for the rights of their compeers, are determined by judges who are in other respects impartial. It hence happens, that, while a barrier is presented to arbitrary and unjust encroachments upon private rights, the real interests of the public never suffer. If we contrast the effects of this system with those of the pernicious one substituted for it in this country, we cannot but be struck with the obvious difference. Roads where the toll is scanty, are always kept in the worst order that can be tolerated, as the servants of the privileged company look of course to its interests in the first place; when it is no longer sufficient to pay an interest over and above the repairs, the road is abandoned; and when it yields a large income, the toll is never reduced below its original rate, but operates as a perpetual and heavy tax, for which no equivalent is given.

The breakwaters constructed in many of the estuaries of the British empire, are also considered by Mr. Strickland, and principally with a view to the circumstances of the mouth of the Delaware. His report and argument on this subject are instructive and conclusive. The last of the reports in this volume relates to the manufacture of iron. He has condensed in this much important matter; but from the very nature of the subject, it is less instructive than his other papers. In this branch of the arts, more perhaps depends upon the tact acquired by practice than in any other. The chemistry of the art is obscure, and as yet ill digested; thus little of value can be drawn from books, or the reasonings of scientific men, who have not the proper data on which to found their arguments. We would, however, state, that our information differs from Mr. Strickland's on the subject of rolled iron. It is no doubt true, that iron which would fly under the blow of a forge-hammer will bear the process of rolling, and thus, that much of that article imported into this country from England is of a very bad quality; but this is owing to the bad quality of the ore, to the want of a pure carbonaceous fuel, and to the carelessness with which the process is conducted, in manufacturing for a distant market, whence no complaints can ever reach the ear of the maker. We are in possession of opinions from the highest authority, that, with equal qualities of ore and fuel, and equal care in the manipulation, rolled iron will be superior to that manufactured entirely under the hammer.

The plates form by far the greater, and to all classes, particularly practical engineers, the more valuable part of this volume. They are of large size, and so carefully and accurately drawn, as to serve for working drafts. Through them, the American

engineer will obtain the most ready access to the principles and practice of his European brethren.

We cannot close this review without expressing more fully the pleasure we have derived from the perusal of this work, and the opinion, that it is well calculated to add to the reputation of the author, which already stands so high; for, whether we consider him as a practical man, as an intelligent engineer, or as a clear and instructive writer, he suffers little by a comparison with Dupin, who, on a similar mission from France, had preoccupied the same ground.

MISCELLANY.

AN INDIAN TRADITION.

THE MAN MADE OF ASHES-A SHAWANOS TALE.

A GREAT while ago, the Shawanos nation took up the war-talk against the Walkullas, who lived on their own lands, on the border of the Great Lake, and near the burning water.* A part of the nation were not well pleased with the war. The head-chief and the counsellors said, the Walkullas were very brave and strong, and the priests said, their god was bigger and older than ours. The old and experienced warriors said, the counsellors were wise, and had talked well; but the Mad Buffalo and all the young warriors would not listen to the words they spoke. They said, our fathers had beaten their fathers in many wars, and the Shawanos were as brave now as ever they were, and the Walkullas weaker than they were once. They said, the old and the timid might stay at home, and take care of the women and children, and sleep, while the young warriors went to war, and drank much blood. And when two moons were gone, they would come back, and bring prisoners, and a great many scalps, and have a great feast, and eat the Walkullas roasted in the fire. All the young men took up the war-talk; but the elder and wiser listened to the counsellors and the priests, and remained at home to see the leaf fall, and the grass wither, and to gather in the nuts and follow the deer.

* A boiling spring near the mouth of the river Walkulla.

Two moons passed, then a third, then came the night with nothing but stars; still no warriors. As the land of the Walkullas lay but a woman's journey of six suns from where our nation lived, our people began to fear that our young men had been overcome in battle, and were all slain. The head-chief and the counsellors, and all the warriors who remained behind, came together in the great wigwam, and called the priests to tell them where their sons were. Chenos, who was the wisest of them all (as well he might be, for he was older than the oak-tree whose top was dead), answered, that they were killed by their enemies, the Walkullas, and by warriors who lived beyond the Great Salt Lake, fought with thunder and lightning, and came to our enemies on the back of a great bird. When he said this, the women cried very loud, and the men sprung up and seized their bows and arrows to go to make war upon the Walkullas, and the strange warriors who came on the bird and had helped to slay their sons; but Chenos bade them sit down. "There is one yet living," said he. "He will soon be here. The sound is in my ears of his footsteps as he crosses the hollow hills. He has killed many of the enemy; he has glutted his vengeance; he has drunk blood in plenteous draughts. Long he fought with the men of his own race, and many fell before him; but he fled from the men who came to the battle armed with the red lightning, and hurling unseen death. Even now I see him coming. The shallow streams he has forded, the deep rivers he has swum. He is tired and hungry, and his quiver has no arrows, but he brings a prisoner in his arms. Lay the deer's flesh on the coals, for he comes. Taunt him not, for he is valiant, and has fought like a hungry tiger."

