He
was thus enabled to secure the general anatomical accuracy for
which his giant is remarkable. He followed the model very closely,
not attempting to represent a living being, not venturing even to
supply the missing hair. And these omissions, the result of
inexperience, furnish, singularly enough, the principal arguments
to the petrifactionists. For the popular opinion that the body
and head are hollow, that the nostrils and other orifices are open,
and that the tendons in the decayed leg are visible, has not the
slightest foundation. Why was this image made? Why hidden? and
by whom? are questions which I must be excused from answering
at present. HENRY
THE BELIEF OF THE ONONDAGA INDIANS--THE BODY
OF AN INDIAN PROPHET.
To the Editor of the Syracuse Journal:--
In your columns devoted to "Letters from the People," I thought
you would at this time publish the following, it being interesting
as one of the current opinions of the Indians of "the Castle"
regarding the wonderful "human petrified statue," which, in its
colossal proportions and the sphynx-like silence of its history
is so electrifying and exciting the people.
By one of the old squaws I am told that a large number of Onondagas
believe that the statue is the petrified body of a gigantic Indian
prophet, who flourished many centuries ago, and who foretold the
coming of the pale-faces, though long before the foot of our
forefathers had touched the western continent.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48