Table of Contents
Copyright, 1896
PAGE 13 14 The Unknown Champion 16 . a Goody Cole General Moulton and the Devil The Skeleton in Armor.
The Cats
I PSWICH had a very Old Harry in the person of Harry Main, a dark-souled being, who, after a career of piracy, smuggling, blasphemy, and…
The Wessaguscus Hanging
MONG the Puritans who settled in Wessaguscus, now Weymouth, Massachusetts, was a brash young fellow, of remarkable size and strength, who…
The Unknown Champion
HERE was that in the very air of the New World that made the Pilgrims revolt against priests and kings. The Revolution was long a-breeding…
Goody Cole
OODWIFE EUNICE COLE, of Hampton, Massachusetts, was so "vehemently suspected to be a witch" that in 1680 she was thrown into jail with a…
General Moulton and the Devil
J ONATHAN MOULTON, of Hampton, was a general of consequence in the colonial wars, but a man not always trusted in other than military…
The Skeleton in Armor
HE skeleton of a man wearing a breastplate of brass, a belt made of tubes of the same metal, and lying near some copper arrow-heads, was…
Martha's Vineyard and Nan
TUCKET T HERE is no such place as Martha's Vineyard, except in geography and common speech.
Love and Treason
HE tribes that inhabited Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard before the whites settled the country were constantly at war, and the people of…
The Headless Skeleton of Swamptown
THE T HE boggy portion of North Kingston, Rhode Island, known as Swamptown, is of queer repute in its neighborhood, for Hell Hollow, Pork…
The Crow and Cat of Hopkins
HILL Γ N a wood near Hopkins Hill, Rhode Island, is a bowlder, four feet in diameter, scored with a peculiar furrow. Witch Rock, as it is…
The Old Stone Mill
F the round tower at Newport was not Benedict Arnold's wind-mill, and any one or two of several other things, it is probably a relic of the…
Origin of a Name
HE origin of many curious geographical names has become an object of mere surmise, and this is the more the pity because they suggest such…
Micah Rood Apples
N Western Florida they will show roses to you that drop red dew, like blood, and have been doing so these many years, for they sprang out…
A Dinner and Its Consequences
HE Nipmucks HE Nipmucks were populous at Thompson, Connecticut, where they skilfully tilled the fields, and where their earthworks, on Fort…
The New Haven Storm Ship
N 1647 the New Haven colonists, who even at that early day exhibited the enterprise that has been a distinguishing feature of the Yankee…
The Windham Frogs
N a cloudy night in July, 1758, the people of Windham, Connecticut, were awakened by screams and shrill voices. Some sprang up and looked…
The Lamb of Sacrifice
HE Revolution was beginning, homes were empty, farms were deserted, industries were checked, and the levies of a foreign army had consumed…
Moodus Noises
2 pages
Haddam Enchantments
HEN witchcraft went rampant through New England the Connecticut town of Haddam owned its share of ugly old women, whom it tried to reform…
Block Island and the Palatine
BLO LOCK ISLAND, or Manisees, is an uplift of clayey moorland between Montauk and Gay Head. It was for sailors an evil place and "bad…
The Buccaneer
MONG the natives of Block Island was a man named Lee. Born in the last century among fishermen and wreckers, he has naturally taken to the…
Robert Lockwood's Fate
2 pages
Love and Rum
ACK in the seventeenth century a number of Yankee traders arrived in Naugatuck to barter blankets, beads, buttons, Bibles, and brandy for…
The Swim at Indian Head
AT T Indian Head, Maryland, are the government proving-grounds, where the racket of great guns and splintering of targets are a deterrent…
The Moaning Sisters
BOVE Georgetown, on the Potomac River, are three rocks, known as the Three Sisters, not merely because of their resemblance to each…
A Ride for a Bride
2 pages
Spooks of the Hiawassee
