The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-03
INDIANS ROMANCE.
INTERFERING WATERS" IS DY-
 ING OF A VAGUE DISEASE.
A Most Peculiar Entanglement of the Expectations of the Red Man :. and Twentieth Century Ro- nance in the Affairs of the
 Penobscet Tribe.

EasaspoTt Meo letter in New Haven The romantic days of the Indians life m tnis country seem to have long since some of Fennimore Cooper's dusky hero pages. -. - -
 There was time. however. in the his sorv oI the land, when stalwart young Engiishmen and Frenchmen, severed by a then almost impossible barrier from their old homes and cut of as they ex- pected rom all chances of return to con- ventional life, found in the Minnehahas ana other redskin beauties something 10 console them for the possibly dis aainful coquettes who had sent them from home. Probably there are no types of the In- gan woman surviving in the United states today SO dangerously handsome as the ,, Penobscot Indian belle.
 M rms brings me to the romance of Nee Na roo or Whispering Waters, as they nave 1t in translation
 A year ago a quartet of beautiful In- aian women lived on little island op- p1S.s Ths the the rs town of oldtown. Me,
 TOT us beauty, accomplishments and everything that goes to make up attract i've womanhood
 Last Christmas the quartet was broken up by the death of one considered its most beautiful member known as Nee 6ana, or Northern Light. So famous vas this child of the forest for her charms that the City National Bank of
 kankakee. Kan, once paid her A hand some sum for the purnose of having her | portrait engraved on its cheeks.
 Benind her death there was romance
 n, vas said, connected with a man not or her own color and now it transpires | tnat each of the quartet has at some
 ume given her affection to a white. but
 the the stern dictum of the tribe forbids
 nne marriage of its daughters to the paIe Iace It seems strange to be read- Ing apout such things in the twentietb century and knowing that they occur al our very doors.
 So last Christmas Northern Light died sno the three remaining members of the famous quartet of beauty who will proh- body bboiy De , ths last of their race, bore the pisce their es Surxins Sans to its last resting neart or the woods. The funeral cere- monies were awful in their weird sol emhity and heart piercing grief
 taining the body of their fs,rest At to con. ths cemetery and at the grave the custom
 inoian forms were observed, and s snere was weeping and wailing for many
 Not aa'er . on the little Indian Island. nave nave Iound their way to the Indian Is- Iand or late years, knowing the iealous beaut,f,', Witn which the tribe views It's
 four years ago, however, an English an, ma huntlns In the vicinity came upon sne spot. He was young baronet and casta s romantic Taa,ia temperament overcame his qeeply in love with Whispering Waters ne wanted to wed her there and then ana forget all the ties which he had Jeff finn frianSs nm; title. lands and aristocratic some enough to have captured the heart 9I any white maiden, haunted the fair indian like a shadow.
 dssg sgt ssp 10 all I his entreaties she turned a ass, o.s ear, Tor the chief of the tribe said nay, and his word wss law After a iong and hopeless effort the young Eng wards nsnman h,s went s away and months after woods ms hs, oo1y was found in the Maine wooas oy other hunters. It was gen eeany supposed that he had neglected so Lake guide along and had wandered from iaot @ the main path in the woods. getting Those W Who h'aknins knsw d9 tS de, death Whispering Waters thought otherwise They believe to this day that faiiin9 w.v vo vd win the Indian belle he had purposeiy way so that he might perish in ths woods near which her presence stayed
 put tnis IS not the worst of the case. A A year later Whispering Waters was married to one of the braves of tSe tribe. handsome fellow enough in bis Ways. put by no means to the taste of whispering Waters, who like all the euarses eonnrH was highly educated and ac-
 The wedding was one of the swelIest t,ISrs aInairs ever seen in Oldtown. All the irios was present and many of the It IItta11as Wns snat wnite people of oldtown also. ana the bride. in her wedding finerv
 naoe one Of the prettiest pictures ever seen seen at an altar: But Whispering Wa cersmnnv tu no. smile at all during the csremony and her manner seemed very sTange ana apathetic. The wise woman or the tribe shook their heads and said Il M, was an evil omen. that Whispering msny s .,'no wou.a not see many children or tne predictions of these aborigine seers ana seeresses often are. In fact thev seldom fail. |' 'he! husband any children and there tbe first propnecy came true. Soon her carfoe was dneserted and the bride stayed in the sician. cISe almost aan. continuously. The phy- fsiS tion Sera sa" that the germs of consump- her friends she had not long to live.
 Asain the wise women of the tribe shook their heads. The white medicine known all along what the cause of the Idiling ot Whispering Waters was dus 10. She was dying of broken heart. or s1nglms Srogpds to to !c go to to the happy hunting
 So they say that her time Is due to go. Whispering Waters Is doomed to re)oin her lover this New Year There IS little doubt their words will come cording to the reports of her tribe.
 This Is not the first case of the kind ny scores. recorded in he annals of the tribe. - The early Penobscots had a black- board boar orac:e, which, particular perpen- dicular flat cliff at the waters edge was alwaYs consulted before each big event. Over that cliff an old chief and his daughter once threw themselves to eter- nity because of the mutual love between her and British officer. This was done rather than displease the tribe and the will, of the oracle
 The tribe to which the quartet belongs Is one Of the Wapanaki or AbenaR groups, Of which there are now remain ing only small bands of the Penobscot,