, and has long 

 been a landmark in their religious and social history. It stands 

 upon the crown of Mohegan Hill, from which some wide and inspir- 

 ing views may be had toward every point of the compass. South- 

 ward the eye follows down the Thames River to New London and 

 Long Island Sound; west over the hills toward Connecticut River, 

 or northwest to Wawecus Hill and the Taconnic Range, across which 

 the ancient tribe is believed to have migrated, northeast past Nor- 

 wicii or the old "Landin' Place," to the hills near the Massachusetts 

 line. Eastward is a wide panorama of the old Pequot country 

 opening out across country on the east of the Thames. This tract 

 shows from Mohegan lower and less hilly except for several rocky 

 eminences, one of which, Lantern Hill, rises several hundred feet 

 above the horizon (pi. 35, a). Here is a widely known landmark of 

 Indian days. From its almost bare summit is an extensive view 

 across the birch swamps renowned in the Pequot war of 1636, where 

 the natives sought refuge from the vengeance of the Pilgrims. Now, 

 almost under the shadow of Lantern Hill, lies theii- diminutive 

 reservation, where the several families of Pequot mixed bloods reside. 



The gz'een m front of the church is still the spu-itual center of life 

 at Mohegan. Here is enacted annually the festival of the Mohegan 