HE hills about the head of the Hiawassee are filled with "harnts," among them many animal ghosts, that ravage about the country from sheer…
Lake of the Dismal Swamp
D RUMMOND'S POND, or the Lake of the Dismal Swamp, is a dark and lonely tarn that lies in the centre of this noted Virginia morass. It is…
The Barge of Defeat
APPAHANNOCK RIVER, in Virginia, used to be vexed with shadowy craft that some of the populace affirmed to be no boats, but spirits in…
Natural Bridge
HOUGH several natural bridges are known in this country, there is but one that is famous the world over, and that is the one which spans…
The Silence Broken
2 pages
Siren of the French Broad
MONG the rocks east of Asheville, North Carolina, lives the Lorelei of the French Broad River. This stream-the Tselica of the…
The Hunter of Calawassee
HROUGH brisk November days young Kedar and his trusty slave, Lauto, hunted along the Calawassee, with hope to get a shot at a buck-a buck…
Revenge of the Accabee
HE settlement made by Lord Cardross, near Beaufort, South Carolina, was beset by Spaniards and Indians, who laid it in ashes and slew every…
Toccoa Falls
ARLY in the days of the white occupation of Georgia a cabin stood not far from the Falls of Toccoa (the Beautiful). Its only occupant was a…
Two Lives for One
HE place of Macon, Georgia, in the early part of this century was marked only by an inn. One of its guests was a man who had stopped there…
A Ghostly Avenger
N Cuthbert, Georgia, is a gravestone thus inscribed : "Sacred to the memory of Jim Brown." No date, no epitaph-for Jim Brown was hanged…
The Wraith Ringer of Atlantaa
A MAN was killed in Elliott Street, Atlanta, Georgia, by a cowardly stroke from a stiletto. The assassin escaped. Strange what a humming…
The Swallowing Earthquake
T HE Indian village that in 1765 stood just below the site of Oxford, Alabama, was upset when the news was given out that two of the squaws…
Last Stand of the Biloxi
HE southern part of this country was once occupied by a people called the Biloxi, who had kept pace with the Aztecs in civilization and who…
The Sacred Fire of Natchez
T HE Indians of the South, being in contact with the civilized races of Central America, were among the most progressive and honorable They…
Pass Christian
ENOR VINEIRO, a Portuguese, having wed Julia Regalea, a Spaniard, in South America, found it needful to his fortunes to leave Montevideo…
The Under Land
HEN the Chatas looked into the still depths of Bayou Lacombe, Louisiana, they said that the reflection of the sky was the empyrean of the…
An Averted Peril
N 1786 a little building stood at North Bend, Ohio, near the junction of the Miami and Ohio Rivers, from which building the stars and…
The Obstinacy of Saint Clair
HEN the new First Regiment of United States Infantry paused at Marietta, Ohio, on its way to garrison Vincennes, its officers made a gay…
The Hundredth Skull
N the early part of this century Bill Quick, IN trapper and frontiersman, lived in a cabin on the upper Scioto, not far from the present…
The Crime of Black Swamp
WO miles south of Munger, Ohio, in the heart of what used to be called the Black Swamp, stood the Woodbury House, a roomy mansion long gone…
The House Accursed
EAR Gallipolis, Ohio, there stood within a few years an old house of four rooms that had been occupied by Herman Deluse. He lived there…
Marquette's Man-Eater
NTIL it was worn away by the elements a curious relief was visible on the bluffs of the Mississippi near Alton, Illinois. It was to be seen…
Michel De Coucy's Troubles
M ICHEL DE COUCY, of Prairie de Rocher, Illinois, sat before his door humming thoughtfully, and trying to pull comfort out of a black pipe…
Wallen's Ridge
CENTURY ago this rough eminence, a dozen miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee, was an abiding place of Cherokee Indians, among whom was…
The Sky Walker of Huron
HERE is the myth of Endymion and Diana, as told on the shores of Saginaw Bay, in Michigan, by Indians who never heard of Greeks.
