BEHEMOTH: 
 
 A LEGEND 
 
 ^ -"". .v">. *\ ; v 
 
 THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 
 
 // 
 
 NEW-YORKs 
 J. & H. G. LANGLEY. 
 
 BOSTONi 
 WEEKS, JORDAN * CO* 
 
 * 
 1839. 
 
73 
 
 cording to aft of CoBf rcu, la the year 1839, 
 BY J. * II. 0. tANGLEY, 
 
 In the Clerk s office of the DUtrict Court of the Southern District 
 of New-York. 
 
 illiam-street. 
 
 
 
 5475S 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 THE author solicits the attention of his coun 
 trymen to the following work. He ventures to 
 do so for reasons which seem to him a sufficient 
 justification of his present labors. His main de- 
 sign was to make those gigantic relics, which are \ 
 found scattered throughout this country, subser 
 vient to the purposes of imagination. He has, 
 therefore, dared to evoke this Mighty Creature 
 from the earth and striven to endow it with life 
 and motion. Simultaneous and co-eval with this 
 the great race that preceded the red men as the 
 I possessors of our continent, have been called into 
 * being. With whatever success the author may 
 ^ have accomplished this portion of his task, the 
 * venerable race which struggled and enduredfin 
 
 ^ ^0Q5v,. ":> &; 
 
i r PRIFACK. 
 
 these fair fields, ere they became our home and 
 dwelling place, must be allowed to awaken our 
 feelings and share our generous regards. In de 
 scribing the Mound-builders no effort has been 
 made to paint their costume,, their modes of life 
 or their system of government. They are pre 
 sented to the reader almost exclusively under a 
 single aspect, and under the influence of a single 
 emotion. It matters not to us whether they 
 dwelt under n monarchical or popular form of 
 polity ; whether king or council ruled their 
 realms ; nor, in fine, what was their exact out 
 ward condition. It is enough for us to know, 
 and enough for our humanity to inquire, that . 
 they existed, toiled, felt and suffered ; that to 
 them fell, in these pleasant regions, their portion 
 of the common heritage of our .me e, and that 
 around those ancient hearth-stones, washed to 
 light on the banks of the far western rivers, once 
 gossiped and enjoyed life, a nation that has utter 
 ly faded away. We are moved deeply in looking 
 upon their mortuary remains those disinterred 
 and stately skeletons for we know that they once 
 
PREFACE* T 
 
 were men, and moved among men with hearts 
 full of human impulses, and heads warm with 
 mortal schemes and fancies, Of this, History 
 could make us no surer. Over the earth where 
 they repose, purple flowers spring up, and with 
 the brilliancy of their hues, and the sweetness of 
 their breath, give a splendor and fragrance to the 
 uir. This touches him as deeply, the author must 
 confess, and seems to his untravelled eyes as 
 beautiful as any thing he can read of Athens, of 
 cloudless Italy, or the sunny France. , Humanity 
 and nature are all with which the heart wishes to 
 deal/and we have them here in their naked out 
 lines and grandeur. There is enough here for 
 author and reader if they be of strong minds and 
 true hearts. A green forest or a swelling mound 
 is to them as glorious as a Grecian temple; and 
 they are so simple as to be well nigh as much af 
 fected by the sight of a proud old oak in decay 
 near at home, as by the story of a baronial castle 
 tottering to its fall three thousand miles off. 
 
 The author is aware of the difficulty and mag- 
 n i tude of his undertaking. He knows as well as 
 
 i. 
 
Vl PREFACE. 
 
 - 
 
 any one can know, the obstacles to vanquish and 
 remove ; and he also knows the obstacles that 
 will not be vanquished nor removed. Notwith 
 standing all this he feels assured, if he has con 
 tended in any degree successfully with the great 
 ness and majesty of the subject, he will have ac 
 complished some slight service for the literature of 
 his country, and something, he ventures to hope, 
 for his own good name. 
 New- York, January, 1839, 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 

 PART FIRST. 
 
 Ill 
 

 f 
 
. 
 
 BEHEMOTH 
 
 PART FIRST, 
 
 UPON the summit of a mountain which beetled 
 in the remote west over the dwellings and de 
 fences of a race long since vanished, stood, at the 
 close of a midsummer s day, a gigantic shape;, 
 whose vastness darkened the whole vale beneath* > 
 The sunset purpled the mountain-top, and crim 
 soned with its deep, gorgeous tints the broad Oc 
 cident ; and as the huge figure leaned against it, 
 it seemed like a mighty image cut from the solid 
 peak itself, and framed against the sky. Below 
 in a thousand groups were gathered, in their 
 wonted evening worship, that strange people who 
 have left upon our hills and prairies so many 
 monuments of their power, and who yet, by 
 some mighty accident, have taken the trumpet 
 out of the hand of Fame, and closed for ever, as 
 regards their historical and domestic character, tho 
 
 1 
 
BEHEMOTH. 
 
 busy lips of tradition. Still we can gather 
 vaguely, that the Mound-builders accomplished a 
 career in the West, corresponding, though less 
 magnificent and imposing, with that which the 
 Greeks and Romans accomplished in what is 
 styled by courtesy the Old World. The hour 
 has been when our own West was thronged with 
 empires. 
 
 Over that Archipelago of nations the Dead 
 Sea of Time has swept obliviously, and subsi 
 ding, hath left their graves only the greener for 
 a new people in the present age to build their 
 homes thereon. But at the time whereof we 
 write, living thousands and ten thousands of these 
 ancient denizens were paying their homage to 
 their deity, and as they turned their eyes in unison) 
 to bid their customary solemn adieu to the depart 
 ing sun, they beheld the huge shape of which we 
 have spoken. The first feeling which arose in 
 their bosoms as they looked upon the vision was, 
 that this was some monstrous prodigy exhibited 
 by the powers of the air or the powers of dark 
 ness to astonish and awe them. 
 
 But as they gazed they soon learned that it had 
 a fixed and symmetrical form, and possessed the 
 faculty of life. 
 
BEHEMOTH. O 
 
 When they discovered that the huge apparition 
 was animate indeed, a new terror sprang up in 
 their soul, They gathered about their mounds, 
 their places of worship, and on the plain, in 
 various and fearful groups, 
 
 In one spot were collected a company of 
 priests and sages, the learned and prophetic of 
 the race, who with Intent eyes watched the 
 mighty spectre ; and to gain a clearer conception 
 of its proportions, scanned its broad and far-cast 
 shadow and marked the altitude of the sun. 
 Each one searched his thoughts for some 
 knowledge applicable to the sudden and vast ap 
 pearance. 
 
 Not far from this group was drawn toge- 
 ther a score of women, who still retained 
 their devotional posture and aspect, but yet cast 
 ing side-long and timid glances towards each 
 other s countenances as if hoping to discover 
 there, an interpretation of the spectacle. Chil 
 dren clung to their garments and looking up 
 piteously, seemed to ask " if that was not the 
 God whom they were taught to fear and wor 
 ship?" Each moment the awe increased and 
 spread ; from lip to lip the story ran across the 
 plain and through the walled villages until the 
 

 4 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 spectre embraced in its fearful dominion a circuit 
 of many leagues. 
 
 Bach moment conjecture grew more rife and 
 question more anxious and frequent. 
 
 . In the opinion of many of the wisest for 
 even from their souls superstitious misgivings 
 were not wholly banished the apparition which 
 crowned the mountain was the Deity of the 
 nation, who had chosen to assume this form as 
 the most expressive of infinite power and terrific 
 majesty. 
 
 Other nobler spirits, and who drew their 
 
 knowledge rather from the intellect than the feel- 
 
 ings, believed it was the reappearance of a great 
 
 > brute which, by its singular strength, in an ago 
 
 . long past and dimly remembered, had wasted the 
 
 fields of their fathers and made desolate their 
 
 ancient dwellings. 
 
 A tradition still lingered among them, that oi 
 that giant race, which had been swept from the 
 earth by some fearful catastrophe, one still lived 
 and might, from a remote and obscure lair, once 
 more corne forth, to shake the hills with his 
 trampling, and with the shadow of his coming 
 darken the households of nations, 
 
 In the more thoughtful minds of these theorists 
 
BEHEMOTH. 5 
 
 the vivid and traditionary descriptions of the 
 mighty herd of brutes which had once tyrannized 
 over the earth, had left an impression deep, 
 abiding and darkly colored. The memories of 
 their progenitors had handed them down as a 
 Titanic tribe of beings who, in their day, excited 
 a terror which kindled human fear, and with 
 it, the best growth of fear, human ingenuity. 
 They remembered that in that distant age, as 
 the history ran, a new a id majestic race of 
 heroes, moulded of Nature s noblest clay, had 
 sprung into life to battle with and finally van 
 quish these brute oppressors of their country. 
 
 Day faded fast. Its last streaks died away in 
 the West and yet the solemn shap stood there in 
 its vast, unmoving stillness. Ai?cl still the people 
 retained their postures of wonder and fear, while 
 in hushed voices they spoke of the occupant of 
 the mountain. Gray, cold twilight at length 
 cast its mantle upon the vision, and they scattered 
 in anxious parties towards their homes, But 
 with them they bore the image of the huge visi 
 tant. They could not shake it from them. 
 A general and deep awe had fallen on the multi 
 tude, and even when they sought their slumbers 
 that giant shape passed before their sealed lids in 
 
6 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 a thousand forms, assuming as many attitudes of 
 assault and defence ; for from the first, by a 
 strange instinct, they had looked upon it as their 
 foe. To watch its movements, for it could be 
 yet seen, in the clear distinctness of its immense . 
 stature, calm, majestic, silent; to sound the 
 alarm ; if need be to meet it face to face, should 
 it descend from its pinnacle, the chieftains of the 
 Hound-builders thought fit to station armed sen 
 tries at various corners of the streets and high* 
 ways of their towns and oities,on the walls of their 
 fortresses, and as a more commanding position, on 
 the summit of their mounds and in the square, 
 stone observatories which crowned a portion of 
 jj them. 
 
 The relics of the fortresses and observatories 
 that night manned by the sentinels of that pecu- 
 liar people, still stand and moulder on the soil of 
 the far west. They are constructed on principles 
 of military science now lost or inexplicable.(l) 
 
 But, -whatever the code of tactics on which 
 they were fashioned, we cannot but admire, in 
 the midst of our conjectures^ their peculiar sym 
 metry, their number and their duration* Paral 
 lel with the foundations of Rome these walls 
 went up, far back ia the calendar of time, and 
 
BEHEMOTH. 7 
 
 time-defying, they seem destined to pass down, as 
 far from the present into a misty and pregnant 
 future, as the actual history of a populous and 
 mighty race. Like the lost decades of Livy, 
 some passages are wanting to their completeness, 
 but in what stands we may read the power, the 
 strength, the decay, and the downfall of our own 
 American ancients. They were men of war and 
 those ramparts first built against a human enemy 
 were now occupied to keep at bay a new and un 
 tried foe. From time to time, along the line of 
 guardsmen went the watchword ; the sentries of 
 different posts occasionally whispering to each 
 other that the apparition was still visible on the 
 mountain. Not a few, overwearied with their 
 fears, slumbered. 
 
 The middle watch of the night had come* 
 The air was dark and still. Not a breath nor 
 voice broke the universal quiet : when, clear and 
 sharp, there fell upon the ears of the sleeping 
 populace, a sound like the crash of sudden 
 thunder. The earth shook as if trodden by 
 heavy footsteps, and through the air came a noise 
 like the rushing of some mighty bulk in violence 
 and haste. Ponderous hoofs trampled the earth 
 and drew nigh. It was he the traditionary brute 
 
8 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 Behemoth and before his irresistible force 
 fell whatever strove to gainsay his advance. 
 The whole region trembled as when a vast body 
 of waters bursts its way and rolls over the earth, 
 ocean-like, wave shouting to wave, and all crowd- 
 ing onward with thunderous tumult. In vain was 
 the solid breast- work ; the piled wall was in vain j 
 in vain the armed and watchful sentry. Like some 
 stupendous engine of war, he bore down on them, 
 rendering human strength a mockery and human 
 defences worse than useless, for as wall, bastion 
 and tower fell, they redoubled death and ruin 
 on their builders. With a speed of which no 
 common celerity can give us a conception he 
 / swept through the towns and villages, the till- 
 / ed fields and pleasure gardens of the Mouiid- 
 builders desolating and desolate none daring 
 to stand before his feet thus dreadfully advanced. 
 The trepidation of the day grew an hundred 
 fold ; from the dark, dim light which the stars 
 forced through the drifting and solid clouds, they 
 could but guess vaguely at his bulk, yet out of 
 their fears and the darkness they wrought an 
 awful imago of vastness and strength. Night 
 banded with the monster, and terror walked in 
 their train. 
 
BEHEMOTH. U 
 
 The morning dawned, and its light fell 
 upon the face of an early wakened ard fear 
 stricken people. On every countenance was 
 graven the clear and visible imprint of terror ; 
 but the expression was by no means that of ordi 
 nary alarm, such as is . engendered by siege, or 
 battle or death ; nor did it stamp the countenance 
 with the characters of a daily and familiar fear. 
 
 A dread which changed the whole aspect, such 
 as distorts the features and takes from them their 
 old, household look, was upon all. In the con 
 sternation and imbecility of the moment messen 
 gers were speeded forth and hurried to and fro 
 through the many villages of the Mound-builders 
 bearing tidings to which us answer, they received 
 the same tidings in return! The visitation 
 had been universal; in each one of their five 
 thousand villages were left like marks of brute 
 ravage and strength !(2) 
 
 Behemoth had been with them all; and his largo 
 footsteps were traced wide over the plain until 
 they broke off abruptly at its extreme bounds/ 
 and wheeled heavily into the mountains. Wheti 
 their dismay had subsided from its first flood-tide, 
 they began to compare observations and consult 
 with each other. The memories of most were 
 
10 BEHEMOTH* 
 
 bewildered in endeavoring to recall the ocfcur- 
 lences of the past night ; but from what with 
 their confused faculties, they could grasp, they 
 
 were well assured that the whole circuit of deso- 
 
 1 
 
 lation had been accomplished within the passage 
 
 of a single hour. And now the time was come 
 for them to look forth and measure that desola 
 tion to what side shall they first turn ? Every 
 where is some monument of that irresistible 
 power. In one brief hour he has overthrown 
 what Time, with his centuries, could not touch. 
 There at the track of his first foot-prints is a 
 crushed wall driven through by some powerful, 
 and to them as yet unknown, weapon of strength, 
 which has left its dints upon the shattered frag 
 ments. Massive portions of it have fallen to 
 powder beneath his weight. Across the path 
 which he seems to have chosen out to stalk in 
 rude triumph, through the very heart of their 
 dwellings, lies a dead guardsman whom his 
 might must have first dashed to the earth by 
 some other unconjectured instrument of power, 
 and then trampled upon, for at every pore the 
 blood issues in torrents. Against a dwelling 
 pinned to its wall is the corpse of a second 
 sentinel which seems to have been hurled with 
 
BEHEMOTH. 11 
 
 scorn by the brute invader into its present abi 
 ding-place. On the threshold of her own home 
 lies a mother with her child closely clinging to 
 her neck, its little lips pressed to its parent s 
 both smitten into death by a single blow. 
 
 Look forth from this narrow scene and read 
 the map of a broader ruin the traces of a more 
 fearful mastery ! Yon mound, consecrated by 
 the entombed dust of a generation of sages am 
 heroes is embowelled, and its holy ashes laid 
 open to the vulgar air and the strumpet wind. 
 And yon gardens, once the resort of blooming 
 beauty and gentle childhood its walls strew the 
 ground and its flowers, broken and withered, are \ 
 sunken by the massy weight which has spoiled 
 them, deep into the earth. And lo! that trodden 
 and miry field, shut in by the standing fragments / 
 of two oblong wallsyesterday morn it was a fair 
 greensward where strength wrestled kindly with 
 strength and age looked on approvingly. In 
 another quarter behold a tall tower of stone is 
 cast down before the same incomprehensible 
 might ! The enclosure which surrounded and 
 guarded it is battered to the earth, and aboiat it is 
 collected at this morning hour not a few of the 
 chiefs of the Mound-builders, deeply lamenting the 
 
12 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 overthrow of so scientific and regular a muni* 
 meat. Sad words pass from each to each and 
 they look despondingly into each other s faces, 
 and find no hope, but rather a triumphant 
 despair. From among the group which hung 
 thus powerless and complaining over the shattered 
 battlement boldly stood forth Bokulla, the most 
 fearless and energetic chieftain of the nation. 
 
 Bokulla was a man of singular and prompt cou 
 rage, of great earnestness of purpose and energy 
 of character ; yet modest and unobtrusive. 
 
 In every enterprise he kept himself aloof until 
 the resources of all his co-laborers were exhaust 
 ed, and then when all eyes were turned towards 
 him as the last star of hope, he sprang with 
 alacrity to the front, prepared to match the emer 
 gency with some new and vigorous suggestion. 
 Bokulla was a philosopher no less than a soldier; 
 not artificially framed by filling his mind with 
 learned apothegms and pithy instances, but with 
 a philosophy which was the growth of a medita 
 tive spirit that looked into all things and gathered 
 wisdom from most. He possessed, nevertheless, 
 a thoroughly martial and energetic mind, and 
 found in every path of life, some accessory valu 
 able to strengthen and adorn that character. Un- 
 
BEHEMOTH. 13 
 
 like, however, the majority of professed militants, 
 he rarely exhibited the gay buoyancy which is 
 so generally considered in them, an essential. On, 
 the contrary, even in the maddest onset and in the 
 high flush of triumph his brow was saddened, 
 ofttimes with a passing cloud of gloom; the 
 mark which distinguishes too often those who are 
 born to be the leaders and benefactors of their race, 
 
 The mind of Bokulla partook of another pecur 
 iiarity in common with many men of masterly 
 genius. Whenever defeated or foiled in any at 
 tempt, his heart would be plunged for a moment 
 in the deepest and most torturing despair but 
 only for the moment and then reassuming its 
 lofty strength like an eagle unchained or slipped 
 from its darkened cage, his soul would spring 
 into the clear, broad sunshine of its former con 
 dition. 
 
 Such was Bokulla, and when those grouped 
 around him had each offered his several remark, 
 and they had mutually mourned over the pre 
 sent desolation, he stood forth from their midst 
 and said, Men ! the day is spent with repining, 
 and the night comes, and with it, perchance, our 
 dread Enemy. Let us rebuild the wall and show 
 at least that we can oppose our old strength to 
 2 
 
14 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 his inroads. He has but the instinct of a brute, 
 we have the reason of men. Let him not, he 
 cried, " let him not find us, for our soul s sake, 
 let him not find us greater cravens than yester 
 night !" 
 
 With these words and with the consent of the 
 chieftains who stood about him, he ordered the 
 rebuilding of the rampart, and the erection of an 
 inner one to flank it. Before the passages which 
 had been previously left free of egress and ingress, 
 he directed the construction of short and solid 
 walls which should suffice to arrest access if made 
 ; in full front, leaving however side-passages be 
 tween the extremities of the main and those of the 
 newly erected ramparts. Under the authoritative 
 and cheering voice of Bokulla, the building-tool 
 and the trench ing-iron ply busily. Parties of 
 laborers hurry fromquarter to quarter of the work, 
 aud something like a manly and worthy spirit 
 seems again to fire their bosoms and lighten their 
 toil. While some gather together the broken por 
 tions of earth and remould them to their purpose, 
 others bring from the distance new supplies, and 
 still others quarry and shape the stone to crown 
 their summits. Under his quick and command- 
 
BEHEMOTH. 
 
 15 
 
 ing eye the tower of observation goes up and its 
 defences are restored. 
 
 But, while Bokulla and his aids build up the 
 strong wall to guard the living is there no duty 
 and service due to the dead ? There is ; and 
 under other guidance the manly forms, which 
 were laid in the recent encounter, are stretched 
 for their last repose. 
 
 Devoted hands compose their discolored limbs 
 and bathe them with embalming drugs, while 
 their kindred, those nearest and dearest in life, 
 collect to accompany them in this their last 
 journey, whatever can consecrate or dignify their 
 sepulture.(3) Those who have fallen fell in the 
 defence of the nation, and aro therefore worthy of 
 the nation s honors. Let them be buried then as 
 becomes heroes of the Mound-builders bearing 
 away with them into the Unknown Land tokens 
 of merit and badges of high desert. Their bodies 
 are swathed in fine raiment at their right hand are 
 placed the weapons of war, grasping which they 
 fell ; at their sides are arrayed mirrors of glass or 
 metal (according to their rank) in which they 
 were wont to look for the reflection of their 
 own martial features when set for the stern ser 
 vice of war. At their beads are disposed the 
 
16 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 helms which covered them in the day of battle, 
 and on their now pulseless breasts lie polished 
 pieces of copper in the form of the crow.(4) 
 
 Can it be possible that those antique warriors 
 were Christian men ? That, among them, they 
 thus cherished trophies of the Crucifixion, and 
 upheld the ark of that reverend creed ? Or at 
 least some stray fragments of the holy structure 
 obscurely delivered over to them by paternal or 
 patriarchal hands? I know not, but this is the 
 language which their discovered relics speak to 
 us of the present generation. 
 
 Slowly from each dead hero s dwelling winds 
 forth the solemn procession with its weeping troop 
 and its religious mourners. Gathering at a central 
 spot they unite into one body, and thus collected, 
 take their way towards the funeral mounds. At 
 tendants send forth from marble instruments, 
 shaped like crescents and highly polished, a slow 
 and mournful music.(5) Beside the bier of each 
 fallen soldier walks his wife and children, while 
 at its head marches solemnly the priest who, in 
 life was his spiritual father, 
 
 Winding through the villages over tb mea 
 dows and along the stream-side, they reach the 
 bank right opposite the mounds in which the dead 
 
 
 
 
 
BEHEMOTH. IT 
 
 are to find their final slumber. Descending into 
 the limpid and shallow stream the bearers gently 
 dip each corpse beneath the waters thus purify* 
 ing it by a natural sort of baptism from every 
 earthly grossness, and then they resume their 
 way all following with bared ankles through the 
 placid rivulet. At length they reach the sacred 
 mound. At its side, toward the East, the earth 
 is removed, arid, turning their faces to the sun, 
 while the marble breathes forth , a higher strain, 
 the bearers of the dead enter the hollowed mound. 
 
 As they enter, the throng chant together a 
 simple ballad, reciting the virtues and the valor of 
 the departed, and, at its close recommending them 
 to the Giver of life and the God of the seasons. 
 The bier bearers place the mortal remains of the 
 heroes whom they have borne within the cavity, 
 upon the earth with their faces upwards, their 
 feet pointing to the North-east (perhaps the home 
 of their progenitors) and their heads toward the 
 more genial South-west. 
 
 Thus were the common soldiers, among those 
 who had fallen buried : but one of that number 
 ho who had been captain of the guard, and a man 
 of note among the people, received separate and 
 more especial rites. 
 
18 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 His remains were borne apart to a distinct 
 mound and there when they were laid out with 
 the honors of a chief who had lost his life in bat 
 tle, martial music breathing from the instru 
 ments, and the whole multitude joining in a 
 chaunt commemorative (like those recited over 
 the common soldier) of his valor and character 
 they proceeded to burn his body and gather his 
 ashes into their separate tomb. They then closed 
 the mouths of all the mounds, and when the 
 priests had offered a prayer for the peaceful repose 
 of their dust, the multitude turned toward their 
 homes. 
 
 All was hushed and silent save the gentle tread 
 of the homeward tending people. The mourning 
 relatives of the dead had lulled into a temporary 
 calm their troublous feelings, and wept with com 
 posure. The spirit of peace was over all. Sud 
 denly a shrill voice was heard to cry, " He comes!" 
 " He comes /" It proceeded from a child, who, 
 unobserved, had climbed to the upper window of 
 one of the stone observatories. The multitude 
 were arrested by the voice, and turning to the 
 quarter from which it issued, saw the finger of the 
 alarmist pointing to a body of woods which lay 
 a short distance West from the path which they 
 
BEHEMOTH. 19 
 
 were taking to their homes. As at the bidding of 
 a god the whole multitude with one accord 
 swerved round and gazed toward the foreut, and 
 there they beheld Behemoth. Fixed in en atti 
 tude of astonishment and dread, they stood gazing 
 and still gazing upon the spectacle a boundless 
 and motionless gallery of laces, It was near the 
 sunset. Overhead in its level light, a gray bald 
 eagle, just flown from its neighboring eyrie, hung 
 poised in wonder, as if turned to stone by the 
 novel sight of so vast a creature, In its motion 
 less suspension it seemed as if sculptured from the 
 air while its wings were gilded, like some remains 
 of the old statuaries, by the golden touch of the 
 sun. 
 
 Visible above the woods, moving heavily 
 through the sea of green leaves, like leviathan in 
 the deep, appeared the dark and prodigious form 
 of the Mastodon : an awful ridge rolling like a 
 billow, along the tops of the pine and cedar which 
 grew beneath him. The boundless bulk moved 
 through the trembling verdure, like an island 
 which, in some convulsion of nature, shifts 
 itself along the surface of the sea. The forest 
 shook as he advanced, while its scared and bar* 
 
20 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 barons denizens, the prairie wolf, the gopher and 
 the panther, skulked silently away. 
 
 As yet his whole mighty frame was not visible. 
 Even amid the trepidation and fear of the Mound- 
 builders a curiosity sprang up to behold the sum 
 of his vast proportions : to see at once before 
 thorn and near at hand the actual dimensions of 
 that shape whose shadowy outlines had, when 
 first seen, wrought in them effects so boundless 
 and disastrous. 
 
 Occasionally as the Mastodon glided along, a 
 green tree-top wavered for a moment in the wind, 
 leaned forward into the air and fell to the earth 
 as if pushed from its hold by the chance-exerted 
 strength of the groat brute. Again, they heard a 
 crash, and a giant oak which had just now lorded 
 it over its fellows was snapped from its stem and 
 cast fur forth over tho tops of the forest. His 
 very breath stirred the leaves till they trembled, 
 and every step of his march denoted, by some 
 natural appearance, the possession of monstrous 
 and fearful power. 
 
 After stalking through a large tract of wood 
 land without allowing any greater portion of his 
 bulk to become apparent, he wheeled through the 
 forest and descending into a wooded valley disap- 
 
BEHEMOTH. 2i 
 
 peared, each step reverberating nlong the earth 
 with a deep and hollow sound. It was a long 
 time ere the Mound-builders resumed their old, 
 homeward progress, and when they did it was 
 with alarmed and cheerless spirits. The awe of 
 the great shadow was upon them. Now more than 
 ever they felt the folly of gainsaying or attempting 
 to withstand a Power which shrouded itself in a 
 form so vast and inaccessible. 
 
 From that day forth a gloom settled upon the 
 minds of the Mound-builders deep, rayless and 
 full of fearful omens ; for though personal energy 
 may rescue individuals from that desperate condi 
 tion, it is a hopeless and a dreadful thing when na 
 tions become the victims of despair. All the 
 mighty wheels of life are stopped ; all the channels 
 through which the soul of the people once coursed 
 are now closed, and, in most cases, closed for ever. 
 The arteries through which the life-blood once 
 gushed are deadened, and the warm current is ar 
 rested as if the winter had descended upon it in its 
 very spring-tide. The Mound-builders were now 
 fallen into that sad estate. Neither the spirit-stir 
 ring voice of Bokulla ; nor the trump of war ; nor 
 the memory of their fathers fields or their fathers 1 
 valor, could awaken them to a sense of what was 
 
22 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 due to their manhood or their duty. The Mas* 
 todon seemed resolved to preserve the spell by an 
 almost perpetual presence-. Day after day in the 
 same gray twilight did Behemoth cast his shadow 
 from the summit of some near elevation ; and 
 midnight after midnight, at the same cold and 
 sullen hour, did he descend and force his huge 
 bulk through the villages of the Mound-builders : 
 breaking their walls in pieces, rending their 
 dwellings, disclosing their mounds and despoiling 
 their pleasure gardens from end to end. He had 
 become the spectral visitant of the nation; the 
 monstrous and inexorable tyrant who, apparently 
 gliding from the land of shadows, presented him 
 self eternally to them, the destroyer of their race. 
 He seemed, in these terrible incursions, to be fired 
 with a mighty revenge for some unforgiven inju 
 ry inflicted on his dead and extinct tribe by the 
 human family. In the calm and solemn quiet of 
 night, when fretted labor sought repose and 
 anxious thought craved slumber, he burst down 
 from the mountains like thunder and bade them 
 " Sleep no more !" 
 
 The internal and external influence of an ha 
 rassment like this could not be otherwise than 
 large and disastrous, First came the dire change 
 
BFHEMOTH. 23 
 
 in the mind itself: when this terrible shadow 
 glided among its quiet emotions, its familiar habits, 
 and its household and national thoughts. All 
 objects that had hitherto occupied a place in the 
 mind of the people now assumed a new color 
 and complexion as this portent fell upon them, 
 in the same manner as every thing in nature 
 catches a portion of the gloom of twilight when it 
 suddenly approaches. No angle of the wide 
 realm of the Mound-builders escaped from the 
 darkness of fear, and every where the fountains of 
 social life became stagnant and ceased to issue in 
 healthy currents, like streams that are silent and 
 still when light has departed from their surface, 
 
 Tho voice of joy died away into a timid and 
 feeble smiling; proud and stately ambition fell 
 humbled to the earth, and love and beauty 
 trembled and fled before the gloomy sha 
 dow of the general adversary. Men shunned 
 each other as if from a consciousness of their 
 abasement, and skulked away from the face of 
 day, unwilling that the heavens should look in 
 upon their desolation and shame. 
 
