One of the things about this hobby that is alot of fun is seeking out old stories about settlers and pioneers in our country. Recently I discouvered the writing of Washington Irving who many might know wrote Rip Van Winkle.
Today I found and old book in an antique store called The Sketch Book and it is filled with Washington Irving stories. One of these is call Philip of Pokanoket. I would like to quote a passage in the storywhich is about certain Indians and the way they were treated by the early settlers. Washington Irving goes on to describe some of the reasons for the brutalities against the Indians....
At Hadley, Northampton, and other towns in their neighborhood "was heard the report of a great piece of rdance, with a shaking of the earh and a considerable echo." Others were alarmed on a still sunshiny moing by the discharge of guns and muskets; bullets seemed to whistle past them, and the noise of drums resounded in the air, seeming to pass away to the westward; others fancied that they heard the galloping of horses over their heads; and certain monstrous births which took place about the time filled the superstitious in some towns with doleful forebodings." Many of these sights and sounds may be ascribed to natural phenomena - to the northern lights which occur vividly in those latitudes, the meteors which explode in the air, the casual rushing of a blast through the top branches of the forest, the crash of fallen trees or disrupted rocks and to those other uncouth sounds and echoes which will sometimes strike the ear so strangelyh amidst the profound stillness of woodland solitudes.
What does everyone think? I know I sure thought of our big hairy sasquatch when reading this. I wonder how many atrocities were committed against the indians when the folks were really experiencing BF phenomena?
Does anyone else have stories like this of our early settlers. I have a few others and will post if anyone is interested.
goldie
Posted on Aug 21, 2002, 8:32 PM from IP address 64.12.96.171