The Coffin of Snakes
3 pages
Lake Superior Water Gods
HERE were many water gods about Lake Superior to whom the Indians paid homage, casting implements, ornaments, and tobacco into the water…
The Witch of Pictured Rocks
N the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior dwelt an Ojibway woman, a widow, who was cared for by a relative. This relative was a hunter, the…
The Origin of White Fish
N Indian who lived far in the north was so devoted to the chase that he was never at home for the whole of a day, to the sorrow of his two…
The Sun Fire at Sault Sainte
2 pages
The Snake God of Belle Isle
HE Indian demi-god, Sleeping Bear, had a daughter so beautiful that he kept her out of the sight of men in a covered boat that swung on…
Were-Wolves of Detroit
ONG were the shores of Detroit vexed by the Snake God of Belle Isle and his children, the witches, for the latter sold enchantments and…
The Escape of Francois Navarre
WHEN HEN the Hurons came to Sandwich, Michigan, in 1806, and camped near the church for the annual "festival of savages," which was…
The Old Lodger
N 1868 there died in Detroit a woman named Marie Louise Thebault, more usually called Kennette. She was advanced in years, and old…
The Nain Rouge
2 pages
Two Revenges
2 pages
The Indian Messiah
HE promise of the return to earth of various T benign spirits has caused much trouble among the red men, and incidentally to the white men…
The Vision of Rescue
URMOUNTING Red Banks, twelve miles north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, on the eastern shore, and one hundred feet above the water, stands an…
Devil's Lake
ANY of the noble rivers and secluded lakes of Wisconsin were held in esteem or fear by the northern tribes, and it was the now-forgotten…
The Keusca Elopement
EUSCA was a village of the Dakota Indians on the Wisconsin bluffs of the Mississippi eighteen hundred miles from its mouth. The name means…
The Virgins' Feast
GAME of lacrosse was played by Indian on the ice near the present Fort Snelling, one winter day, and the victorious trophies were awarded…
Falls of St. Anthony
EVERAL of the Dakotas, who had been in camp near the site of St. Paul, left their families and friends, when the hunting season opened, and…
Flying Shadow and Track Maker
T HE Chippewas and Sioux had come together at Fort Snelling to make merry and cement friendships. Flying Shadow was sad when the time came…
Saved by a Lightning-Stroke
T HERE was rough justice in the West in the old days. It had to be dealt severely and quickly, for it was administered to a kind of men…
The Killing of Cloudy Sky
N the Dakota camp on the bank of Spirit Lake, IN or Lake Calhoun, Iowa, lived Cloudy Sky, a medicine-man, who had been made repellent by…
Providence Hole
HE going of white men into the prairies aroused the same sort of animosity among the Indians that they have shown in other parts of the…
The Scare Cure
ARLY in this century a restless Yankee, who wore the uninspiring name of Tompkinson, found his way into Carondelet-or Vuide Poche, the…
Twelfth Night at Cahokia
'T was Twelfth Night, and the French village of Cahokia, near St. Louis, was pleasantly agitated at the prospect of a dance in the old…
The Spell of Creve Cœur Lake
NOT far west of St. Louis the Lake of Creve Cœur dimples in the breezes that bend into its basin of hills, and there, in summer, swains and…
How the Crime Was Revealed
N 1853 a Hebrew peddler, whose pack was light and his purse was full, asked leave to pass the night at the house of Daniel Baker, near…
Banshee of the Bad Lands
"H The ELL, with the fires out," is what the Bad Lands of Dakota have been called. fearless Western nomenclature fits the place. It is an…
Standing Rock
HE stone that juts from one of the high banks of the Missouri, in South Dakota, gives its name to the Standing Rock Agency, which, by…
The Salt Witch
PILLAR of snowy salt once stood on the Nebraska plain, about forty miles above the point where the Saline flows into the Platte, and white…
Over the Divide
HE hope of finding El Dorado, that animated the adventurous Spaniards who made the earlier recorded voyages to America, lived in the souls…
The Phantom Train of Marshall
PASS S OON after the rails were laid across Marshall Pass, Colorado, where they go over a height of twelve thousand feet above the sea, an…
The River of Lost Souls
N the days when Spain ruled the Western country an infantry regiment was ordered out from Santa Fé to open communication with Florida and…
Riders of the Desert
MONG the sandstone columns of the Colorado foot-hills stood the lodge of Ta-in-ga-ro (First Falling Thunder). Though swift in the chase and…
The Division of Two Tribes
