Researches" refer us to a very remote period of Indian history for the date of their birth and growth. They are not such tales as would be created by the Indians of to-day, but are of the era of flint arrow-heads, earthen pots, and skin clothes. There is something primitive and antique in their very conception; a kind of boldness both of subject and style. Often verging on the grotesque and uneouth, occasionally on the really imaginative, they are seldom poetical, and never pretty and tawdry. Whatever faults they may have, they are at least genuine. The style of narration, says Schoolcraft, the cast of invention, the theory of thinking, are eminently peculiar to a people who wander about in woods and plains, who encounter wild beasts, believe in demons, and are subjected to the vicissitudes of the seasons, a people who are polytheists, not believers in one God or Great Spirit, but in thousands of spirits. The machinery of spirits and necromancy, one of the most ancient and prevalent errors of the human race, supplies the framework of these fictitious creations. Language to carry out the conceptions might seem to be wanting; but here the narrator finds a ready recourse in the use of metaphor, the doctrine of metamorphosis, and the personification of inanimate objects. The belief of the narrators and listeners in every wild and improbable thing told, helps wonderfully in the original in joining the sequence of parts together. Nothing is too capacious for Indian belief; almost every declaration is a prophecy, and every tale a creed. The Indian believes that the whole visible creation is animated with various orders of benign or malignant spirits, who preside over the daily affairs and over the final destinies of men. He believes that these spirits must be conciliated by sacrifices, and a series of fasts and feasts, which either follow or precede these rites, that by the one they may be rendered acceptable, and by the other his gratitude may be shown. He believes that animals of the lowest as well as highest class are endowed with reasoning powers and faculties, and that they have souls, which will be encountered by him in other shapes, and in other states of existence.

In "The Red Lover," a Chippewa tale, the soul of an unfortunate lover returns to his mistress in the form of a small bird of

beautiful plumage; " a bird of strange character, such as had not before been observed." She dies, and it is seen no more; for it has flown away with her spirit. In "The Celestial Sisters," Waupee and his wife are changed into white hawks; and in various other tales the dead and the living undergo transformations equally wonderful. The hero of an Indian tale has only to wish to be changed into a bird, a fox, a beaver, when presto! the thing is done. And he has only to wish the aid and counsel of these, or any other members of the under-world, and it is at once given him; the sovereignty of man over nature being one of the chief elements of Indian belief. "The Two Jeebi-ug," an Ojibbewa legend, in which two ghosts return to the earth, for the purpose of testing mortals, sheds considerable light on some points of Indian mythology, and shows the terribly imaginative power of some of their conceptions. The Jeebi-ug are represented as strange females, total strangers in that country. They would not come near the fire; they sat in a remote part of the lodge, were shy and taciturn, and drew their garments about them in such a manner, as to nearly hide their faces. So far as the hunter's wife could judge, they were pale, hollow-eyed, and long visaged, very thin and emaciated. There was but little light in the lodge, as the fire was low, and served, by its fitful flashes, rather to increase than dispel her fears. "Merciful spirit!" cried a voice from the opposite part of the lodge," there are two corpses clothed with garments!" The hunter's wife turned around; but seeing nobody, she concluded the sounds were but gusts of wind. She trembled, and was ready to sink to the earth. In "The Weendigoes," a Saginaw story, the dust and ashes of a dead woman, buried in a hollow tree, bud out into a beautiful boy, who visits the widower's lodge, and plays with his more human son. In the same story, we have a specimen of Indian fancy, which personifies thunder as two enormous birds, whose nest is in the sky. Other natural phenomena are elsewhere personified and explained. In "Paup-puk-keewiss," an Algic legend, the red streaks in certain formations of rock are accounted for by the blood of two Manitoes, whom Pauppuk-keewiss killed, having been dashed against it. Manabozho rubs the blood of a Manito on the head of a woodpecker,

and it continues red to this day. He also kicks a duck, "which is the cause of his back being flattened, and his legs straightened out behind, so that when he gets on land he cannot walk, and his tail feathers are few."

