Indian Philosophy. 



205 



" In former times, a great many moons ago, a bird, extraordinary 

 for its size, used often to visit the south shore of Cape Cod, and carry 

 from thence a vast number of small children. 



Maushop, who was an Indian Giant, as fame reports, resided in 

 these parts. • Enraged at the havoc among the children, he, on a cer- 

 tain time, waded into the sea in pursuit of the bird, till he had crossed 

 the Sound, and reached Nantucket. Before Maushop forded the 

 Sound, the Island was unknown to the Aborigines of America. 



Tradition says that Maushop found the bones of the Children in a 

 heap under a large tree. He then wishing to smoke a pipe, ran- 

 sacked the Island for tobacco , but finding none, he filled his pipe 

 with poke, a weed which the Indians sometimes used as its substi- 

 tute. Ever since the above memorable event, fogs have been fre- 

 quent at Nantucket and on the Cape. In allusion to this tradition, 

 when the Aborigines observed a fog rising, they would say, 1 There 

 comes Old Maushop's smoke.' " — See Mass. His. Collections, Vol. 

 5. p. 57. 



I have made the above extracts, thinking they might interest you 

 in your enquiries in relation to the bones at Gay Head. And I can- 

 not but be of opinion that the above interesting tradition about the 

 existence of the Giant, had its origin with the Indians from their 

 having found the skeletons of large marine animals. Perhaps two 

 hundred years ago, as late a period as the tradition refers to, the 

 bones might have presented very different appearances from what 

 they now do. 



In the collections of MSS. belonging to the Society of which I am 

 Librarian, are copies of letters addressed by the Learned Cotton 

 Mather to different persons residing in Europe. They are entitled 

 " Curiosa Americana." Among them are eight letters to Dr. James 

 Jurin. One of these is entitled " A Monstrous Dragon." But be- 

 fore speaking of the particular subject of his letter, he gives an ac- 

 count of all the stupendous snakes which have been described by the 

 ancients. The letter shall speak for itself. It concludes as follows : 



" A few months ago, near the Falls of James River in Virginia, 

 Some [persons] digging a water-course for a mill, by a small Run of 

 Water under the Side of an Hill, Ten foot under ground, they found 

 the Back-bone of a snake, lying in such a form as this s^v-w. They 

 dug along from the Head to the Tail of it, both which were much 

 decayed, but the earth about the decayed parts was of a different col- 

 our from all the earth about it. These, with all the bones, were 



