“Come to me, come to me, children of the sea;
Neither bell, book, nor cross shall win ye from your queen.”

The watching, listening Indians stood motionless a few moments: Then, one of them leaped from the bank and disappeared into the deep water. Immediately, every one of the light-skinned tribe—men, women, and children—evidently drawn by an irresistible force, followed. As the last of the Indians drowned, the mermaid stopped singing; she laughed aloud, and she and the column of water dropped into a quieted river. Only the priest stood on the riverbank. After that time, on occasional quiet, moonlit nights, strange, festive music could be heard coming from the mermaid goddess’s place on the river bottom. The priest, disheartened by his failure as a missionary, gradually sickened and died.

The European explorers, after hearing this tale, listened for the mysterious music one still, bright night. They heard, just barely at first and then louder, “a weird sound, something like a swarm of bees in flight”; thereafter they called the stream “the Singing River.”

"Come to me, come to me, children of the sea."

The peaceful Pascagoulas had as neighbors—and sometime enemies—the warlike Biloxi Indians, who called themselves “First People.” One day beautiful Princess Miona of the Biloxis met Olustee, the handsome young chieftain of the Pascagoulas, and they fell in love. Despite the fact that Miona was betrothed to Otanga, the chief of her own people, she fled with Olustee to his tribe. The spurned, enraged Otanga went on the warpath, leading his fierce Biloxi braves against Olustee and the Pascagoulas, who were greatly outnumbered and overpowered. Olustee insisted that he be given up for atonement to save his tribe, but the Pascagoulas refused, saying they would either save him and his bride or die with them.

The two tribes went into battle against each other, but very soon the Pascagoulas lost all hope of victory. Faced with either subjugation to Otanga and enslavement by the Biloxis or death by suicide, the Pascagoulas chose the latter. The women and children, holding hands and chanting their song of death, led the way into the depths of the river; the braves, also with joined hands and chanting, followed; and Miona and Olustee, side by side with clasped hands, walked last into the engulfing waters. That ended the Pascagoula Indians’ earthly existence.