The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1857-01-14

forth a host of fanciful traditions. We
were all day slowly tiding along in sight
of them, so that he had full time to
weave his whimsical narratives In these
mountains. he told me. according to In.
dian belief, was kept up the great treas.
ury Of storm and sunshine for the re.
gion IF the Hudson An old squaw spir.
it had charge Of it, who dwelt on the
highest peak of the mountain. Here
sho kept Day and Night shut up in her
wigwam, letting ont only one OF them at
time. She made new moons every
month, aud hung them up in the sky,cut-
ting up the old ones into stars The great
Manitou or master spirit, employed her
to manufacture clouds sometimes she
wove them out of cobwebs, gosSamers,
and morning dew, and sent them off flake
after flake, to float in the air and give
light summer showers sometimes she
would brew up black thunder-storms,an and
send down dronching rains. to swell the
streams and sweep everything away
TIE had many stories, also, about ms
chievous spirits who infested the noun.
taius in the shape of animals and play
ed all kinds Of pranks upon Indian hun
tcrs decoying them into quagmires and
morasscs or to the Drinks of torrents
and precipces All these were doled
out to me as I lay on the deck through.
out long summers day, gazing upon
these mountains, the ever changing
shapes and hues Of which appeared to
realize the magical influences in ques
tion Sometimes they seemed to ap-
proach, at others to rccede; during the
heat of the day they almost melt
cd into sultry haze as the day de-
clined they deepened in tone their sum
miis were frightened by the last rays Of
the sun. and later in the evening their
whole ontlino was printed in deep pur.
pie against an amber sky As | beheld
them thus shifting continually before
my eye and listened to the marvellous
legends of the trader, host of fanciful
notions concerning them was conjnred
into nv brain, which have haunted it
ever since.
As to the Indian supe rstitons con-
corning the treasury of storms and sun.
shine and the cloud weaving spiriis,they
NAV have been suggested by the atmos
phericll phcnrmona of these mountains
the clouds which gather round their sum
mits. ana thu thousand aerial effects
which indicate the changes Of weather
over great extent of country. They
are epitomes Of our variable climatc.and
are stamped with all its vicissitules -
Aud here let me say a word in favor of
those vcissitu2cs, which are too often
made the subject Of exclusive rcpining.
Ifthey annoy rs occasionally by changes
from hot to cold. from wet TO drv they
give us ono Of the most beautiful eli
mates in the world. They give u' the
brilliant sunshine of tho south of En.
rope with the fresh verdurc of tho north
They aoat our sumner sky with clouds
of gorgeous tints or Aaecy whitencss
aud send down cooling showers to re-
fresh the pauting earth and keeping it
green. Our seasons are all poetical; the
phenomena of our heavens are full of
sublimity and beauty Winter with us
has none Of is proverGial gloom. 1t
may have its bowling winds, and thrill.
ing frosts and whirlng snowstorms
but it has also its long intervals Of cloud
less sunshine, when tho snow-clad earth
gives rcdoubled brightness to the day;
when at night the stars beam with in
tensest luStre. or tho moon floods the
whole Landscape with her most limpid
radiance and then the joyous out break
of our spring, bursting at once into leaf
and blossom, redundant with vegetation,
and vociferous with life !-and the splen-
doris Of our summer--its morning volup-
tuousncss and evening glory-its airy
palaces of sun gilt clouds piled up in
deep azure sky and its gusts o! tempest
of almost tropical grandeur. when the
forked lightning and the believing thun'
der vollcy from the battlcment OF heav-
en- and shakes the suliry atmosphere
aud the sublime melancholy of our an
tumn, magnificent in its decay, witherlng
down the pomp and pride Of woodland
country, yet rejecting back from its yel-
low forests the golden sereuity of the sky
surely we may say that in our climate
" the heavens declare the glory of Tod,
and the frmnment showeth forth his
haudiwork day unto day uttereth
speech and night unto night sboweth
knowledgc."
A word more concerning the Cats
kills 1t is not the Indians only to
whom they have been kind Of wonder
land. In the early times Of the Dutch
dynasty we fud them themes of
of golden speculation among even
the sages of New Amsterdam -
During the administration of VIII.
helmus Kieft there was meeting
between the Director Of the New Meth.
erlauds and the chiefs of thel Mohawk
nation to conclude a treaty of peace -
On this occasion the Director was ac'
companied by Mynheer Adraien Van der
Donk, Doctor of Laws, and subsequent
ly historian of the colony. The Indian
chiefs, as usual, painted and decorated
themselves on the ceremony. One of
them in so doing made use of pigment,
the weight and shining appearance of
which attracted the notice of Kieft aud
bis learned companion who suspected it
To he ore They procured a lumD of it,