88 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



If in its flight a feather fell from its wing, blood followed in drops 

 hard as flint, which would bruise to death any living thing they 

 struck. 



When it flew through the air, it shriveled black clouds that 

 dropped bad rain, and hideous reptiles which crawled away and 

 hid in the ground. 



Sunlight and moonlight it feared, but in black night it roamed 

 abroad a straggling, wandering, blood-thirsting thing of evil; 

 and the people, dreading its baneful power, would hide from its 

 sight, whispering its name in fear. 



Whence it came was never known, but for generations it had 

 cursed the land with its direful flight. Many had sought its life, 

 but their arrows would fall blunted to the ground, and some cal- 

 amity was sure to befall the venturesome hunters. It seemed to 

 bear a charmed life, and, despairing, the people lived in constant 

 dread of its visitations. 



But one time, a voice whispered to a brave young Indian girl 

 that, if she would hew a strong bow from the ash tree, and twine 

 it close around with her long black hair, and feather her arrow 

 with the down from a young eagle's breast, she could destroy the 

 venomous bird. 



Thus told, she climbed a high cliff to an eagle's nest, where she 

 found some young birds, who spread wide their mouths for the 

 food she had brought them; and plucking from one a handful of 

 its down, she hastened to her home and bound it to her arrow with 

 sinew. She had made a strong bow from the ash, and was eager 

 to start on her search for the bird, happy in the thought that by 

 its death she would bring a deliverance to her people. 



That no harm might befall her should her arrow fail, she sought 

 the advice of the medicine men, who placed upon her neck a small 

 packet of sacred tobacco, and called upon the spirits of the good 

 to aid her. Thus guarded, she made her way down to the lake 

 where nightly the bird came to drink. 



Cautiously approaching the water, she scanned its surface as she 

 listened but not a sound could she hear nor a living thing could 

 she see in the darkness. " The dark will befriend me, I know, and 

 soon I will see," she thought; and seeking a shelter under some 

 wild grapevines that would screen her, she patiently waited and 

 listened all through the night, but the demon bird came not, and 

 weary with watching, she had picked up her bow to return, when 

 a shriek rent the air that sent a chill to her heart, and looking up, 

 she saw the monster swiftly circling the air above her. 