 Some abandoned their homes and took refuge 
 in cliffs and inaccessible precipices ; preferring 
 poverty and exposure to wind and tempest and 
 
24 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 hostile weather, rather than encounter with a foe 
 so dreadful and triumphant. The great mass 
 however lingered in their customary dwellings : 
 but so thoroughly was every motive to action 
 numbed nnd paralyzed, they neglected to re 
 pair the roof that had fallen, the beam that had 
 decayed, or the foundation that had yielded to 
 the summer s rain, and innumerable buildings 
 throughout the whole realm tumbled into ruin, 
 and many that stood on the borders of rivers, 
 undermined by the motion of their currents, tottered 
 and fell into the stream, while their terror-stjicken 
 inmates, in many cases, perished without a 
 struggle. 
 
 The ordinary occupations and duties of life 
 were performed with feeble hands and vague 
 thoughts, or entirely deserted. 
 
 This mighty and puissant nation, whose 
 strengtli was that of a giant and whose glory 
 rivalled^ the sun, was stricken by terror into a 
 feeble and child-like old age. All its proportions 
 were diminished ; its heart was shrunk, and it 
 dragged on a slothful and decrepid existence amid 
 the cold and monumental ruins of what had once 
 been its beautiful domain and its house of honor 
 and joy. That salient and almost motiveless 
 
BEHEMOTH. 28 
 
 energy which drives a nation on through toils, 
 battles and discomfitures, to prosperity and tri 
 umph: that hazardous and all venturous daring 
 which pushes doubt aside, and which, while it 
 questions nothing strives at every thing, was 
 utterly departed. 
 
 From the silence and quiet of his studied retire 
 ment, Bokulla beheld the shadow as it slowly and 
 fearfully crossed the national mind ; from the first 
 he saw the change which was coming over it, and 
 knew that human wisdom was too weak to arrest 
 or avert it, unless the great first cause could be 
 removed. And yet, while others yielded thus 
 submissively to a meek despair, he, keeping him- 
 self invisible to the general eye, tasked his bold 
 and liberal mind for some remedy for the eviL 
 In the calm and dead quiet of his private chain* 
 ber he sat from day to day brooding over plans 
 and enterprises whereby to rescue the nation. 
 
 Bokulla entertained a deep founded confidence 
 in the human character. Himself equipped with 
 n indomitable will and faculties stout and reso- 
 Inte as iron, he was assured that by similar quali 
 ties the nation was to be redeemed from thraldom. 
 Amidst a thousand changes of nature man had 
 endured * mountains had been cleft asunder; 
 3 
 
25 , BEHEMOTH. 
 
 seas had leaped upon continents and marched 
 triumphantly over every barrier and obstacle; 
 great orbs had been extinguished, like tapers of an 
 evening, in the skies ; yet man stood stead* 
 fast amid the shock and the mutation. Along 
 the bleak coasts of inhospitable time he had 
 voyaged in a secure and upright vessel ; on this 
 ridge of earth he still stood while the visible uni 
 verse passed through changes of season, through 
 increase or diminution of splendors, and through 
 worlds created or worlds destroyed. 
 
 Was man, who thus out-lasted seas, and stars, 
 and mountains, to be crushed at last by mere bru 
 tul enginery and corporal strength ? 
 
 Reflections like these wrought the mind of 
 Bokulla to a condition of fearless and manly 
 daring, and he brought his whole soul to the labor 
 of discovering or contriving the means of triumph 
 or resistance. It may well be supposed that tower 
 as his thought might, it strove in vain to over 
 top the stature or master the bulk of the Masto. 
 don : what were fosses, and bastions and battle* 
 ments to him that moved like a mountain against 
 opposition. No wall could shut him out : seas 
 might interpose in vain to cut off his fearful 
 pursuit of a fugitive people. Resting or in mo- 
 
BEHEMOTH. 27 
 
 (ion that terrible and far-reaching strength would 
 overtake them and accomplish ils purposes of de 
 solation and ruin. 
 
 With this stupendous and inevitable image the 
 whole might of Bokulla s soul wrestled for a long 
 time. An untiring invention that kept steadily 
 on the wing started suggestion on suggestion, 
 but all unequal to the mighty necessity of the 
 occasion. He gathered facts OH which to build 
 the fabric of opposition huge enough to counter 
 vail a superhuman force, but they tottered and 
 fell to the earth before the ideal presence of Behe 
 moth. He surveyed mountains and in imagina 
 tion linked them together with wide arches and 
 empyreal bridges; and compassed the people 
 round about with rock built circumvallations and 
 ramparts of insurmountable altitude and strength. 
 But it would have required ages to complete 
 the defences suggested by a swift imagination 
 which would have been equal to their object ; 
 and others which great labor might have more 
 readily erected, would have been swept away in a 
 single night by the barbaric invader. 
 
 When this conclusion forced itself upon him, 
 Bokulla telt, for a moment, the pangs of a hope 
 less and overwhelming despair, A midnight 
 
<tar knesp eame over his mind, and it wa* for a time 
 AS if the sun and the heavens were obliterated 
 from his view, and as if he were doomed to travel 
 henceforth a gloomy turnpike where all was sor 
 row, and wailing, and terror without end. But 
 the light gradually broke in upon his soul, and his 
 palsied faculties began to awaken and cast off 
 the slumber and the delusion. His reflections, it 
 is true, had taught him that his countrymen 
 could act in defence against their vast oppressor 
 with but frail chance of success. He was satis 
 fied that a weight and bulk as monstrous as that 
 of Behemoth would burst their way by their mere 
 impetuous motion through any barrier or redoubt 
 they might erect, There was another tnonght, 
 however, worthy of all consideration could not 
 the Mound-builders, a naturally adventurous and 
 valiant people, act on the offensive ? Abandon 
 ing passive and barbarous suffering, was not bat 
 tle to be waged and waged with hope against the 
 despoiler? This question Bokulla had put 
 anxiously to himself, and he watched with 
 an eager eye for some favorable phase of the na 
 tional feeling ere he addressed it to the country, 
 From one crisis of fear to another the Mound- 
 builders passed rapidly, and as the shades of night 
 
BEHEMOTH. 29 
 
 thicken one upon the other, each aspect of their 
 condition was gloomier than the former. At 
 length as darkness deepened and strengthened^ 
 itself, light began to dawn in the opposite quar 
 ter. Hardened by custom, and familiar in a> 
 measure with the object of their dread, they now " 
 ventured to lift their pale, white countenances 
 and gaze with some steadiness of vision upon the 
 foe. 
 
 Naturally of a noble character and constitution, 
 the Mound-builders needed only that the original 
 elements of their temper should be stirred by 
 some powerful conviction to excite them to ac 
 tion.^) A new spirit,or rather the ghost of the old 
 and exiled one, had returned to the nation, and 
 they now saw before them, unless they resumed 
 their manhood and generously exerted strength 
 and council, ages of desolation and fear for them 
 selves and their children. Were they men and 
 should no hazard be dared, no toil nor peril en 
 countered to break the massive despotism that 
 held them to the earth ? Were they the posses- 
 sors of a land of sublime and wonderful aspects) 
 the dwellers amid interminable woods and lakes 
 of living water, and were no glorious nor resolute 
 3" 
 
3Q UKUEMOTH. 
 
 energies matured by these, capable to cope with 
 that which was mighty and awful ? 
 
 At this fortunate stage of feeling; Bokulla ap 
 peared. He clothed the thoughts of the people 
 in an eloquence of his own. He first painted thfe 
 portrait, of t[ieir past condition in life-like and 
 startling colors. He told them that from the ap 
 parent size and solidity of the Mastodon, and the 
 uniform analogy of nature he might endure for 
 centuries, yea, even beyond the duration of man 
 kind itself, unless his endless desolation could be 
 arrested. If theysutfered now under his irresistible 
 sway they might suffer for a thousand years to 
 / come. That vast frame, he feared, decay could 
 . not touch. And in a stature so tremendous 
 must reside an energy and stubbornness of pur-, 
 pose, endurable and unchanging. 
 
 Next, addressing them from the summit of a 
 mound, around which many of the people 
 were grouped in their old worship (some 
 faint image of which they had kept up through 
 all their terror) he appealed to them by the sacred 
 and inviolate ashes that rested underneath his feet. 
 If old warriors and generous champions, never 
 dishonored, could awaken from the slumbers of 
 death and breathe again the pure air of that glo- 
 
BEHEMOTH. 31 
 
 rious clime, what voice of denunciation or anger 
 would they utter ! 
 
 " Are these men, that creep along the earth, 
 like the pale shadows of autumn, Mound-builders 
 and children of our loius? "What hath affright 
 ed them ? Look to the mountains, and lo ! an in 
 ferior creature, one of the servants and hirelings 
 of man, hath the mastery. Arouse! arouse! 
 our sons ! Place in our old, death-withered hands 
 tho. swords we once wielded crown us with our 
 familiar helms and we will wage the battle for 
 you. Victory to the builders of the mounds? 
 victory to the lords and masters of the earth) 
 should be our cry of or set and triumph !" 
 
 The national pulse beat true again, and Bo- 
 kulla hastened from village to village, quickening 
 and firing it. Every where the hour of renova 
 tion seemed to have come. Every where ascend 
 ing their high places he appealed to them by me 
 mories to which they could not but hearken. 
 Every where an immense populace gathered 
 about him and listened to his words as if they 
 were the inspired language of hope. And wheiv 
 their souls were fired, as it were, under the fer- 
 vent heat of his eloquence, he skilfully moulded 
 ihena to hi* own plan aad purpose. He recounted 
 
32 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 to them the mode, the time and course he thought 
 fit for them to adopt in seeking battle* with 
 
 Behemoth. 
 After consultation with their chieftains, the 
 
 levy expected und demanded of each was soon 
 settled. 
 
 They were to venture forth with an army 
 (easily collected in that populous nation) of one 
 hundred thousand strong. Bokulla was to be 
 the leader-in-chief. Approved men were to be 
 his counsel and aids. The day of setting forth 
 on the great campaign was fixed ; not far distant. 
 In the mean time, nil diligence and labor were to 
 be employed in disciplining, equipping, and in 
 spiriting the troops: in burnishing and framing 
 the necessary armor, and in constructing certain 
 new engines of war, which Bokulla had invented, 
 and which might be of use in the encounter 
 with the terrible foe. 
 
 Every village now presented a picture of busy 
 preparation and warlike bustle. The forges, 
 whose fires had smouldered in long disuse, were 
 again rekindled, and their anvils rang with the 
 noise of a thousand hammers rivalling each other 
 in the skill with which they moulded the metals 
 into heroic shapes. While one wrought out with 
 
BEHEMOTH. 83 
 
 ready dexterity the breast-plate, with its large, 
 circular bosses of silver, another, with equal, but 
 less costly felicity, framed the brazen hatchet, and 
 the steel arrow-head. In every workshop there 
 were employed artizans in sufficient number to 
 not only begin with the rude ore and shape it into 
 form, but also to carry it through every stage of 
 labor tipping it with silver burnishingorna 
 menting completing them, affixing leathern^ 
 handles to the bosses by which to grasp and v i- 
 hold the shield, and arranging them in due order 
 for inspection by the appointed officers.(T) 
 
 At another and higher class of laboratories they, V 
 were employed in framing and fashioning wea 
 pons for chieftains and warriors of note; swords i 
 of tempered steel and scabbards of silver, capped 
 with points of other and less penetrable material : 
 and helmets of copper and shields, with orna 
 mental and heraldic devices. Some busied 
 themselves in furnishing large shields of brass, 
 which they polished with care until they glittered 
 again while still farther on, they wrought out 
 large bows of steel, from which to speed the 
 barbed arrows prepared by their fellow-workmen. 
 Farther up, near the mountain-side, there lay a { 
 range of shops in which a thousand operatives 
 
84 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 constructed military wagons and other Vehicles 
 for the expedition; for they knew not how far it 
 might extend, nor through what variety of hill 
 and dale. 
 
 To the right of these were gathered artizana 
 under the immediate superintendence of the 
 commander-in -chief, who labored at certain vast 
 and new engines of battle, more especially con- 
 trived for conflict with the vast Brute. These 
 were large and ponderous wooden structures, 
 something like tho towers used in Roman war 
 fare, hut, as the strength and stature of the foe 
 / required, of far greater height and stiffness. 
 
 They were to be planted on heavy wheels and 
 of great circumference placed far apart, so as to 
 furnish for the whole edifice a broad and iramove- 
 able base. On the outer side, they were armed 
 with every sort of sharp-edged weapon, cutlass, 
 falchion, and spearhead, so as to be, if possible, 
 unassailable by Behemoth. Internally, they were 
 furnished with great store of vast bows and poison 
 ed shafts, with which, if such thing might be, to 
 pierce him in some vulnerable point, or at least to 
 gall him sorely and drive him at a distance. Be 
 sides these there were suspended, in copious abun 
 dance, divers ingenious implements, each con- 
 
BEHEMOTH, 35 
 
 trived for some emergency of battle, to strike, to 
 ward, to wound, and to destroy. 
 
 Others were building, taller and stronger, at 
 the summits of which were suspended great mas 
 ses of metal and ponderous hammers, tons in 
 weight, with which to wage a dreadful battery 
 against the mighty foe. By some internal machine* 
 ry, it was so contrived that these solid weights 
 of metal could be swung to and fro with fearfu) 
 swiftness and violence, by the application of a 
 small and apparently inadequate power. Another 
 structure, like these, was prepared, from which to 
 cast, by means of capacious instruments, large 
 quantities of molten metals, kept in fusion by 
 mighty furnaces, to be hurled upon the enemy 
 from afar, and to descend upon him in sulphur* 
 ous and deadly showers, like those which fell on 
 Sodom and Gomorrah of old. 
 
 Day and night, night even to its middle watches, 
 were devoted to the construction and fabrication 
 of engines and implements like these : for theii 
 minds were now so anchored on this great enter* 
 prise, that all other ties were cast loose, and in 
 this alone they embarked every thought and pur* 
 pose. The hours hitherto given to repose and 
 
36 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 Bleep, were now made vassal* to the new adven 
 ture. 
 
 It was magnificent spectacle to see a whole 
 nation thus gathered under the dark wing of the 
 midnight, working out battle for their dread ad 
 versary. Athwart the solid darkness which 
 pressed upon their dwellings, the gleams of swar 
 thy labor shot long and frequent. Far through 
 the hills echoed the clangor of armorers, and 
 the sharp sounds of multitudinous toil, labor 
 ing, each in its kind, toward the redemption of a 
 people. 
 
 Grouped thus about their forges, and hurrying 
 from one task to another with rapid and quiet 
 tread, they might have seemed to the eye of 
 imagination, looking down from the neighbor 
 ing heights, to be employed in infernal labor, 
 and vexing the noon of night with unearthly and 
 Satanic cares. 
 
 But over the wide scene there rested a blessing, 
 for the srnile of Heaven always shines upon the 
 oppressed who nobly yearn and vigorously strive 
 to break their chains. The long and bright 
 hours of day, too, were crowded with their pecu 
 liar duties. The gardens and the enclosed plains, 
 again restored to their old symmetry and beauty, 
 
BEHEMOTH. 37 
 
 were now filled with a soldiery which, under the 
 eye of dexterous leaders, were drilled, deployed, 
 marshalled, and schooled into new manoeuvres, 
 before this unknown in the wars of the Mound- 
 builders, and adapted to the character of trwir 
 unwonted antagonist. They were taught to 
 wheel with novel evolutions, to retreat in less 
 orderly but more evasive movements and marches 
 than of old, and to attack with a wariness nud 
 caution hitherto unpractised in their encounters 
 with mortal enemies. Over all the eye of Bo- 
 kulla glanced, giving system to the orders of the 
 chieftains, and confidence to the obedience of 
 their legions. Apparently performing duty no 
 where, he fulfilled it every where, with a calm 
 and masterly skill, which, while it was unobserved 
 by the careless, was an object of admiration to 
 the higher order of men, who were made the 
 immediate channels of his influence, and who 
 were therefore brought more directly under the 
 *pell, 
 
 " Upon my soul," cried the taller of two offi 
 cers, who stood near the trunk of a withered 
 cedar, which overshadowed a wide and deep sunk 
 en well!, looking upon one of these novel parade?, 
 < upon my sou), BokulUi hath the power and the 
 4 
 
98 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 knowledge of a God. Out of these men, but 
 yesterday dumb and torpid with. fear, he has 
 struck the spirit of life, arid that with the same 
 ease as my sword-blade strikes from this dull 
 stone at my foot, sparks of fire." 
 
 ""Who can withstand those giant machines 
 which tower yonder, like mountains, above our 
 dwellings?" cried his corrjanion. "The Spirit 
 of Evil himself, if en bodied in the frame of the 
 Brute, must full before those whirlwind hammers 
 of brass aud tempests of molten copper !" 
 
 "While he spoke, one of the vast oaken struc 
 tures hud been \\hrelcd out, arid its ponderous 
 enginery set in motion, and brought to tear upon 
 a crag that projected from the mountain near 
 which it rested. To nnd fro they swung with 
 fearful force and velocity, at each blow shattering 
 vast masses from the rock, nnd bringing them 
 headlong down the mountain. At the some time, 
 not far distant, tons of crude ore were cast into 
 the furnaces, affixed to the other towers, and hurl 
 ed forth upon the prairie in clouds of fire, which, 
 as they fell upon the earth, scathed and withered 
 eyery thing before them. 
 
 Although the multitude entertained hearts oi 
 favor and hope towards the project of meeting 
 
BEHEMOTH, 39 
 
 Behemoth in battle, there were a few who doubt* 
 od its wisdom and foreboded a gloomy result. 
 
 " The dinging of those anvils," said an nged 
 man who sat at the sunset in the front of his 
 dwelling, to his spouse (no less stricken in years), 
 who leaned out at the window, " the dinging of 
 yon anvils is to my ears a mere death-dirge* 
 Wherefore are the youth of our land to be led 
 forth on this vain pilgrimage? They are fore 
 doomed by the hooting of the owl, which has 
 been ceaseless in our woods sinco first it was 
 planned. The dismal bat and the brown vulture 
 flap their wings over our bright day-marshal lings 
 in expectancy of a banquet." 
 
 " And as for the chieftain, Bokulla," continued 
 his wife, prolonging the dolorous strain of conver- 
 sation, " his defeat, if not death, is already doomed 
 in Heaven. The star which fell but yesternight 
 luridly athwart his dwelling, foretold that sequel 
 too well. And his spouse, stumbled she not essay 
 ing but this morning to cross its threshold and 
 grcottho norm-return of ibkiilla from the distant 
 villages ?" 
 
 " This army, five score thousand in numbers/* 
 reiterated the old man, " will be but as the snow in 
 the whirlwind before the breath of Behemoth 
 
40 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 They have forgotten, senseless -men ! the story of 
 our fathers. They recollect not how in ancient 
 days the fellow of this vast Brute (perchanc ethis 
 living one himself) was met by onr hunters in the 
 mountain gorge : that his roar was like thunder 
 near at hand, and his tread like the invasion of 
 waters ! that they shrunk before him into the 
 hollows of the rocks as the white cloud scatters 
 before the sun !"(8) 
 
 11 1 pray Heaven the wife of Bokulla be not wi 
 dowed," echoed his spouse. "The chieftain is a 
 bold man, and submits but poorly to the lording 
 of any, be it man or brute." 
 
 "1 .fear this spirit pricks him on too far in 
 this emprise; I have warned him secretly," 
 concluded the old mound -builder, in a deep and 
 solemn tone of voice ; " I have warned him, but 
 he scorns my warning. He will not be stayed in 
 his purpose. 1 will warn him yet once more, for 
 he dreams not that he goes out to war with one 
 who is a giant in instinct as well as in strength I" 
 . The eventful morning of going forth against the 
 Mastodon came : it was a morning bright with 
 beautiful auspices. The sky overhead glittered with 
 its fresh and airy splendors : no cloud dimmed tho 
 world of indescribable blue which hung calm and 
 
BEHEMOTH. 41 
 
 motionless like heaven itself on high. Occasion 
 ally against its clear canvass a passing troop of 
 wild-fowl painted their forms, and vanished ; or, 
 a tree-top here and there stood out, pencilled upon 
 it, with its branches and foliage all distinct. The 
 sun rode just over the horizon, and through the 
 innumerable villages of the Mound-builders the 
 martial trumpet sounded the spirit-stirring alarum. 
 At the call, one hundred thousand right-good 
 men of battle seized their arms and marched 
 through the territory of their brethren in solid 
 array, 
 
 First at the head of the van, drawn in a two^ 
 wheeled chariot of wood, studded with iron and 
 ornamented with an eagle at each of its four points, 
 front and rear, and drawn by a single powerful 
 and jet-black bison, came Bokulla himself. He 
 stood erect in the vehicle, while his burnished ar 
 mor and towering helm flung their splendor far 
 and wide ; in his hand he held no rein but guided 
 the noble beast by his mere intonations of voice* 
 
 Behind Bokulla followed a company of men-at- 
 arms, each bearing a long and stalwart club, 
 armed at its heavier extremity with a four-edged 
 sword or falchion, to the point of which was af. 
 fixed a spear-like weapon stiff and keen. Of these 
 
42 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 there were one hundred, each cosed in a mail of 
 elk-skin, which, while it wns flexible and yielded 
 to every gesture of the body, was yet a sufficient 
 defence against any ordinary assault. These 
 were expected, beside guarding and sustaining 
 Bokulla, to close with Behemoth, and taking ad 
 vantage of the unwieldy motion of his frame, to 
 wound his legs or otherwise annoy and disable 
 him. Behind these followed an equal phalanx of 
 spear-men, whose allotted duty it was with a long 
 er weapon to probe the Brute at a distance, and 
 draw his attention from any quarter to which it 
 might appear directed with too much vigor and 
 chance of danger. Jn> the rear of the company of 
 spear-men- marched a strong body of common sol 
 diers, bearing the customary Mound-buildersMn- 
 atruments of war, namely, vast steel bows six feel 
 or more in length, and quivers fiHed with corres 
 pondent shafts tipped with poisons, and on their 
 led arms bearing the usual shield of copper with 
 bosses of silver. In the rear of these heavily 
 rolled on two of those newly-invented machines, 
 which rose like pyramids above the array. These 
 were drawn by scores of yoked bisons, and dri 
 ven forward by private soldiers who walked at 
 their sides. The earth shook under their Jura- 
 
BEHEMOTH. 43 
 
 bering weight. Their -bowels were filled with 
 captains and privates who had charge, each in 
 his station, of their implements of death. Follow 
 ing those, in order, inarched a numerous squad 
 ron, sustaining over their sinewy shoulders heavy 
 axes of steel with edges sharp as death, and han 
 dles of immoveable oak. Drawn by a thousand 
 bensts of burthen, behind these, came innumera 
 ble provision and baggago wagons, provided for 
 the emergency of a protracted search for the ene 
 my, and long delay in vanquishing and destroy 
 ing him. These were accompanied with troops 
 and officers. Behind these walked countless va 
 rieties of battle : soldiers, the very conception of 
 whose armor and weapons is lost in the oblivious 
 and mouldering past. Rearmost came six other 
 towers bearing their immense hammers and fiery 
 furnaces, with ten thousand troops to guard, to 
 guide them ; to select even roads for their pro* 
 gress, and last to wield their vast forces in the 
 hour of conflict. 
 
 Over the whole floated a hundred bright and 
 emblematic pennons, while the sonorous metal kept 
 time to their waving folds as the morning wind 
 dallied them to and fro. It was a glorious thing 
 to see ten times tea thousand thus equipped and 
 
44 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 embattled going forth on that gay morning) to 
 the war. 
 
 "Wherever their course lay it was thronged 
 with the multitude pushing to gain n sight of 
 Bokulla and his compeers, the solid soldiery and 
 the stupendous structures. Every window was 
 filled, every elevation seized on, every housetop 
 covered by spectators straining; their vision to ga 
 ther in ev^ry appointment and device, banner and 
 sword, bison, chieftain and all. Ah ! well might 
 their eyes ache to look upon that numerous chi 
 valry ! Well might they hang with lingering 
 gaze upon the fair cheeks of that youthful array ! 
 Well might their hearts keep time with the on 
 ward steps of that glorious host ! Happy is it 
 for mortals that they can enjoy the pageant of the 
 present, and have no power to prefigure in it the 
 funeral procession and the mournful company 
 into which the future may change it ! 
 
 As the foot of the last soldier left the territory 
 of the Mound-builders, the drums and trumpets 
 sounded a farewell, and the army, taking the right 
 bank of a rapid stream which ran due West, pur- 
 sued its march. The ground over which their 
 course lay was a smooth and pleasant green 
 sward, the verdure of which was still wet with 
 
BEHEMOTH. 45 
 
 the dews of tho night. Occasionally it rose into 
 a gentle elevation which, for the first few miles, 
 brought the advancing army once again in sight 
 of the expectant gazers who still kept their posts 
 upon housetop, tower and mound. At length 
 from one of these eminences they descended into 
 a valley which bore them altogether from the view 
 of the most favorably-stationed looker-out. And 
 yet, even when their banners and tall structures 
 had passed wholly from the sight, gushes of 
 music, fainter and fainter at each note, reached 
 their ears, and reverberated from the neighboring 
 cliffs and hill-sides. 
 
 Onward they passed through the long vale 
 which stretched before them, choosing out the 
 clearest paths, and still keeping their march toward 
 the Occident. In selecting this route they were 
 guided by large tracks which appeared at remote 
 strides in the earth; and by frequent signs of do 
 vastation fallen trees and crushed underwood. 
 
 Ouce they came to a river of great width, 
 on the near margin of which, at the water s 
 edge, appeared two large foot-prints, while on 
 the opposite bank were discovered indentations 
 equally vast but impressed deeper in the soil, 
 as if the monstrous Beast had reared on his 
 
46 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 hindermost feet and with supernatural strength 
 and agility thrown himself across the intervening 
 breadth of waters. As there were no bridges 
 near at hand they were forced to compass the 
 river by a circuitous route to regain the tracks 
 which had been espied on the other bank. 
 
 After attaining the utter extremity of the vale, 
 through which the stream in question poured its 
 tide, they pursued their chosen way into a thick 
 wood, the path of the Mastodon through which 
 seemed to have been created by sweeping before 
 him, with a flexible power, whatever obstructed 
 his progress. On every side of the huge gap 
 into which the army now entered, lay prostrate 
 trees of greatest magnitude; oak, pine and 
 sycamore. Some, apparently, had been cast en 
 high, and, descending into the neighboring for 
 est, left their roots naked in the air, unnaturally 
 inverted and exposed. And yet, save in the im 
 mediate path of the Desolutor, nature smiled 
 unalarmed and innocent, in its primeval and vir 
 gin beauty. Here and there, shone out in the 
 forest bright green patches, rising often into gen 
 tle slopes, or softening away iiito vales as gen 
 tle. Frequently the upland was crowned with 
 groups of small trees, and the vales were tesse- 
 
BEHEMOTH* 47 
 
 lated with sweet wild-flowers. Then they 
 crossed babbling brooks and rivulets, which ran 
 across their march with a melodious murmur, 
 eloquent with reproaches on the warlike task they 
 were at present pursuing. Again, a large stream, 
 which had gathered volume from the neighboring 
 motmfnins, come rushing down declivities, and 
 seemed to shout them on to battle. 
 
 At times, in the course of this variegated 
 march, they fell upon open spaces where, for a 
 small circuit, no tree was to be seen ; rich mea 
 dows, the chosen pastures of the wild beings of 
 the prairies, pranked with red nnd white clover, 
 and fragrant as the rose, in their unmown fresh 
 ness. 
 
 Sometimes they passed through sudden and 
 narrow defiles, overhung by frowning cliffs and 
 clothed with a dank verdure which seemed 
 to be the growth of a century. One gorge, in 
 particular, of this kind, they encountered whose 
 beetling rocks in their dark and regular gran- 
 deur, looked as if they might have been wrought 
 out by the hands of the old Cyclops or " Pelas- 
 gians strange." They seemed to be the solemn 
 halls of u great race which had its seat of em- 
 pire there (beyond even the age of the Mound- 
 
49 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 builders) and chambered in its tabernacles of ever* 
 lasting stone. But Nature alone built these halls 
 for herself, arid through them toward the West 
 she walks at the twilight and morning hour in 
 pomp and majesty. I see her, her skirts purpled 
 with evening, and flowing forth in the fresh 
 breezes of that untainted clime, now pacing those 
 mighty avenues and recalling, in their awful still 
 ness, the nations which slumber at her feet. Her 
 face brightens like a sun, as she meditates over the 
 empires which have faded fromearih into thedust 
 beneath her ; she thinks and kindles in knowing 
 and remembering that while man is mortal and 
 psrisheth, she is eternal arid thrones with God. 
 
 The glittering and long-extended host of the 
 Mound-builders marched on through this cliff- 
 walled passage, and passed next from all glimpse 
 of the sun into douse and almost impervious 
 woods ; impervious but for the way hewn out by 
 the mighty Pioneer in whose tracks they conti 
 nued to tread. Gloom, with its midnight wings, 
 sate on high and brooded over the boundless 
 thicket. 
 
 The very leaves seemed dipped in a deeper 
 hue of green, and the grass was thick and matted 
 underneath, as if in that desolate region it clung 
 
BEHEMOTH. 49 
 
 closer to the earth. Above stood in their ancient 
 stillness (apparently unbroken for ages) the tall, 
 sombre trees, while about their trunks venerable 
 ivies and mosses clung desperately, and mounted 
 far up toward their topmost branches. Athwart 
 the solid darkness no wing, save that of a melan 
 choly owl or bat, clove and furnished to the tene 
 brous realm the sign of life or motion. On the 
 earth no living thing was to be seen, unless amid 
 the dank grass an occasional toad or serpent, sit 
 ting or coiled on the cold stone. And yet, though 
 life seemed extinct, or exhibited itself only in rep 
 tile and hateful forms, the Mound-builders, as they 
 marched on through the gloomy quiet, in pursuit 
 of their mighty prey, saw, in the dimly discovered 
 foot-marks which they still followed, a token of 
 vast and inexplicable power which deepened the 
 darkness about them and infused a portion of its 
 weird influence into their souls. And yet with 
 purpose unshaken, they advanced. Again the 
 blessed sunshine greeted them, and the low mist 
 I rolled heavily from their minds and again their 
 I purpose stood out to their inward eye clear and 
 | determinate. 
 