The legend of Manabozho reveals, Schoolcraft thinks, the idea of an Incarnation; the conception of the character is rather that of a monstrosity than a deity. The birth of Manabozho is shrouded in allegoric mystery. According to some, he was the son of a daughter of the moon by the West wind. He is made to combine all that is strong, brave, warlike, and wise, of men and animals. He performs the wildest exploits imaginable, overcomes the prince of serpents, and conquers an infinity of Manitoes and magicians. Like Adam, he names the animals; he is drawn into the mouth of a gigantic fish with his canoe; he survives a flood by climbing a tree, and recreates the earth from a morsel of ground brought up to him in the paws of a musk-rat.

In contrast with these high exploits, he goes about playing low tricks, a sort of divine conjurer as it were; travels from place to place, often in want of food and lodging; makes use of unworthy subterfuges; is tricked by the very animals whom he envies, coveting at one time their strength and another their cunning. His chief points of excellence, and those which render him a favorite among all the tribes, are great personal strength, readiness of resource, and skill in necromancy. It is natural, as Schoolcraft has well observed, that rude nations in every part of the world should invent some such mythological existence as the Indian Manabozho, to concentrate their prime exploits upon; for it is the maxim of such nations that "the race is always to the swift and the battle to the strong."

In common with most unlettered nations, the Indians entertained many strange notions of the phenomena of nature. In "The Summer Maker," the sky is represented as something palpable, a kind of heavenly curtain stretching over the earth. In order to have summer on earth, the Fisher and the Wolverine leap against the sky till they break through; down the chasm comes the beautiful Summer, surrounded by flocks of birds.

The East, for which the Indians seem to have had a peculiar reverence, many

tribes burying their dead with their feet toward it, is not without its poetry. "Tell me," said Puck-wud-ininee to his sister, "where you would wish to dwell." She said, "I would like to go to the place of the breaking of day-light. I have always loved the East. The earliest glimpses of light are from that quarter, and it is, to my mind, the most beautiful part of the heavens. After I get there, my brother, whenever you see the clouds in that direction of various colors, you may think that your sister is painting her face." Shakspeare is, by some wiseacre of a commentator, supposed to have borrowed the name of "Puck" from the Indian Puck-wud-ininee: the similarity is about as strong as that there is a mountain in Macedon and a mountain in Wales. The only thing at all resembling our fairy lore in the "Algic Researches," is in "The Celestial Sisters," where Waupee finds a ring in the sod, as if it had been made by footsteps following a circle, time out of mind the sign of a fairy neighborhood; and in "The White Feather," where the giant beavers, which were originally stones, turn back into stones again, while those of the White Feather, whom he has enchanted, remain beavers still. In the same story the race of buffaloes have the following grotesquely poetical origin :

"The chief ordered, on the request of the White Feather, that all the young men should employ themselves four days in making arrows. He also asked for a buffalo robe. This robe At the end of four days he invited them to he cut into thin shreds and sowed in the prairie. gather together all their arrows and accompany him to a buffalo hunt. They found that these shreds of skin had grown into a very large herd

of buffalo."

We might point out many similar fancies, and a passage or two in the highest style of poetry; but our space at present forbids; we can only recommend the book, and leave our readers to find the good things for themselves.

The "Algic Researches" were published by the Harpers. The edition, we fancy, is long since exhausted-(we are aware of but one, and that bears the date of 1839)-but copies of the work can be found in most public libraries, and occasionally at the book-stalls. Those who feel the least curiosity concerning the Indians should not neglect to read it. It will be the base of Schoolcraft's fame.

NE of the most instructive

ONE

and entertaining passages in the vision of the renowned dreamer of Bedford jail, is the reception and entertainment of Christiana and her group at the house of the Interpreter. There is a homeliness, too, about the picture which adds to its popular charm, and if the artistic poet cannot discover much of the "ideal" about it, yet "the people" have always found it marvelously full of meaning and of simple beauty; and the emblems of the "Significant Rooms," displayed by the good interpreter, while supper was getting ready, are as deeply imprinted, with their salutary lessons, on the minds of common readers of Bunyan, as any pictures of the book, not excepting the memorable Slough of Despond, the tremendous fight with Apollyon in the Dark Valley, the Delectable Mountains, or that unrivaled scene, the final crossing of the river.

