sins.

She listened like one in a trance
when he spoke of the brave, bearded Frenchmen,
From the green, sun-lit valleys of France
to the wild _Hochelaga_[Q] transplanted,
Oft trailing the deserts of snow
in the heart of the dense Huron forests,
Or steering the dauntless canoe
through the waves of the fresh-water ocean.
"Yea, stronger and braver are they,"
said the aged Menard to Winona,
"Than the head-chief, tall Wazi-kute,[74]
but their words are as soft as a maiden's,
Their eyes are the eyes of the swan,
but their hearts are the hearts of the eagles;
And the terrible _Masa Wakan_[R]
ever walks by their side like a spirit;
Like a Thunder-bird, roaring in wrath,
flinging fire from his terrible talons,
He sends to their enemies death
in the flash of the fatal _Wakandee_."[S]

[Q] The Ottawa name for the region of the St. Lawrence River.

[R] "Mysterious metal"--or metal having a spirit in it. This is the
common name applied by the Dakotas to all firearms.

[S] Lightning.

The Autumn was past and the snow
lay drifted and deep on the prairies;
From his _teepee_ of ice came the foe--
came the storm-breathing god of the winter.
Then roared in the groves, on the plains,
on the ice-covered lakes and the river,
The blasts of the fierce hurricanes
blown abroad from the breast of _Waziya_. [3]
The bear cuddled down in his den,
and the elk fled away to the forest;
The pheasant and gray prairie-hen
made their beds in the heart of the snow-drift;
The bison herds huddled and stood
in the hollows and under the hill-sides,
Or rooted the snow for their food
in the lee of the bluffs and the timber;
And the mad winds that howled from the north,
from the ice-covered seas of _Waziya_,
Chased the gray wolf and silver-fox forth
to their dens in the hills of the forest.

Poor Father Menard--he was ill;
in his breast burned the fire of a fever;
All in vain was the magical skill
of _Wicasta Wakan_ [61] with his rattle;
Into soft, child-like slumber he fell,
and awoke in the land of the blessed--
To the holy applause of "Well-done!"
and the harps in the hands of the angels.
Long he carried the cross and he won
the coveted crown of a martyr.

In the land of the heathen he died,