There was one book that had a special fascination for him, in fact when he
first examined it, and had had some of its illustrations explained to him,
it gave this superstitious Indian about the biggest fright he had ever
received. It was a book in which were pictured and described many of the
great extinct monsters of the old times. These enormous hideous creatures,
whose bones and fossil remains are still occasionally to be found, quite
alarmed him. Yet the book was generally about the first one he desired to
see.
On this present visit, however, Souwanas, while as usual eager again to
inspect this book, was observed to look at it in a very different spirit.
The explanation came out later, when he had the children around him--indeed
almost the whole household--listening to a new Nanahboozhoo story which he
had secured from some famous old Indian whom he had met while far away on
his long hunting excursion.
"Yes, it is true," he began, "that there did once live on this earth, both
in the land and in the water, great animals like those here shown in this
book. I have been to the wigwam of the great Shuniou and from him I have
learned much about them, as handed down in the tradition of our
forefathers. Great and terrible were they, and the people of those times
lived in great terror of them, for the bows and arrows and even the stone
war clubs of the strongest warriors were powerless to kill or even
dangerously wound such monsters.
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