n he called me "dearest,"
And the rainbow-tail of the Spirit Bird,
And the shells that were dyed in the sunset's blush,
And the beads that he brought from a far-off land,
And the skin of the striped lynx that he slew
Ere the mocassins deck'd his feet,
Before the Idols,
The Man, and Woman, and Dog of Stone,
That stand on the willow-bank,
On the willow-bank that o'erlooks the stream,
The shallow and turbid stream.
I make them my Okkis to guard my Brave;
I go to ask them to shield his breast
Against the Maha's darts;
To give to his arm the strength of two;
To give to his foot the fleetness of two;
To wring from his heart the drop of blood,
If he hath such drop, that causes fear
To make his cry like the Serpent's hiss[F],
Among the hills of the setting sun,
And when there is Maha blood on his hand,
And a bunch of Maha scalps at his back.
To send him back to these longing arms,
That I may wipe from his weary brow
The drops that spring from his toil."
"Go! Maiden, go!"

[Footnote A: Thunder, sometimes called by the Indians, _par excellence_,
"the Voice."]

[Footnote B: "Okkis"--_protecting spirit_. See note 1, page 195.]

[Footnote C: Quebec--Heights of Abraham.]

[Footnote D: The Spaniards, from whom the Indians first procured the
horse. This great acquisition is referred to in many of their
traditions. See "The Wahconda's Son," &c.]

[Footnote E: Song Sparrow--_Fringilla melodica_.]

[Footnote F: Serpent's hiss, the thunder. See note 5, p. 167.]

With the above characteristic and wild song, chanted with the action and
in the tones peculiar to the Indian story-teller, and which, in truth,
is always the manner in which their traditions are related, the Little
Snake, the principal chief of the Ricaras, and who was as celebrated
throughout the wilds of the west for his skill in song as Carolan in the
palace of his mountain lord, or Blondel at the court of Coeur de Lion,
commenced his tale. As far as the visual organ was concerned, Mr.
Verdier was before acquainted with the curious images to which it
referred. He had seen, a few miles back, from the Mississippi, a small
"willow-bank," rising in the words of the song above a "shallow and
turbid stream," upon which were two stones bearing a great resemblance
to the human form, and a third having a still greater resemblance to a
dog. He knew that they were objects of