Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1892-07-14

hare been made The lead rs neyoz
reached bottom.
The Indians So the bubbling ID
the middle 81 the lake il the 20
mans breathing. How she came
there nobody knows, but The Indi.
ans say that before the white men
came 30 Wyoming the captiyes tax
en- BY other tribes we're thrown into
the lake to her. Il appears that
she il looking for her lover. She
takes MI The man Who come her
way, and when she finds that he i
not among them she makes them
oil her slaves. II this il true she
mnst nov rule over m army Of re-
tanners, for unnnmbered men--In-
dams and whites-have gone TO her.
Forty years ago, the old men Of the
tribes say, oyer hundred emigrantz
With their horses and or teams,
we're driven ont on the ice BY the
Indians and kept there until the
ice thawed and let them through.
The serpent woman got them all.
Hunters are her fayorite prey,
for the tradition ssys- the lover was
. hunter. She tempts 20 the mid
die Of the lake By . magnificent
red swan, which keeps fiuttering
Just beyond gunshot, and 90 lurez
them within her power. A strange
thing about this great red swan il
that ii i most desirable bird and
the one that Hills II viii be the pos
SCISSOR Of oil sorts Of power.
So many heroes Of the Cheyennes
have hunted the red swan, bat the
bird has never been taken.
WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE.
or the two Indians who have
seen the serpent woman and have
lived to tell Of it, the first saw her
when she did not know Of it. Hs
was waiting hidden behind q rock
on the lake shore for game when
out of the lake came the woman.
She SWAN about on che surface of the
lake in the sunshine. Her form
the Indian said, was incomparably
more beautiful than that OF the
most beautiful daughters Of the
chiefs, but her head was that of an
enormous serpent. When her back
was toward him be ceuld not sec
the snakes head, for her long hair
hid il, and she looked simply like
the most glorious Of women.
The hunter lay fat on the rock
and watched her. He dared neither
to move nor CRY ont. When the
demon had finished her sun bath
she dived and did not appear again.
Had this Indian kept quiet about
the marvellous thing he had seen
there would hare been no trouble,
for she did not know, but it was
too wonderful not to be told.
He kept the great secret for q
year, but at last he whisperedit to q
woman. A lizard heard the whis-
per, and in the morning the man
was found dead. About his throat
giant rattlesnake had twisted
itself, and it's fangs were fast in his
face. That was his punishment for
spying on the serpent woman.
With the other man who saw her
and told Of it it was different. He
was young chief who boosted be-
fore all the tribe that he was afraid
of nothing and they set before him
the task OF conquering the serpent
woman.
He was brave man, but he took
all reasonable precaution. He knew
that against those of the other world
his war clubs and bows and arrows
we're useless. The learning and
magic Of the medicine men alone
might be Of use to him in such q
contest.
| They taught him all they knew,
and he, nov confident Of victory,
boasted again that he would bring
back the serpent woman.
- any Of the Indians will tell
Jon, the woman i not hard to find
II ron want 10 see her. All Won
have to do is to 20 to the middle Of
the lake at night when there il no
moon and tits raining and showing.
Then l17eisno chance Of anyone
else seeing what happens, and no
ordinary man ever comes back to
tell.
Se the young chief set out, but
he had boasted too much and .
snake crept into his boat n he was
leaving the shore. He came back
after his encounter with the she