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The Lake Gun
by
“You have come to visit the land of your fathers?”
A slight wave of the hand was the reply. All this time the young Seneca kept his eye fastened in one direction, apparently regarding some object in the lake. Fuller could see nothing to attract this nearly riveted gaze, though curiosity induced him to make the effort.
“You admire this sheet of water, by the earnest manner in which you look upon it?” observed Fuller.
“See!” exclaimed the Indian, motioning toward a point near a mile distant. “He moves! may be he will come here.”
“Moves! I see nothing but land, water, and sky. What moves?”
“The Swimming Seneca. For a thousand winters he is to swim in the waters of this lake. Such is the tradition of my people. Five hundred winters are gone by since he was thrown into the lake; five hundred more must come before he will sink. The curse of the Manitou is on him. Fire will not burn him; water will not swallow him up; the fish will not go near him; even the accursed axe of the settler can not cut him into chips! There he floats, and must float, until his time is finished!”
{Swimming Seneca = though I have been unable to discover any genuine Native American origin for this legend, a detailed variation of it can be found in a poem, “Outalissa”, by Rev. Ralph Hoyt, published in “Sketches by Rev. Hoyt, Vol. VIII” (New York. C. Shepard, n.d. [ca. 1848] (the Geneva College library copy of which is inscribed “DeLancey” and may have belonged to the family of Cooper’s brother-in-law, Episcopal Bishop of Western New York William Heathcote De Lancey (1797-1865), who lived in Geneva)–a somewhat different version forms the Geneva (Hobart) College student legend of Chief Agayentha or “The Floating Chief.”}
“You must mean the ‘Wandering. Jew?’ “
“So the pale-faces call him; but he was never a Jew. ‘Tis a chief of the Senecas, thrown into the lake by the Great Spirit, for his bad conduct. Whenever he tries to get upon the land, the Spirit speaks to him from the caves below, and he obeys.”
“THAT must mean the ‘Lake Gun?’ “
“So the pale-faces call it. It is not strange that the names of the red man and of the pale-faces should differ.”
“The races are not the same, and each has its own traditions. I wish to hear what the Senecas say about this floating tree; but first have the goodness to point it out to me.”
The young Indian did as Fuller requested. Aided by the keener vision of the red man, our traveler at length got a glimpse of a distant speck on the water, which his companion assured him was the object of their mutual search. He himself had been looking for the “Jew” a week, but had asked no assistance from others, relying on the keenness of his sight and the accuracy of his traditions. That very morning he had first discovered the speck on the water, which he now pointed out to his companion.
“You think, then, that yonder object is the ‘Wandering Jew?’ ” asked Fuller.
“It is the Swimming Seneca. Five hundred winters has he been obliged to keep in the chilled waters of the lake; in five hundred more the Manitou will let him rest on its bottom.”
“What was the offense that has drawn down upon this chief so severe a punishment?”
“Listen to our traditions, and you shall know. When the Great Spirit created man, He gave him laws to obey, and duties to perform–“
“Excuse me, Seneca, but your language is so good that I hardly know what to make of you.”
An almost imperceptible smile played about the compressed lip of the young Indian, who, at first, seemed disposed to evade an explanation; but, on reflection, he changed his purpose, and communicated to Fuller the outlines of a very simple, and, by no means, unusual history. He was a chief of the highest race in his tribe, and had been selected to receive the education of a pale-face at one of the colleges of that people. He had received a degree, and, yielding to the irrepressible longings of what might almost be termed his nature, he no sooner left the college in which he had been educated, than he resumed the blanket and leggings, under the influence of early recollections, and a mistaken appreciation of the comparative advantages between the civilized condition, and those of a life passed in the forest and on the prairies. In this respect our young Seneca resembles the white American, who, after a run of six months in Europe, returns home with the patriotic declaration in his mouth, that his native land is preferable to all other lands. Fuller soon understood the case, when both reverted to their common object in coming thither. The young Seneca thereupon resumed his explanation.