 Emerging from the awful woods they came to 
 a broad prairie across which the large foot-steps 
 
50 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 were deeply visible. On every side, as far as the 
 eye could reach, the ample plain was desert and 
 unoccupied. The innumerable herds of bison 
 which had once been its tenantry had now, before 
 the terror of Behemoth, fled away, and the 
 wild wolf, which once lurked amid the rank 
 grass, skulked from a Power which seemed to 
 overshadow the earth. Still there was a province 
 of animated nature into which the,alarm scarcely 
 ascended : for on high, as in the quiet and fear 
 less hours of earlier times, the brown vulture and 
 the bald eagle flew, silently sailing on, or sending 
 through the air their shrill notes of ecstacy and 
 rapture. The boundlessness of those mighty 
 meadows was in itself calculated to strike an awe 
 through the bosom of the advancing army ; be 
 fore it they lay the Map of the Infinite : a vast 
 table on which, as on the tables of stone the fin 
 gers of an omnipotent had written Majesty, 
 Power and Eternity. Contemplations like these 
 were sufficient in themselves to fill the mind 
 of the armed host with feelings of awe and hu 
 mility, but when, over the immense prairie, they 
 saw evidences that something had passed which 
 for the moment rivalled Deity ; more palpable in 
 its manifestations, nearer in its visible strength, 
 
BEHEMOTH. 51 
 
 and less merciful in its might ; when the tracks 
 about them and the desert solitude which Behe 
 moth had created became thus clearly, apparent, 
 they shrunk within themselves and doubted the 
 wisdom of their present enterprise. 
 
 This feeling however reigned but for a moment 
 More manly and martial thoughts soon took their 
 place, and they pressed on in the path pointed out 
 with alacrity and courage. The verge of the 
 plain, which they had now reached, bordered on 
 a long and high ridge of mountains, which 
 stretched from the margin of the prairie far West. 
 Upon these summits they now advanced. Ar 
 rayed in broad and solid columns the army 
 moved on over the mighty causeway, their trum 
 pets filling the air with novel music ; while the 
 echo of their martial step, sounding through the 
 wilderness, affrighted Silence from his ancient 
 throne. Against the clear sky their bright ban 
 ners flaunted, and high up into the heaven as 
 pired the warlike tower flashing death from every 
 point. The gleam of ten thousand swords 
 streamed from those broad heights far into the 
 depths of air above, around, below lighting 
 the solitude like " a new-risen sun." 
 
 The pride of war now truly kindled their 
 
52 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 breasts fear skulked aside from their heroic way, 
 
 and Death, could he have come forth a personal 
 
 being, on those clear summits, as their pulses 
 
 freshened in treading them, would have been no 
 
 - .phantom. 
 
 Through the ranks a soldierly joy prevailed, 
 and with the rousing drum their spirits beat high, 
 
 They had reached the extreme limit of the 
 mountain ridge, and were preparing to descend 
 into the plain which broadened at its foot, when, 
 afar off, they espied, slowly heaving itself to and 
 fro in the ocean, which sparkled in the mid-day 
 sun beyond the plain, a vast body which soon 
 shaped itself to their vision into the form of 
 Behemoth. 
 
 The army halted and stood gazing. The 
 giant beast seemed to be sporting with the ocean. 
 For a moment he plunged into it, and swim 
 ming out a league with his head and lithe pro 
 boscis 1 reared above the waters, spouted forth a 
 sea of 1 bright, blue fluid toward the sky, ascend 
 ing to t the very cloud, which, returning, brightened 
 into innumerable rainbows, large and small, and 
 spanned the ocean. Again he cast his huge bulk 
 along the main, and lay " floating many a rood" 
 in the soft middle sun, basking in its ray and 
 
BEHEMOTH. 53 
 
 presenting in the grandeur and vastness of his 
 repose, a monumental image of Eternal Quiet. 
 Bronze nor marble have ever been wrought into 
 sculpture as grand and sublime as the motionless 
 shape of that mighty Brute resting on the sea. 
 
 Even at the remote distance from which they 
 viewed him they could catch at times through 
 the ocean-spray, the sparkle of his small and 
 burning eye. Once, it seemed for a moment 
 steadily fixed upon their host as it stood out con 
 spicuously on the height, and, abandoning his 
 gambols, Behemoth urged his bulky frame toward 
 the land. Breasting the mighty surges which his 
 own motion created, he sought the shore, and as 
 he came up majestically from the water, a chasm 
 ensued as if the Pacific shrunk from its limits. 
 With a gurgling tumult the subsiding waves rush 
 ed into the broad hollow, and continued to eddy 
 about its vortex. 
 
 Meantime Behemoth stood upon the earth, 
 and rearing on his hindmost feet his fore 
 most were lifted high in the air, and with a 
 roar loud and fearful (like the gathering of an 
 earthquake with its powers of desolation in thj 
 bowels of the earth) he brought them to the plain 
 with a weight and energy which made it tremble 
 
54 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 to its utmost verge. He moved on; making 
 straight toward the army of the Mound-builders. 
 To the eyes of the astonished host, as he shouted 
 with his fearful voiee, he seemed like a dread 
 thunder cloud which gathers tone and volume as 
 it rolls on assaulting with its hollow peals the very 
 walls of Heaven. Bokulla was undismayed and 
 calm. He saw that the hour for action had arriv 
 ed, and marshalling his tro5ps in proper order, 
 he led them down a winding and gentle slope 
 which descended to the plain. A short time 
 sufficed and they reached the level ground. Dis 
 posing themselves in the preconcerted order, they 
 awaited the on-coming of Behemoth. The tow 
 ers were planted firm on the earth ; the pioneers 
 put forth and the instrumental sounds began. 
 As an additional thought a battalion of troops 
 was placed on a level ledge of rocks, on the side 
 of the mountain, and in advance of the main 
 army, to gall him as he passed. 
 
 On his part there was no delay : with strides, 
 like those of goda, he stalked forward. And still 
 he seemed, to the Mound-builders, to grow with 
 his advance. His bulk dilated, until it came be 
 tween them and heaven, and filled the whole cir 
 cuit of the sky. The firmament seemed to rest 
 
BEHEMOTH. . 55 
 
 upon his wide shoulders as a mantle. As he near- 
 ed upon their view, they saw more of his structure 
 and properties. His fnce was like a vast coun 
 tenance cut in stone, hewn from the hard granite 
 of the mountain-side, with features large as those 
 of the Egyptian sphinx. Before him he bore- 
 terrible instruments of power ! a mighty and 
 lithe trunk, which, with swift skill, he coiled and 
 darted through the air, like a monstrous serpent, 
 instinct with poison and death. Guarding the 
 trunk were two far extending tusks, which curv 
 ed and flashed in the sun like scimitars. Over 
 his huger proportions fear cast its shadow, and 
 they saw them as through a cloud darkly. He 
 moved forward, nevertheless, a vast machine of 
 war, containing in himself all the muniments and 
 defences of a well-appointed host. To the cool and 
 courageous sagacity of the leader he seemed to join 
 the strength and fojce of an embattled soldiery : 
 to sharp and ready weapons of offence he added 
 the defence of a huge and impenetrable frame. 
 Through his small and flaming orbs, his soul 
 shot forth in flashes dark and desperate. His 
 neck was ridged with a short and stiff mane, 
 which lent an additional terror to his bulk. 
 On he came. He neared the host of the 
 
50 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 Mound-builders. His fearful trunk was uplifted, 
 and his tusks glanced in the broad beam of day 
 over the heads of the army. Not a sword left its 
 scabbaro\ Not an arrow was pointed. The bra 
 zen hammers and vessels of molten copper, which 
 had alone been raised, fell back to their places, 
 powerless and ineffective. The palsy of fear was 
 upon the whole host. The near and unexpected 
 vastness of Behemoth awed their souls. Bokulla 
 alone retained his self-possession, and shouted to 
 the affrighted squadrons: "Onward! Mound- 
 builders cheer up, and onward ! the battle may 
 yet be with us !" It was in vain. The vast pro 
 boscis descended, and crushed with its descent a 
 whole phalanx. A second sweep, and the mighty 
 wooden towers, with their hammers of brass, 
 their molten copper, and their indwelling defen 
 ders, were hurled on high, and rushing to the 
 earth, strewed the plain with their wreck. 
 
 Ten thousand perished under his feet as he 
 trampled onward. Ten thousand fell stricken to 
 the earth by th<a mere icy bolt of fear. The 
 legion, stationed on the level ledge, were swept 
 from their post, as the whirlwind sweeps the 
 dust from the autumn leaf. Twice ten thousand 
 .. and more fled up the mountain ; across the prai 
 
BEHEMOTH. 57 
 
 rics ; and some, in their extreme of trepidation, 
 sought shelter in the sea. With infinite ruin the 
 main host lay scattered upon the prairie, shield, 
 sword, bow, wagon, wagoner, spearsman, and 
 pioneer. Over the plain, maddened by terror, the 
 bisons, with their vehicles, following in clattering 
 haste, galloped, they knew not whither. Of a \ 
 body of about fifteen thousand men, Bokulla, col 
 lected as ever, took command, and marshalling 
 them through a narrow defile, led them up the ^ 
 mountain, from which the whole army had a few J 
 hours before descended in pomp and glory. Guid 
 ing them along the ridge by new and well chosen 
 paths, he hurried them forward. In the mean 
 time Behemoth had perfected his work upon the 
 squadrons which -were left. When the task of 
 death and ruin was completed, he stood in the 
 middle of the wreck, and, gazing about, seemed 
 to seek for some portion of the host on \rhom 
 desolation was yet to be wrought. With saga 
 cious instinct he soon discovered the path 
 which the missing legions had taken. Instantly 
 abandoning the plain, he pressed toward the 
 gap through which the retreating troops had 
 fled. 
 Rushing through the defile, he was soon stand- 
 
58 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 ing on the steps of Bokulla and his flying troops. 
 Through each narrow pass of rocks the chief 
 tain skilfully guided them, taking advantage of 
 every object that might be an obstacle to the mon 
 strous frame of their pursuer. Sometimes they 
 mounted a sudden ascent, sometimes hastened 
 through a narrow vale, or around a clump of 
 mighty sycamores and cotton-woods. Neverthe 
 less Behemoth pressed on. Behind them, terrible 
 as the voice of death, they heard his resounding 
 roar, and turned pale with affright. They had 
 reached the crown of a hill, and were compassing 
 a tall rock, which stood in their way, to descend, 
 when they heard heavy, trampling steps behind 
 them, and looking back, they beheld the ponder 
 ous bulk of the Mastodon urging rapidly up the 
 ascent. Trepidation fastened on the ranks. 
 Their knees smote together, and rrany, in the 
 weakness of sudden fear, fell quaking to the 
 earth. Some, in their alarm, cast themselves 
 headlong from the height j some escaped into the 
 neighboring woods, and two or three, bereft of 
 sense by terror, fled into the very jaws of the 
 huge beast himself. A small band only kept on 
 their way with Bokulla. 
 
 Surging up the steep, and down the oppo- 
 
BEHEMOTH. 69 
 
 site descent, Behemoth pushed forward, tram 
 pling to the earth those who stood rooted in 
 his path- statues of despair and was soon at 
 the rear of the small flying troop. 
 
 He was at the very heels of the pale fugitives j 
 and Bokulla, placing a trumpet at his lips, blew 
 a long, loud, and what, in the hour of battle 
 and under other auspices, would have been an 
 inspiriting blast, and endeavored to arouse in them 
 sufficient spirit and strength to bear them to the 
 shelter of a gigantic crag which stood in their 
 path. Past this the velocity and impetus of the 
 brute would inevitably force him, and they might 
 rest for a moment while he rushed down and re- 
 ascended (if re-ascend he should) the declivity. 
 The attempt was successless: the trumpet-blast, 
 vainly blown, was borne far away into the for 
 ests, and, echoing from cliff to cliff, seemed only 
 to awaken the idle air. 
 
 From Bokulla, one by one, his followers 
 fell off, and perished by Behemoth, or crept 
 into the grass and underwood to die a 
 more lingering death. JkiJength the chief 
 tain was alone before his mighty pursuer. And 
 yet he " bated not a jot of heert or hope, but 
 still bore up and steered right onward," With 
 
60 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 the emergency his courage, resolution, and fore 
 thought rose. 
 
 He kept his way steadily, and the bison which 
 drew him nobly seconded his purpose, and ex 
 hibited, as if inspired by the greatness of the 
 occasion, the power of reason in comprehending, 
 and a giant s strength in carrying out, the most 
 expedient means for the rescue of his master s 
 person. He seemed to apprehend every direction 
 of Bokulla s at a thought. To the right be 
 tween yon stout oaks ! To the left onward 
 Bokulla is at your mercy!" shouted the rider, 
 and they swept along like the prophet and his 
 chariot of fire. The night had gradually conie 
 on. Palpable twilight now overspread the scene, 
 and, in a moment, the moon glided to her sta-- 
 tioti in the zenith. 
 
 The woods tn rough which Bokulla passed 
 were now filled with shadows, which crossing 
 and blending with each other, would have con 
 fused mere human skill in selecting a path ; but 
 the bison dexterously steered on. With cum 
 brous but swift steps Behemoth still pursued, 
 over hills, vales, mountains. 
 
 At length Bokulla reached that very summit 
 where first the gigantic Phantom had appeared 
 
BEHEMOTH. 6i 
 
 and where the impress of his steps was yet clear 
 ly led. He had just commenced his descent to 
 ward the villages of the Mound-builders, (thou 
 sands of whom looked toward his chariot as he 
 sounded another peal on his trumpet) and Behe 
 moth stood behind him. The mighty brute, 
 from some unconjecturable motive, paused. He 
 saw the chariot of Bokulla rapidly verging to 
 ward its home. He abandoned the pursuit, but yet 
 yielded not his purpose of destroying the last of 
 the army of the Mound-builders ; for, loosening 
 from its base a massy rock, which hung threat 
 ening over the village, he lifted it with his tnsks 
 nnd pushing it forward, urged it with tremendous 
 force directly in the career of the chieftain. Thun 
 dering it followed him. It neared his chariot, 
 Another turn and Bokulla is crushed : but the 
 Mound-builders shout in one voice <( To the right, 
 Bokulla ! to the right !" and turning his chariot 
 in that direction, he escapes the descending ruin, 
 though enveloped in the dust of its track. 
 Emerging quickly from the cloud, and avoiding 
 the rocky mass, which rushed past him with 
 terrible fury, Bokulla now reached the bottom of 
 the mountain, and was surrounded instantly by 
 innumerable Mound-builders, each with a fearful 
 
63 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 question on his lips, and the dread of a yet more 
 fearful answer written in his countenance. Bo- 
 kulla, alone and in flight, was a reply to all their 
 thoughts could imagine or dread of what was 
 terrible. Gazing upon him for a while in mo 
 tionless silence, they at length burst the stupor 
 which made them dumb, and each one asked for 
 husband, brother, son,-r-who had gone forth but 
 a few days since, full of life and vigor, against 
 Behemoth. " Death defeat and flight !" were 
 all that escaped from Bokulla, and, breaking his 
 way through the multitude, he sought his own 
 home, Gathering about the house of the chief 
 tain, men, women and children, in large crowds, 
 they cried out through the live-long night, while 
 their tears fell for their relatives who had ven 
 tured to the battle, and asked wherefore they came 
 not back ? 
 
 The next day, about noon, there rushed into 
 the village, covered with foam and quaking with 
 fear, troops of bison, followed by the frame 
 work on which the towers and machines of war 
 had been raised, and clattering through the 
 streets with their enormous arid lumbering wheels 
 till they reached their stalls they fell dead. To 
 some of them a handful of men clung tenaciously, 
 
BEHEMOTH. 63 
 
 though pale and terror-stricken, and to the rear 
 of one hung by his feet, which were entangled 
 in the leathern strap that had bound the frame 
 together, a lifeless body, the skull of which was 
 broken by rude and hasty contact with the earth, 
 while the tufts of hair which remained, were 
 matted with grass, thorns and mire, gathered as 
 it was drawn swiftly along through the different 
 varieties of verdure, marsh, and brambles. 
 
 The next day after that, at about night-fall, 
 there came down the mountains which Bokulla 
 had descended under circumstances of so much 
 peril, a lean and tattered company, marshalled 
 forward by the ghost-like figure of a chieftain, 
 with a broken helm, husky voice, and swordless 
 scabbard. They were a portion of the army 
 which had gone forth with Bokulla, and had been 
 reduced to their present pale and ragged condi 
 tion partly by fear and partly by the want of food 
 for the two days during which they had wander 
 ed in search of home. Many a wife and mother 
 shed tears of mingled gratitude and pity as she 
 looked upon the shattered wreck of her son or 
 husband, thus cast up from the waves of war* 
 Two or three days after this, and day by day, for 
 some week or two, came into the villages of the 
 
64 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 Mound-builders, single fugitives, or in pairs, when 
 they had coupled themselves together, that in 
 this sorrowful fellowship, they might aid each 
 other in bearing up against terror, hunger and 
 death. 
 
 And even after a month had rolled round, and 
 tears had been shed and rites performed for the 
 absentees, two or three strayed home lunatic; 
 poor idiots, whose brains had been crazed by the 
 triple assault of fear, famine, and the dread of in 
 stant death under the hoofs of the enemy. From 
 the account that could be gathered from their 
 own wandering and confused wits, they had fled 
 every inch of the way from the battle-ground 
 under the terrible apprehension that Behemoth 
 was at their heels. Through brake and through 
 briar they had hastened ; they had scrambled 
 over rocks and waded wide ponds : they had 
 climbed trees and rested a little, and then swinging 
 themselves from the branches, had run miles over 
 hot and streamless prairies, until they had reached 
 their native villages, sad, witless idiots t 
 
 The catastrophe now stood out before the 
 Mound-builders, drawn in bold, strong and fear 
 ful strokes ; painted in colors borrowed from the 
 midnight, and dashed upon the canvass (it almost 
 

 BEHEMOTH. 65 
 
 seemed) by the hand of destiny itself. _The ma 
 lignant planet which had so long lowered in the 
 atmosphere, had now burst, and poured from its 
 womb all that was dreadful, pernicious and en* 
 during. The earth was now to them a cold, 
 comfortless prison, into which they were plunged 
 by an inexorable power, and where they were 
 doomed to drag through tHeir allotted portion of 
 life, under the eye of an eternal and terrible foe j 
 joyless, hopeless and prostrate., The multitude 
 gave themselves to a quiet and passionless despair. 
 Bokulla was silent or invisible. 
 
 Great occasions beget great men, but what is 
 singular and rarely noted, they have also a ten 
 dency to nurse into life a swarm of petty spirits, 
 which take the opportunity, uninvited, to push 
 themselves into prominent posts. Thus the same 
 emergency which elicited the resources of Bokul- 
 la s large and fruitful mind, also, drew out the 
 vagaries and absurdities of a puny intellect, 
 Kluckhatch by name. On account of his dwarf 
 ish size and an unlucky curvature in the legs, 
 this valorous gentleman had been rejected from 
 the military companies. Nevertheless he kept a 
 drum on his own account, with which he was 
 wont to regale a rabble crowd of urchins and 
 6* 
 
66 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 maidens ; making a monthly tour through the 
 villages and refreshing them with the dulcet 
 sounds. He also wore in this itinerant and vo 
 lunteer soldiery of his a small sword ; a bright 
 pyramidal blade of steel with a handle of elk s 
 horn, the tip of which was surmounted with a 
 clasp or circlet of silver and ornamented with 
 the device of an owl hooting. The person of 
 Kluckhatch was, as I have hinted, pigraean rather 
 than otherwise. He had a low forehead with 
 prominent cheek bones, and a broad full-moon 
 face with large eyes, in which idiocy and self-con 
 ceit predominated, though they were occasional 
 ly enlivened with an expression of mirth and 
 good-fellowship, and sometimes even brightened 
 with a humorous conception. On the crown of 
 his head, to complete his garniture, Kluckhatch 
 bore a cap of conical figure, with a flattened cir 
 cular Bummitj-entling at the apex with a round 
 button of copper. Attached to the sides of the cap 
 were two large ear-flaps of deer-skin, or that of 
 some other indigenous animal, made to cover 
 ears as large. 
 
 I believe," said this self-constituted champion, 
 when every plan suggested and acted upon had 
 proved fruitless, "I believe," said he, "/must 
 
BEHEMOTH. 67 
 
 take this huge blusterer in hand. I look for a 
 mound of the largest size at least for my memory 
 if I lay him at length, and a patent of nobility for 
 my family. Kluckhatch is no fool is he?" 
 asked the vainglorious militant, turning with 
 cocked eye to a shock-headed youth who stood 
 gaping at his elbow. The boy replied with a 
 similar squint, and Kluckhatch ran on, detailing at 
 length, like a crafty plotter, the whole course of 
 strategy he intended to put in practice against 
 Behemoth, naming the time when, arid the place 
 where, he expected to achieve his capture at least, 
 if not his death. 
 
 In accordance with this carefully matured plot, 
 one bright and cold autumn morning Kluckhatch 
 sallied forth accoutred to a point with dagger, hat 
 and sword-belt, to which was attached special 
 ministrant in the anticipated capture, his little 
 drum, with the melodious sounds of which he ex* 
 peeled to quell and mollify the mighty rage of 
 Behemoth. Over his right shoulder he bore a 
 light ladder of pine of great length, with which 
 he intended to mount to Behemoth s neck and in 
 flict the fatal wound with his trenchant blade. 
 
 Thus armed and accoutred Kluckhatch set 
 forth. Fortunately on the morning which he 
 
68 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 chose for his adventure, the Mastodon was not 
 far off but pastured in a broad open meadow 
 within sight of the Mound-builders villages. 
 When Kluckhatch first beheld him opening and 
 closing his mighty jaws as he cropped the tall 
 verdure, his soul trembled within him and vi 
 brated to and fro, like a mariner s needle, between 
 the determination to retreat and that to advance. 
 At length however it settled down true to its pur 
 pose. He marched forward beating a reveille" on 
 his dwarfish drum, while he whistled faintly as 
 an accompaniment. He was now within stone s 
 throw of tho monster. He had lowered the lad 
 der from his shoulder, that he might be better 
 prepared to scale the sides of the Beast. Behe 
 moth ceased from the labor of feeding ; a moment 
 his eye twinkled on the puissant Kluckhatch, and 
 the next, unrolling his trunk, he coiled it about 
 the slender body of the adventurer, and lifting 
 hint gently from the earth, as gently tossed him 
 sonic score of yards into a neighboring pond, 
 which was about five feet deep, and mantled with 
 a covering of stagnant water. Into this Kluck 
 hatch descended and fell amid a noisy company of 
 large green bull-frogs who were holding a meeting 
 for general consultation and the expression of 
 
BEHEMOTH. 69 
 
 opinion. Amid the blustering assembly the 
 valiant little hero fell. For a time, as he hung 
 balanced in the air, it was doubtful which 
 portion of his person would first penetrate the 
 water. 
 
 The levity of his head and the weight of his 
 splay-feet, at length brought the latter first to the 
 pool, and dividing the stagnant surface, they sank 
 through and reached a bottom of mud ; still they 
 sank and continued to settle down deeper and 
 deeper, Kluckhatch knew not where his descent 
 would stop, nor where in the end he might arrive. 
 His feet at last found support just as his chin 
 reached the waters edge, and, looking up, the first 
 object which fell upon his vision was a house, 
 hold of venerable and contemplative crows who, 
 seated on a dry tree at the edge of the pool, 
 seemed to be philosophizing over his mishaps, 
 in their most doleful discords. One, an old 
 rake, with only an eye left in his head, ap 
 peared to Kluckhatch, as he leered knowing- 
 y upon him, to be a desperate quiz. When, 
 after many vain efforts, he had brought his scat 
 tered senses into something like order, reaching 
 forth one hand he grasped his drum, which 
 floated at a distance on the pool, and held it up 
 
70 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 tremblingly, while with the other he drew from 
 his belt a drum-stick which survived hie fall. 
 Stretching out the hand that held the stick, he 
 struck up a faint tatoo on the parchment, with the 
 double purpose of driving off those accursed and 
 hard-hearted crows, and also to draw help from 
 the nearest village. To the instrumental sounds 
 thus elicited he added a humble vocal effort. 
 Here was a scene for a painter : Kluckhatch, the 
 drum, and the crows, all in unison, running 
 down the scale from lofty bass to shrill treble. 
 
 The hero soon tired of his toilsome essays at 
 the two kinds of music under his charge, and put 
 ting forth all his strength in a desperate venture, 
 he succeeded, scrambling, floundering, and pad 
 dling, in reaching the shore endued in a coat-of- 
 mail, composed of black slime and green ooze, 
 with long locks of eel-grass dangling at his heela, 
 as trophies of his exploit. Satisfied with this 
 valorous attempt at the capture of the "huge 
 blusterer," Kluckhatch skulked home. 
 
 Some two months more had passed when a new 
 enterprise was set on foot by a desperate band, un 
 der the control of two or three daring and reck 
 less leaders. Their daring, however, was not 
 the fruit of experience, for they had not been out 
 with the army against the fearful enemy. 
 
BEHEMOTH, 71 
 
 The Mastodon, with that attachment to particu 
 lar scenes and localities, which even the brute che 
 rishes to a certain degree in common with man, 
 had been observed to exhibit a fondness for one 
 spot, which seemed to be dearer to his mighty 
 spirit than all others. It was a wide plain, in 
 whose centre grew a few tall elm trees, where 
 Behemoth, through the oppressive hours of noon, 
 was wont to rest. Beside their roots bubbled a 
 cool rivulet, in which he sometimes cast his lim 
 ber trunk and sported with its waters, This was 
 the spot where the last of his brute brethren hod 
 fallen, Here his gigantic frame fell, and here it 
 reposed. The earth about Behemoth was the 
 dust of his mighty bones, and every green thing 
 which sprang from the mould drew its nourish 
 ment from the great Dead. 
 
 The desperate crew, to which we have allu 
 ded, or rather one of their chiefs, conceived a 
 plan, based on the Mastodon s frequent resort to 
 
 this locality, which might eventuate in his de- 
 
 * 
 struction. The chief, with whom it originated, 
 
 suggested that five or six bands or bodies of men 
 should commence mining the earth at a consi 
 derable depth, from so many distinct quarters, 
 g the ground where Behemoth was accus- 
 
72 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 tomed to repose, the common centre of their 
 operations. They should delve thus far below 
 the surface until they had reached the spot 
 in question, that the earth might be sufficiently 
 solid to bear up the weight of the prodigious 
 Brute, as he crossed it to and fro : but that, when 
 they had attained the appointed centre subterrane- 
 ously, they should then so. far diminish the body 
 of earth as to leave a mere shell through which 
 his bulk must needs bear the Mastodon and bring 
 him to the bottom of the pit, thus prepared for 
 him, with rapid and deadly haste. The latter 
 port of the mining, as they approached the cen- 
 tro, was to be conducted by means of broad 
 spades attached to long handles, while the miner 
 stood back in the subterranean halls secure from 
 the sudden downfalling of the heavy bulk. 
 
 The day came to put in trial this desperate in- 
 ventipn for the overthrow of the heroic enemy. A 
 company of about five hundred men, under five 
 leaders, went forth to their allotted labor. Day af 
 ter day they toiled under the earth. Cautiously in 
 the morning they sallied out to their duty, and at 
 night stole back as cautiously to their slumbers. 
 They had finished the whole plan in detail as 
 mapped out by its projector ; they had hollowed 
 
BEHEMOTH. 73 
 
 the earth with their far withdrawn instruments of 
 labor, until the weight of the Mastodon rested at 
 noon, casting its shadow far east, upheld but by a 
 thin shelf of earth. They toiled on, Withhisquicfc 
 intelligent ear he heard the click of their many 
 mattocks, and giving a bold and agile spring 
 wonderful for so ponderous a frame he pressed 
 his feet strongly upon the mould ; it yielded and 
 fell in with dire ruin, and Behemoth landed be 
 yond its fatal circle on the bright greensward, 
 and bellowed forth a fearful roar of triumph and 
 scorn. 
 
 The subterranean toilers, when they heard the 
 thunderous voice of Behemoth, clear and sonor 
 ous on high, knew that he had escaped ; while 
 not a few of their number, whose fool-hardiness 
 had carried them too near the falling mass, pe 
 rished under it. The remainder, abandoning all 
 things, fled, dismayed, toil-worn and discomfited, 
 toward their native villages. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 IT was two hours before sunrise. Through 
 tho wide realm of the populous West not a soul 
 was stirring, save a single human figure, which 
 might have been seen threading its way through 
 the streets of one of the great cities of the Mound- 
 builders. This solitary object moved at a slow, 
 measured pace, as if its progress was actually re 
 tarded by the weight of the thoughts with which 
 it was engaged. The eyes gleamed as if they 
 beheld afar off so me enterprise of magnitude and 
 obstinacy sufficient to call up the whole soul of 
 the man, and the lines of the countenance work 
 ed, and the hands were clenched as if he was ak 
 ready employed in the struggle. If one could 
 have looked into his bosom, he might have seen 
 all his faculties mustering to the encounter ; and 
 among other passions aroused and assembling 
 there, he might have noted discomfiture and mor 
 tification thrusting in their hated visages, and 
 7* 
 
76 BE HK MOTH. 
 
 lending a keener stimulus and quicker motion 
 to the current of his thoughts. If the power of 
 thus inspecting that breast were given to him, he 
 might have also discovered an heroic resolution, 
 almost epic in its proportions and strength, tower 
 ing up from amid the ruins ofmany cast-down 
 and desolated projects, and assuming to contend 
 with unconquerable might. 
 