W HEN white men first penetrated the Western wilderness of America they found the tribes of Shoshone and Comanche at odds, and it is a…
Besieged by Starvation
HUNDRED years before the white men set up their trading-posts on the Arkansas and Platte, a band of mountain hunters made a descent on what…
A Yellowstone Tragedy
LTHOUGH the Indians feared the geyser basins of the upper Yellowstone country, believing the hissing and thundering to be voices of evil…
The Broad House
OWN in the canyon of Chaco, New Mexico, stands a building evidently coeval with those of the cliff-dwellers, that is still in good…
The Death Waltz
EARS ago, when all beyond the Missouri was a waste, the military post at Fort Union, New Mexico, was the only spot for miles around where…
The Flood at Santa Fé
MANY ANY are the scenes of religious miracles in this country, although French Canada and old Mexico boast of more. So late as the prosaic…
Goddess of Salt
ETWEEN Zuni and Pescado is a steep mesa, or table-land, with fantastic rocks weathered into tower- and roof-like prominences on its sides…
The Coming of the Navajos
MANY ANY fantastic accounts of the origin of man are found among the red tribes. The Onondagas say that the Indians are made from red earth…
The Ark on Superstition Mountains
HE Pima Indians of Arizona say that the father of all men and animals was the butterfly, Cherwit. Maké (earth-maker), who fluttered down…
The Pale Faced Lightning
T WENTY miles from the capital of Arizona stands Mount Superstition-the scene of many traditions, the object of many fears. Two centuries…
The Weird Sentinel at Squaw
PEAK T HERE is a cave under the highest butte of the Squaw Peak range, Arizona, where a party of Tonto Indians was found by white men in…
Sacrifice of the Toltecs
ENTURIES ago, when Toltec civilization had extended over Arizona, and perhaps over the whole West, the valleys were occupied by large…
Ta-Vwots Conquers the Sun
3 pages
The Comanche Rider
HE ways of disposing of the Indian dead are many. In some places ground sepulture is common; in others, the corpses are placed in trees.
Horned Toad and Giants
HE Moquis have a legend that, long ago, THE when the principal mesa that they occupy was higher than it is now, and when they owned all the…
The Spider Tower
N Dead Man's Canyon-a deep gorge that is lateral to the once populated valley of the Rio de Chelly, Arizona-stands a stark spire of…
The Lost Trail
HE canyon of Oak Creek is choked by a mass of rock, shaped like a keystone, and wedged into the jaws of the defile. An elderly Ute tells…
A Battle in the Air
N the country about Tishomingo, Indian Territory, troubles are foretold by a battle of unseen men in the air. Whenever the sound of…
The Voyager of the Whulge
L IKE the ancient Greeks, the Siwash of the Northwest invest the unseen world with spiritual intelligence. Every tree has a soul; the…
Tamanous of Tacoma
M OUNT TACOMA has always been a place of superstitious regard among the Siwash (Sauvage) of the Northwest. In their myths it was the place…
The Devil and the Dalles
N days when volcanoes were playing in the Northwest and the sternly beautiful valley of the Columbia was a hell of ash and lava, the fiend…
Cascades of the Columbia
WHEN HEN the Siwash, as the Northwestern Indians called themselves, were few, Mount Hood was kept by the Spirit of Storms, who when he…
The Death of Umatilla
MATILLA, chief of the Indians at the Cascades of the Columbia, was one of the few red men of his time who favored peace with the white…
Hunger Valley
AST of San Francisco is a narrow valley opening to the bay of San Pablo. In spite of its pleasant situation and fruitful possibilities, it…
The Wrath of Manitou
HE county called Kern, in California, lies mostly in a circular valley, and long, long before the evil one had created the pale face it was…
The Spook of Misery Hill
OM BOWERS, who mined on Misery Hill, near Pike City, California, never had a partner, and he never took kindly to the rough crowd about the…
The Queen of Death Valley
N the southern part of California, near the Arizona line, is the famous Death Valley-a tract of arid, alkaline plain hemmed in by steep…
Bridal Veil Fall
HE vast ravine of Yo Semite (Grizzly Bear), formed by tearing apart the solid Sierras, is graced by many water-falls raining down the…
The Governor's Right Eye
She LD Governor Hermenegildo Salvatierra, of Presidio, California, sported only one eyethe left-because the other had been shot out by an…
The Prisoner in American Shaft
A N Indian seldom forgets an injury or omits to revenge it, be it a real or a fancied one.
Kidd's Treasure
9 pages
Other Buried Wealth
14 pages
Monsters and Sea-Serpents
2 pages
Stone-Throwing Devils
2 pages
Storied Springs
2 pages
Lovers' Leaps
3 pages
God on the Mountains
3 pages