around the .cataract,) the residence of this family
of Thunderers 'vras diseoyered in this manner.
Whelpthis trib© lived on th e Gue*yo-gwa creek,
(a stream which empties into the Niagara river
above the falls, and between the brink of water,
and the inlet of the Tonawanda,) there happened
a time of great mortality and famine among the
people, their corn-fields dwindled away, as if a
spell had been cast over them, and there was a
most signal mortality. MeP were buried daily,
and while their numbers grew thinner and thinner,
their grave-yards grew larger and larger*
There was a young married couple living there
at this time, who fe}t the strongest attachment
to ea^h other. The woman was very handsome,
and the man an expert hunter.^ One day he de*-
termined to go on a hunting excursion, arid to
take his wife with him far inland* where they
might be safe from all danger. Accordingly they
went, and built a lodge*in the woods, where
game wps abundant, and they lived, in perfect
harmony, and felt that all their wishes were realized.
Every day he went into remote parts of
the forest and killed game, while she remained
to take care of She lodge. Once -when he returned
from the chase he found his wife asleep,
and hes saw that a rattle-snake had crawled into
her womb; he woke her up, and proposed that
they should return to their former home; he
told her nothing of what he had seen. When
they got back to the village he divided with her
the game, and told her to go home to her mother’s
lodge, as he did not wish?# have any thing
more to do with her. She did not know the
cause of such cruel conduct, but being compelled,
she was forced# obey. : Nothing that either her
father or mother bould do, would induce him to
tell thej,secret of his sudden dislike in sending
her away. There was a final separation between
them, and not long after she married again, but
her husband died immediately, being bit by the
rattle-snake- ^ Again and again she married, and
a g a i n and a g a iu k h ! |# ; husbands died, from the
same cause. - The rapid deaths of her husbands
soon began.to create much suspicion and village
talk; her first husband therefore exposed the secret
of her condition, and assigned that singular
misfortune as the only reason of his sending her
away. She was fair to .look on, he said, but to
touch her, was to touch :the poisoned tooth of the
serpent. The discovery overwhelmed her with
horror, and finally she got into a state of mind
bordering on despair. She was young, and very
handsome, and the admiration of all who saw
her, but she loathed herself, arid after great conflicts
and lamentations, determined to put an
end to her existence; : She dressed herself in her
gayest attire., and taking her light painted cedar
paddle in her hand, she stepped into her bark
canoe, and pushed it out into the stream. The
roar of Niagara was in her ears, but no one saw
her leave the shore, on her voyage of death, until
she was far down the river; gliding into the
tumult of the stream, she seemed resigned and