to go on.  Again the cock crew.  He next came to an immense plain, through which his path led straight forward for some time, till he came to the foot of a ladder.  He was told to ascend this, but it reached up as he went, till, looking back, he had a wide bird’s-eye view of towns, cities, and villages.  He continued to go up until he reached the skies.  Here stood another white man, who told him to look round a new earth.  There were four splendid houses.  His guide told him to enter one of these.  As he got near it, a door opened, and he entered into a splendid apartment where four white men were seated.  Two of these had heads white as snow.  They spoke to him saying, Here is the place to which you are called.  No Indian has ever reached here before.  Few white men come here.  Look down and behold the bones of those who have attempted to ascend, bleaching at the foot of the ladder.

The two venerable men then gave him a bright-red deer’s tail, and an eagle’s feather, which he was directed to wear on his head; they were talismans that would protect him from peril and danger, and insure him the favor of the Master of Life.  Both white and red men could have reached the place, they continued, but for refusing to receive Him who was sent to save them, and for reviling and killing him.  Look around again, they continued to say, and he saw animals and birds of every kind in abundance.  These are for the red men, and are placed here to show the peculiar care of the Great Spirit for them.

Nebahquam was a Roman Catholic, and died in that faith.  But he said that he had heard the dream in his youth, and he regarded it as sacred.  Such are the blendings of superstition and religion in the Indian mind.

3d.  Some of the incidents of the fictitious legends of the Indians teach lessons which would scarcely be expected.  Manibozho, when he had killed a moose, was greatly troubled as to the manner in which he should eat the animal.  “If I begin at the head,” said he, “they will say I eat him head first.  If I begin at the side, they will say I eat him sideways.  If I begin at the tail, they will say I eat him tail first.”

While he deliberated, the wind caused two limbs of a tree that touched to make a harsh creaking noise.  “I cannot eat with this noise,” said he, and immediately climbed the tree to prevent it, where he was caught by the arm and held fast between the two trees.  Whilst thus held, a pack of hungry wolves came that way and devoured the carcass of the moose before his eyes.

The listener to the story is plainly taught to draw this conclusion:  If thou hast meat in thy wanderings, trouble not thyself as to little things, nor let trifles disturb thy temper, lest in trying to rectify small things thou lose greater ones.