The young Mohawk regarded it with feelings of superstitious awe,
and would not suffer Hector to land the canoe on its rocky shores.
"It is a place of spirits," she said; "the ghosts of my fathers will be
angry if we go there." Even her young companions felt that, they were upon
sacred ground, and gazed with silent reverence upon the burial isle.
Strongly imbued with a love of the marvellous, which they had derived from
their Highland origin, Indiana's respect for the spirits of her ancestors
was regarded as most natural, and in silence, as if fearing to disturb the
solemnity of the spot, they resumed their paddles, and after awhile reached
the mouth of the river Otonabee, which was divided into two separate
channels by a long, low point of swampy land covered with stunted, mossy
bushes and trees, rushes, driftwood, and aquatic plants. Indiana told
them this river flowed from the north, and that it was many days' journey
up to the lakes; to illustrate its course, she drew with her paddle a long
line with sundry curves and broader spaces, some longer, some smaller, with
Bays and inlets, which she gave them to understand were the chain of lakes
that she spoke of.
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