The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-09-04
LEGEND OF THE THUNDER.
Told By st. Louis Indian On the
st. Lawrence.

st. Lawrence.
you know, John, lightning, tunder,
him never kill Injun; you know dat,
john"
No; is that sop
Eyes, dat so. Lightning, him strike
Injun some plenty times, but never kill
um."
How do you explain it?''
Il donno how explain dat just zactly,
but OATS a fact. Las summer, over st.
Regis, lightning, him strike one dem
| Injun house, you know, John. He come
| tro' stovepipe-Where dey ain no brick
chimney, you know-make a mole SO
! big" and Peter indicated with his
thumb and middle finger. Den he
| burn little round hole tro' de stove and
| break one door on de stove, an den
| he run all round quick de room; den
some little time bimeby he nit young
Injun Teller on shoulder and run down
he's right side to he's shoe, and den
he go off like gun and tear shoe all
! little pieces; tear shirt and pants, too,
but no kill de Injun-just burn him on
de skin from shoulder to foot"
! Peter was a st. Regis Indian himself,
the oldest guide on the lake, and had
been rowing us all day over the reaches
of Lake ST. Francis, where the mus
kallonge, the dore, the racer and the
4
Turk in hungry watchfulness for the
lusive spoon hook. In and out among
the emerald islands, over the cool,
clear, blue waters of this fair widening
of the ever beautiful st. Lawrence,
hour after hour, with tireless energy
and unbroken interest in the sport,
though he had made a business of it
for nearly half century, Peter had
| patrolled the channels, with which he
! was as familiar as the citizen is with
the way to the nearest church or sa-
| loon.
But for an hour or more great masses
of binding white thunder heads had
been piling up in the southwest and
the skiff had been headed up stream
again, for our camp on Hopkins Point.
1t had been a sultry day ashore, as we
could see by the shimmering of the
| heat-waveS over the timberleSs por-
| tionS of the islands and mainland; for
in the boat we hardly felt the heat, so
gratefully was it tempered by the i'm
mense volume of clear, flowing, cool,
| sweet water. We were still a long way
from the Point when we were sensible
! of a lowering of the temperature and
presently heard the faint rumble of far
distant thunder. This it was that had
prompted Peters statement respecting
the immunity of the Indian from death
| by lightning stroke. The tone in which
it was stated showed that he meant to
| imply that this immunity was not
| shared by the white race, but was pc
culiar to the Indian. Peters world was
not bounded by the limits of the reser-
| walton, for he had been a traveller. But
his observations had not entirely de-
| stroyed his faith in the traditions of
his people, and we soon saw that he
was only leading up to one of these
| traditions.
| When, therefore, one of us asked
What is the ST. Regis idea of thunder
and lightning, Peter?" the answer was
promptly forthcoming.
We'll, 1 dunno wat you tink, John,
| faint white mans idee, this just In
| jun idee: Some long time go, when
me very young man, old, old man of st.
Regis Injun-him very old man, he tell
me tunder and lightning he's grand
father. and when he hear tunder UP in
sky, den he know he's grandfather
| talking to him."
Don't you mean the Great Father.
Peter, who speaks by the thunder and
the lightning, and lives always up in
the sheayens?'
mo, he don live always up in sky;
dateold Iniun he tell me he live in Nj
agara Falls-you know Niagara Falls,
! John?'
Yes. they're up at the head of the
lake.
father live all time. You see dat little
cloud ONE up. out de Niagara Falls some
time, johns yes, WE'LL dat old Injun
say dat he's grandfather, and dat way
he come out de falls. He little cloud
first, and den he go up in sky and get
bigger and take some more clouds and
den bimeby he shoot lightning and talk
in the tunder, and when he all through
with talk he come down in the light
ming on de water and so go back to
Niagara Falls. Cause him Injun OATS
why he never kill Injun. 1 donno if
| OATS all right, John, but OATS Injun
idee."
Indian taciturnity has disappeared in
the mixture of the Indian with French
blood. and Peter was curious now to
hear what was the white mans idea
of the thunder and lightning. This was
explained to him, and he said he I'M
derstood: he knew what gas was, and
electricity, for he had seen gas lights
and electric lights that year that he
travelled with a patent medicine man
as Kickapoo Indian, but it was man
ifest that he could not conceive of a
vacuum and was therefore unconvin-
ced. After Eliminating over the state
ment for while he propounded what
he manifestly believed to be an unan-
swerable and destructive question:
John, if dat gas he burn up way up in
sky how come dat de lightning he
strike de water; gas all way down to
water, eh?''-Commercial Advertiser.
Karl's Clover Root Tea, for Consti-
patton It's the Best, and if after using
it You don't say so, return the package