ges
and incidents.

The Indian story-teller, having paused a moment to recruit his strength
and voice, which had suffered by his energy, and to gather the opinion
of the audience, which, for the first time in the present assembly, was
expressed by audible signs of satisfaction, an unusual occurrence in an
Indian audience, resumed his tale as follows:--

And who are they
To whom the Brave has given his bow,
His arrow, and his spear;
To whom the Hunter has given the flesh,
The juicy flesh of the elk,
At whose feet the Priest has laid his robe,
The shaggy skin of the old black bear,
Where she, as bright as the Hunter's Star[A],
The Maid with hair like the clustering grapes,
Whose neck is the neck of the swan,
Whose eyes are the eyes of the dove,
Whose hand is as small as the red-oak's leaf,
Whose foot is the length of the lark's spread wing.
Whose step is the step of the antelope's child,
Whose voice is the voice of a rill in the moon,
Of the rill's most gentle song,
Has cast the gifts of her Brave,
Cast, without a tear,
The tuft of the Song Sparrow, that which sang
From its bower in the bush on the beautiful night,
That he called his maiden, "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 decked his feet?
I will tell you who they are:
Listen, brother!
Thou from the distant land,
Pour oil into thine ears, for I
Will fill them with a song.

They both were Ricaras,
And the Dog was a Ricara Dog;
It was many suns ago,
Yet ask me not how long,
For the warrior cannot tell,
But this do I know the rivers ran
Through forest, and prairie, and copse,
And the mountains were piled to the base of the clouds,
And the waters were deep,
And the winter was cold,
And the summer was hot;
Grass grew on the prairies,
Flowers bloomed on the lea,
The lark sang in the morning,
The owl hooted at night,
And the world was such a world
As the Ricara world is now:--
My brother hears.

One was a Ricara boy,
And one was a Ricara girl,
And one was a Ricara dog.
My brother hears.
The boy and the girl were lovers,
And the dog loved both,
T