 The solitary figure was that of Bokulla, who was 
 thus venturing forth, self-exiled and alone, todisco- 
 ver in the broad wilderness toward the sea, what 
 ever means of triumph he might, over a power that 
 had hitherto proved itself more than a match for 
 human strength or cunning. A great spirit had ta 
 ken possession of the chieftain, and the shame of 
 an inglorious defeat aided to kindle the energy of 
 his passions, Over that defeat he had already 
 pondered long and anxiously. He confessed to 
 himself that he had formed but a vague opinion 
 of the hugeness and strength of Behemoth when 
 ho had proposed the battle, But he dwelt in the 
 midst of a terrified und perishing people : As a 
 man, he was touched by the sufferings and 
 alarms of his nation. Danger and death were 
 before them, and up gale of safety or mercy open 
 ed. He saw this people not only in the present 
 
BEHEMOTH. 79 
 
 time, but through a long futurity, scourged and 
 suffering : the old tottering into a hasty grave, 
 pursued by u hideous phantom that increased its 
 terrors ; the young growing up with images and 
 thoughts of fear, interwoven with their tender 
 and plastic elements of being. 
 
 Was there no one man in this whole nation 
 who would go forth, in the spirit of martyrdom 
 and self-sacrifice, and seek, even in the desert it 
 self, the knowledge that would bring strength and 
 safety in its wings ? It was he that was now 
 passing away from his country for a while, and 
 launching himself in the boundless wilderness of 
 the West. Championed by doubt and solitude, he 
 was plunging into a region which stretched, he 
 knew not whither, and to a fate, perchance, his 
 heart dared not whisper to itself. What fruit 
 might spring from this hardy enterprise, it was 
 vain to conjecture ; but he was determined to 
 gather some knowledge of the habits and some 
 information as to the lodgment of this terrible 
 scourge of his people. With rapid and firm step, 
 he therefore proceeded on his way. By secret 
 paths, and through dark woods, he advanced, and 
 mid-day brought him to a spot which overlooked 
 
80 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 the whole of the wide territory of the Mound- 
 builders. v 
 
 He stood upon a cliff which pushed out boldly 
 from the wooded region that lay behind it, and 
 hung, like the platform of a castle, over a valley 
 and river that wound round its base. It was co* 
 vered in patches with verdure and earth from 
 which a few stately trees threw up their branches, 
 and underneath these Bokulla now stood. 
 
 Casting his eye abroad he beheld a scene which 
 the boldest fancy of our time can scarcely con 
 ceive, accustomed as we are to think of the 
 prairies as tenantless and houseless deserts, and 
 the whole broad West as a wild, unpeopled re 
 gion never disturbed unless by bands of straggling 
 Indian hunters, or a mad herd of buffalo sweep 
 ing like a tornado over their bosom. From his 
 Jofty stand, the self-exiled chieftain looked down 
 upon a country as broad as Europe spread out 
 in the most glorious variety of hill, and vale, and 
 meadow, with a thousand streams intersecting the 
 whole, sometimes mingling with each other, occa 
 sionally ploughing their way through a genial 
 valley, orcuttingdeep into the heart of a mountain 
 whose slope was covered with forests. A numer 
 ous population lined their banks, or hovered 
 
BEHEMOTH. 81 
 
 on their eminences, whose dwellings and national 
 edifices reared themselves in the air and darkened 
 the land with their number. Over those vast, 
 verdant deeps, the prairies, were scattered like 
 islands, countless cities in whoso suburbs tall 
 towers of granite and marble sprang to the sky 
 and resembled the masts of ships of war just put 
 ting out from the ahore, In another direction a 
 mighty bastion of earth, with its round green 
 summit, heaved itself into view like the back of 
 some huge sea monster ; and the long grass of 
 the prairies, swept by occasional winds, rolled to 
 and fro and furnished the ocean-like surges on 
 which all these objects rode triumphant. 
 
 Upon this scene Bokulla gazed long and 
 earnestly while many dark thoughts and sad emo 
 tions followed each other like the clouds of sum 
 mer through his mind and darkened his counte 
 nance as they passed. Beneath him he saw an 
 hundred cities devoted to ruin : tower, and tern* 
 pie, and dwelling crumbling to the earth, and no 
 hand lifted to arrest their fall, A wide populace 
 was wasting away from a robust and manly 
 vigor into a pale and shadow-like decrepitude. 
 I Day by day the august majesty of a prosperous 
 and ambitious nation dwindled into a shrunken 
 
BEHEMOTH. 
 
 and counterfeit image of itself. To them there 
 was now no alternation of sunshine or shadow : 
 seasons passed without their fruits : the golden 
 summer no longer smiled in their midst, and ge 
 nerous autumn departed without a blessing and 
 unheeded. 
 
 To these miserable and suffering realms Bokulla 
 now bade farewell His present enterprise might 
 he without fruit, or fraught with disastrous and 
 fatal results to ^himself : yet in the strength of 
 Nature he would once more presume to cope with 
 the dreaded enemy, for he still believed that man 
 must be triumphant in the end over this bestial 
 domination. To man the earth was given as his 
 kingdom, and all tribes and classes of creatures 
 were made his subjects and vassals. In this faith 
 he turned away from a scene which suggested 
 so many fearful topics of thought, and bent his 
 course towaro the West, guided by such know 
 ledge as he already enjoyed, and such marks as 
 occurred to his observation, determined to avoid 
 the face of man and to be familiar only with soli 
 tude and danger until some new means of tri 
 umph were clearly discovered. In pursuance of 
 this resolve he pushed forward with speed and 
 energy; plucking by the way wild berries and 
 
BEHEMOTH. S3 
 
 other natural fruits as food, and drinking of the 
 cool shaded rivulet, his only beverage : for, from 
 thefirst moment that he had conceived the thought 
 of this venturous self-exile, he vowed to cast him 
 self on Nature and to be received and sustained 
 by her as her worthy child, or to perish as an alien 
 and outcast on her bosom. He had therefore 
 come forth unprovided with food, and trusting 
 entirely to her bounty for a supply. 
 
 Hand in hand thus with liberal Nature, Bokulla 
 pressed onward until night-fall, when lie halted, 
 and, sheltering himself safely within the hollow 
 of a rock, he gathered himself for repose. 
 
 Thus for many days did this solitary pilgrim 
 journey on, seeking no other couch but the over 
 hanging cliff or the sheltering bank, and finding 
 no other canopy but the broad, open sky and the 
 green roof of the branching tree. A constant 
 grandeur of soul sustained him in the midst of 
 many pressing hardships, and a noble purpose 
 bore him forward as the winds propel the eagle 
 that trusts to their strength. Guided by appa 
 rent tracks and obvious landmarks, about the 
 middle of the afternoon of the second day he 
 reached a solemn wood, into th<5 heart of which he 
 made hid way. v 
 
84 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 He was something wearied with travel, and 
 seeing the remains of a large old oak thrusting 
 themselves up from the tangled and chequered 
 shade, he seated himself upon them. The wild 
 underwood and smaller foliage were twisted into 
 a thousand fantastic shapes, which wreathed 
 themselves round, and the prodigal forest-flowers 
 had scattered their colors here and there so pro 
 fusely over the seat which the self-exile had 
 chosen, as to furnish somewhat the appearance of 
 a rich and cushioned throne. What wonder if 
 the resemblance struck the excited imagination 
 of Bokulla, and his eye glanced about the forest 
 as if in search of attendants that should hedge 
 this seat of honor round. " Am I alone here !" 
 half-muttered the chieftain. " Is all this pleasant 
 realm of air, and this verdurous spot of earth 
 void and barren ! No, no ; I am not in an un- 
 populous solitude even here. Airy citizens throng 
 about me in this remote and unfrequented wood. 
 Busy hopes, immortal desires, passions, longings, 
 and aspirations that lengthen like shadows the 
 nearer we approach the sunset of life. Mighty 
 and tumultuous wishes and emotions gather 
 around me in this pathless and woodland region, 
 and tell me I am not, that I cannot be, alone. 
 
BEHEMOTH. 85 
 
 Shadowy creatures ! wnich sway us beyond all 
 corporal powers and instruments ye swarm now 
 in these shaded walks and foremost Ambition 
 and Fame, glorious twins ! stand forth and tower 
 in cloudy stature, grasping at impossible objects 
 and plucking at the heavens themselves ! Im 
 mortal powers and faculties ! in these retired and 
 natural chambers, 1 know you as the internal and 
 silent agencies which are to guide and sustain 
 me through this hardy and venturous pilgrim 
 age." 
 
 In this wood he found a suitable shelter and 
 stretched himself for sleep. Notwithstanding the 
 great cares with which he was oppressed, the 
 mind of the chieftain was visited by pleasant 
 dreams; and he was borne far back from the 
 gloomy and troubled present, into an old and 
 cheerful time, where every thing wore a counte 
 nance of joy, and a golden atmosphere floated 
 about all. He wandered along the banks of 
 mighty streams, watching the careless flight of 
 birds, or the idle motions of their currents, on 
 which many vessels of gallant trim, with every 
 sail set, were hastening toward the sen. Around 
 him a thousand familiar sounds made the com 
 mon music of day ; trumpets were sounded in 
 8 
 
86 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 the distance ; citizens were hurrying forth or 
 home on errands of business, or pleasure, or tender 
 sorrow ; and all was human and delightful. The 
 chieftain himself seemed to have the heart of 
 youth, and to ramble onward amid these pleasant 
 scenes of life as if no morrow was coming, as if 
 the sun that was now in mid-heaven would never 
 set. 
 
 Near the close of the night, this pageant passed 
 away, and the slumbers of the champion were 
 interrupted by a loud sound, like that of a storm 
 gathering in the distance, and which drew near 
 er by, increasing every moment. Presently it 
 seemed to cross the western quarter of the wood 
 with a clashing and tumultuous noise, resembling 
 that of a great cataract, and then it passed far to 
 the north-west, and died away after a long time 
 like rattling thunder, among the distant peaks of 
 the mountains. 
 
 Nothing could be more alarming to the imagi 
 nation than this midnight tumult, and Bokulla felt 
 that his situation was like that of the wretched ma 
 riner, whose bark is dashed on the rocks of some 
 inhospitable shore, where night and the raging 
 winds press on him behind, and darkness and the 
 wild beast prepare to fasten on his weather-beaten 
 
BEHEMOTH. 87 
 
 body as he strikes the land. But no sound that 
 Bokulla had ever known could represent the 
 character of that which all night long had re 
 bellowed, and thundered, and died away. The 
 stormy shouts of a warlike assault, the furious 
 outcry of popular rage, the howling of winter 
 winds, all commixed, would be an imperfect 
 image of its depth, and strength, and varying 
 loudness, In the morning, disturbed and per 
 plexed, he girded himself again to his task, and 
 shaped his course toward that region of the fo 
 rest by which the indescribable tumult had swept. 
 An hour s swift travel brought him to a large 
 wooded slope, which presented to his view, in 
 the uncertain light of a. sun obscured by the gray 
 mist of morning, an astonishing spectacle, A 
 thousand vast old trees, each large enough for the 
 main column of a temple, were dashed against 
 the upland and lay there, leaning half-way down, 
 as if they had contested against overthrow, like 
 mighty ships, blown over in the harbor of some 
 great city, when tho north has bilrst upon them 
 and commanded that they should veil their pen 
 nons and high-aspiring standards. 
 
 From obvious footmarks he easily discovered the 
 course which the strength that caused this desola- 
 
88 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 tion had taken, and pursuing the indications thus 
 furnished, he was soon out upon an open plain. 
 The region that now spread before him was a 
 wide and trackless waste, barren, void of vegeta 
 tion, and apparently deserted of nature. Such her 
 bage as lingered about its borders, was small, 
 scanty, and withered, and crept gloomily along 
 the dusty banks of dricd-up brooks and rivulets, 
 Over this arid desert, as Bokulla slowly plodded, 
 he discovered the same large foot-prints as he had 
 followed all along, crossing and re-crossing each 
 other, sometimes diverging and again keeping 
 straight on, in a manner so irregular and wan 
 dering, as to bewilder him, and set any attempt 
 to pursue them entirely at nought. 
 
 la some places the earth was ploughed up and 
 rent with seams recently made, and in others it 
 was scattered far and wide, in irregular and bro 
 ken heaps, The whole wilderness presented an 
 appearance as if it had been recently trampled 
 by spme angry and barbaric puissance, that had 
 swept it from end to end, like a storm. 
 
 What now rendered his situation still more 
 perplexing, was a circumstance which would 
 seem at first a source of self-gratulation and 
 comfort, after the fearful sounds of the preceding 
 
BEHEMOTH. 89 
 
 night. A dead silence hung all around him, 
 which was, if possible, more dreary and depress 
 ing than the unearthly noises of midnight, A 
 soundless and voiceless quiet filled the air, the 
 sky, and brooded over the inanimate sea of sand 
 slumbering at his feet. 
 
 Through this confused and desolate region the 
 chieftain resolved to make his way to the summit 
 of some one of the mountains that dominated 
 this arid plain at its farthest extremity, and from 
 thence, as from a citadel, look abroad and make 
 such discoveries as he might. 
 
 Bokulla at length reached the summit of a high 
 mountain, and looking forth towards the East, 
 he beheld a mighty region of hill and valley, 
 whose immensity astonished and overwhelmed 
 him. In one direction an hundred peaks towered 
 one above the other, until the farthest was lost, 
 it seemed, on the very threshold of the sky. In 
 another, torrents dashed through numerous de 
 clivities, tearing down mountains, it almost seem* 
 ed, in their rage, and threatening to wash away 
 tho very foundations of the earth, as they leaped 
 over rocks, and crags, and rugged precipices. 
 Huge passes and defiles that ploughed their way 
 through the bosoms of solid mountains, and led 
 8* 
 
90 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 down as it were to the central fires, were visible 
 in other quarters, and exhibited more or less of 
 their dreary turnpikes as the sun-light fell upon 
 one or the other. As Bokulia looked forth he 
 descried a dark object moving slowly along a dis 
 tant peak. Sometimes it paused, and then again 
 advanced ; at length it plunged down the moun 
 tain-side into a deep and dark valley, but still 
 some portion of it was apparent j and at intervals, 
 as it crossed a seam or gap that intersected 
 the valley, the whole figure came into view. 
 Thus it wound through the immense region, al 
 most the whole time conspicuous to the eye of 
 the gazer, who, however, was unable to discover 
 its character, so remote was the distance at which 
 it moved. At length it emerged from the many 
 defiles and declivities, among which it had pass 
 ed, and came out upon the open plain. 
 
 As a numerous fleet of war ships, all their 
 canvass spread, double some one of the Atlantic 
 capes, and come within the ken of the anxious 
 watcher on shore, so did this vast object steer 
 round the mountain-base and stand before the eye 
 of Bokulia. Like a huge fog that has settled in 
 autumn upon the ground, and creeps along until 
 it has mastered the earth with its broad dimcn- 
 
BEHEMOTH. VM 
 
 sions, so did the stature and bulk of the Masto 
 don tower and enlarge as it drew nigh. Among 
 those mighty peaks, and along that immeasura 
 ble plain, he seemed to move the suitable and 
 sole inhabitant. Rocks piled on rocks, and 
 rivers, the parents of oceans, calling unto rivers as 
 large, and dreadful summits that hung over the 
 earth and threatened to crush it, were not its 
 massy plains and platforms broad enough to uphold 
 mountains an hundred fold vaster, this was the 
 proper birth-place and dwelling of the mightiest 
 creature of the earth. 
 
 Amid these great elements of nature, Bokulla 
 beheld the motions of the Mastodon as he trode 
 the earth in gigantic sway ; and thought swelled 
 upon tumultuous thought, like waves that break 
 over each other in the middle ocean, at each step 
 of that unparalleled and majestic progress, What 
 wonder, if at that moment he deemed the great 
 creature before him unassailable and immortal ? 
 Behemoth passed onward, and for the first time in 
 many hours was lost to the gaze of the chieftain, 
 as he entered a dark gap in a great mountain 
 range far to the East. Intent on the daring and 
 venturous purpose which had drawn him forth 
 into the wilderness, he descended from his lofty 
 
92 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 station and shaped his course to the barriers 
 within which the unconquered Brute had pass 
 ed. With incredible labor he toiled over a thou 
 sand obstacles; clambering high mountains, 
 plodding through gloomy valleys, and compass 
 ing, by contrivance sometimes, sometimes by 
 sheer strength, broad streams, he found himself at 
 length, as the night approached, fixed on a lofty 
 ridge, whence his eye fell upon a spacious am 
 phitheatre of meadow, completely shut in by 
 rocks and mountains, save at a single narrow cut 
 or opening. In the centre of this he beheld Be 
 hemoth couchant (his head turned toward the 
 chieftain himself) like a sublime image of stone 
 in the middle of a silent lake. Bokulla exhibit 
 ed no symptoms of terror or trepidation, and the 
 beast lay motionless and quiet. Great emotions 
 filled the breast of the chieftain as he looked upon 
 the Mastodon reposing in this fortified solitude, He 
 closely scrutinized the whole circle of mountains, 
 and took an accurate survey of the gate which led 
 out into the open country beyond. Among other 
 circumstances, he observed large hollows, hew 
 and there, in different quarters of the plain, as if 
 worn there by the constant habitation of Behe 
 moth ; and also, that as the wind sighed through 
 
BEHEMOTH. &3 
 
 the branches of trees that stood in its centre and 
 along its border, the Mastodon moved up and 
 down the amphitheatre with a slow and gentle 
 motion as if soothed by the sound. 
 
 While he was thus engaged, night descended 
 upon the scene ; and the dark hours were to be 
 passed by Bokulla alone in that far off wilderness, 
 and within reach of the mighty and terrible foe. 
 As well as he might he addressed himself to sleep ; 
 but it was almost in vain, for it seemed as if the 
 fearful strength beneath was slumbering at his 
 side, and as if its tall, cold shadow fell upon him 
 and froze the very blood in his veins. Armed 
 beings of an inconceivable and super-human 
 stature passed and re-passed before his mind ; and 
 the vision of a conflict mightier than any that his 
 mortal eyes had ever witnessed, in which huge 
 trumpets brayed and enormous shields clashed 
 against each other, swept along. Then it chang 
 ed, and it seemed as if the mountains rocked to and 
 fro and pent winds strove to topple down peaks 
 and pinnacles, while in their midst one mighty 
 Figure, neither of man nor of angel, stood chain 
 ed, and, in a deep and fearful voice, cried to the 
 heavens for succor. Perplexed by images and 
 visions like these, Bokulla wakened before the 
 
94 BP.HEMOTH, 
 
 dawn and turned his steps, with scarce any guide 
 or landmark) toward his own home. 
 
 And now an appalling fate was before the 
 champion) for he was without food in the very 
 centre of the desert. The liberal fare upon which 
 he had at first subsisted was gone long ago, and 
 the scanty supply which nature had lately fur 
 nished from hedges and meadows, had entire 
 ly ceased. Barrenness, barrenness, barrenness, 
 spread al I around . After toil and exertion of body 
 and mind, almost beyond mortal strength, he seem 
 ed likely to perish in the wastes with the great 
 project that his soul had conceived unknown to 
 living man. Interminable and gloomy disasters 
 lowered over his country if he should perish in 
 the wilderness, He struggled onward with an 
 guish and hunger at his heart. 
 
 At last, one day, when his strength was fast 
 ebbing, he espied a bird rising sluggishly from a 
 marshy thicket, and bearing in its pounces a 
 quarry which Bokulla could not distinctly ascer 
 tain. He knew, however, that it must be some 
 esculent, and doubted not that it had been seized 
 by the hawk, which bore it in its clutches, as a 
 valuable prey. The bird had no sooner risen on 
 the wing, than the chieftain ran forward and 
 
BEHEMOTH. 95 
 
 shouted with all his might, at the same time 
 stretching out both his hands, with the hope of 
 frightening the hawk, and causing her to drop 
 her booty. She was, however, a strong and 
 courageous plunderer, and fixing her talons still 
 deeper into the sides of her burden, which Bo- 
 knlla had now discovered, by a feather that had 
 fallen, to be a plump and well-fed wood partridge, 
 she soared up into the sky : the weight of her 
 booty seeming to be such as to prevent her 
 from attaining a lofty flight. The chieftain was 
 too nearly famished to relinquish at once this 
 chance of food. He accordingly cast his weather* 
 stained and mouldering cloak from his shoulders, 
 and rushed forth, keeping the fugitive barely in 
 sight. The hawk which had attained her top 
 most pitch, now flew level with the earth, and 
 with a steady and not too rapid wing. Regardless 
 of every other object, the pursuer pushed on, 
 with his face ever and anon turned up to the sky, 
 through brake and pool, over rocks and rugged 
 places, although, at times, in peril of his life. 
 j Gaunt famine had spread her wings, and on 
 them, as it were, sustained, he swept along like a 
 wind. His heart rose and fell with every varia 
 tion in the motions of the bird, which bore in its 
 
96 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 clutch the precious quarry. In this way the 
 hawk flew on for the first day, Bokulla keeping 
 even with her flight, and watching it with an 
 anxiety that every moment increased. 
 
 At night-fall the bird alit in the upper branche- 
 of a dry sycamore, which stood by the side of a 
 pool filled with its sere dead leaves, and with two 
 or three withered and hard-featured lizards for 
 its inhabitants. 
 
 The chieftain lay down at a distance and pre 
 tended to sleep. When he supposed the bird had 
 fallen into its slumbers, he crept cautiously to 
 ward the tree with a stout stick in his hand, 
 hoping to strike her dead from the perch. 
 
 He had stolen thus within a few feet of her 
 rest, and raising his weapon to hurl it at the hend 
 of the hawk, he saw her bright eyes staring 
 through the dark ; in a moment she flapped her 
 wings and passed wholly out of sight. 
 
 Al\ that night Bokulla was stretched on the 
 earth in the most dreadful torture of mind and 
 body. In the dreary darkness which had settled 
 over all things, he conld not tell whether the 
 frighted bird had flown from his view for ever or 
 not. With the first streak of morning he sprang 
 to his feet, and at the same time, startled by his 
 

 BEHEMOTH. 97 
 
 abrupt movement, the hawk again took wing 
 from a neighboring tree, where she had passed 
 the night, and put forth steadily on her journey. 
 Bokulla followed, with the hope that some 
 lucky chance would place her booty in his pos 
 session. And so it well-nigh happened, for, as he 
 still pursued the bird, on the afternoon of this 
 second day, a sudden gust of wind fell from the 
 sky, and sweeping down upon the hawk, bore 
 her to within arm s length of the eager chieftain. 
 He immediately stretched forth the cudgel, which 
 he still carried, to strike her to the ground ; but as 
 he raised his arm, the wind shifting its course, 
 swept her again high into the air. 
 
 The country which he had now reached pre 
 sented the most wild and sublime aspect. On 
 every side of him he saw stupendous peaks, 
 springing up into the sky, covered from crown 
 to base with dazzling sheets of snow, which 
 looked like mighty tents pitched in the desert. 
 
 Between these a heady river roared and 
 brawled, like a noisy and vaunting herald sum- 
 raoning to the fight. Along its banks Bokulla 
 speeded. The hawk alighting on a stone which 
 reared its bald head in the middle of the stream, 
 i mule of its waters. The chieftain, first imitating 
 
98 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 her example and quaffing of the stream, taking 
 advantage of two or three straggling trees that 
 stood on its margin, stole along and hurled a 
 stone at the bird, which, from his feebleness, fell 
 far short of its mark, and pashed into the stream 
 with a dull, sullen sound. Again springing on 
 the wing, she steered her course between the 
 peaks of the mountains, and kept steadily on 
 ward. 
 
 In this way the chase continued until the 
 darkness set in, when the hawk fell abruptly into 
 a thicket of reeds, and finding a covert, settled to 
 rest for the night. When the day dawned Bo- 
 kulla found himself at the foot of a rocky ascent, 
 sheer through the centre of which a rapid current 
 cut its Xvay, breaking midway up into a magnifi 
 cent fall, which dashed with impetuous violence 
 from the height into a granite basin beneath. A 
 little below the point where the waters thus fell, 
 they expanded into a quiet lake, over which the 
 rays of the newly-risen orb flickered, forming 
 here and there, over its smooth expanse, friths of 
 sunlight, which ran in from the centre of the 
 lake to the edge of the green shore. 
 
 As the sun attained a higher station in the 
 heavens, radiant bows began to gather over the 
 
BEHEMOTH. 99 
 
 river, and it rushed joyously on its course through 
 these bright arches of its own creation. Bokulla 
 plunged into the reed-brake in the hope of seizing 
 the unwary hawk asleep on her perch, but he had 
 no sooner taken the first step into the covert than 
 she started up, and shaped her flight over the 
 rugged ascent before them. The journey up the 
 steep was too toilsome for the chieftain, and he 
 feared that he must abandon the pursuit. For 
 tunately, as he was forming this desperate resolve, 
 he discovered a wild steed, of deep jet-black 
 color, browsing on the grass by the river s side. 
 Cautiously approaching him, Bokulla, springing 
 forward, seized his long, flowing mane, and 
 with an agility characteristic of his better days, 
 he vaulted upon his back and turned his head up 
 the ascent 
 
 Wildly he urged him forward, and he rushed 
 up the rocky steep with a force and vigor similar 
 to that with which the cascade dashed in an op 
 posite direction. His ears and crest were erect, 
 his tail streamed in the wind, and every muscle 
 was strained to its utmost power. His cap had 
 fallen from the chieftain s head, his cloak was 
 gone, and he sate on the back of the steed, his 
 hair floating abroad, his eyes straining eagerly 
 
100 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 forward presenting the image of some goblin 
 horseman of the desert. Every tread of the 
 courser on the hard rock rang through the wil 
 derness, and Bokulla shouted him madly for 
 ward. The hawk overhead) still retaining in her 
 talons her contested quarry, kept in the advance, 
 screaming with delight and apparently stirred 
 by the excitement of the pursuit. 
 
 In this way the gallant bird flew on, and the 
 mettlesome courser pursued, up the declivity and 
 down the opposite side. Onward they flew over 
 the plain the hawk steering on in an almost un 
 varying line toward the south-east. Over hills- 
 through forests and along stream-sides the wild 
 chase continued until the afternoon of the third 
 day, when, just as he had emerged from a long 
 tract of woods, and had turned his eye toward 
 the sky, to recover sight of the hawk, she gave 
 a wild scream, a sudden wheel into the clouds, 
 and disappeared for ever.(l) 
 
 To his utter astonishment, the moment that the 
 hawk vanished a populous city burst upon his 
 gaze directly before him, and ere he could discern 
 further, the wild steed dashed down a travelled 
 way and was entering its streets. The circui 
 tous pursuit, which had changed its direction ma- 
 
BEHEMOTH. 101 
 
 ny times, had brought him unexpectedly to al 
 most the very spot from which he had set out on 
 his pilgrimage. If the astonishment of Bokulla 
 was great at this miraculous termination of his 
 journey^ that of the inhabitants, among whom he 
 was thus thrown, was no less ; and as the coal* 
 black steed galloped through their streets they 
 beheld the rider, his features gaunt and unearthly, 
 and his hair streaming wildly to the wind, with 
 amazement mingled with terror. Some fled from 
 his path and sought refuge in their dwellings, 
 while others rushed out to gaze upon him as he 
 scampered, wild and spectre-like, along the dis 
 tance ; and others gathered together, and in sub 
 dued voices,, conjectured or canvassed the cha 
 racter of the sudden apparition. Many wild 
 guesses and shrewd suggestions were ventured. 
 
 " This is a fiend of the prairie," said ono. " He 
 that rambles up and down the big meadow, blow 
 ing his horn, and who calls the wolves and gob 
 lins together when a carcass is thrown out or a 
 traveller perishes in crossing them." 
 
 " It is a lunatic escaped from his friends," said 
 a second, " who has been out seeking his wits in 
 the mountains." 
 
 " You are wide of the mark, my good sirs," said 
 
102 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 a sharp eyed little man, glaring about and looking 
 up at the windows as if afraid of being overheard ; 
 and the group pressed more closely about him 
 as if expecting a communication of great weight 
 and shrewdness " a whole bow-shot wide of the 
 mark : it is the keeper of Behemoth \ n 
 
 At this they all turned pale and lifted up their 
 eyes in astonishment, and admitted that nothing 
 could be nearer the truth. 
 
 By .this time Bokulla had reached his own 
 door, and throwing himself from his steed of the 
 desert prepared to enter in ; but ere he could ef 
 fect this object, several stout citizens pressed be 
 fore him and arrested his steps. 
 
 "Wherefore is this?" said the foremost. "Will 
 you rush into a house of mourning in this guize ? 
 Know you not that this is the mansion of Bokul 
 la, the champion and that his widow is in sack- 
 cloth and tears within ? Begone elsewhere, mad 
 man P 
 
 This remonstrance was seconded by another, 
 and a third, until it swelled so high that the 
 crowd would have seized him and wreaked some 
 injury upon his person, had he not succeeded in 
 obtaining a moment s pause ; and standing on an 
 
BEHEMOTH. 103 
 
 elevation, he shouted out, " Peace, Mound-build 
 ers it is Bokulla before you !" 
 
 At this declaration many began to recognise in 
 the shrunken features and toil-worn frame before 
 them, their great champion and chieftain, and a 
 shout was raised, " life and health to Bokulla, 
 the father of his country 1" " Pleasant dew fall 
 upon him !" " Long may he tread the green earth 
 under his feet !" and many national invocations 
 and blessings. 
 
 The rumor now spread rapidly abroad, and 
 the cry was taken up wherever it reached and re 
 newed with hearty good-will, for all were rejoiced 
 at the return of their great leader, whom some 
 had considered lost for ever ; and who all admit 
 ted was the only one that could contend, with 
 any chance of success, against their barbaric foe. 
 Even the little group of gossips that had construed 
 him into a fiend, a lunatic, and the keeper of Behe 
 moth, but a moment before, now rushed eagerly 
 forward and were among the first to welcome him 
 back, the sharp eyed little man invoking a special 
 blessing on his pleasant countenance, which look 
 ed, he said, "like that of a saving angel." Escap 
 ing from these numerous tokens of admiration 
 and regard, Bokulla withdrew into his dwelling, 
 
104 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 find the crowd, after lingering about for many 
 hours to glean Such information as they might of 
 his absence, and to catch a view of his person, at 
 length dispersed, each, he knew not why, with a 
 lighter heart, and more joyous look, than had fall 
 en to his lot for many long and weary months. 
 
