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With their weapons and their war-gear, | 19 |
Painted like the leaves of Autumn, | 19 |
Painted like the sky of morning, | 19 |
Wildly glaring at each other; | 19 |
In their faces stern defiance, | 19 |
In their hearts the feuds of ages, | 19 |
The hereditary hatred, | 19 |
The ancestral thirst of vengeance. | 19 |
Gitche Manito, the mighty, | 19 |
The creator of the nations, | 19 |
Looked upon them with compassion, | 19 |
With paternal love and pity; | 19 |
Looked upon their wrath and wrangling | 19 |
But as quarrels among children, | 19 |
But as feuds and fights of children! | 19 |
Over them he stretched his right hand, | 19 |
To subdue their stubborn natures, | 19 |
To allay their thirst and fever, | 19 |
By the shadow of his right hand; | 19 |
Spake to them with voice majestic | 19 |
As the sound of far-off waters, | 19 |
Falling into deep abysses, | 19 |
Warning, chiding, spake in this wise: | 19 |
"O my children! my poor children! | 19 |
Listen to the words of wisdom, | 19 |
Listen to the words of warning, | 19 |
From the lips of the Great Spirit, | 19 |
From the Master of Life, who made you! | 19 |
"I have given you lands to hunt in, | 19 |
I have given you streams to fish in, | 19 |
I have given you bear and bison, | 19 |
I have given you roe and reindeer, | 19 |
I have given you brant and beaver, | 19 |
Filled the marshes full of wild-fowl, | 19 |
Filled the rivers full of fishes: | 19 |
Why then are you not contented? | 19 |
Why then will you hunt each other? | 19 |
"I am weary of your quarrels, | 19 |
Weary of your wars and bloodshed, | 19 |
Weary of your prayers for vengeance, | 19 |
Of your wranglings and dissensions; | 19 |
All your strength is in your union, | 19 |
All your danger is in discord; | 19 |
Therefore be at peace henceforward, | 19 |
And as brothers live together. | 19 |
"I will send a Prophet to you, | 19 |
A Deliverer of the nations, | 19 |
Who shall guide you and shall teach you, | 19 |
Who shall toil and suffer with you. | 19 |
If you listen to his counsels, | 19 |
You will multiply and prosper; | 19 |
If his warnings pass unheeded, | 19 |
You will fade away and perish! | 19 |
"Bathe now in the stream before you, | 19 |
Wash the war-paint from your faces, | 19 |
Wash the blood-stains from your fingers, | 19 |
Bury your war-clubs and your weapons, | 19 |
Break the red stone from this quarry, | 19 |
Mould and make it into Peace-Pipes, | 19 |
Take the reeds that grow beside you, | 19 |
Deck them with your brightest feathers, | 19 |
Smoke the calumet together, | 19 |
And as brothers live henceforward!" | 19 |
Then upon the ground the warriors | 19 |
Threw their cloaks and shirts of deer-skin, | 19 |
Threw their weapons and their war-gear, | 19 |
Leaped into the rushing river, | 19 |
Washed the war-paint from their faces. | 19 |
Clear above them flowed the water, | 19 |
Clear and limpid from the footprints | 19 |
Of the Master of Life descending; | 19 |
Dark below them flowed the water, | 19 |
Soiled and stained with streaks of crimson, | 19 |
As if blood were mingled with it! | 19 |
From the river came the warriors, | 19 |
Clean and washed from all their war-paint; | 19 |
On the banks their clubs they buried, | 19 |
Buried all their warlike weapons. | 19 |
Gitche Manito, the mighty, | 19 |
The Great Spirit, the creator, | 19 |
Smiled upon his helpless children! | 19 |
And in silence all the warriors | 19 |
Broke the red stone of the quarry, | 19 |
Smoothed and formed it into Peace-Pipes, | 19 |
Broke the long reeds by the river, | 19 |
Decked them with their brightest feathers, | 19 |
And departed each one homeward, | 19 |
While the Master of Life, ascending, | 19 |
Through the opening of cloud-curtains, | 19 |
Through the doorways of the heaven, | 19 |
Vanished from before their faces, | 19 |
In the smoke that rolled around him, | 19 |
Cried the warriors, cried the old men, | 19 |
When he came in triumph homeward | 19 |
With the sacred Belt of Wampum, | 19 |
From the regions of the North-Wind, | 19 |
From the kingdom of Wabasso, | 19 |
From the land of the White Rabbit. | 19 |
He had stolen the Belt of Wampum | 19 |
From the neck of Mishe-Mokwa, | 19 |