An Indian Legend

In the county of Berkshire, stat9 of Hassaehusetts, the lofty Monument mountaiu rears its gray forra. If there is anythiug sublime attached to a mount, a rare beauty will be admitted to linger around this wild and towering liue of rooks. lts bold aud frowning front extends about one ruile, and so roughly is it flung together by nature and standing at the same time so perpendicular that a tremulous chili hurries over the body as the awestruek beholder gazes up at it. A few knotty, dwarfish pines are to be seen peering obliquely from the narrow crevices, looking green even among rocks, like hope flourishing on the borders of despair. The red bolt from the thundercloud, the winds and the power of centuries have torn way rnany fragmeats of stone from on high aud sent thera smoking to the base, where already a long pyramidal line is strung along, quite a mouutain in itself. The rear of this place fallsoff with a gentleslope, which is oveïshadowed by tall and regal looking trees, whose giaut roots have never been broken. It presents a fearful yet magnificent appearance. There is no village near to wake the solemnity of its solitude, and silence is as profound at the sun's meridian as at the hush of midnight. It always seemed to me this spot was a favorite with the sun, for the first rosy flush of morning appeared uneasy until drinking the dew from the trees upon its brow, and his last rays lingered there at evening, even after a partial twilight began to fling a dusky shade over the vast valley below. But this may be imagination. I must just njention a circumstance in relation to this mountain which gave to it the appellation which it has received. Once this backward slope was studded with the wigwams of the Indians, called the Stockbridge tribe, and tradition has banded down many au ambiguous and chilling tale in regard to them. It was an established law among them that when an Indian cornmitted a deed the penalty of which was death he should plunge himself, or, refusing to do this, be plunged by some one oL his tribe, over this frightful precipice. Many had been dashed to the rocky vale below, and so high was the spot from where the victima were cast off that it was generally supposed that the rapid descent through the air deprived them of breath, and few if any had ever been conscious of anything when they had reached the earth. A beantiful squaw transgressed by marrying into another tribe, and the penalty for such an offense was and ever had been death. She was well aware what her fate would be previous to her sealing it, but it did not restrain her. She disobeyed, and nothing could atone but the f uil extent of the law. Although she had courage sufficient to face death in marrying, she did not feel willing to sacrifice herself according to the mandate, and it therefore devolved upon some one to precipítate her over the cloud capped mountain. All her limbs being bound except her hands, she was borne to the verge and launched away with all the stoicism for which the Indians are famous. But here a thing occurred which had never been known before. In her downward flight she came in contact with the long branch of a pine which swuDg out many feet from the rocks, and, graspiug it with the clutch of deatb, succeeded in breaking the force she had attained, and re1 inained holding fast, suspended between the top and base of the ruountain. There she hung at the mercy of a slender branch, without even a hope of rescue. The space between her and the rocks was too much to think of touching them, and her strength, even in the cause of life, was not sufficient to draw her up to the limb. She cast her eyes up, but nothing was there but her relentless enemies, whose dirninished and dusky fornis were arranged along the edge of the mount. They mocked her in the situation in which she was placed, and the aisles of the forest reverberated to their hideous and unearthly yells. Below all was in miniature - the rocks were dwindled to a level with the surrounding vale, the trees had shrunk away to bushes, an old chief, who was sitting on a rock stringing nis bow, was but a speek, and the outline of his form could scarcely be traced. It was mom when her sentence waa executed, and tradition says that when the shadows of evening began to gather round she still was there, and her shrill cry was heard disturbing the quietness of the hour. Night came and passed away, and still she was swinging on this sloping pine, and the noise which she uttered told tnat hunger was doing his work upon her. Late in the morning some of the Indians, going over to the verge of the precipice and bending over, saw a few crows circling round the unfortunate victiru's head, as if impatient for her wasting body, which they evinced by diving and darting at her form and then, rising suddenly in the air with outstretched wings, as if some motion of life had deterred them from their purpose. Often did they rest their weary wings upon the very tree by which she was supported, and the long day passed with soine one of these sable creatures watcbiug the moment vrhen the grasp sbould fail and her body fall below. It was ou the uight of the second day that a scène took place which has never been forgetteu. The sun feil away at eve with a peculiar spleudor, turning every object in the valley to a golden light and causing the Housatonic, in its serpentine course, to gleam up and spangle like liqnid fire. Many was the hunter who lay watching the beauty of the beams which were flung around him, and when the last gorgeous streak had faded over Monument inountain the broad heavens were clear and blue, except the crimson folds which floated in grandeur aloug the west. Yetthe squaw still hung by the branch of the pine, and her cries alternately rose through the deep stillness that reigned around. But aoon a leaden haze began to rise along the aznre wall of the west and was shortly succeeded by dark, dismal looking olonds, around whose edge the lightning played, as if to light them ou in their sad and gloomy pathway. The thunder niuttered faintly, then sent its roll up to the meridiau, and flnally, with increased power, cracked and shook through the very heavens. The shriek of the squaw was heard in the profound pause after the roar had died away, but its echoes stirred not the syrupathies of any one of the tribe. Higher and higher rose the storm. The lightuing crinkled over the sky more vividly, and the report followed so soon and heavy that the gray old trees of the mount trerubled as the peals burst through the upper world. , Night had set in with all its blackness, when a party of the tribe proceeded to behold the sitaation of the squaw. Soon after their arrival a flame of fire euddenly lit up the woods. The pine was struck by a thunclerbolt, setting it ou fire, which, being parted from the cleft of the rook, spun round and round so swif tly that naught could be traced of the tree itself or the squaw whom they supposed to be attached to it. Upward it hurried into the air, burning and wbizzing in its course, the torrents of rain not even dimming its glare. Tradition says it whirled with suoh velocity that it did not seem to the eye to turn at all. Away it went, and it is said the Indians gazed at it nntil it seemed no bigger than a star, when finally it was lost in the blackness of the sky. The base of the mount was ïnimediately examined, but notbing was to be seen either of the pine or the squaw, when it was finally conclnded in council that it was the work of the Great Spirit. The Indians, therefore, laised a monument by rolling stones together, which stands to this day, and from which the mountain takes its name. The untutored urchin quickens his pace when passing this spot after daylight has departed from its summit and whistles a lively air to elévate his drooping spirits, and the teamster, as the crack of his whip rings among the rocks, starts from his seat as if a spirit spoke, so strange are the associations connected with Monument mountain. -