 From the dwelling of Bokulla let us turn 
 our steps for a while toward the suburbs of the 
 city, and enter the sick chamber of Kluckhatch, 
 the blusterer. The adventure of that valiant pre 
 tender against Behemoth had been accompanied 
 with serious, and, from the aspect they at present 
 assumed, perhaps fatal consequences. The alarm 
 of spirits which he had suffered, together with the 
 dreary submersion in the pool, had thrown the 
 adventurer into a violent ague. Day by day the 
 malady became more tyrannical, and the mind of 
 Kluckhatch more fretful and restless. His soul 
 seemed like the sun to expand as it approached 
 its final eclipse, and nature, who, at his birth, 
 had exhibited the art and skill of a bottle-con 
 juror in crowding so puissant a spirit into so 
 narrow a body, now seemed at a loss to drive 
 the obstinate tenant from its residence. The little 
 man clung more desperately to life the more 
 forcible the attempt made to wrest it from bin). 
 
BEHEMOTH. 105 
 
 
 
 The pale Ague assailed him with its whole band 
 of forces ; throttling him by the throat, as it were, 
 it essayed by rough and uncorteous usage to 
 shake the vital spirit from him, but it adhered 
 closer and closer, and the attempt of nature U> 
 cast off the pigmy militant, resembled that of a 
 horse, in whose flank on a mid-summer s day a 
 burr has chanced to fix itself: he feels annoyed 
 and irritated he whisks the hairy brush to and: 
 fro he runs ho gallops he rears he plunges, 
 but all in vain, the barbarous annoyance clings 
 to him with the more zeal, until, at some quiet 
 moment, it drops gently from its hold and dis 
 turbs him no more. Thus stood the account be 
 tween Nature and Kluckhatch. In his bed he 
 lay, trembling like an earthquake or an ocean, 
 under the coverlid. After a while the ague re*- 
 laxed and the fever came on, -and then he sat up 
 in his couch and grasping a wooden sword, which 
 had been made to amuse his sick and distem 
 pered fancy, he made airy thrusts and lounges, 
 and called out fes if he were plunging it deep in 
 invisible ribs, or hacking at the head of some 
 monstrous chimera. Then again he would ap 
 pear to seize the end of some palpable object, and 
 drawing it along would measure and cut off 
 
y 
 
 106 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 * 
 
 pieces of a yard in length at a time. It was evU 
 dent, from the whole tenor of his strange action, 
 that the Mastodon was in his phantasy ; and this 
 was amply confirmed by his breaking out, after 
 the fever had partially subsided) into the follow 
 ing wild invective, into which his soul seems to 
 have thrown its whole collected powers : 
 
 " This huge bully : this fleshly continent : this 
 vagabond traveller : this beast mountain : this 
 tornado in leather : this bristly goblin :" ("Pray be 
 calm, Kluchhatch," whispered the shock-headed 
 youth, who stood at his bed-side terrified and 
 quaking) : " this huge moving show : this two- 
 horned wonder: this tempest of bull s beef: this 
 land leviathan: fiend: wood-elf: this devil s 
 ambassador : this territory of calves hide stretch 
 ed on a mountain : this untanned libel on leather- 
 dressers : this unhung homicide :" (" Uncle 
 Kluckhatch," again interrupted his attendant, 
 " Uncle Kluckhatch, wherefore do you rail after 
 this fashion ? you but madden your fever") : 
 " this Empire of bones and sinew : this monstrous 
 Government on legs : this Tyrant with a tail : 
 this rake-hell y : this night-brawler: this mea 
 sureless disgust : this lusty thresher with his end 
 less flail : this magnified ox : this walking abomi- 
 
BEHEMOTH. 107 
 
 nation : this enormous Discord sounding in bass : 
 this huge, tuneless trombone" 
 
 The sick dwarf fell back on his pillow exhaust 
 ed, his lips still moving as if laden with other 
 bitter epithets of denunciation. His hour now 
 rapidly drew nigh. His strength gradually ebbed 
 away, and at length the conviction that he must 
 die forced its way into the heavy brain of Kluck- 
 Jiatch, In a few words he made his humble and 
 of course lean will. " I leave," said he to his 
 gaping companion " I leave to you my fame, 
 my virtues, and my drum !" He then gave di 
 rections for his burial, which, if obeyed, would 
 make it a spectacle rare and unexampled : and, 
 rising once more in his bed, he said he wished to 
 expire in a sitting attitude. 
 
 Tho last sinking wave of life was dying upon 
 the shore. His simple attendant had taken in his 
 hand, to survey its fashion and properties) the 
 testamentary bequest of his departing friend. 
 " Strike up ! strike up once more P exclaimed 
 Kluckhatch, as his eye kindled with the gleam of 
 death, and as the first sounds rolled from the 
 drum, under the obedient hand of its new pos 
 sessor, the spirit of the pretender, mingling with 
 them, left the earth. 
 
108 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 The second morning after his death, at an early 
 hour, the funeral procession set out from the 
 doraicil of Kluckhatch for the tomb of his fore 
 fathers: a snug family-vault just beyond the 
 skirts of the town. Under the direction of the 
 shock-headed youth, who enacted the master of 
 ceremonies, the solemn cavalcade was drawn up 
 and proceeded in the following order : 
 
 First, led on by the legatee himself, in front of 
 whose person hung suspended the testamentary 
 drum, hobbled slowly along a sorry and cadaver 
 ous jade, which had been the pack-saddle of 
 Kluckhatch in his strolling tours. One eye of 
 the sad creature was wholly closed and useless, 
 but the other, as if to make amends, was a sea- 
 green orb of twice the ordinary dimension, and 
 with its ample circle of white blazed like the 
 moon crossing the milky-way in the sky. His 
 lank, hollow body bore clear evidence of the ne 
 glected meadows and scant mangers of the Hound- 
 builders ; for he had been on fast (broken by 
 occasional spare morsels) for more than a month, 
 and glided along in the procession like a spectre. 
 Behind this monkish-looking beast followed a 
 low wagon or four-wheeled cart, drawn by a pair 
 of venerable and spiritless bisons, in which sai 
 
BEHEMOTH. 109 
 
 the blusterer himself, erect, and in the costume of 
 every-day life, his strange red coat, shining, like 
 a meteor, conspicuous from afar, while his conical 
 cap nodded gaily to the one side or the other, as 
 the wind swayed it. The strange whipster held 
 the reins firmly between his skeleton fingers and 
 exhibited on his countenance a broad, ghastly 
 grin, which, at the first view, startled the behold 
 ers, but after they had recovered from the shock, 
 caused them to burst into a hearty laugh. On 
 each side of the vehicle, thus strangely driven, 
 marched, in serious order, six sturdy men, each 
 bearing a huge rustic pipe or whistle, wrought of 
 reed, on which they blew soft and melancholy 
 music. Behind the wagon, the favorite dog of 
 Kluckhatch, crest-fallen and whining, was led in 
 a string. In the rear of this faithful mourner 
 followed the friends and admirers of the de 
 ceased, and after these scrambled a promiscuous 
 rout of his townspeople, of every variety, age, 
 sex and hue. 
 
 Creation itself, both overhead and on the earth, 
 was something in unison with the grotesque ob 
 sequies. The sky resembled the bottom of a 
 rich sea suddenly disclosed. In one quarter a vast 
 cloud, like a whale, floundered and tumbled over 
 10 
 
110 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 the azure depths, In another, the clouds lay 
 piled in heaps of shining silver ; here they as 
 sumed the form of a shattered wreck, fleecy 
 vapors standing out as mast or bowsprit, with - 
 evanescent bars for rigging, and there a black and 
 jagged mass of them stretched along like a reef 
 of dangerous and stubborn rocks. Lower down, 
 a small, dismantled fragment, mottled with white 
 sunlit scales, represented a mackerel at full lengtli, 
 opening his mouth and biting at the tail of a 
 cloudy grampus, that stood rampant just over 
 head. In the mid-air, drawn thither by the 
 strangely exposed remains of Kluckhatch, a sable- 
 coated troop of ravens kept the procession com 
 pany, occasionally demanding, in coarse, rude 
 clamors, their reversionary right in the deceased; 
 Now and then a timid bird put forth his head 
 from the trees and bushes at the road-side, and 
 twittering for a moment, and seeming to smile at 
 the defunct rider, hopped back into its cool hiding 
 place. 
 
 In k little while they reached tbe place of 
 burial; a small, suburban vault, the passage to 
 which, through a wooden door, led down to a 
 score of cells or apartments, all of which, save 
 one, woro occupied. Over the entrance to th 
 
BEHEMOTH. Ill 
 
 vault stood the weather-bleached skeleton of a 
 robustious ancestor of Kluckhatch, balancing on 
 one of his short, stout legs, flourishing the other 
 as if in the act of going through a piroifette 
 and holding in his out-stretched right hand the 
 effigies of an owl, the favorite family-bird and. 
 device. *\ 
 
 For what reason, or whether for any, the little, 
 queer skeleton occupied this position, it would 
 be now difficult to decide. Perhaps in his life 
 time he had been a hard, weather-beaten hunter, 
 who preferred to be left thus in the free, naked 
 air, and under the open sky, which during life 
 he had enjoyed without stint or circumscription. 
 Passing underneath the figure of this portentous 
 guardian and through the passage, they bore the 
 mortal remains of the last of the Kluckhatch s, 
 and placed them in their upright posture in the 
 only cell which remained untenanted. The mo 
 ment it was known that the corse was deposited 
 in its final place of rest, the twelve stout whistlers 
 let off four successive volleys of their peculiar 
 music ; the dog came forward and howled, and 
 the shock-headed youth stood at the entrance of 
 the vault sobbing and weeping, while the beast, 
 whose halter he held in his hand, silently de- 
 
112 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 voured the drum-head, and looked inside for 
 further viands. A few moments mere and the 
 door was closed for ever between the world and 
 Kiuckhatch. 
 
 The unexpected departure of Bokulla from 
 their midst had been a source of fruitful and anx 
 ious speculation to the Mound-builders. They 
 were conscious of his absence, as if the great orb 
 itself had left the skies and deprived the earth of 
 its light and influence. His presence diffused 
 amongst them the only cheerful ray that enlight 
 ened their gloomy condition ; and although his 
 recent enterprise had proved disastrous, they 
 were satisfied that the great chieftain would 
 promptly grasp the first favoring circumstance 
 and energetically use it against the fearful foe. . 
 
 Of the causes of his absence none were advised, 
 nor as to the direction his steps had taken. Some 
 dreaded lest he had gone forth to perish by his own 
 hand in the wilderness ; and by these scouts had 
 been dismissed in every quarter to bring back the 
 fugitive warrior, or his body, for honorable sepul 
 ture if he had perished. The agitation and fear, 
 excited by the causeless and unexplained absence 
 of Bokulla, were only less than those occasioned 
 by the terrible presence of the Mastodon. His 
 
BEHEMOTH. 113 
 
 return, therefore, was welcomed with every de 
 monstration of rejoicing. Lights were displayed 
 as glad signals, from every tower ; processions 
 and cavalcades were formed to make triumphal 
 marches through the realm, and bodies of citi 
 zens constantly gathered under the window of 
 the chieftain to express their delight at his re 
 turn. During a whole week this universal fes 
 tivity was sustained, and it seemed as if the flow 
 er of national hope once more blossomed in their 
 midst 4 Merry games were celebrated in their 
 gardens : religious worship again assumed its 
 robe, and walked forth with serene and placid fea 
 tures in the traces of its early duty. 
 
 What gave additional animation to this un 
 wonted scene was, that Behemoth, during its con 
 tinuance, ceased to sadden or alarm them with 
 his presence ; it may have been that the dazzling 
 splendor of the illumination, and the loud sound 
 of innumerable instruments all playing together, 
 kept him back. 
 
 About two weeks after the return of the self- 
 exiled chieftain, and at the close of their joyous 
 celebrations, he appeared before the Mound-build 
 ers, and declared " that his strange and unexplain* - 
 ed absence had not been without its uses. Na- 
 10* 
 
114 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 hire," he said, " had put forth her mighty hand 
 and generously furnished the means of deliver 
 ance. Liberty was now before them, but it must 
 be attained through many perils and through toil, 
 sanctified, perchance) with blood. Like the swim 
 mer that nears the shore, they must now buffet 
 the wave of hostile fortune with their sternest 
 strength. It might be that once more the firm 
 and smiling continent of joy, of honor, and peace, 
 could be reached. If so, heaven should be prais 
 ed with a deep sense of gratitude, and the realm 
 should ring through all its borders with sounds of 
 glorious triumph ! ;) 
 
 He then stated that he had discovered in his 
 wanderings a mighty meadow where Behemoth 
 was wont to pasture ; and that if they would 
 choose a delegation to visit it in company with 
 himself, he would endeavor to point them to a 
 sure and safe method of subduing the enemy. 
 
 At this suggestion the populace shouted loudly 
 and echoed the name of Bokulla with the most 
 eager and fervent expressions of admiration. 
 Theyf readily appointed three eminent citizens to 
 accompany him. The next morning they set 
 out, and having in due course of time reached 
 
BEHEMOTH. 1 15 
 
 the locality, they selected an elevation which 
 commanded the whole prospect at once. 
 
 AU admitted, as they looked upon the high 
 walls that girt the broad and spacious meadow, 
 and on the single narrow opening which led 
 from the enclosure, that nature had furnished an 
 extraordinary aid toward the capture of the in 
 vincible brute. Far around on both sides from 
 the central position which they occupied, the 
 stupendous upright battlement of mountains 
 stretched a peak here and there shooting up an 
 immense tower, and a crag occasionally thru sting 
 itself forth from the general mass of perpendicu 
 lar rocks like the quaint head of a beast, or tho 
 rugged and ugly features of a human being, as 
 the fancy chose to give it shape and likeness. 
 The whole hedged in a meadow covered witli 
 a fertile growth of tall, rich verdure dotted by 
 a few scattered trees and intersected by a stream 
 of considerable breadth and depth, which flowed 
 through its centre, and formed an outlet in a nar 
 row jmssage underneath the mountains. The 
 natural opening leading from this broad enclo 
 sure, was about five hundred feet wide, and 
 walled on either side by gigantic fragments of 
 stone, from whose huge posterns it seemed as if 
 
116 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 in an earlier age of the world an immense gate 
 may have swung and shut in captives of mighty 
 size and fearful guilt. Nothing could be con- 
 ceived a more secure and dreadful prison than 
 these vast walls of rock: and no solitude could 
 be more dreary than one thus fortified as it were 
 by nature, and made sublimely desolate by bar 
 riers and enclosures like these. 
 
 All felt, thus gazing, the grandeur of the 
 thought presented to their mind by Bokulla, and 
 they turned and looked upon the countenance of 
 the chieftain as if they expected to discover there 
 features more than human. Bokulla stood silent. 
 He wished the great plan to sink deep in their 
 minds, while they were on the very spot where it 
 had its birth, and where it was to achieve (if 
 fortune permitted) its eventful success. 
 
 " The thought is mighty and worthy of Bo 
 kulla!" at length, exclaimed one of his ^com 
 panions, a man of a generous and ardent heart ; 
 "Here we triumph or the story of our life closes in 
 endless defeat, and our fate makes us and .ours 
 perpetual bondmen." 
 
 11 Who is it," interposed a second of less san 
 guine temper, "wlio is it that dare visit the pan 
 ther in his den ? or grasp the thunder from its 
 
BEHEMOTH. 117 
 
 cloud on the mountain top ? Itwere as safe to 
 climb into the eagle s nest as disturb this mon 
 strous creature in his lair !" 
 
 " Terrible as the North when it lightens and 
 is full of storms inexorable as death, will be 
 the encounter !" cried a supporter of the second 
 speaker " I would sooner plunge headlong from 
 a tower, than venture within this guarded en 
 closure !" 
 
 "What say you, my friends!" cried Bokulla, 
 springin g to his feet, " what say you to an em 
 bassy to the brute on bended knee 1 I doubt not 
 if we came as humble worshippers and suppli 
 ants, and consented to choose him as our national 
 idol, he would abate something of his fierceness!" 
 
 " Now heaven and all good planets forbid !" 
 cried his companions, with one accord. 
 
 " Nothing better and nothing nobler, then, may 
 be tried, than the great suggestion of Bokulla !" 
 said the first speaker. "Here let us wrestle with 
 fate and die, then, if die we* must, in this broad 
 and open arena, where the heavens themselves, 
 and the inexorable stars, shall be witnesses of our 
 struggle P 
 
 Taking up their position on an elevated rock, 
 shaded by trees which overlooked the whole 
 
118 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 scene, they consulted as to the most proper and 
 speedy method of accomplishing their purpose. 
 
 After a consultation of several hours, during 
 which the sun had fallen far in the west, and 
 after weighing anxiously every circumstance that 
 could have bearing or influence on the event, 
 they determined in their open council-chambe?, 
 amid the solemn silence of the wilderness, that 
 an attempt must be made to imprison Behemoth 
 in the vast, natural dungeon at their feet, by 
 building a stout wall across its present opening. 
 
 And furthermore, that it would be matter of 
 after thought to decide, if successful in the first, 
 by what means his death was to be wrought. 
 Their resolves had scarcely taken this shape, 
 when a heavy shadow fell suddenly in their 
 midst, as if a thick cloud had covered the sun, 
 and looking forth for its source, they beheld 
 Behemoth walking silently and ponderously along 
 the ridge of the opposite mountains. (2) They 
 arrested their deliberations, and rising in a body, 
 watched the progress and actions fc of the Brute. 
 In a short time he descended from the summit, 
 and attaining its foot by a sloping and broad path. 
 in a moment presented himself at the gap, which 
 conducted into the mountainous amphitheatre. 
 
BEHEMOTH. 119 
 
 Stalking through, he advanced to its far extremi 
 ty, and stretching himself on the bank of the 
 stream, and in the cool shadow of the mountains, 
 he prepared for repose. 
 
 His companions had already learned from Bo- 
 kulla, that the Mastodon was in the habit of 
 paying long periodical visits to this place, and of 
 feeding, for considerable periods of time, on its 
 abundant and savory verdure. Nothing could 
 have been more opportune to their consultation 
 than the arrival of Behemoth. His sudden 
 coming was an argument for activity and des 
 patch. 
 
 The fifth day from this, the Mound-builders ar 
 rived in considerable numbers, in a wood near 
 the amphitheatre, bringing with them in wagons 
 the tools and implements required in the pro 
 posed labor. They immediately set about the 
 task, and commenced hewing large blocks of stone 
 and dragging them to the mouth of the gap, but 
 not so near as to obstruct it. The whole body 
 of workmen that had come from the Mound- 
 builders villages had labored at this task for a 
 week, and they found that in that time sufficient 
 stone had been hewn to build the wall from base 
 to summit. Each block was more than twelve 
 
120 BF.HEMOTH. 
 
 feet square, and through its centre was drilled a 
 hole of some sir inches diameter, in which to 
 insert bars of metal, to bind them-raore firmly to 
 gether. 
 
 As soon as they were prepared to commence 
 the erection of the wjall, which was the most 
 critical part of their labors, four or five separate 
 bands of musicians were stationed at the farther 
 end of the enclosure, and near to Behemoth : for 
 they knew, from Bokulla s report, that the Mas 
 todon, mighty and terrible as he was, could be 
 soothed by the influence of music, adroitly man 
 aged. 
 
 The moment the work of heaving the vast 
 square blocks one upon the other began, the mu 
 sicians, at a given signal, commenced playing. 
 and during the progress of the labor, ran through 
 all the variety of gentle tunes : so that the wall. 
 like that of Amphion, sprang up under the spell 
 of music. So cunningly did the different band 
 master their instruments, that, at three differed 
 times, when the Mastodon had turned his stej 
 toward the gap at which the Mound-builders 
 labored, they lured him buck and held him spell 
 bound and motionless. 
 
 The blocks were hoisted to their places by 
 
BEHEMOTH. 121 
 
 cranes, and the utmost silence was observed in 
 every movement ; not even a voice was lifted to 
 command, but every direction was given with 
 the pointed finger. No one moved from his sta 
 tion during the hours of toil, but each stood on 
 his post and executed his portion of the task 
 like a part of the machinery. And yet there was 
 no lack of spirit ; every one labored as if for his 
 own individual redemption, and one who beheld 
 them plying amid the massive fragments of 
 granite, silent and busy, might have thought that 
 they were some rebellious crew of beings brought 
 into the wilderness by a genius or necromancer, 
 and there compelled, speechless and uncomplain 
 ing, to do his bidding.(3) 
 
 They labored in this way for more than a 
 month, and^at the end of that time, Bokulla pro 
 claimed fronrite summit that the wall was com 
 pleted. At the announcement, the whole host of 
 artizans and laborers; and innumerable women 
 and children, who had come from the villages, 
 
 sent up a shout thai rent the air. Behemoth 
 
 v ** 
 heard it, and, listening only for a moment, browsed 
 
 on among the tall grass as if regardless of its 
 ource and its object." In a few days, however, 
 after the music had ceased its gentle influence, 
 11 
 
122 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 and the supply of pasturage began to be less luxu 
 riant, the Mastodon made progress toward the 
 old outlet) with the determination of seeking food 
 elsewhere. 
 
 He, of course, sought an outlet in vain, and 
 found himself standing at the base of an immense 
 rampart, which shot sheer up two hundred and 
 fifty feet in air. He surveyed the structure, and 
 soon discovered that it was no trifling barrier, but 
 a mighty pile of rocks, that showed themselves 
 almost as massive and firm as the mountains 
 which they bound together. At first Behemoth 
 thought although it would be idle to attempt 
 to shake the whole mass at once, that yet the 
 separate parts might be removed block by block, 
 With this purpose he endeavored to force his 
 white tusks between them, but it was in.vaiir, 
 they wore knit too firmly together to be sundered. 
 At length the great Brute was maddened by these 
 fruitless efforts, and retreating several hundred 
 rods, he rushed against the wall with tremendous 
 strength and fury. 
 
 The Mound-builders, who overlooked the 
 structure, trembled for its safety, but it stood stiff, 
 and the shock caused Behemoth to recoil discom 
 fited, while the earth shook with the weight and 
 
BEHEMOTH. 123 
 
 violence of tho motion. Over and over again 
 these assaults were repeated, always with the 
 same result. Wearied with the attempt, the Mas 
 todon desisted, and returned to feed upon the 
 diminished pasturage, which he had before de_ 
 serted, He had soon browsed on it to its very 
 roots, and began to feed on the commoner grass 
 * and weeds, scarcely palatable. In a day these 
 had all vanished, and he turned to the trees which 
 were here and there scattered over the meadow. 
 These he devoured, foliage, limb, and trunk. 
 [n a few days they were wholly exhausted, and 
 the enclosed plain was reduced to a desert pas- 
 tureless, herbless, and treeless. 
 
 The impatience and wrath of Behemoth now 
 knew no bounds. He saw no possible mode of 
 escape from this dreary and foodless waste. 
 Around and around the firm Colosseum which 
 enclosed him, he rushed maddened, bellowing, 
 and foaming. 
 
 At times, in his fury, be pushed up the almost 
 perpendicular sides of the mountains and recoiled, 
 bringing with himshattered fragments of rock and 
 large masses of earth, with fearful force and 
 swiftness. Around and around he again galloped 
 and trampled, shaking the very mountains with 
 
124 BEHEMOTH. 
 
 bis ponderous motions, and filling their whole 
 circuit with his terrible bowlings and cries. The 
 Mound-builders, who stood upon the wall, and on 
 different parts of the mountains, shrunk back 
 affrighted and awe-stricken before the deadly 
 glare of his eye, and the fearful and agonizing 
 sound of his voice. 
 
 Day by day he became more furious, and his 
 roar assumed a more touching and dreadful sharp 
 ness. All sustenance was gone from the plain. 
 The whole space within his reach furnished 
 nothing but rocks and earth, for he had already 
 drunk the stream dry to its channel. 
 
 The mighty Brute was perishing of hunger in 
 the centre of his prison. 
 
 His strength was now too far wasted to admit 
 of those violent and gigantic efforts which he had 
 at first made to escape from the famine-stricken 
 enclosure, and he now stalked up and down its 
 barren plain, uttering awful and heart-rending 
 cries, Some of the Mound-builders who heard 
 them, and who saw the agonies and sufferings of 
 Behemoth, although he had been their most cruel 
 enemy, could not refrain from tears. So univer 
 sal is humanity in its scope, that it can feel for 
 every thing that has life. 
 
BEHBMOTH. 125 
 
 Howling and stalking, like a shadow momently 
 diminishing, he walked to and fro in this way for 
 many days. Hunger hourly extended its mastery 
 through his immense frame. At about mid-day 
 in the third week of his imprisonment, he cast 
 his eye upon the cavernous and now dusty open 
 ing through which the river that watered the. 
 plain had been accustomed to find its way. It was 
 broad and open and of considerable height Into 
 this Behemoth now turned his steps, Its mouth 
 was larger than the inner passage, for time and 
 tempest had worn away the rocks which once 
 guarded it. 
 
 As lie advanced it diminished, and ere his 
 whole bulk had entered the channel, it became 
 so narrow and confined that he was forced to sink 
 on his knees, in order to make further progress. 
 This labor soon proved vexatious and toilsome, 
 and the Mastodon, willing to force a way where 
 one was not to be found, or to perish in the en 
 deavor, raised himself slowly toward an upright 
 position. 
 
 The remnant of his strength proved to be fear* 
 ful, for, as his broad shoulders pressed upon the 
 rocks above him, the incumbent mountain trem 
 bled, and when he had attained his full stature by 
 
 r 
 
BEHEMOTH. 
 
 a last powerful effort, the impending rocks rolled 
 back and forth, and fell with a resounding crash 
 and in great fragments to the earth. The whole 
 cone of the mountain had been loosened from its 
 base, and leaning for a moment, like a lurid cloud, 
 in mid-air, fell into the plain with terrible ruin, 
 bearing down a whole forest of trees and the 
 earth in which they had taken root. 
 
 Fortunately for Behemoth unfortunately for 
 the object of the Mound-builders the rocks 
 which immediately over-hung Behemoth, though 
 rent in several places, did not give way, but so in 
 terlocked and pressed against each other as lo 
 form a solid arch over his head and leave him un 
 harmed amid the ruins, Passage through the 
 channel was, however, wholly arrested by the 
 large masses of earth that had fallen into it, and 
 Behemoth finding it vain to attempt to pass 
 farther onward, withdrew. 
 
 The fatal time drew nearer and nearer. Hun 
 dreds and thousands of the Mound-builders ga 
 thered from every quarter of the Empire to look 
 upon the last hour of the mighty Creature which 
 lay extended, in his whole vast length, in the plain. 
 A catastrophe and show like that was not to be 
 foregone, for it might never (and so they prayed) 
 
BEHEMOTH. 127 
 
 come again. Death and the Mastodon held a fear- * 
 ful encounter in the arena below. Nations looked 
 down from the wall and the mountains on the 
 strange and terrible spectacle. 
 
 To and fro the whole famished bulk moved 
 with the convulsions, and spasms, and devouring 
 agonies of hunger. At times the Brute raised his 
 large countenance toward heaven, and howled 
 forth a cry which, it seemed, might bring down 
 the gods to his succor. 
 
 On the fortieth day Behemoth died and left his 
 huge bones extended on the plain like the wreck 
 of some mighty ship stranded there by a Deluge, 
 to moulder century after century, to be scattered 
 through a continent by a later convulsion, and, 
 finally, to become the wonder of the Present 
 Time. 
 
NOTES. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 THE chief object of the following notes is to 
 confirm what may seem the hazardous assertions of 
 the text, and to show that imagination, wherever 
 practicable, has helped itself cautiously forward 
 by a hand placed on the shoulder of fact. Many of 
 the extracts from antiquarian or scientific worke, 
 may seem to the general reader of unusual length, 
 but he may rest assured, that they all contain mat 
 ter in which he may reasonably feel some interest. 
 The facts connected with the subjects of this work, 
 have furnished for many years topics for the zealous 
 and enthusiastic research and discussion of intel 
 ligent Americans throughout the whole country, 
 tnd which are likely to prove more attractive to the 
 imagination, the farther we recede from the gray 
 and venerable age in which they existed. As our 
 own history assumes a prouder and loftier crest in 
 the noonday concourse and throng of nations, she 
 will more fondly and reverently cast back her regards 
 toward the first fountains of her origin. Is it too 
 much a pastime of the fancy to believe that, aa 
 Americans, in the progress of time, attain the sta 
 ture of a generous manhood, they will more affec 
 tionately grasp the shadowy hand extended to them 
 
132 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 by that dead old nation that built the mounds. The 
 swifter the present time yields its concerns and 
 its labors to the simple agency of steam and iron, 
 the more earnestly, it seems to me, will it look back 
 to that great embodiment of natural and unme- 
 chanical strength, the Mastodon of the western 
 prairie. As men and day-laborers we dwell in the 
 present as gods and diviner beings, we reside in the 
 past and the future ! 
 
 History nor chronicle presents to the mind a 
 more august or imposing subject of speculation 
 than the unrecorded race that has departed like a 
 shadow, from the glorious and magnificent west, 
 Here we can enjoy a spectacle of which the imagi 
 nation is chief architect, where no vulgar circum 
 stance intrudes, and where the actors are heroic 
 and all the decorations in the highest style the fancy 
 chooses to furnish. On the great rivers of the west 
 we may launch, in that remote and doubtful age, 
 the mightiest ships with wide spread sails, and on 
 their banks we may rear the gorgeous palace and 
 solemn temple without the meaner aid of builder 
 or mason. Who shall gainsay the cheerful and 
 glorious labors of the fancy ? Into our minds let 
 a thousand tender and affecting thoughts enter of 
 the lovers that have wooed, and wooed in vain, of 
 hearts that have broken in the agony of sharp be* 
 reavements, of ambition deposed and genius blight 
 ed within the walls of that ancient and departed 
 people. Who will refuse to the heart this melan 
 choly pleasure i It is good for us to have that part 
 of our nature which connects us with far-off limes, 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 138 
 
 awakened and kindled. A decaying bone, an old 
 helmet, a mouldering fragment of wall or hearth 
 stone, may call us back into centuries that are gone, 
 and make us feel our kindred with generations 
 buried long ago. 
 
