He-no was the Jupiter of the Iroquois, and Ga-oh reminds us of Æolus. Those who are familiar with these mythological personages of the Indian creation, make use of them as the classical student does of the gods of the ancients. When there is a furious storm they say, He-no is in a rage. When a violent tempest shakes the earth, they say, Ga-oh is in a frenzy. But among a great proportion of the reading community, these allusions would have no meaning. A thorough knowledge of Indian history, language and legends, would add a great store of pleasing images to the collections of the poet and novelist, that would be thoroughly American, and add new interest to American literature. THE LEGEND OF HE-NO, THE THUNDERER. A young maiden residing at Ga-u-gwa, a village above Niagara Falls, at the mouth of Cayuga creek, had been contracted in marriage to an old man of ugly manners and disagreeable person. As the marriage was hateful to her, and by the customs of the nations there was no escape, she resolved upon self-destruction. Launching a bark canoe upon the Niagara, she directed it towards the current, and was soon swept over the frightful precipice amid the foaming waters. He-no the Thunderer had his home behind the sheet, and seeing her descend, he caught her in a blanket and carried her behind the fall. One of the servants of He-no being attracted by her beauty desired to marry her, to which she had no objection, and by the voice of the Thunderer they were united. For many years before this the people of Ga-u-gwa had been visited by an annual pestilence, which destroyed great numbers and for which they could assign no cause. At the end of a year He-no revealed to the maiden the cause, and sent her back to tell the people the remedy. He said a monstrous serpent dwelt under the village, who depended upon the bodies of the dead for sustenance, and in order to obtain his annual supply he went forth once a year and poisoned the river Niagara, and Cayuga creek, so that all who drank of them perished. The people were directed to move to Buffalo creek, and the young wife was charged to bring up the son of which she would soon become the mother, in retirement, and not mingle in the strifes of war. With those injunctions she departed on her mission. When the great serpent again poisoned the waters the earth brought him no food, and putting forth his head to discover the cause, he saw the village deserted. He immediately scented the trail by which the people had departed, and followed them to their new home. But whilst passing through a narrow channel, He-no discharged upon him a mighty thunderbolt which inflicted a mortal wound. The Senecas still point to a place in the creek where the banks were shelved out in a semi-circular form, which was done by the serpent when he turned to escape.