“It is no less than an Indian idol or charm, artistically cut from piece of rock, which appears to have been originally a piece of petrified walnut wood. It was found in 1860, on the lot near F. Minor's, before mentioned as the place where the most perfect specimens have been found. It was discovered while hoeing corn. It evidently represents some animal, but it is difficult to divine what. It has pretty well form ed head and body, with large, round ears, and holes for the insertion of four legs, but the latter are missing. It looks as much like the representative of an enormous lizard, as anything. It can hardly represent the Great Spirit. It is not of sufficiently attractive conception for that. It may, therefore, be presumed to be the likeness of Hobbamoko, or their Spirit of Evil, whom they feared, and worshipped more assiduously than the Good Spirit, whom they supposed lived quite at his ease, caring little for the actions or affairs of his red children, after having given them their corn, beans and squash, and taught them the mode of their cultivation. Some of these relics our artist has endeavored to make plain to the mind's eye."
"And Nonnewaug, too, at the appointed time, slept
with his fathers, and the small remnant of his people buried him in the beautiful
plain at the foot of the musical falls that are called by his name, where his
fathers' people had been buried before him, true to their instinct of selecting
the most beautiful places by the river side, by the silvery cascade, or in the
verdant plain. An apple tree was planted at the head of his grave, which still stands
there, the faithful guardian of the ashes that repose beneath its grateful
shade. It is venerable tree, some 150 years old, but docs not bear the marks of
so great an age, though there are several decayed places in it, so perfectly
shown in the accompanying cut of the grave and tree, taken by the artist on the
spot during the last summer. When the writer first visited it, twenty years
ago, there was large hillock, or mound, raised over the grave, which remained,
distinguishing the sachem's, by its size, from the other graves around him,
till few years ago, when the present owner of the field committed the sacrilege
of plowing it down, saying he was not going to have such an old "hummock
in his field," much to the regret of every true antiquarian, and lover of
ancient things. The mound thus destroyed was some ten feet long, six feet wide,
and four feet high, having been gradually formed, in the same way, as in the
case of Pomperaug's grave."
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY (Wm. Cothren Vol. II page 884-5)