 12 
 
NOTE TO PREFACE. 
 
 THE following passages are quoted from the in 
 teresting paper on " THB GIGANTIC MASTODON/ in 
 Godman s " American Natural Hittory." 
 
 11 In various parts of North America single bones 
 of extraordinary size had been occasionally disinter- 
 .red, without exciting more than temporary curiosi 
 ty, or leading to any thing better than wild and un 
 satisfactory speculation. Some persons regarded 
 them as the relics of a gigantic race of men, of whose 
 existence no other traces remained : others, who ap 
 peared willing to surpass all absurdity, suggested 
 that they might have belonged to the angels who 
 were expelled their celestial habitations ; while a 
 third, and more rational party, concluded that they 
 were the bones of an animal still in existence, or be 
 longed to a larger variety of the well known ele 
 phant species. The inquiry generally ceased when 
 the novelty of their discovery passed away ; those 
 by whom they were found were in pursuit of other 
 objects, and very frequently neglected to preserve 
 the fragments already obtained. But when situa- 
 
NOTE TO PREFACE. 135 
 
 lions wore explored whore they were procured in 
 greater abundance, and the curiosity of European 
 naturalists was awakened, these relics were eagerly 
 sought for, until nearly a whole skeleton was ob 
 tained ; the fact satisfactorily established, that these 
 bones belonged to a peculiar race never before 
 known, and, what was still more surprising, that the 
 whole race was utterly extinct. 
 
 We find as early as the year 1712, a letter from 
 Dr. Mather to Dr. Woodward, published in the 
 Philosophical Transactions, announcing that some 
 bones and teeth of a monstrous size had been dis 
 covered at Albany in New-York. In the year 1739, 
 some savages belonging to the company of a French 
 officer, named Longueil, who was descending the 
 Ohio to the Mississippi, found, at a short distance 
 from the river, at the edge of a marsh, some bones, 
 grinders and tusks, belonging to this unknown ani 
 mal. The year after Longueil took to Paris a thigh 
 bone, the extremity of a tusk, and three grinders, 
 which are still preserved there. Since that time 
 these bones have been discovered in many places ; 
 thouga, in consequence of the notice first attracted 
 by the specimens found on the Ohio river, the name 
 of Animal of the Ohio had been bestowed on this 
 creature, yet this name, and that of Mammoth, have 
 at length been entirely superseded by that proposed 
 by Cuvier. About the year 1740, vast numbers of 
 these bones, which had been washed up by the cur 
 rent of the Ohio, or were purposely digged for, were 
 found in Kentucky. The eagerness to procure them, 
 and the baste with which they were sent to Europe, 
 
136 NOTE TO PREFACE. 
 
 retarded the knowledge of the true character of the 
 animal as it became impossible to procure or re- 
 cognise the bonea belonging to different skeletons, 
 or to determine their exact numbers and propor 
 tions. Over France, England and Germany, they 
 were in this manner scattered in confusion ; and we 
 need not be surprised that naturalists were long in 
 forming just ideas of the character of the animal, or 
 indulged so much the disposition to maintain theories 
 established on such slight foundations. The force of 
 prejudice may be clearly seen in the perseverance 
 with which Button, and some other scientific men, 
 maintained that these bones belonged to a variety of 
 the elephant race ; for if he admitted that they did not 
 belong to that kind, he must have acknowledged that 
 they were the bones of an extinct genus, which was 
 an idea not then proposed, but has since most amply 
 been proved true, and a vast number of extinct ape* 
 cies discovered. It was not until the year 1601, a 
 period of eighty-nine years from the first discovery of 
 the bones at Albany, that any hopes were entertain 
 ed, of finding an entire skeleton of this wonderful 
 and interesting animal. In the year 1824, a consi 
 derable part of a skeleton was raised in New- Jersey 
 by some scientific gentlemen of New- York ; but 
 they have not discovered any thing more than was 
 previously made known by the exertions of Messrs. 
 Peale ; the head, which is the only important part 
 wanting, was too much decomposed to enable them 
 to form any idea of its figure. 
 
 The emotions experienced, when for the first 
 time we behold the giant relics of this great animal, 
 
NOTE TO PREFACE, 137 
 
 are those of un mingled awe. We cannot avoid re- 
 fleeting on the time when this huge frame was cloth 
 ed with its peculiar integuments, and moved by ap 
 propriate muscles ; when the mighty heart dashed 
 forth its torrents of blood through vessels of enor 
 mous caliberfand the Mastodon strode along in su 
 preme dominion over every other tenant of the wil 
 derness. However we examine what is left to us, we 
 cannot help feeling that this animal must have been 
 endowed with a strength exceeding that of other 
 quadrupeds, as much as it exceeded them in size ; 
 and, looking at its ponderous jaws, armed with teeth 
 peculiarly formed for the most effectual crushing of 
 the firmest substances, we are assured that its life 
 could only be supported by the destruction of vast 
 quantities of food. 
 
 Enormous as were these creatures during life, 
 and endowed with faculties proportioned to the bulk 
 of their frames, the whole race has been extinct for 
 ages. No tradition nor human record of their ex 
 istence has been saved, and but for the accidental 
 preservation of a comparatively fewbones, we should 
 never have dreamed that a creature of such vast 
 size and strength once existed, nor could we havo 
 believed that such a race had been extinguished for 
 ever. . Such, however, is the fact ages after ages 
 have rolled away empires and nations have risen, 
 flourished, and sunk into irretrievable oblivion, while 
 the bones of the Mastodon, which perished long be* 
 fore the period of their origin, have been discovered, 
 scarcely changed in color, and exhibiting all the 
 marks of perfection and durability. That a race of 
 12* 
 
138 NOTE TO PREFACE. 
 
 animals so large, and consisting of so many species, 
 should become entirely and universally extinct, is a 
 circumstance of high interest ; for it is not with the 
 Mastodon as with the Elephant, which still contin 
 ues to be a living genus, although many of its spe 
 cies have become extinct : the entire race of the 
 Mastodon has been utterly destroyed, leaving no 
 thing but the " mighty wreck" of their skeletons, to 
 testify that they once were among the living occu 
 pants of this land." 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 Note (1) Page 6. 
 
 AT WATER in his " Western Antiquities" a work 
 full of curious information on the subjects of which 
 it treats, gives the following description of the for 
 tifications at Circleville, Ohio : 
 
 There are two forts, one being an exact circle, 
 the other an exact square. The former is surround 
 ed by two walls with a deep ditch between them 
 the latter is encompassed by one wall without any 
 ditch the former was sixty-nine rods in diameter, 
 measuring from outside to outside of the circular 
 outer wall the latter is exactly fifty- five rods square, 
 measuring the same way. The walls of the cir 
 cular fort were at least twenty feet in height, mea 
 suring from the bottom of the ditch before the 
 town of Circleville was built. The inner wall was 
 of clay taken up probably in the northern pan of 
 the fort where was a low place, and is still con 
 siderably lower than any other part of the work. 
 The outside wall was taken from the ditch which is 
 
140 NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 oetween these walls, and is alluvial, consisting of 
 pebbles worn smooth in water and sand, to a very . 
 considerable depth, more than fifty feet at least. 
 The outside of the wall is about five or six feet in 
 height now ; on the inside the ditch is at present, 
 generally not more than eighteen feet. They are 
 disappearing before us daily and will soon be gone. 
 The walls of the square fort are at this time, where 
 left standing, ten feet in height. There were eight 
 gateways or openings leading into the square fort, 
 and only one in the circular /ort. Before each of 
 these openings was a mound of earth perhaps four 
 feet high, forty feet perhaps in diameter at the 
 base, and twenty or upwards at the summit. These 
 mounds for two rods or more, are exactly in front of 
 the gateways, and were intended for the defence of 
 these openings. 
 
 As this work was a perfect square, so the gate 
 ways and watch towers were equi-distant from 
 each other. Theso mounds were in a perfectly 
 straight line, and exactly parallel with the wall. 
 
 D (The reader is referred to a plate) shows the 
 site of a once very remarkable ancient mound 
 of earth, with a semicircular pavement on its east 
 ern side^ nearly fronting, as h5 plate represents the 
 only gateway leading into the fort. This mound is 
 entirely removed ; but the outline of the semicir 
 cular pavement may still be seen in many places, 
 notwithstanding the dilapidations of time and those 
 occasioned by the hand of man. This mound, the 
 pavement, the walk from the east to its elevated 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 141 
 
 summit, the contents of the mound, &c., will be 
 described under the head of mounds. 
 
 The earth in these walls was as nearly perpen 
 dicular as it could be made to He. This fort had 
 originally but one gateway leading from it on its 
 eastern side, and that was defended by a meund of 
 earth several feet in height. Near the centre of 
 this work was a mound with a semicircular pave- 
 ment on its eastern side, some of the remains of 
 which may still bo seen by an intelligent observer. 
 The mound has been entirely removed so as to 
 make the street level where it once stood. 
 
 B (Referring to a plate) is a square fort adjoining 
 the circular one, the area of which has been stated 
 already. The wall which surrounds this work, is 
 generally now about ten feet in height, where it 
 has not been manufactured into brick. There are 
 seven gateways leading into this fort, besides the 
 one that communicates with the square fortification ; 
 that is, one at each angle and another in the wall 
 just half way between the angular ones. Before 
 each of these gateways was a mound of earth of 
 four or five feet in height, intended for the defence 
 of these openings. The extreme care of the au 
 thors of these works to protect and defend every 
 part of the circle, is ne-where visible about this 
 square fort. The former is defended by two high 
 walls ; the latter by one. The former haa a deep 
 ditch encircling it ; this has none. The former could 
 be entered at one place only ; this at eight and 
 those about twenty feet broad. The present town 
 of Circleville covers nil the round and the western 
 
142 NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 half of the square fort. These fortifications, where 
 the town stands, will entirely disappear in a few 
 years, and I have used the only means within my 
 power to perpetuate their memory by the annexed 
 drawing and this brief description. Where the 
 wall of the square fort has been manufactured into 
 brick, the workmen found some ashes, calcined 
 stones, sticks, and a little vegetable mould; all of 
 which must have been taken up from the surface of 
 the surrounding plain. As the square fort is a per* 
 feet square, so the gateways or openings are at equal 
 distances from each other, and on a right line pa 
 rallel with the wall. The walls of this work vary a 
 few degrees from north and south, east and west, 
 but not more than the needle varies, and not a few 
 surveyors have, from this circumstance, been impress 
 ed with the belief that the authors of those works 
 were acquainted with astronomy. What surprised 
 me on measuring these forts, was the exact manner 
 in which they had laid down their circle and square ; 
 so that after every effort, by the most careful survey, 
 to detect some error in their measurement, we 
 found that it was impossible, and that the measure 
 ment was much more correct than it would hare 
 been, in all probability, had the present inhabitants 
 undertaken to construct such work. Let those 
 consider this circumstance, who affect to believe 
 that these antiquities were raised by the ancestors 
 of the present race of Indians. Having learned 
 something of astronomy, what nation living as our 
 Indians do, in the open air, with the heavenly bo 
 dies in full view, could have forgotten such know- 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 143 
 
 ledge. Some hasty travellers who have spent an 
 hour or two bore, have concluded that the "forts" 
 at Circleville were not raised for military, but for 
 religious purposes, because there were two extra* 
 ordinary tumuli there. A gentleman in one of our 
 Atlantic cities, who has^never crossed the AHegha- 
 nies, has written to me that he is fully convinced 
 that they were raised for religious purposes. Men 
 thus situated, and with no correct means of judg 
 ing, will hardly be convinced by any thing I can 
 say. Nor do I address myself to them directly 
 or indirectly ; for it has long been my maxim, that 
 it is worse than vain to spend one s time in en 
 deavoring to reason men out of opinions for which 
 they never had any reasons. 
 
 The round fort was picketed in, if we are to 
 judge from the appearance of the ground on and 
 and about the walls, Half-way up the outside of 
 the inner wall, is a place distinctly to be seen, where 
 a row of pickets once stood, and where it was 
 placed when this work of defence was originally 
 erected. Finally, this work about its walls and 
 ditch, eight years since, presented as much of a de 
 fensive aspect as forts which were occupied in our 
 wars with the French in 1755, such as Oswego 
 Fort, Stanwin, and others. These works have been 
 examined by the first military men in the United 
 States, and they have uniformly declared their 
 opinion to be, that they were military works of de 
 fence/ Pp. 45 to 48. 
 
 In Drake s "Book of the Indians/ (fifth edition) 
 the reader will find other military remains described : 
 
141 NOTES TO PART 
 
 11 Further up the little Miami at Deerfield, are 
 other interesting remains; but those "which have 
 attracted more attention than any others in the 
 Miami country, are situated six miles from Leba 
 non, above the mouth of Todd s Fork, an eastern 
 branch of the Miami. On the summit of a ridge 
 at least two hundred feet above the valley of the 
 river, there are two irregular trapezoidal figures, 
 connected at a point where the ridge is very much 
 narrowed by a ravine. The wall, which is entirely 
 of earth, is generally eight or ten feet high ; but in 
 one place, where it is conducted over level ground 
 for a short distance, it rises to eighteen. Its situa 
 tion is accurately adjusted to the brow of the hill; 
 and as there is in addition to the Miami on the 
 west, deep ravines on the north, the south-east and 
 south, it is a position of great strength. The angles 
 in this wall, both retreating and salient, are numer 
 ous and generally acute. The openings, or gate* 
 ways, are not less than eighty. They are rarely at 
 equal distances, and are sometimes within two or 
 three rods of one another. They are not opposite to, 
 or connected with, any existing artificial objects, or 
 topographical peculiarities, and present, therefore, 
 a paradox of some difficulty." Book I. p. 42. 
 
 Note (2) Page 9, 
 
 That a numerous population once dwelt in the 
 midst of our western mounds, we are satisfied from 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 145 
 
 every evidence that we are entitled to require. 
 Their public works, fortifications, walls, and towers, 
 testify to the labors of a populous nation : but if we 
 look into their graves, we receive a more emphatic 
 answer than all their living labors could furnish. 
 Every hillock in the mighty west is bursting with 
 the relics of this extinguished race ; every plain is 
 crowded with the pale assemblies of their skeletons, 
 silently awaiting the only voice that can summon 
 them to speak of the past. 
 
 The particular number mentioned in the text is 
 derived from Mr, Bracken ridge, who conjectured 
 that there were once five thousand villages of this 
 people in the valley of the Mississippi. Many of 
 the mounds contain an immense number of skele 
 tons. Those of Big Grave Creek are believed to 
 be completely filled with human bones. The large 
 ones, all along the principal rivers in this state, 
 (Ohio,) are also filled with skeletons. Millions of 
 human beings have been buried in these tumuli. 
 From the Rocky Mountains in the West, to the 
 Alleghanies in the East, the country must have 
 been more or less settled by them.* 
 
 " Almost every traveller of late years has said 
 something of the mounds or fortifications scattered 
 over the south and west, from Florida to the Lakes, 
 and from the Hudson to Mexico and the Pacific 
 Ocean. By some they are reckoned at several 
 thousand. Mr. Brackenridge supposes there may 
 be three thousand ; but it would not outrage probm* 
 
 " v ^ "-"v ^ Jl .* ! - : *! : - 
 
 Vi<fe At water. 
 
 13 
 
146 NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 bility, I presume, to set them down at twice that 
 number. Indeed no one can form any just es 
 timate in respect to the number of mounds and for* 
 tifications which have been built, any more than of 
 the period of time which has passed since they were 
 originally erected, for several obvious reasons ; one 
 or two of which nay be mentioned : the plough, 
 excavations, and levellings for towns, roads, and 
 various other works, have entirely destroyed hun 
 dreds of them, which had never been described, and 
 whose sites cannot be ascertained. Another great 
 destruction of them has been effected by the chang 
 ing of the course of rivers. 1 Drake, Book I. p. 41. 
 
 Note (3) Page 15. 
 
 11 Like many people, those aboriginals, in their 
 various methods of inhumation, deposited some 
 thing of real or supposed value with the deceased. 
 Perhaps they always did. The contrary cannot be 
 asserted, as many of the articles might have been 
 perishable. This practice assures us of their belief 
 in a future existence." Conjectures respecting the 
 Ancient Inhabitants of North America : by MOSES 
 FISK, Esq., of Hilham, Tennessee. Vol. I. Archaeo- 
 logia American*. 
 
 Mr. Harris, a member of the Massachusetts* His 
 torical Society, gives the following account of the 
 ancient graves which are scattered over the whole 
 face of the western country : 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 147 
 
 "The places called graves are small mounds of 
 earth, from some of which human bones have been 
 taken. In one were found the bones, in their natu 
 ral position, of a man buried nearly east, and west, 
 with a quantity of isinglass (mica membranea) on 
 his breast. In the others, the bones laid promiscu 
 ously, some of them appeared partly burnt and cal 
 cined by fire, also stones, evidently burnt, charcoal, 
 arrow-heads, and fragments of a kind of earthen 
 ware, An opening being made at the summit of 
 the great conic mound, there were found the boneg 
 of an adult, in a horizontal position, covered with a 
 flat stone. Beneath this skeleton were thin stones, 
 placed vertically, at imall and different distances, 
 but no bones were discovered. That this venerable 
 monument might not be defaced, the opening was 
 closed without further search. It is worthy of re 
 mark, that the walls and mounds were npt thrown 
 up from ditches, but-raised by bringing the earth 
 from some distance, or taking it up uniformly from 
 the surface of the plain. The parapets were proba 
 bly made of equal height and breadth, but the waste 
 of time has rendered them lower and broader in 
 Bomo parts than others. It is in vain to conjecture 
 what tools or machinery were employed in the con 
 struction of these works ; but there is no reason to 
 suppose that any of the implements were of iron. 
 Plates of copper have been found in some of the 
 mounds, but they appear to be parts of armor. 
 Nothing that would answer the purpose of a shovel 
 has ever been discovered." 
 
 Mr. Harris quotes Dr. Cutter upon the probable 
 
148 NOTES TO PAHT FIRST. 
 
 antiquity of these mounds* The Doctor concei res 
 that the only clue remaining is the growth upon 
 them. He says, " one tree, decayed at the centre, 
 contained at least 463 circles. Its age was undoubt 
 edly more than 463 years. Other trees, in a growing 
 state, were, from their appearance, much older. 
 There were likewise the strongest marks of a pre 
 vious growth, as large as the present. Admitting 
 the age of the present growth to be 450 years, and 
 that it had been preceded by one of equal size and 
 age, which as probably as otherwise was not the 
 first, the works have been deserted more than 900 
 years. * 
 
 Mr. Harris remarks that " about 90 miles from 
 Marietta, on a large plain, bounded by one of the 
 western branches of the Mu skin gum, are a train of 
 ancient works, nearly two miles in extent, the ram 
 parts of which are yet in some places upwards of 
 18 feet perpendicular height. At Licking are very 
 extensive works, some of them different in construe* 
 tion from those at Marietta ; particulary several cir 
 cular forts, with but one entrance. They are formed 
 of a parapet from 7 to 12 feet in height, without any 
 ditch ; i the interior being of the same level with the 
 plain on which they are raised. Forts of this kind, 
 which are also found in other places, are from 3 
 chains to 15 or more in diameter. There are .also 
 large walls and mounds on the Great Miami and 
 the Scioto." 
 
 The original height, our author thinks, was di 
 minished by the gradual wasting away of the earth, 
 and the filling up of the interior, and the accretion 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 149 
 
 of the soil over the whole surface of the plain, by 
 the annual deposit of leaves and the decay of tim 
 ber. The utensils he considers to have belonged 
 to a people far advanced in the arts. 
 
 " The elevated squares might be the foundations 
 of larger towns and arsenals. The excavations or 
 caves were undoubtedly wells, now filled up, water 
 being an essential article/in a besieged place. Some 
 of these are above 40 feet in diameter, and about 5 
 feet in depth" have some resemblance to sacred 
 enclosures found in Mexico. 
 
 " The smaller mounds, on the great plains, are 
 filled with bones, laid in various directions, in an 
 equal state of decay, and appear to be piled over 
 heaps of slain, after some great battle. Whereas 
 the larger mounds, near the fenced cities, are com- 
 posed of strata, if I may so say, of bones in more- 
 regular order, of full-grown people and of infants, 
 and in different stages of decay, and seem formed 
 of the bodies of such as have died of sickness, or 
 were killed in occasional skirmishes, at different 
 times, with intervals, perhaps, of some years. In 
 some have been found plates of copper rivetted to 
 gether, copper beads, various implements of stone, 
 and a very curious kind of porcelain." The Jour- 
 nal of a Tour into the Territory north-west of the Al- 
 leghany Mountains, made in 1805 : by TIIADDEUS 
 MASON HARRIS, Member of Mass. His. Soc. Bo** 
 ton, 1805. 
 
150 MOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 Note (4) Page 16. 
 
 * 
 
 The Rev. Robert G. Wilson, a receiving officer 
 of the American Antiquarian Society, furnished 
 Mr. Atwater with minute information concerning 
 a mound, which once itood near the centre of the 
 town of Chilicothe, Ohio. 
 
 Its perpendicular height, at the time of its demo* 
 lition, was about fifteen feet, and the diameter of 
 its base about sixty. It was composed of sand, and 
 contained human bones, belonging to skeletons 
 which were buried in different parts of it. It was 
 not until this pile of earth was removed, and the 
 original surface exposed to view, that a probable 
 conjecture of its original design could be formed. 
 About twenty feet square of the surface had been 
 levelled and covered with bark. On the centre of 
 this lay a human skeleton, over which had been 
 spread a mat, manufactured either from weeds or 
 bark. On the breast lay what had been a piece of 
 copper, in the form of a cross, which had now be 
 come verdigris. On the breast also lay a stone or 
 nament, with two perforations, one near each end, 
 through which passed a string, by means of which 
 it was suspended round the wearer s neck. On 
 this string, which was made of sinews, and very 
 much injured by time, was placed a great many 
 beads, made of ivory or bone. " With these facts 
 before us," concluded Dr. Wilson, " we are left to 
 conjecture at what time this individual lived ; what 
 were his heroic achievements in the field of "battle ; 
 his wisdom and eloquence in the councils of his 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 151 
 
 nation. But his contemporaries have testified, in a 
 manner not to be mistaken, that among them he was 
 held in grateful remembrance." 
 
 Note (5) Page 16, 
 
 " On the beach near the mouth of the Muskingum, 
 was discovered a curious ornament. It is made of 
 white marble, in form a circle about three inches in 
 diameter. The outer edge is about one inch in 
 thickness, with a narrow rim. The sides are deeply 
 concave, and in the centre is a hole about half an 
 inch in diameter. It is beautifully finished, and so 
 smooth that Dr. Hildreth is of the opinion that it 
 was once highly polished. It is now in the posses 
 sion of David Putnam, Esq., of Marietta, Ohio. 
 Other articles, similar to this, have been found in 
 several mounds in many places. The use to which 
 the one described was put, cannot certainly be 
 known. Was it a rude wind instrument of music 1 
 or was it a badge of office and distinction I 1 At* 
 water. Pp. 131, 132. 
 
 With regard to the pleasure gardens, which are 
 alluded to more than once in the text, I may as well 
 quote here a passage from the 26th volume of the 
 N. A. Review; at the same time taking the liberty 
 to differ entirely from the remarks of the writer aa 
 to the barbarous character of other ancient memori 
 als found throughout the West : " In some cursory 
 remarks upon the large mounds in the vicinity of St. 
 
152 NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 Louis, Mr. School craft justly observes, that enough 
 has certainly been written on the subject of bur 
 mounds to prove how little we know either of their 
 origin or of their interior structure/ These remains 
 of ancient art have attracted the attention of tra 
 vellers since the first settlement of the country ; and 
 standing as they do, the sole monuments of human 
 industry, amid interminable forests, it is not surpris 
 ing that curiosity should be busy in investigating 
 the age and objects of their founders. But little has 
 been effected, however, to satisfy the rational in 
 quirer; and before much progress can be made, all 
 the facts connected with the topographical situation 
 and construction of these works, and with the re 
 mains of earthen and metallic instruments found in 
 and about them, should be collected and preserved. 
 The Rev. Isaac McCoy, the Principal of the Mis 
 sionary establishment upon the St. Joseph of Lake 
 Michigan, a man of sound judgment and rigid in 
 tegrity, has observed a class of works in that coun 
 try, differing essentially from any which have been 
 elsewhere found, As his account of them is inte 
 resting, we shall transcribe the letter he has address 
 ed to us. 
 
 Aware of the interest you feel in every thing re 
 lating to the character and condition of the aborigi 
 nes of our country, I do myself the pleasure to en* 
 close to you a plot of a tract of land which has been 
 cultivated in an unusual manner for this country, 
 and which was abandoned by . its cultivators ages 
 ago. These marks of antiquity are peculiarly inte 
 resting because they exhibit the work of civilized 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 153 
 
 and not of savage man. All, or nearly all the other 
 works of antiquity, which have been found in these 
 western regions, convince the observer that they 
 were found by men who had made little or no ad 
 vance in the arts. If we examine a number of 
 mounds in the same neighborhood, we find them 
 situated without any regard to order in the arrange 
 ment, precisely as modern savages place the huts in 
 their villages and plant the corn in their field. If we . 
 observe a fortification made of earth, we shall find 
 it exhibits no greater order in its formation, than 
 necessity in a similar case would suggest to an un 
 cultivated Indian of modern days. If it be a 
 wall of stone, the stones are unbroken as they were 
 taken from the quarry, or rather from the neighboring 
 brook or river. In the works, to which I now allude, 
 we find what we suppose to be garden spots, thrown 
 into ridges and walks with so much judgment, good 
 order, and taste in the arrangement, as to forbid a 
 thought that they were formed by uncivilized man. 
 The plans sent you by no means represent the most 
 striking works. I procured them because the places 
 were near my residence. I can find several acres 
 together, laid out into walks and beds in a style 
 which would not suffer by comparison with any 
 gardens in the United States. These places were 
 not cultivated by the early French emigrants to the 
 country, because 1. They evince a population at 
 least twenty limes greater than the French ever had 
 in any of the regions of the lakes in those early times. 
 In the tract of country in which I have observed 
 them, of one hundred and fifty miles in extent, north 
 
154 NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 and south, from Grand River to the Elksheart, I 
 think the number and extent of these ancient im 
 provements indicate a population nearly or quite 
 equal to that of Indiana. 9. The early French es 
 tablishments were generally made on navigable 
 streams. But these improvements are spread over 
 the whole country. Scarcely a fertile prairie is 
 found on the margin of which we do not observe 
 these evidences of civilization. 3. These works were 
 abandoned by their proprietors long before the 
 country became known to the Europeans. The 
 timber standing, falling and decaying, on these cul 
 tivated spots, has precisely the same appearance in 
 respect to age as that immediately adjoining. On a 
 cluster of those beds, a plan of which I send you, I 
 cut down a white oak tree which measured throe 
 feet two inches in diamater, two and a half feet above 
 the ground, and which was three hundred and 
 t wen ty-five years old, if the real age of a tree is in 
 dicated by the number of its concentric circles. 
 From the indications yet remaining, it is certain that 
 most of these works have disappeared. We find 
 none in the beech, ash or walnut land, because here 
 the earth is loose and mellow to the surface, and not 
 bound with grass. We find them rarely in the prai 
 ries far from the timber, because the places of which 
 I speak have been, as I suppose, not fields but gar 
 dens convenient to dwelling-houses, which were 
 probably placed in the vicinity of the timber for the 
 same reasons which induce our present settlers to 
 select similar sites for their residence. In what we 
 call barrens, adjoining prairies, the surface of tho 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 155 
 
 earth is bound by the grass, in the same manner as 
 that of the prairie itself, and by that means the 
 ridges are preserved. And notwithstanding the 
 causes which are in daily operation to destroy these 
 works, I am confident I have seen acres of them 
 which will last for centuries, if assailed by no other 
 hand than that of nature. The Indians of Grand 
 River informed me that those appearances are found 
 on all the waters of that river, and that they extend 
 south upon all the waters of the Kekalimazoo. A 
 few are found near Michillimackinac. To use their 
 expression, "the country is full of them." The Indian 
 tradition on this subject, is, that these places were 
 cultivated by a race of men, whom they denominate 
 Prairie Indians, and that they were driven from the 
 country by the united tribes of Chippewas, Ottawas, 
 and Pottawatomies, The few who survived the 
 calamities of war, went westward, and some may 
 even yet exist beyond the Mississippi. But not the 
 smallest reliance can be placed on any Indian tra- 
 diliou relating to a remote period. " 
 
 Note (6) Page 29. 
 
 A single passage illustrative of the character of * 
 this departed people, may be worth extracting from 
 an article in Silliman s Journal for 1834, entitled, 
 " Ten Days in Ohio, from the Diary of a Natural- 
 iat" 
 
 Speaking of Circleville and its ancient works, he 
 
156 ; . NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 eays, " a street has been opened across the little 
 mound which covered the hill, and in removing the 
 earth many skeletons were found in good preserva 
 tion: A cranium of one of these was in my pos 
 session, and is a noble specimen of the race which 
 once occupied these ancient walls. It has a high 
 forehead and large bold features, with all the phre 
 nological marks of daring and bravery ." 
 
 Considerable discussion has arisen as to the size 
 of the builders of the mounds ; some contending 
 that they were a nation of giants, while others as 
 strenuously argue that they were a race of dwarfs. 
 In this dilemma I have chosen to adopt a middle 
 course and to represent them as mere men. To en 
 lighten the reader, however, as to the state of the 
 question, the following extracts are furnished, the 
 first from Timothy Flint s able work, " Recollec 
 tions of the Valley of the Mississippi." 
 