Bunyan had not only "the vision and the faculty divine "-a great poet he doubtless was-but, like most of the great poets, his mind was "many-sided," as the Germans say. He was a rare dramatist. The verisimilitude of his characters shows this; not more, however, than the effective relations of his scenes. Contrasts and reciprocal reliefs are maintained throughout his pages. The reception at the house of the interpreter is an example. The house-full of hospitality, and beauty, and lessons-opens its doors for Christiana, Merciful, and the "little pilgrims" just as they escape, terrified from the assaults of ruffians on the highway-the assaults of the two" ill-favored ones" of whom Christiana had dreamed so fearfully that "they had stood at her bed's feet plotting how they might prevent her salvation." The vision of beauty dawns on the scene of terror, and as they knock at the door, out steps a damsel, the image of loveliness itself, an impersonation of innocence.

"Then said the damsel to them, 'With whom would you speak in this place?""

HOUSE OF THE INTERPRETER.

"Christiana answered, 'We understand that this is a privileged place for those that are become pilgrims, and we now at this door are such; wherefore, we pray that we may be partakers of that for which we at this time are come; for the day, as thou seest, is very far spent, and we are loath to-night to go any further.'

"Damsel.-Pray what may I call your name, that I may tell it to my lord within?

"Christiana.-My name is Christiana; I was the wife of that pilgrim that some years ago did travel this way; and these be his four children. This maiden also is my companion, and is going on pilgrimage too.

"Then ran Innocent in, (for that was her name,) and said to those within, 'Can you think who is at the door? There is Christiana and her children, and her companion, all waiting for entertainment.

DAMSEL INNOCENT.

"Thou hast said the right,' said he; and his muck-rake doth show his carnal mind. And whereas thou seest him rather give heed to rake up straws and sticks, and the dust of the floor, than to do what He says that calls to him from above with the celestial crown in his hand; it is to show, that heaven is but a fable to some, and that things here are counted the only things substantial. Now, whereas it was also showed thee that the man could look no way but down

for they all began now to understand the riddle.

"That prayer,' said the Interpreter, 'has lain by till it is almost rusty. "Give me not riches," (Prov. xxx, 8,) is scarce the prayer of one in ten thousand. Straws, and sticks, and dust, with most, are the great things now looked after.'

"With that Christiana and Mercy wept, and said, 'It is, alas! too true.'

"When the Interpreter had shown them this, he had them into the very best room in the house; (a very brave room it was ;) so he bid them look round about, and see if they could find anything profitable there. Then they looked round and round; for there was nothing to be seen but a very great spider on the wall, and that they overlooked.

"Then said Mercy, 'Sir, I see nothing.' But Christiana held her peace.

"But,' said the Interpreter, 'look again.' She therefore looked again, and said, 'Here is not anything but an ugly spider, who hangs by her hands upon the wall.' Then said he, 'Is there but one spider in all this spacious room?' Then the water stood in Christiana's eyes, for she was a woman quick of apprehension; and she said, 'Yea, Lord, there are more here than one; yea, and spiders whose venom is far more destructive than that which is in her.' The Interpreter then looked pleasantly on her, and said, Thou hast said the truth.' This made Mercy

"Then said the Interpreter again, ""The

see,] and is in kings' palaces." Prov. xxx, 28. And wherefore is this recorded, but to show you, that how full of the venom of sin soever you be, yet you may, by the hand of Faith, lay hold of and dwell in the best room that belongs to the King's house above.'

"I thought,' said Christiana,' of something of this; but I could not imagine it all. I thought that we were like spiders, and that we looked like ugly creatures, in what fine rooms soever we were; but that by this spider, that venomous and illfavored creature, we were to learn how to act faith. That came not into my thoughts; and yet she had taken hold with her hands, and, as I see, dwelleth in the best room in the house. God has made nothing in vain.'

"Then they seemed all to be glad, but the water stood in their eyes. Yet they looked one upon another, and also bowed before the Interpreter.

"He had them then into another room, where were a hen and chickens, and bid them observe awhile. So one of the chickens went to the trough to drink, and every time she drank she lifted up her head and her eyes toward heaven. 'See,' said he, what this little chick doth, and learn of her to acknowledge whence your mercies come, by receiving them with looking up. Yet again,' said he, 'observe and look.' So they gave heed, and