And thou didst pale thy gentle head extend, In woes, that ev'n the tribe of desarts was thy friend!' XXIII. He said—and strain'd unto his heart the boy: Far differently the mute Oneyda took His calumet of peace, and cup of joy; As monumental bronze unchanged his look: A soul that pity touch'd, but never shook: g Train'd, from his tree-rock'd cradle to his bier, The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook Impassive—fearing but the shame of fear— A stoic of the woods-a man without a tear. Calumet of peace. The calumet is the Indian name for the ornamented pipe of friendship, which they smoke as a pledge of amity. Tree-rock'd cradl -The Indian mothers suspend their children in their cradles from the boughs of trees, and let them be rocked by the wind. XXIV. Yet deem not goodness on the savage stock As lives the oak unwither'd on the rock He scorn'd his own, who felt another's woe: Or laced his mocasins, in act to go, A song of parting to the boy he sung, Who slept on Albert's couch, nor heard his friendly tongue. XXV. Sleep, wearied one! and in the dreaming land Shouldst thou the spirit of thy mother greet, Oh! say, to-morrow, that the white man's hand Hath pluck'd the thorns of sorrow from thy feet; The fountain, where at noon I thought it sweet To feed thee with the quarry of my bow, 'And pour'd the lotus-horn, or slew the mountain roe. XXVI. Adieu! sweet scion of the rising sun! 'But should affliction's storms thy blossom mock, 'Then come again-my own adopted one! ' And I will graft thee on a noble stock : ' And I will teach thee, in the battle's-shock, · And gratulate his soul rejoicing in the stars!’— From a flower shaped like a horn, which Chateaubriant presumes to be of the lotus kind, the Indians in their travels through the desart often find a draught of dew purer than any other water. XXVII. So finish'd he the rhyme (howe'er uncouth) That true to nature's fervid feelings ran; (And song is but the eloquence of truth:) His path, by mountain, swamp, or deep ravine, XXVIII. Old Albert saw him from the valley's side— His pirogue launch'd-his pilgrimage begun― Far, like the red-bird's wing, he seem'd to glide;— Then div'd, and vanish'd in the woodlands dun. |