 " The more the subject of the past races of men 
 and animals in this region is investigated, the more 
 perplexed it seems to become. The huge bones of 
 the animals indicate them to be vastly larger than 
 any that now exist on the earth. All that I have 
 seen and heard of the remains of the men would 
 seem to show that they were smaller than the men 
 of our times. All the bodies that have been found 
 in that state of high preservation, in which they 
 were discovered in nitrous caves, were considera 
 bly smaller than the present ordinary stature of 
 men. The two bodies that were found in the vast 
 limestone cavern in Tennessee, one of which I 
 saw at Lexington, were neither of them more than 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 157 
 
 four feet in height. It seemed to roe that this must 
 have been nearly the height of the living person. 
 The teeth and nails did not seem to indicate the 
 shrinking of the flesh from them in the desicating 
 process hy which they were preserved. "The teeth 
 were separated by considerable intervals, and were 
 small, long, white and short, reviving the horribla 
 images of nursery tales of ogres teeth. The hair 
 seemed to have been sandy or inclining to yellow. 
 It is well known that nothing is so uniform in the 
 present Indian as his long black hair. From tha 
 pains taken to preserve the bodies, and the great 
 labor of making the funeral rol>es in which they 
 were folded, they must have been of the " blood 
 royal,! or personages of great consideration in their 
 day. Th e person that I saw had evidently died by 
 a blow on the skull. The blood had coagulated 
 there into a mass of texture and color sufficiently 
 marked to show that it had been blood. The en 
 velope of the body was double. Two splendid 
 blankets completely woven with the most beautiful 
 feathers of the wild turkey arranged in regular 
 Stripes and compartments encircled it. The cloth 
 on which these feathers were woven, was a kind of 
 linen of neat texture, of the same kind with that 
 which is now woven from the fibres of the nettle. 
 The body was evidently that of a female of middle 
 age, and I should suppose that her majesty weighed 
 when I saw her six or eight pounds. At the time 
 that the Lilliputian graves were found on the Mau- 
 mee in the county of St. Louis, many people went 
 from that town to satisfy their curiosity by inspect- 
 U 
 
158 NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 ing them. I made arrangements to go, but wad 
 called away by indispensable duties. I relate them 
 from memory only, and from the narrative oral and 
 printed of the Rev. Mr. Peck, who examined them 
 on the spot. It appears from him that the graves 
 were numerous, that the coffins were of stone, that 
 the bones in some instances were nearly entire ; 
 that the length of the bodies was determined by 
 that of the coffins which they filled, and that the 
 bodies in general could not have been more than 
 from three feet and a half to four feet in length. 
 Thus it Mhould scorn that the generations of the past 
 in this region were mammoths and pigmies." 
 
 In " Travels in America, performed in 1806, forthe 
 purpose of exploring the Rivers Allegheny, Monon- 
 gahelu, Ohio, and Mississippi, and ascertaining the 
 produce and condition of their hnriks and vicinity, 
 by Thomas Ashu," th reader will find the opposite 
 opinion, with rnuny other curious matters, n-i forth. 
 The author, after describing with great particularity 
 his labors near Fort Ilarrncr in Ohio, says, " I ctime 
 to ft substance! which on tho most critical examination 
 I judged to be a mat or mats in u state of entire do* 
 composition and decay. 1 took up the impalpable 
 powder in my hands and fanned off the remaining 
 dust with my hat. There existed under my feet a 
 beautiful tasselated pavement of small colored stones, 
 the color and stones arranged in such a manner as to 
 express harmony and shades, and to portray the full 
 length figure of a warrior under whose feet a 
 snake was exhibited in ample folds. No part of 
 the pavement was exactly of tho tasselate character 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 159 
 
 except the space between the outline of the figures 
 and the sides and ends of the entire space. Little 
 more than the actual pavement could be preserved ; 
 it is composed of flat stones one inch deep, two 
 inches square, and the prevailing colors are white, 
 green, dark blue and pale spotted red ; all of which 
 are peculiar to the lakes, and are not to be had 
 nearer. They are evidently known and filled with 
 a precision which proves them to have been but from 
 ono common example. The whole was affixed 
 with a thin layer of sand which covered a large 
 piece of beech bark in great decay, whose removal 
 exposed what I was fully prepared to discover 
 from all the previous indications, the remains of a 
 human skeleton of uncommon magnitude extended 
 in a bark shell, which also contained, 1st An earth 
 en urn or rather pot of earthen ware, in which were 
 several small broken bones and some white sedi 
 ment. The urn appears to be made of sand and 
 flint vitrified, rings like a rummer glass, holds about 
 two gallons, has a top or cover of the same material, 
 resists fire as completely as iron or brass ; 2d. A 
 stone hatchet with a groove round the pole, by which 
 it was fastened with a withe to the handle ; 3d. 
 Twenty-four arrow points made of flint and bone, 
 and lying in a position which betrayed their having 
 belonged to a quiver ; 4th. A quantity of beads, 
 round, oval, and square; colored green, black, 
 white, blue and yellow ; 5th. A conch shell decom 
 posed into a substance like chalk. This shell is 
 fourteen inches long and twenty-three in circum 
 ference ; 6th. Under a heap of dust and turnout 
 
160 NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 shreds of feathered cloth and hair, a parcel of bra* 
 tings cut by an art unknown to me, out of a solid 
 piece of that metal, and in such 8 manner that the 
 rings are suspended from each other without the 
 aid of solder or any visible agency whatever. 
 
 Of the skeleton I have preserved a small part of 
 the vertebral column, a portion of the skull, a part 
 of the under jaw, &c. 
 
 Judging from comparison and analogy, the being 
 to whom these remains belonged, could not have 
 been less than seven feet high. That he was a 
 king, sachem, or chief of a very remote period, 
 there can be no manner of doubt." 
 
 Note (7) Page Sfc 
 
 A letter from Dr. S. P. Hildreth, dated Jury Id, 
 1819, gives some account of the opening of a tumu 
 lus at Marietta, and the various remains of antiquity 
 which it contained. 
 
 " In removing the earth which composed an an 
 cient mound in. one of the streets of Marietta, on 
 the margin of the plain, near the fortifications, 
 several curious articles were discovered, the latter 
 part of June last. They appear to have been buried 
 with the body of the person to whose memory this 
 mound was erected. Lying immediately over, or on 
 the forehead of the body, were found three large cir 
 cular bosses, or ornaments for a sword-belt or a buck 
 ler; they are composed of copper, overlaid with a thick 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 161 
 
 plate of silver. The fronts of them are slightly con 
 vex, with a depression like a cup in the centre, and 
 measure two inches and a quarter across the face of 
 each. On the back side, opposite the depressed 
 portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are 
 two separate plates by which they were fastened to 
 the leather. Two small pieces of the leather were 
 found lying between the platen of one of the bosses; 
 they resemble the skin of an old mummy, and seem 
 to have been preserved by the salts of the copper. 
 The plates of copper are nearly reduced to an 
 oxyde or rust. The silver looks quite black, but is 
 not much corroded, and on rubbing it becomes quite 
 brilliant. Two of these are yet entire : the third 
 one is so much wasted, that it dropped in pieces on 
 removing it from the earth. Around the rivet of 
 one of them is a small quantity of flax or hemp, in 
 a tolerable state of preservation. Near the side of 
 the body was found a plate of silver, which appears 
 to have been the upper part of a sword scabbard ; 
 it is six inches in length and two inches in breadth, 
 and weighs one ounce ; it has no ornaments or 
 figures, but has three longitudinal ridges, which 
 probably correspond with edges or ridges of the 
 sword : it seems to have been fastened to the scab* 
 bard by three or four rivets, the holes of which yet 
 remain in the silver. Two or three broken pieces 
 of a copper tube were also found, filled with iron 
 rust These pieces, from their appearance, com 
 posed the lower end of the scabbard, near the point 
 of the sword. No sign of the sword itself wa* 
 
168 NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 
 
 discovered, except the appearance of rust above 
 
 mentioned." * 
 
 A second, communication from- the same gentle 
 man, to the President of the American Antiquarian 
 Society, will furnish evidence as to the armor and 
 weapons mentioned in the text : 
 
 41 In addition to the articles found at Marietta, 
 I have procured, from a mound on the Little Mus- 
 klngum, about four miles from Marietta, some pieces 
 of copper, which appear to have been the front pan 
 of a helmet. It was originally about eight inches 
 long and four broad, and has marks of having been 
 attached to leather ; it is much decayed, and is now 
 
 i thin plate. : I have been told by an eye 
 
 witness, that a few years ago, near Blacksburgh, in 
 Virginia, eighty miles from Marietta, there was 
 found about half of a steel bow, which, when entire., 
 would measure five or six feet ; the other part was 
 corroded or broken. The father of the man who 
 found it was a blacksmith, and worked up this cu 
 rious relic, I suppose, with as little remorse as Ke 
 would an old gun barrel. * 
 
 Note (8) Page 40. 
 
 The author has taken the liberty of transferring* 
 an Indian tradition to the credit of their predeces- 
 tore, the Mound-builders. From what source this 
 tradition, recited below, was derived ; whether it 
 was the creation purely of a wild and barbarous 
 
NOTES TO PART FIRST. 163 
 
 imagination, or whether it came into their possession 
 from some contact with the Mound-building race, 
 the links of which are now entirely lost, are ques 
 tions that have passed beyond answer from philoso 
 phy or conjecture. 
 
 " Some of the Upper Crees, a tribe who inhabit 
 the country in the vicinity of the Athabasca river, 
 have a curious tradition with respect to animals 
 which they state formerly frequented the mountains, 
 They allege that these animals were of frightful 
 magnitude, being from two to three hundred feet in 
 length, and high in proportion j that they formerly 
 lived in the plains a great distance to the eastward ; 
 from which they were gradually driven by the In 
 dians to the Rocky Mountains ; that they destroyed 
 all smaller animals ; and if iheir agility was equal 
 to their size, would have also destroyed all the na- , 
 tives, &c. One man has asserted that his grand 
 father told him he saw one of those animals in a 
 mountain pass, where he was hunting, and that on 
 hearing its roar, which he compared to loud thun 
 der, the sight almost left his eyes, and his heart be 
 came as small as an infant s." Advcnturet on the 
 Columbia River c by Ross Cox. 
 
 Jefferson, in his " Notes on Virginia," has also- 
 attributed a similar legend to the Delawares : 
 
 " During the Revolution, a delegation of warriors 
 from the Delaware tribe, told the governor of Vir 
 ginia that it was a tradition handed down from their 
 fathers, that in ancient times a herd of these tre 
 mendous animals came to Big-Bone Licks, and 
 began an universal destruction of the bear, deer, 
 
164 NOTES TO PART FIRST. 
 
 elk, buffaloes, and other animals, which had been 
 created for the use of the Indians ; that the Great 
 Man above, looking down and seeing this, was BO 
 enraged that he seized his lightning, descended on 
 the earth, seated himself on a neighboring mountain, 
 on a rock, of which his seat and the print of his 
 feet are still to be seen, and hurled his bolts among 
 them, till the whole were slaughtered except the 
 big bull, who, presenting his forehead to the shafts, 
 shook them off as they fell, but missing one, at 
 length, it wounded him in the side ; whereon, 
 springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, over 
 the Wabash, the Illinois, and finally over the great 
 lakes, where he is living at this day." 
 

 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 Note (1) Page 100, 
 
 SHOULD any unlucky doubt disturb the reader s 
 belief in the incident of Bokulla and the hawk, he is 
 referred to the 8th chapter of Ross Cox s " Adven 
 tures on the Columbia River." The following should 
 properly have been introduced as a note to page 81. 
 The most curious work that has appeared since Bur 
 ton s "Anatomie of Melancholy" is, I suspect, "Ameri 
 can Antiquities and Discoveries in the West," by Jo- 
 siah Priest. It is an entire eagle s flight beyond any 
 tract, pamphlet or octwo, that has ever hovered 
 over the mounds and memorials of the Far West. 
 The book is in truth a perfect fac simile of the West 
 itself, where a thigh-bone nudges a piece of potte 
 ry; a mummy stands sentinel over a rusty piece of 
 copper; and a whole range of robust fortifications 
 is laid deep and piled high to defend nothing ! 
 If there is any single topic of which this book does 
 not treat, we are ao unfortunate as not to have form 
 ed an acquaintance with the subject or science to 
 
166 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 which it belongs. Nothing is beyond the reach 
 of Mr. Priest * liberal and comprehensive sympa 
 thies : He starts by establishing the location of 
 Mount Ararat, and indulging in sundry shrewd and 
 piercing conjectures as to the signification of Shem, 
 Ham and Japhet ; the tumultuous times of Noah s 
 grandson, Peleg, then come in for a share of com 
 ment, and the ten lost tribes what book, treating 
 of America, could be perfect without the genealogy 
 of these vagrant Jewish gentlemen ? next put in 
 an appearance. Then follow chapters on Welch 
 discoveries, huge Mexican mounds, the state of 
 antediluvian scholarship, on draining, cannibalism, 
 and the Lord knows what else ! all rushing to 
 gether, without order or guidance, like a drove of 
 unhaltered mules. To do Mr. Priest justice, 
 however, (and every man who labors in the great 
 field of tho West is entitled to some portion of ho 
 nor) be has accumulated in this book a large amount 
 of very curious information. He, for instance, in 
 troduces a story like the following :- 
 
 11 During the last year, 1832, a Mr. Ferguson 
 communicated to tho editor of the Christian Advo 
 cate and Journal, a discovery, which he examined 
 and described as follows : On a mountain, called 
 the Lookout Mountain, belonging to the vast Alle- 
 ghanian chain, running between the Tennessee and 
 Coos rivers, rising about one thousand feet above 
 the level of the surrounding valley. The top of the 
 mountain is mostly level, but presents to the eye an 
 almost barren waste. On this range, notwithstand 
 ing its height, a river has its source, which, after 
 
NOTES TO iART SECOND. 167 
 
 traversing for about seventy miles, plunges over a! 
 precipice. The rock, from which the water falls, is 
 circular, and juts over considerably. Immediately 
 below the fall, on each side of the river, are bluffs, 
 which rise two hundred feet. Around one of these 
 bluffs the river makes a bend, which gives it the form 
 of a peninsula. On the top of this are the remains 
 of what is esteemed fortifications, which consist of a 
 stone wall built on the very brow of this tremendous 
 ledge. The whole length of the wall, following the 
 varying courses of the brink of this precipice, is 
 thirty-seven rods and eight feet, including about two 
 acres of ground, 1 The only descent from this place 
 is between two rocks, for about thirty feet, when 
 a bench of the ledge presents itself, from two to five 
 feet in width, arid ninety feet long, This bench is 
 the only road or path up from tho water s edge to 
 the summit. But just at the foot of the two rocks, 
 where they reach this pnth, and within thirty feet of 
 the top of the rock, are five rooms, which have been 
 formed by dint of labor. The entrance to these 
 rooms is very small, but when within, they are found 
 to communicate with each other, by doors or aper 
 tures, Mr. Ferguson thinks them to have been con 
 structed during some dreadful war, and those who 
 constructed them to huve acted on the defensive; 
 and believes that twenty men could have withstood 
 the whole army of Xerxes, as it was impossible for 
 more than one to pass at a time; and might by the 
 slightest push be hurled at least a hundred and fifty 
 feet down the rocks. The reader/ concludes Mr. 
 Priest, can indulge his own conjectures, whether 
 
168 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 in the construction of this inaccessible fortress, he 
 does not perceive the remnant of a tribe or nation, 
 acquainted with the arts of excavation and defence ; 
 making a last struggle against the invasion of an 
 overwhelming foe ; where it is likely they were re 
 duced hy famine, and perished amid the yells of their 
 enemies." Pp. 176, 177. 
 
 While on the subject of these ancient fortifica 
 tions again, I may as well quote an additional au 
 thority : " A Journal through the Western Coun 
 try in the summer of 1816, by David Thomas i Au 
 burn, 1819." In describing the celebrated remains 
 at Circleville, Mr. Thomas says, (p. 94,) 1 have no 
 ticed the circular enclosure which has shaped the 
 town. There is also a square enclosure that touches 
 it on the east. But though these are stated to be 
 equal in area, the difference of figure is riot greater 
 than the mode of construction. The circle is form 
 ed of two banks which are separated by a ditch or 
 fosse, about 30 feet wide at the natural surface of 
 the ground, but CO feel from the top of one bank to 
 the other, Much of the fosse doubtless has been 
 filled from the banks in the lapse of ages, but even at 
 this day, a great excavation is visible. The square 
 on the reverse haw no ditch. The bank is about 30 
 feet wide at the base, 12 feet high, and sufficiently 
 broad on the summit for a wagon road. It is a stu 
 pendous work, and yet the whole mass appears to 
 have been carried hither from a distance. This is 
 evident in respect to the north and south sides, 
 which are formed of clay resting on a gravelly sod ; 
 and near the west bank, which is composed of the 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 169 
 
 latter material, I saw no excavation from winch it 
 could have been taken. Near the north-west cor 
 ner a swale or draught for water in heavy rains ap 
 pears both on the inside and outside of the wall, and 
 proves that it eould not have been gathered from the 
 adjacent surface of the ground. It is a great singu 
 larity that these materials should have been kept 
 separate and distinct. At the corners each kind 
 terminates ; and the inner bank of the circular fort 
 is clay, but the outer is gravel. Doubtless the lat 
 ter was thrown from the ditch, and a stratum of clay 
 may have supplied the other; but it is questionable 
 whether the excavation yielded earth sufficient for 
 both banks." Our author remarks, that if, as is pro 
 bable, thcso fortifications were high enough to guard 
 the entrance from missile weapons, a great depres* 
 sion must have taken place. He states that the area 
 enclosed was variously estimated from 5 to 19 acres. 
 The east and west sides of the square, being 17 
 to the right of the meridian. Hence, some suppose 
 that they were acquainted with the polarity of the 
 magnet; that by it the square was drawn, and that 
 the time can be calculated by its variation. The 
 small quantities of iron found in the mounds evin 
 ces that this people were not acquainted with its 
 manufacture. No glass or substance like it has been 
 found. The magnetic period, if calculated at 1000 
 years, which is twice aa great as is probable, would 
 not give the result within one such period. This 
 mound when discovered was overshadowed with a 
 forest Considerable of the north and south walls 
 has been converted into brick. In a note to the 
 15 
 
170 NOTES VO tJLKT BECOftB. 
 
 passage, of which the substance has been above 
 given, Mr. Thomas discusses the vexed question of 
 the original peopling of this country at great length 
 and with much ability. He states that the compara 
 tive size of various remains is not, as Dr. Drake 
 ii*po5cs, an index to their origin, for many of 
 these fortifications were destroyed in their progres* 
 sive state. He combats the opinion of Atwater, that 
 the Mound-builders first settled, subsequently to the 
 Indians, in the North ; that the latter settled in the 
 Atlantic coast, and that the Mound-builders, on their 
 emigration thither, were BO pressed by the Indian* 
 that they followed tho water courses to the south, 
 and thence migrated to Mexico and Peru. Ho 
 thinks the assertion of Dr. Drake, that the mounds 
 decrease in size, beauty and regularity, in a ratio 
 corresponding directly to the distance from Mexico, 
 and that the fact that the peccary, (the Mexican 
 hog), an animal only known there, has been found 
 in a cave in Kentucky, is evidence that a Mexican 
 colony inhabited Ohio and the West. " The fortifi 
 cations at Circleville and at other places, evince a 
 population not only too numerous to be supplied 
 with food from the forest, but too laborious to be 
 engaged in such uncertain pursuits, and on what 
 did they subsist becomes the question. Nothing of 
 this part of their story is known. None of our t- 
 digenous vegetables, seem well adapted to supply 
 their wants ; and as the regions, which they inhabit 
 ed, were all favorable to the production of the In 
 dian corn, it is no improbable conjecture that this 
 grain vas their staff* of life." 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 171 
 
 Persons disposed to visit ancient fortifications 
 may find remains at the following places : 
 
 1. About two miles southeasterly from Aurora, a 
 triangular area of one or two acres is protected on 
 two sides by precipitous banks, and on the other by 
 two ditches. Bones of animals and fragments of 
 ancient earthenware are found in beds of ashes. 
 
 2. On tho hill south of Auburn, also a circular 
 ditch enclosing about two acres, one and a quarter 
 miles N. N. E. of Auburn. The only opening or 
 gateway appears in the side adjacent to a spring, 
 and is formed by extending one end of the ditch 
 beyond the other. This simple contrivance render 
 ed such mounds as those of Circleville unnecessary. 
 No vestige of iron has been discovered, although 
 fragments of earthenware are numerous. 
 
 3. On the west of the Seneca River, N. W. from 
 Montezuma. On the east shore near this village a 
 email mound appears. 
 
 4. We also learn that considerable fortifications 
 are visible near Black Hirer, between Brownsville 
 and La Roy, 
 
 Note (2) p. 118. 
 
 I am not sure that I can conclude the notes on the 
 Mastodon better than by furnishing the reader a 
 nummary of information relating to that vast crea 
 ture, made up of facts and discoveries, as well at 
 tradition and conjecture, partly gathered from a 
 valuable note to De Witt Clinton s Discourse be* 
 
172 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 fore tbe Lit. and Phil. Society of Una city, and part 
 ly prepared from other sources. 
 
 " Tbe traditions of the Indians/ says Clinton 
 in the authority alluded to, which is a dissertation 
 rather than a note, and the speculations of philoso 
 phers respecting this enormous animal have been 
 various, and, perhaps on the whole, unsatisfactory. 
 It is certain that the Indians had some notions re 
 specting the mammoth, which they might have de 
 rived from tradition, or, after seeing its remains, 
 they might have invented the fables which exist 
 Charlevois, in his voyage to North America, (vol. I.), 
 says, * There is also a very diverting tradition 
 among the Indians, of a great elk of such monstroin. 
 size that the rest are like pismires in comparison 
 of him ; bis legs, they say, are so long that eight feet 
 of snow are not the least encumbrance to him ; his 
 hide is proof against all manner of weapons, and he 
 has a sort of arm proceeding from his shoulder, which 
 he uses as we do ours. He is always attended Jby 
 a vast number of elks, which form his court, and 
 which render him all the services he requires. This 
 description, respecting the arm, appears like the 
 proboscis of an elephant. Kalm, who travelled in 
 this country in 1749, says, some years ago a skele 
 ton of an amazing great animal has been found in 
 that part of Canada where the Illinois livo on the 
 river Ohio. The Indians were surprised at the sight 
 of it ; and when they were asked what they thought 
 it was, they answered that it must be the chief or 
 father of all the beavers. It was of a prodigious 
 bulk, and had thick white teeth about 10 inches 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 173 
 
 long. It was looked upon as the skeleton of an 
 elephant. A French lieutenant in the fort, who had 
 seen it, assured me that the figure of the whole snout 
 was yet to be seen, though it was half mouldered. 
 He added, that he had not observed that any of the 
 bones were taken away, but thought the skeleton lay 
 quite perfect there. I have heard people talk of 
 this monstrous skeleton in several other parts of 
 Canada. Kalm * Travels, vol. 3. 
 
 In the 20th volume of Silliman s Journal will be 
 found a " Report of Messrs. Cooper, J. A. Smith and 
 De Kay, to tho Lyceum of Nat. History, on a col 
 lection of fossil bones, discovered at Big Bone Lick, 
 Kentucky, in September, 1830, and recently brought 
 to New- York." Tho report is followed with remarks 
 by the editor, which corroborate certain suggestions 
 in the First Part of thig work. " Having (since 
 the above account was received) seen the collection 
 of bones so accurately described above, I cannot re 
 frain from attempting to convey to others something 
 of the impression made upon my own mind, on en 
 tering the room containing this astonishing assom- 
 blage of bones, many of which are of gigantic size. 
 They produce in the beholder the conviction that ra 
 ces of animals formerly existed on this continent, not 
 only of vast magnitude, but which must also have been 
 very numerous ; and tht Mastodon, at least, ranged in 
 herd* over probably the entire American continent. It 
 is stated by the person who exhibits this collection, 
 that the skull and the tusks which it contains, weigh 
 upwards of five hundred pounds; that a pair of 
 tusks now lying in the room and supposed to be- 
 15* 
 
174 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 tang to th same species, weighed six hundred 
 pounds when taken from the ground ; and these are 
 nearly perfect ; and when we regard them as being 
 merely appendages, and sustained by the animal at 
 a great mechanical disadvantage, since they do not 
 like horns rest upon the head, but project from it 
 laterally forward, we can easily imagine that it would 
 require the most powerful muscles to sustain and 
 wield tho entire cranium tusks, muscles and integu 
 ments. We shall be happy to see additional illus 
 trations from the able committee to whom we are in 
 debted for the previous statement of facts. We will, 
 however, venture to mention the extraordinary cur 
 vature of the tusks : those of the elephant we believe 
 are always in the form of a bent bow, but these have 
 almost tho shape of a sickle, with the blade curved to 
 one side ; they are sharp and pointed." 
 
 In the year 1748, M.Fabri, who had mado great 
 excursions into the northern parts of Louisiana and 
 the southern regions of Canada, informed Bufibn 
 that he had seen heads and skeletons of enormous 
 quadrupeds, called by the savages the father of oxen ; 
 and that the thigh bones of the animals were from 
 to 6 feet in length. Buffen s Nat. Hist., trantl. by 
 Smelliq, vol. 9. 
 
 In Siberia a similar animal was supposed to exist 
 under ground, and many fables were related respect 
 ing it, under the Russian name of mammoth. Not 
 withstanding these traditions and reports, the atten 
 tion of the philosophers of Europe was not fully 
 drawn to this subject until 1765, when Mr. George 
 Croghan saw, in the vicinity of a large salt marsh, on 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 175 
 
 the country bordering on the Ohio, immense bonea 
 and teeth, and he sent some of them to England, 
 where they immediately became the subject of specu 
 lation and discussion. Before this similar bones were 
 discovered in the Russian dominions. Dr. Hunter, 
 the celebrated anatomist, from an examination of the 
 teeth, pronounced them to belong to a carnivorous 
 nondescript animal. Daubentun declared at ono 
 time that this animal was an elephant ; and at an 
 other time thought that the teeth were those of an 
 hippopotamus, and conceived that the animal par 
 took of both of these species, and was a real mule. 
 Muller supposed that they belonged to certain un 
 known quadrupeds, denominated maumouts, or 
 mammoths from the Russian name, supposed to have 
 been derived from the Hebrew, Behemoth. Buffon 
 was of opinion, that, independently of the elephant 
 and hippopotamus, whose relics are equally found 
 in the two continents, another animal, common to 
 both, has formerly existed, the size of which has 
 greatly exceeded that of the largest elephants ; and 
 at one period he supposed that it was seven times 
 larger. Pallas believed that the bones found in Si 
 beria were those of the elephant and rhinoceros, and 
 said that those countries, which are now desolated 
 by the rigors of intense cold, have formerly enjoyed 
 all the advantages of the southern latitudes. Gme- 
 lin supposes that vast inundations in the south had 
 driven the elephants to the north, where they would 
 all at once perish by the rigor of the climate. Others 
 are of opinion that the tusk and skeleton belonged 
 to the elephant, and the raolare* to the hippopota- 
 
176 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 mua ; aa the grinders were not those of the former, 
 some thought that they were the bones of the hip* 
 popotamus only ; others of a monster of the ocean. 
 And the Abbe Clavigero says, " that they may from 
 what appears have belonged to giants of the human 
 as well as of any other race." Jefferson asserts that 
 the skeleton of the mammoth bespeaks an animal of 
 five or six times the cubic volume of the elephant, 
 and that, the grinders are five times as large are 
 square, and the grinding surfaces studded with four 
 or five rows of blunt points ; whereas, thoso of the 
 elephant are broad and thin, and their grinding sur 
 face flat." To mention all the hypotheses and fables 
 which this subject has produced, would be useless 
 and consume too much time ; but two or three 
 more are worth stating, on account of their whim 
 sical absurdity. One writer says, that the bones in 
 question are the remains of certain angelic beings, 
 the original tenants of this our terrestrial globe, in 
 its primitive state, till, for their transgressions, both 
 were involved in ruin; after which this shattered 
 planet was refitted for its present inhabitants. 
 Another imagines that at some remote period the 
 places in which these bones were found might 
 have laid in the track of a conqueror unknown to 
 the historians of Europe ; that it might have been 
 the scene of a battle, and the animals in question 
 part of the baggage train destroyed by slaughter or 
 disease, and left, in the hurry of flight, to puzzle and 
 set at defiance generations yet unborn. 
 
 Within a few years abettor opportunity has been 
 afforded of farming just conclusions respecting this 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 177 
 
 animal. Within the extent of a few miles five or 
 ten skeletons have been discovered at the bottom of 
 marl pits in Orange and Ulster counties, and (from 
 the calcareous nature of the substance in which they 
 were deposited) in a high state of preservation. One 
 of these skeletons has been mounted and placed in 
 its natural form and with almost all the bones in 
 Peale s Museum in Philadelphia. 
 
