The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1921-02-26

river, and sometimes ascends from
the waters under the very keel of the
| boat which contains the inqulsltlve
| traveller, whose ear it strikes as the
distant concert of thousand Aeollan
harps. On the banks of the river
close to the spot where the music is
heard, tradition says there existed
| tribe different in color and in other
peculiarities from the rest of the In
dams. Their ancestors had origi-
nally emerged from the sea, where
| they were born, and were of light
complexion. They were gentle,
gay, inoffensive race, living chiefly
on oysters and fish, and they past
their time in festivals and rejoicings.
They had temple in which they
adored a Mermaid. Every night,
when the moon was visible, they
gathered around the beautifully car
we'd figure of the mermaid, and with
instruments of strange shapes, wor-
shipped that idol with such soul-stir-
ring music, as had never before bles-
sed human ears.
Zone day, a short time after the
destruction of Mauvilla, or Mobile,
in 1889, by Soto and his companions
there appeared among them white
man, with long gray beard, flowing
garments, and a large cross in his
right hand. He drew from his bosom
book, which he kissed reverently,
and he began to explain to them what
was contained in that sacred little
casket.
Zone night, when the moon was at
her zenith, and poured on heaven
and earth, with more profusion than
usual. flood of light angelic, at the
solemn hour of twelve, when all ma
ture was in rapose and silence, there
came, On a sudden, rushing of the
surface of the river, as if the still
air had tapped into a whirlwind by
the myraid of invisible wings sweep
ing onward. The placid water was
Immediately convulsed; utterlng a
deep groan, it rolled from one bank
to the other with rapid oscillations,
and then gathered itself into
towering column of foaming waves,
on the top of which stood mermaid
looking with magnetic eyes that
could draw almost everything to her,
and singing with voice which fasci
mated into madness. The Indians
and the priest, their new guest,
rushed to the bank of the river to
contemplate the supernatural spec
tacle When she saw them, the mer-
maid tuned her tones into still
more bewildering melody, and kept
chanting a sort of mystic song, with
this oft repeated ditty:
Come to me, come to me, children of
the sea,
Neither bell, book, nor cross shall
win you from your queen
'The Indians listened with grow
ing ecstasy, and one of them plum
ged into the river to rise no more.
The rest-men, women and children,
followed in quick succession, moved
as it were, with the same irresistible
impulse When the last of the race
disappeared, wild laugh of exulta-
ton was heard; down returned the
river to it's bed with the roar of
cataract, and the whole seemed to
have been a dream. Ever since that
time, is heard occasionally the distant
music which has excited so much at
tention and investigation. The other
Indian tribes of the neighborhood
have always thought it was the musi-
cal brethren, who still keep up their
revels at the bottom of the river, IN
the palace of the mermaid. Tradition
further relates that the poor priest
died in an agony of grief, and that
he attributed this awful event, and
this victory of the powers of dark
ness, to his not having been in a per-