I should have told my Reader, that this Indian
had been formerly married to one of the greatest Beauties
of his Country, by whom he had several Children.
This Couple were so famous for their Love and Constancy
to one another, that the Indians to this Day,
when they give a married Man Joy of his Wife, wish
that they may live together like Marraton and
Yaratilda. Marraton had not stood long
by the Fisherman when he saw the Shadow of his beloved
Yaratilda, who had for some time fixed her
Eye upon him, before he discovered her. Her Arms
were stretched out towards him, Floods of Tears ran
down her Eyes; her Looks, her Hands, her Voice called
him over to her; and at the same time seemed to tell
him that the River was impassable. Who can describe
the Passion made up of Joy, Sorrow, Love, Desire,
Astonishment, that rose in the Indian upon the Sight
of his dear Yaratilda? He could express
it by nothing but his Tears, which ran like a River
down his Cheeks as he looked upon her. He had
not stood in this Posture long, before he plunged
into the Stream that lay before him; and finding it
to be nothing but the Phantom of a River, walked on
the Bottom of it till he arose on the other Side.
At his Approach Yaratilda flew into his Arms,
whilst Marraton wished himself disencumbered
of that Body which kept her from his Embraces.
After many Questions and Endearments on both Sides,
she conducted him to a Bower which she had dressed
with her own Hands with all the Ornaments that could
be met with in those blooming Regions. She had
made it gay beyond Imagination, and was every day
adding something new to it. As Marraton
stood astonished at the unspeakable Beauty of her
Habitation, and ravished with the Fragrancy that came
from every Part of it, Yaratilda told him that
she was preparing this Bower for his Reception, as
well knowing that his Piety to his God, and his faithful
Dealing towards Men, would certainly bring him to
that happy Place whenever his Life should be at an
End. She then brought two of her Children to
him, who died some Years before, and resided with
her in the same delightful Bower, advising him to breed
up those others which were still with him in such
a Manner, that they might hereafter all of them meet
together in this happy Place.
The Tradition tells us further, that he had afterwards
a Sight of those dismal Habitations which are the
Portion of ill Men after Death; and mentions several
Molten Seas of Gold, in which were plunged the Souls
of barbarous Europeans, [who [5]] put to the
Sword so many Thousands of poor Indians for
the sake of that precious Metal: But having already
touched upon the chief Points of this Tradition, and
exceeded the Measure of my Paper, I shall not give
any further Account of it.
C.
[Footnote 1: Albertus Magnus, a learned Dominican
who resigned, for love of study, his bishopric of
Ratisbon, died at Cologne in 1280. In alchemy
a distinction was made between stone and spirit, as
between body and soul, substance and accident.
The evaporable parts were called, in alchemy, spirit
and soul and accident.]
