In the age primeval, when the earth was fresh from the Creator's hands, and the trees had put on their earliest verdure, the Evil Spirit, whom the Great Spirit had cast out of Paradise, roamed over the earth and had his home in a cave under the mountains. When the chill of winter stole over the earth, he retired to his cave and slept like the bear till the warm breath of spring breathed upon him; then out of his lair, like a beast that seeks prey, the hideous monster came to work evil.
He loved the flesh of the dead, and would strip their bones like the sly fox that falls on the rabbit. He spread disease with his breath and killed the ground from producing. When he walked about it was in invisible garb, but his foot-falls resounded like thunder. And thus the Sioux lived in dread, fearing to pursue the game lest they should fall into snares set by the monster. When the Indians lighted their sacrificial fires the Demon would send the rain to destroy it, and the storms were sent by him to scatter the camps and pillage the maize fields.
With many moons of forbearing the Great Spirit at length determined to avenge the Indian people—to expel the Demon of Evil from the land he so long had haunted. Unable to withstand the cold, and with mortal dread of water, the Evil Spirit returned to his cave, and the flood gates of heaven opened upon him. The icy winds from the north blew their frosted breaths over the mountains till the water fell down in the gorges and froze into crystals that reflected the black clouds above it.
Then the Monster of Evil shook with the cold till the rocks were riven asunder; till the trees shed the ice from their branches, and the water poured through the rifts in upon him. With a voice so loud it lifted the earth from above him, the Demon upheaved his monster proportions and, like the dash of the tempest, he flew through the air away to the southward, leaving the shock of his footsteps and the flames from his nostrils behind him.
Thus vanquishing the Spirit of Evil, the Great Spirit marked the spot of his living with a lake through whose waters no live thing could move, for poisoned it was with the breath of the Demon.
Historical Note: A gentleman who visited this mysterious lake—from circumstances connected with which the Sioux Indians circulated this legend—described it as follows: "In the southern part of Webster county, Missouri, in the Ozark range of mountains, there is a small lake that goes by the euphonious name of the Devil's Den. It is situated on the top of a hill, and covers an area of about two acres. The summit of the hill seems hollowed out and lined with a wall of limestone one hundred feet in depth to the surface of the water. This wall is perpendicular, and encloses the lake on all sides but one, where a slight break is made for a depth of sixty feet. The remaining forty feet have been covered with ladders, and adventurous persons have sought to explore the mysterious waters. No living thing has been discovered in them. No blade of grass nor shrub, nor sprig of moss can be found in the smooth rock that surrounds the dark waters. Some cedar logs float undecaying in the lake, but no cedar grows within a score of miles. A substance like sperm, that will burn like a candle, is gathered from the surface of the lake, which probably with the wild and weird appearance of the vicinity suggested to the superstitious that it was the devil's bathing pool."