As the wise Chenos spoke these words to the grey-headed counsellors, the head-warrior rushed into the midst of them. There he stood, tall and straight as a young pine, but he spoke no word, looking with a full eye on the head-chief and the counsellors. There was blood upon his body, dried on by the sun, and the arm next his heart was bound around with the skin of the deer. His eye looked hollow, and his body gaunt, as though he had fasted long. His quiver had no arrows, but he had seven scalps hanging at his back. Six of them had black hair, but that which grew upon the seventh was yellow as the fallen leaf.

"Where are our sons?" asked the head-chief of the warrior. "Ask the wolf and the panther," he answered.

"Brother, tell us where are our sons," exclaimed the headchief, louder than before. "Our women ask us for their sons; Where are they?"

they want their sons.

66

"Where are the snows of the last year?" said the head-warrior. Are they not melted by the sun? Have they not gone down the swelling river into the Great Lake? They have, and even so have your sons descended the stream of time into the lake of death. The great star sees them as they lie by the water of the Walkulla, but they see him not. The panther and the wolf and and the wild-cat howl at their feet, and the eagle screams, but they hear him not. And the beasts and the birds feed upon the sons of the Shawanos, but they feel them not, for they are all dead."

When the head-warrior had told these things to our people, they set up a loud howl. The women cried, and the men got up and took down their spears, and bows and arrows, and filled their skins with parched corn, and prepared to dry meat for their journey, intending to go to war against the Walkullas and their allies, the slayers of their sons. But the head-warrior rose again, and said;

"Fathers and warriors, hear me, and believe my words, for I will tell you the truth. Who ever heard the Mad Buffalo lie, and who ever saw him afraid of his enemies? Never since the time that he chewed the bitter root * and put on the new moccasins, has he lied, or fled from his foes. Fathers, the Walkullas are weaker than we; their arms are not so strong, their hearts are not so big as ours. As well might the timid deer make war upon a hungry wolf as the Walkullas upon the Shawanos. We could slay them; the Mad Buffalo alone could have taken the scalps of half their nation. But a strange tribe has come among them, men whose skin is as white as the folds of the cloud, and whose hair shines like the great star of day. They do not fight as we fight, with bows and arrows, and with war-axes; but with spears which thunder and lighten, and send unseen death. The Shawanos fall before it as the grapes and acorns fall when the forest is shaken by the wind in the month before the snows. Look at the arm nearest my heart. It was struck by a great bolt from the stranger's thunder. But he fell by the hand of the Mad Buffalo, who fears nothing but shame, and his scalp lies at the feet of the head-chief. "Fathers, this was our battle. We came upon the Walkullas, I and my brothers, when they were unprepared. They were just going to hold the dance of the green-corn. The whole nation had come to the dance, there were none left behind, save the sick and the very old. But none were painted, they were all for peace, and were as women. We crept close to them, and hid

* An herb which the Indians chew like tobacco; but we are ignorant of its name.

in thick hazles which grew upon the edge of their camp; for the Shawanos are the cunning adder, not the foolish rattlesnake. We saw them preparing to offer a sacrifice to the Great Spirit. We saw them clean the deer, and hang his head, and his horns, and his entrails upon the great white pole with a forked top, which stood over the roof of the Council Wigwam. They did not know that the Master of Life had sent the Shawanos to pour blood on the sacrifice. We saw them take the new corn, and rub it upon their hands, and breasts, and faces. Then the headchief, having first thanked the Great Spirit for his great goodness to the Walkullas, got up and gave his brethren a long talk. He said to them what I am now going to repeat. He told them, the Great Spirit loved them, and had made them victorious over all their enemies (there he lied, for our fathers killed very many of their warriors). That he had sent a great many fat bears, and deer, and mooses to their hunting-grounds, and had given them fish whose heads were very small, and bodies very big. That he had made their corn grow tall and sweet, and had ordered his sun to ripen it in the beginning of the harvest-moon, that they might make a great feast for the strangers, who had come from a far country on the wings of a great bird, to warm themselves at the Walkullas' fire. He told them, that they must love the Great Spirit, take great care of the old men, tell no lies, and never break the faith of the calumet. That they must not harm the strangers, for they were their brothers, but must live in peace with them, and give them lands, and wives from among their women. If they should do these things, the Great Spirit, he said, would make their corn grow taller than ever, and direct them to huntinggrounds where the mooses should be as thick as the stars.

"Fathers and warriors, we heard these words, but we knew not what to do. We feared not the Walkullas; the Great Spirit, we saw, had given them into our hands; but who were the strange tribe? Were they armed as we were, and was their god as ours? Warriors, you all know the Young Eagle, the son of the Old Eagle who is here with us, but his wings are feeble, and he flies no more to the feast of blood. Well, the Young Eagle feared nothing but shame. He said, 'I see the fire of the strangers, and I will go and see who they are.' He went. The Old Eagle looks at me, as if he would say, why went not the head-warrior himself. I will tell you. The Mad Buffalo is a head taller than the tallest man in the nation. Can the moose crawl into the fox's hole? Can the swan hide himself under a hazel leaf? The Young Eagle was little save in his soul. He