 In 1799, upon the shores of the Frozen ocean, 
 near the mouth of the river Lena, in Siberia, a Ton* 
 gouse chief discovered in the midst of a rock of ice, 
 a substance which did not resemble the floating 
 pieces of wood usually found there ; he endeavored 
 in Tain to ascertain what it was at that time. About 
 the close of the second summer enabled him to know 
 that it was a mammoth ; but he could not succeed 
 in obtaining the tusks of the animal until the end .->f 
 the fifth year, when the ice, which enclosed it, hav 
 ing partly melted, the level became sloped, and this 
 enormous mass, pushed forward by its own weight, fell 
 over upon its side on a sand bank. In March, 1804, 
 the Chief Schoumachoff obtained the tusks and sold 
 them for fifty roubles. In the summer of 1806, Mi 
 chael Adams, a member of the Academy of St. Pe- 
 tersburgh, visited the mammoth in company with 
 the chief, and found it in a very mutilated state. 
 The proprietor was content with the profits he had 
 already derived from it, and the jakouts of tho 
 neighborhood tore off the flesh with which they fed 
 their dogs. Ferocious animals, white bears of tho 
 north pole, gluttons, wolves, and foxes preyed upon 
 it also, and their burrows were seen in the neighbor* 
 
178 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 hood. The skeleton, almost completely unfleshed, 
 was entire, with the exception of one of the fore* 
 feet The spindyle from the head to the os coccygis, 
 a shoulder blade, the pelvis, and the remains of the 
 three extremities were still tightly attached by the 
 ligaments of the joints and by strips of skin on the 
 exterior side of the carcass. The head was covered 
 with a dry skin ; one of the ears, well preserved, was 
 furnished with a tuft of bristles. The eyes were 
 also preserved, and the ball of the left eye could be 
 distinguished. The tip of the under lip had been 
 eaten away, and the upper part being destroyed ex 
 hibited the teeth. The brain was still in the crani 
 um, but it appeared dry. The parts least damaged 
 were a forefoot and a hind one covered with skin 
 and having the sole attached. See an account 
 of a Journey to the Frozen seas, and the dis 
 covery of the remains of a mammoth/ by Michael 
 Adams, of St. Petersburg!!, in the 29th vol. of 
 Tillock s Philosophical Magazine, and Cuvier s 
 Essay on the Theory of Earth, transl. by Jameson. 
 The mammoth of New- York, although bearing 
 some general resemblance to the elephant, differs 
 from it in the general figure ; in the tusks, forma* 
 tion of the head, prominence and pointedness of the 
 back oyer the shoulders, its great descent thence 
 from the hips, together with the comparative small- 
 ness of the body j there are proofs of greater ac 
 tivity also in the structure of the thigh-bones and 
 the formation of the ribs, which are peculiar and in 
 dicative of greater strength ; it also differs in the 
 magnitude of the spines of the back ; the proper- 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 179 
 
 tionate length of the processes from the spine of the 
 scapula ; the thickness and strength of all the bones, 
 particularly of the limbs 5 the leth> which are of 
 the carnivorous kind ; its under jaw, which is dis 
 tinctly angular, instead of being semi-circular, as in 
 the elephant, besides several other striking distinc* 
 tions. There can be little doubt but that it is at 
 least specifically distinct from the elephant. Ph ilo* 
 tojphical Magazine, Peak s account, vol. 14. 
 
 From the size of the head, the thickness and 
 solidity of the teeth, and the enormous magnitude 
 of the tusks, we can at once perceive that the neck 
 of the animal must of necessity have been short, in 
 order to sustain so great a weight. These circum 
 stances, considered in connection with the length of 
 the limbs presently to be described, clearly indicates 
 that the Mastodon, like the Elephant, had a long and 
 flexible trunk for the purpose of conveying its ali 
 ment to the mouth ; the shortness of the neck and 
 the projection and curvature of the tusks, would 
 equally have prevented the approach of the mouth 
 to the ground. Godman s Nat. Hist. 
 
 The examination of the Asiatic Mammoth has 
 also settled the question as to its identity with the* 
 American. They are considered as specifically if 
 not generically different. Blumenbach has termed 
 the Asiatic mammoth, elephas primaevus or primo- 
 genus, and the American mammoth the elephas 
 Americanos. Covier calls it the mastodontus, 
 which name has been adopted by Dr. Barton. In 
 the memoirs of the National Institute, Cuvier de 
 scribes the former, elephas mammonteus, maxilla 
 
180 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 obtusiore, lamellis molarium tenuibus rectia j and 
 the latter be characterizes as follows: Elepbas 
 Arnericanus, molaribus raulti-cuspidibus, lamellis 
 post detritionem quadrilobatis. In his opinion* 
 neither of them are the same as the existing ele 
 phant, and he considers them as extinct. Sci^tf** 
 Fhya. tt Mat. 11. 
 
 Dr. Barton, of Philadelphia, is of opinion that the 
 animal described by Adams, although different from 
 the Ohio animal, has a great and striking affinity to 
 it. He believes there is a much greater affinity be 
 tween the Asiatic mammoth and the existing Asiatic 
 elephant, than between either of them and the Ohio 
 or American mammoth ; yet there are several other 
 characters in which the resemblance is much closer 
 between the Ohio animal and the Asiatic mammoth, 
 than between the latter and the Asiatic elephant, 
 and that one of these characters consists in the great 
 resemblance of the incisores, tusks or horns. Dr. 
 Barton is further of opinion that the Asiatic mam 
 moth has been discovered in different parts of the 
 United States, and that a branch of the Susquehan- 
 nah receives its name of Chemung from the incisores 
 of one of these animals. Port Folio, vol. 4, Bar 
 ton s Ittt^r to Je/erton. 
 
 Governor Pownall, in a paper published in the 
 Philosophical Magazine, vol. 14, after having view 
 ed the skeleton of the New- York mammoth, exhi 
 bited by Mr. Peale in London, is of opinion that it 
 was a marine animal from the following circum 
 stances : 
 
 1. Its being carnivorous, and its enormous bulk 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 181 
 
 would therefore require a supply of animal food 
 from the earth which it could not get, and which 
 could only be found in the abundance of tho waters. 
 
 2. He thinks there are parts in the debris of the 
 skull which have some comparative resemblance to 
 the whnle as to the purpose of breathing under wa 
 ter ; that the width of the jaws is similar to that of 
 fish ; and that the ribs more similar to those of fish 
 than to those of terrestrial animals, are, by their con 
 struction and position, ordained to resist a more 
 forcible external compression than the atmosphere 
 creates. 
 
 3. That the neck is so short that the animal could 
 not reach the ground with its mouth, the line from 
 the withers to the end of the under jaw being about 
 one third of the line from the withers to the ground. 
 
 Mr. Peale says that there are many reasons to V 
 suppose that he was of an amphibious nature, and is ^ 
 decidedly of opinion that he lived entirely on flesh 
 or fish. 
 
 While some may be willing to concur with 
 Mr. Peale as to its amphibious nature, few will 
 agree with Pownall in its being an aquatic animal. 
 The shortness of its neck might have been supplied 
 by a trunk. The poir.ts, wherein it resembles in its 
 formation certain fish, are only indicative of ama 
 zing strength ; and there is no strong objection to 
 believe that it was also gramnivorous, and drew its 
 supplies from the vegetable as well as the animal 
 kingdom. 
 
 Upon the whole, we may, with considerable 
 fidence, come to the following conclusion* : 
 16 
 
182 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 1. That the Asiatic and African living elephants 
 and Siberian mammoth are specifically distinct. 
 
 2. That the New- York, Ohio or American mam 
 moth is specifically if not generally different from 
 them. . 
 
 3. That it was carnivorous, and lived upon the 
 land. 
 
 4. That it may have also been gramnivorous, or 
 omnivorous and amphibious. 
 
 6. And lastly, that it is extinct. 
 
 Extract from a letter ofSttvanus Miller to De Witt 
 
 Clinton: 
 
 " The first disco wy of these fossils was made in 
 the town^of Montgomery, in the county of Orange, 
 by Rev. Mr. Annin. The place of discovery was in 
 a sunken and miry meadow, in digging a ditch to 
 carry off the excess of water. Several of the harder 
 parts or bones of the mammoth skeleton were dis 
 covered ; these were the ribs, two teeth (grinders) 
 and parts of the thigh bone ; the teeth and ribs were 
 in a very sound state, but the others were considera- 
 bly decayed, and an exposure to tho air had such an 
 effect upon them as to render their preservation 
 useless. Subsequent to thut time several scattered 
 remains of skeletons of the same animal have been 
 discovered ; but from carelessness or other causes 
 these have been lost. The speculations of persons 
 who saw these phenomena were various, and in 
 some instances ridiculous, affording no rational im 
 provement to the naturalist. The advancement of 
 agriculture, which began to show itself in the coun- 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 183 
 
 lies of Orange and Ulster at this period, while it en 
 riched the husbandman and beautified the country, 
 was the cause of other discoveries of this nature, 
 which drew the subject before the public, attracted 
 the immediate attention of literary men, and led to 
 the exertions of the enterprising Mr. Peale, of Phila 
 delphia, who procured two skeletons of these non 
 descript animals nearly entire. By the ingenuity 
 and enterprise of this gentleman these hidden trea 
 sures of natural history were brought to public 
 view, to astonish and delight the sons of science- 
 At the time of this discovery it was my lot to be in 
 the vicinity, and to contribute my exertions in tak 
 ing them from their hidden depositories. The parts 
 of these fossils heretofore discovered had excited an 
 interest far short of their importance. The num 
 bers being now increased, and a spirit of inquiry 
 being set on foot, excited a high degree of public in- V 
 terest. The big bones (as they were called) were 
 exposed for show, and persons from various mo 
 tives in great numbers flocked to behold this hither 
 to hidden wonder. * * * * 
 The nature and formation of this mammoth coun 
 try, as well as the particular places where those ani 
 mals were found, may possibly be interesting, and 
 to this object I shall devote a few general remarks. 
 The only fossils of this skeleton which have been 
 discovered, have been found in wet and miry lands 
 in the towns of Montgomery and Shawangunk. The 
 former in Orange and the latter in Ulster county, in 
 this state, distance about SO miles from this city, 
 and 6 to 12 miles from Newburgh on the Hudson 
 
184 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 river, In a western direction from the Hudson 
 river for some 5 or 6 miles, the ground rises gradu 
 ally but perceptibly until you come to the confines 
 of Coldenbam ; the waters running easterly until 
 you arrive here, now take the contrary direction, 
 and turning westerly are disembogued into a con 
 siderable stream, known by the name of the Wall- 
 kill and sometimes the Paltz river. On the high 
 lands at Coldenham you perceive a range of high 
 mountains, known by the name of " Shawangunk 
 mountains," from whence the waters run easterly, 
 and falling into the Wallkill are carried into the 
 Hudson river at the strand near Kingston, in Ulster 
 county, about 112 miles distant from New- York. 
 These mountains on the west, and a ridge of high 
 lands on the east, form a natural valley of very con 
 siderable extent, varying in breadth from 35 in 
 the southern to the northern extremity of 3 miles 
 or thereabout. The formation and nature of this 
 country has nothing to characterize it from other 
 parts of our state in the middle district. The woods 
 and forest trees, the grasses and productions of every 
 kind, are those which are indigenous to various 
 parts of the state and to all adjacent counties. The 
 general formation of this country is smooth, marked 
 by some bills of secondary altitude, is susceptible of 
 yielding every kind of produce cultivated in north 
 ern climates. The immense quantities of what is 
 generally termed Goshen butter, are made in this 
 valley and on the lands between it and the Hudson 
 river, extending from New Cornwall, situate at the 
 northern entrance into, the Highlands, to the poinj 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 185 
 
 of land called the Dause Kaumer, in the town of 
 Maryborough. In all this district of country the 
 pasturage is luxuriant and excellent, and affords 
 a greedy repast for black cattle, sheep, &c. 
 * * 
 
 It will be seen from this succinct account of the 
 country, that whether the mammoth delighted in the 
 fertile plain, in the low and sunken meadow or 
 swamp, or in the lofty and craggy mountains, or in 
 all of them, the variety of the soil.and formation of 
 the country, afford & gratification to all his natural 
 inclinations and propensities. I do not know, how 
 ever, that the marl discovered in abundance in Ul 
 ster and Orange counties has .been found in their 
 neighborhood ; and it is proper to remark, that in 
 these sunken receptacles of vegetable and testaceous 
 solutions, have unifo.-mly been found the bones of 
 the mammoth, Perhaps it may bo said that V 
 in this marl, by its alkaline qualities, have these 1 
 fossils alone been preserved from dissolution and 
 decay. The formation of these has evidently 
 been the work of ages. In many places the body 
 of this manure is thirty feet in depth, over which 
 grass and vegetable plants, common to such grounds, 
 grow in abundance, interspersed with trees of diffe 
 rent kinds. * * 
 Within a circle, the radius of which does not ex- 
 qced six miles, there are several hundred acres of 
 marl. A very small proportion of this has been ex 
 plored or dug to the bottom, where the fossil bones 
 have uniformly been discovered. By the force of 
 their own weight they have naturally aunk through 
 16* 
 
185 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 - 
 
 the soft marl and found rest many feet below on 
 solid and harder ground ; and yet within the peri 
 phery of this circle nine skeletons of these prodi 
 gious animals have been discovered. It may cer 
 tainly be safely computed that not one hundredth 
 part has been explored to the bottom. If then so 
 many have been found in so small a proportion of 
 this mammoth ground, and admitting that there has 
 been great good fortune in falling upon their place 
 of rest, does it not afford a most reasonable hypothe 
 sis to say that there are vast numbers of these na 
 tural curiosities deposited here for future discove 
 ries, and that at some period our country (in this 
 district) was fully inhabited by this stupendous ani 
 mal ; that in numbers they equalled the other beasts 
 of the forest, such as the bear, the wolf, the pan- 
 ther, &c., in the proportions which larger animals 
 bear to the smaller in the order of nature. That 
 they were carnivorous as well as gramnivorous is 
 pretty well authenticated by the formation of their 
 grinders. Indeed, my worthy and learned friend, 
 Dr. James G. Graham, who examined the fossils, 
 went sti]! further ; for the formation of the bones 
 near and belonging to the foot, warranted him, as a 
 professional man, in the belief that this animal had 
 claws, ! 
 
 Dr. Mitchell appears to have struck upon a phi 
 losophical explanation, which is at once bold, and 
 will explain the phenomena. He places these curi 
 osities amongst elephantine relics, occasioned by 
 the change of the axis of the globe 90 at some very 
 remote period. By this hypothesis may be explain- 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 187 
 
 ed the existence of these bones and bodies of ani 
 mals belonging to low and warm latitudes, being 
 found in cold and frozen climates of the earth. That 
 gentleman supposes the ancient equator to have ex 
 tended in the northern hemisphere from the bay of 
 Bengal, near where the mouths of the Ganges are, 
 through Thibet* Tartary and Siberia to the present 
 North Pole, and thence along in North America,* 
 through the tracts west of Hudson s Bay and Lake 
 Superior to the source? of the Mississippi, and thence 
 down to the Gulf of Mexico, near its places of dis-. 
 emboguement, and so onward across New Spain tc* 
 the South Sea. That such was probably the old 
 equatorial line. In corroboration of this gentleman s 
 opinion he truly alleges, that under the ancient equa 
 tor have been found the remains of animals peculiar 
 to warm climates. The bones of the elephant and 
 the rhinoceros are discovered almost all the way\ 
 where he would designate the ancient equator ; tlial ** 
 in colder latitudes the frozen bodies themselves, on 
 the banks of the Genesee and the Lena, and in mass 
 es of ice lying upon the shores of the Asiatic con 
 tinent and thereabouts, have attracted the attention 
 of the naturalist ; that in America the valley of the 
 Mississippi was the place of the former equator, in 
 which direction the fossil skeletons are most fre 
 quent, and that the creatures to whom they belong 
 may be supposed to have perished at the grand ca 
 tastrophe in their proper and natural climates ; that 
 the migration of the human race and the passage of 
 animals from Asia to America, find a solution by this 
 theory of easy and rational comprehension. * * 
 
188 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 It is important to add, that with the discoveries of 
 these skeletons have been found considerable locks 
 and tufts of hair ; having been buried a great length 
 of time in a calcareous substance, it retained its na 
 tural appearance, and was brought to light in a tolera 
 ble state of perfection ; the length was from one and 
 a half to two inches and a half, of a dunnibh brown 
 color. In one instance the hair was much longer, 
 measuring from four to seven inches in length, of the 
 san:e color, and resembling in appearance the short* 
 er, and was conjectured to have been the mane of the 
 mammoth, Whether a discoloration had not taken 
 place from its native appearance must remain a mat 
 ter of conjecture, jlp every instance nn exposure to 
 air caused it to moulder away into a kind of impalpa 
 ble dust. This fact would seem to render it certain 
 that the animal, the relics of whose body were here 
 
 /foutid, appertained to a race totally different from 
 any elephants now known to naturalists." 
 
 To bring down ouv brief on Behemoth to the 
 present moment, we give a paragraph which ap 
 peared in a New-York paper (The Evening Star) of 
 February Sth : 
 
 11 The Bones of the Mastodon at Auction. It would 
 appear that the bones of the head of the American 
 Mastodon, which were, until lately, a desideratum 
 that all zoologists anxiously awaited the discovery 
 of, have been permitted by our learned societies to 
 leave this country. We have now the humiliating 
 consolation to know that these most rare and valua 
 ble relics of this antediluvian monster, have been 
 hawked about the streets of London, until finally 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 180 
 
 knocked down dog-cheap under the hammer of a 
 cockney auctioneer. So much for the love, the ar 
 dor of our scientific association for the. promotion of 
 the study of natural history ! It is discreditable 
 that such precious treasures should have been thus 
 abandoned. We said so at the time ; but it seems 
 there was not spirit enough to keep the bones of 
 our own proud king of the forest among us. It is 
 an enigma we cannot solve, how the idiot of an own 
 er never thought to go to Paris with his osteological 
 speculation. There they are interested in what re 
 lates to our animals, fossils, &c. ; and Cuvier, if 
 alive, would have been in ecstacies to have seen the 
 head of that Mastodon which He christened with this 
 name. The fine cranium with the upper jaw and 
 teeth brought only 100 francs. The head perfect, 
 44 inches long and 23 wide brought, however, 3,822 
 francs, i. e. f near $750, which was not a tenth part 
 of its value ; and that it is probably the only one that 
 has ever been discovered or ever probably may be.. 
 We believe it came from Kentucky. Almost al- 
 ways the head is found wanting, though the teeth 
 and leg bones are remarkably sound. The giant 
 quadruped that bounded over the prairies little 
 dreamed of the destiny that awaited him." 
 
 Note (3) p. 121. 
 
 Without pretending to adopt the opinions or con 
 jectures that follow, I quote them as expressing the- 
 
190 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 views of an eminent man, and as embodying a plausi 
 ble explanation of the settlement of this country. 
 They are quoted from " Priest s Antiquities :" 
 
 " The following is from the pen of the late William 
 Wirt, of Virginia, on the subject of the ancient in 
 habitants of this country : Mr. Flint and other tra 
 vellers and sojourners in the West, state that the 
 impress of the leaves of the bread fruit tree, and the 
 bamboo, have frequently been found in peat-bed and 
 fossil coal formations in the neighborhood of the 
 Ohio. Pebbles of disruption, vast ma ses of lead 
 ore far from the mine, stratified rocks, earth and 
 sand, and specimens of organic animal and vege 
 table remains, belonging to a tropical climate, clearly 
 indicate some important and extensive changes oc- 
 casioned by fire or water in the whole great valley 
 of the Mississippi. Then the regular walls, the 
 bricks, the medals, the implements of iron and cop 
 per, buried in a soil which must have been undis 
 turbed for ages, with the alphabetic characters writ 
 ten on the cl ill s, plainly show that other ruceti of men 
 have existed and passed away. And what a world 
 must that have been, when the mammoth and the 
 megalonyx trod the plains, and monstrous lizards, 
 whose bones are now rescued from the soil, and 
 which must have been at least eighty feet in length, 
 reared their heads from the rivers and the lakes 1 
 
 The mighty remains of the past, to which we have 
 alluded, indicate the existence of three distinct races 
 of men, previous to the arrival of the white settlers. 
 The monuments of the first or primitive race, are 
 regular stone walls, well stoned up, brick hearths, 
 
NOTES TO PART SECOND. 191 
 
 found in digging the Louisville canal, medals of cop 
 per, and silver swords, and other implements of 
 iron. Mr. Flint assures us that ho has seen v .hese 
 strange ancient swords. He has also examined a 
 small iron shoe, like a horse shoe, encrusted with 
 the rust of ages, and found far below the soil, and the 
 copper axe weighing about two pounds, singularly 
 tempered and of peculiar construction. These re 
 lics, he thinks, belonged to a race of civilized men, 
 who must have disappeared many centuries ago. To 
 this race he attributes the hieroglyphic character* 
 found on the limestone bluffs; the remains of cities 
 and fortifications of Florida; the regular banks of 
 
 ancient live oaks near them, and the bricks found at 
 
 \f 
 
 Louisville, nineteen feet below the surface, in regu 
 lar hearths, with the coals of the last domestic fire 
 upon them. These bricks were hard and regular, 
 and longer in proportion to their width than those \ 
 of the present day. \ 
 
 To the second race of beings are attributed the 
 vast mounds of earth, found throughout the whole 
 western region, from Lake Erie and west Pennsyl 
 vania to Florida and the Rocky Mountains. Some 
 of them contain skeletons of human beings, and dis 
 play immense labor. Many of them are regular 
 mathematical figures parallelograms and sections 
 of circles, showing the remains of gateways and sub 
 terranean passages. Some of them are eighty feet 
 high, and have trees grown on them apparently of 
 the age of five hundred years. They are generally 
 of a soil differing from that which surrounds them, 
 and they are most common in situations where it 
 
192 NOTES TO PART SECOND. 
 
 since has been found convenient to build towns and 
 cities* One of these mounds was levelled in the 
 centre of Chilicothe, and cart loads of human bones 
 removed from it. Another may be seen in Cincin 
 nati, in which a thin circular piece of gold, alloyed 
 with copper, was found last year. Another in St. 
 Louis, called tho falling garden, is pointed out to 
 strangers as a great curiosity. Many fragments of 
 earthenware, some of curious workmanship, have 
 been dug throughout this vast region. Some re 
 presented drinking vessels, some human heads, and 
 tome idols. They all appear to be moulded by the 
 hand and hardened in the sun. These mounds and 
 earthen implements Jmlicuto a race inferior to the 
 first, which was acquainted with the use of iron. 
 
 The third race are the Indians, now existing in 
 the western territories, In the profound silence and 
 / solitude of these western regions, and above the 
 bones of a buried world, how must a philosophic tra 
 veller meditate upon the transitory slate of human 
 existence, when tho only traces of the beings of two 
 races of men are these strange memorials ! On this 
 very spot, generation after generation has stood, has 
 lived, has warred, grown old, and passed away ; and 
 not only their names, but their nation, their lan 
 guage, has perished, and utter oblivion has closed 
 over their once populous abodes! We call this 
 country the New World. It is old ! Age after age, 
 and one physical revolution after another, has passed 
 over it, but who shall tell its history 1" 
 
 THE END. 
 
J. & H. G. LANGLEY 
 
 Have recently published, 
 
 THE MOTLEY BOOK, 
 
 BY THE LATE BEN. SMITH; 
 With Ten Illustrations, by Dick and others. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 Beelzebub and His Cart, Potter s Field, 
 
 Greasy Peterson, The Adventurers of Sol Cla 
 
 rion 
 
 non, 
 
 The Vision of Dr. Nicholas Grim, The Melancholy Vagabond 
 TheMerry-Makcrs.ExploitNo.I. The Great Charter Contest in 
 
 Gotham, 
 
 The Witch and the Deacon, The Puffer Dinner, 
 The Druggist s Wife, N. A. Society for the Encour% 
 
 agement of Imposture, 
 
 TheMerry-Makers,ExploitNo.It. Disasters of Old Drucjo-e, ** 
 Parson Huckins First Appear 
 ance, The Unburied Bones. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
 " There are many capital strokes of humor and 
 touches of nature in this light and amusing work. 
 The author frequently manifests a masterly insight 
 into character, and some of his sketches of life in 
 Now- York are to the life." New-York Mirror. 
 
 " Those who have with us enjoyed the fun of 
 these amusing sketches, when extracted by us from 
 time to time, will be pleased to see them in a shape 
 fit for preservation. They make a very handsome 
 volume of nearly two hundred pages, and will assist 
 in handing down the memory of names, places and 
 scenes, peculiar to this our good city of Gotham." -* / 
 JV. Y, American. jfcf 
 
. 
 
 " A pleasant and interesting book, full of fun, 
 with Tory excellent illustrations." Co*r. and Enq. 
 
 " From the first the lucubrations of the late Ben. 
 Smith gave us much pleasure, and we hailed their 
 appearance in a new and more attractive dress as an 
 evidence that the originality and raciness of his hu 
 mor and his genuine pathos had not been entirely 
 unappreciated. * * Many of his sketches 
 are drawn with the graphic pencil of a master, and 
 the style of several passages is in the highest grade 
 of excellence. We shrewdly suspect that the author 
 is a young man, and if so, we think that wo claim 
 not too much for him when we say that he needs 
 only that improvement which careful practice will 
 give to take a high and acknowledged rank in 
 American Literature." Sun. Mor. Newt. 
 
 " Right profitably has Mr. Ben. Smith used the 
 talents committed to his keeping, for he tells sixteen 
 stories which would do honor to the club of good 
 fellows Mr. Pickwick was wont to assemble around 
 his board." Boston Evening Gazette. 
 
 " We knew Ben. He loved a laugh and a lash 
 right well, and had withal a Sterne-like sensibili 
 ty, which in his graver moments exhibited itself with 
 marvellous pathos. This^oa/ mortem production U 
 just such a work as we always said would be found in 
 his escritoire by his executor." Sat. Mor. Trant t. 
 " We had watched its progress in numbers with 
 much interest, and felt convinced even then that a 
 true humorest had at length appeared amongst us. 
 The late lien. Smith is not to be confounded with the 
 common herd of writers ; albeit, his name is by no 
 means uncommon. The Motley Book is not one of 
 those productions which daily issue from the press, 
 to-day read, to-morrow forgotten but has peculiar 
 merits of its own. It indicates a rich fund of 
 raried excellence, which will, if we mistake not, in 
 sure for the writer, at no distant day, an elevated 
 rank in our literary records. In the short compass 
 of less than two hundred pages he has shown a com 
 plete mastery in the apparently opposite fields of 
 pathos and humor." N. Y. Gazette. 
 
J. & H. G. LANGLEY, 
 
 Have recently published, 
 THE BEAUTIES OF THE HON. DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 SELECTED AND ARRANGED, 
 
 With a Critical Essay on his Genius and Writings, 
 By JAMES REES ; 1 vol. ISmo. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE NEW-YORK PRESS. 
 Beauties of Daniel Webster. It consists of short 
 extracts from the speeches and writings of Mr. 
 Webster, selected by the compiler, Mr. James 
 Recs. The selections are made with good taste and 
 discriminating judgment, and together form a work 
 of rare excellence. We have seen the beauties" 
 of Burke, Johnson, Robert Hall, and others, and 
 in our judgment the " beauties" of our distin 
 guished countryman bear a favorable comparison 
 with the very best of them. Owing to the great 
 length of Mr. Webster s discourses, perhaps very 
 few have read them with suificient attention to dis 
 cern all their merits ; but in the work before us, 
 the prominent of these, from his numerous produc 
 tions, are selected, and can be easily read, and 
 when perused, we do not doubt they will -be exceed 
 ingly admired, fraught as they are with noble sen- > 
 tiraents and profound wisdom, clothed in the most 
 pure, chaste, and elegant diction. We recommend 
 every one of our readers to become possessed of 
 the work when it shall be published. Commercial 
 Advertiser, Jan. 24, 1839. 
 
 Beauties of Daniel Webster. Messrs. J. & H. 
 G. Langley, 57 Chatham-street, have published a 
 handsome little volume bearing this title, containing 
 judiciously selected extracts from the speeches, ad 
 dresses, &c. of that distinguished gentleman. The 
 work is edited by James Rees, who has added a 
 critical essay on the genius and writings of Mr. 
 Webster. Mr. Rees has discharged both duties 
 well and ably, and we wish the book might go into 
 the hands of every person capable of reading, from 
 New-Brunswick to Texas. N. Y. Gazette, Ftb. 23. 
 Beauties of Daniel Wefottr This is the title of 
 a neat little work* prepared with much care by Mi\ 
 
 ; 
 
James Reo*, and will shortly be issued from the 
 press. The selections are judiciously made and 
 admirably arranged. Mr. Webster is one of the 
 great men of the country never at a loss for words, 
 powerful in argument, fascinating and beautiful as 
 an orator. The work will meet with an extensive 
 sale, WA2#, Feb. 1. ,, . 
 
 Beauties of Daxitl Weftler.-* -The selection of 
 choice passages from the legal and parliamentary 
 orations of Mr. Webster, the existence of which in 
 manuscript, we mentioned u few weeks since, is now 
 published by J. & H. G. Langley. It makes a hand 
 some little volume of 92 pages, which 9ugbt to have a 
 sale of thousands in tins city alone, and tens of 
 thousands elsewhere. The passages are selected 
 with judgment and good taste, presenting a rare as 
 semblage of noble thoughts clothed in surpassing 
 eloquence of language. We are glad to see that 
 the Editor has been careful not to omit that magni 
 ficent outburst of patriotism, the conclusion of the 
 great speech in answer to Mr. Hayne, on Nullifica 
 tion. Commercial, Feb. 22. 
 
 The Beauties of Daniel Webster, ifc. Selected 
 and arranged by James Ilees. New-York : J. & H. 
 G. Langley. Most appropriately is this beautiful 
 and precious little volume dedicated to " the friends 
 of liberty throughout the world, and to the admirers 
 of the English language in its purity." 
 
 A more abla, consistent, far-seeing, and devoted 
 friend of rational liberty ; a more disinterested, 
 clear and constant Advocate and expounder of that 
 constitution Which, to this Union, is the pledge alike 
 of happiness and freedom, or a more pure and pol 
 ished writer, of " English undefined," does not, as 
 >ve believe, exist within our wide world. 
 
 Wo rejoice, therefore, that selections so tastefully 
 made as those in this volume, .have been put forth 
 in a shape and form to give them wide circulation 
 among all classes ; for the extracts are such as no 
 American, of whatever party, can fail to admire. 
 
 commend these Beauties to all our readers. 
 Y. American, Fcb, 23, 
 
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