The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1839-06-01

There is much poetry in the Indian mytholo-
gy In Hoffman's "Mild scenes in the Fo-
rest and Prairie" are the following beautiful
legends, which will remind tn, classical reader
OF ,netamorphoses which are~rccorded as hav-
ing occurred in another age and country
ORIGIN OF TIE WHIP PooR-wILL.
The father of Rau chc-wa me. the FIving
Pigeon Of the Wisconsin, would moi henr ,nf
her wedding Wal. o-nasn, the young chiei VINO
had long sought her H. marriage; YET, true 10
her pliohted faith, she still continued TO meet
him every evening upon one OF the t"ited
i-l.rs "l.:.i. -.-I .ho itver IN great proiusion.
Nightly through the long months Of summer
did the lovers keep their tryste parting only
after each meeting more and more endearcd TO
each other. At length Wai.o noisa was or
dered off upon a secret expedition II. a!nst the
Sioux he departed so suddenly that there
was no opportunity Of bidding farewell to his
betrothed and his tribesmen, the better to
give effect to his Grand, gave out that the
youth was no more, having persisted in fray
with the Menomones, at the WInnebago port
age Rau che-wai.me was inconsolsble, but
she dared not show her grief before her family;
and the only relief she knew for her sorrow,
was to swim over to the island by starlight,
and calling upon the name of her lover, be-
wall the features she could behold no more.
One night the sound OF her voice attracted
some of her fathers people to the spot: and,
startled at their approach, she tired to climb a
sapling in order 20 hide herself among tits
branches, but her frame was bowed with sor-
row. and her weak limbs refused TO aid her
Wnp-o-naisu," she cried " Uatc-o-nats ~
and at each repetition of his name, her voice
n. p,,la tN
screen herself in the underwood, a soft plu-
mage began to cloihe her delicate limbs which
were wounded by the hriers, and lifting pinions
shot from under her arms which she tossed
upward in distress; until her Pursuers, when
just about to seize the maid saw nothing but
the bird, whi,h has ever since borne the name
of her lover, fl ting from bush to bush before
them, and still repeating "W aw-o-naisa,"
Waw-o-naisa.'
ORIGIN OF INDIAN CORN.
"Therc is place on the banks OF the soft
y-howing unadilla, not far from It's con-
fuence with the Susquehannah, which in for
mer years was an extensive Ver-meadow.
The short turf sloped down almost to the
brink of the stream whose banks in this place
nourish not single tree to shadow its waters.
Here, where they flow over pebbles so smooth
and shiny that the Indian maid who wandered
along the margin, would stop 10 count over
her strings Of wampum, and tAi,,k the beads,
had slipped away, there came one day some
girls to baihc and one of the most beautiful
Of all. fingered behind her companions TO
gather these bright pebbles from the bed ofthe
river. A wa,er-spnit who had assumed the
form Of musquosh, sat long watching her
from the shore. He looked at her shining
shoulders--at her dripping locks, at the gently
swelling bosom over which they fell and
when the maid lifted her rounded limbs from
the water and stepped lightly upon the green
sod. he too raised himself from the messy
nook where he had been hidden, and recover
ing his own shape, ran to embrace her. HE
maiden shreked and fled, but the enamored
spirit pressed closely in pursuit, ana the mea-
dow alTording no shrub nor covert to screen
her from her eager pursuer, she turned again
toward The stream she had left, and made for
, snnt where the wild flowers grew tall and
rankly by the moist margin. The spirit still
followed her; and frightened and iatigucd,
tbe uirl would have sunk on the ground rs lie,
approached, had she not been supported by
tut of flags while hastily seizing and twin'ng
them round her person to hide her shame. in