Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1865-01-12
TILE KEp UDLIUAN.
To an Indians Skeleton.


Shades ofdcparted braves wilt thou forbear
To curse the hand that drags to upper air
Thy moulderin. boncs7 Forgive the hands that
turn
The damp. cold clay from of their silent urn;
Forgive il unheedins have exhumed
from where, for long years they have lain en-
tombed,
These crumbling fra nlen.s and have tossed them
Ger
This swelling mound where oft in days OF yore
Mayhaps thou hast in native freedom tr,i.
Or bowed thy knee unto Thy unknown G d."
Strange fancies come and 60 as now gaze
Upon them. Imagination strays
Far back through mary years wien DER thi:
ground
The warlike brave with eagle feathers crowned,
Yelled the wild whoop. or with unerring skill,
Sped the swift arrow, or DER plain and hill
Chased the wild bison and the mil deer
Der kili and valley in their wild career.
When in these hollow sockets CLAN tie fires
That tell the red mans wi d and deep DESIRES
The love of friends-deep hate of enemies
The pa ssion deep for warke lries-
When through these bones now fastening to decay
The quick pulsations of wild life did play,
And in that skull which fast to dust again
Returns, dwell untutored savage brain,
A dark, unlettered hayward mind that saw
No Christians God in Nature but with awe
Akin TO reverence trembled to behold
Natures illumined pages vide unrolled
Andin the storm that swept the earth and sky,
The whispering breeze that gently aoarcd by,
The cloud slow floating through cmpyrean blue,
The gorgeous rainbow with its seven fold hue,
The flowers that doomed around his wildwood
home,
The countless herds that DER the plains did roam
The ieathered songs;ers gushing melody
In each and all an unknown power could see;
A power too high for it to comprehend,
And eften with submit sve awe did bend
To the Great Spirit; -homage purcr than
The hollow offerings OF enligh tened man.
As ers: thou vast methinks see thee row,
Thy eagle war plume waving Ger thy brow,
Leading thy brethren on the bloody trail
Offying foe far over hill and dale;
Or as returning from the battle field,
No glitterins bore, in sword or shell.
But bow and quiver o'er thy shoulder hung.
While at thy side thy strife-worn scalps were
strung.
But ali. thy proud forms erumblcd 10 decay;
All but these bones are mingled with the clay.
No more the arrow twangs from thy drawn bow;
The well skilled hand that aimed it now lies low
Vast thou, sad relic of fading race,
Struck down in.venseful strife when face to face.
Il, H.,
Two hostile tribes and the green earth was wet
With the bood Of fallen brares and through the ali
Rang the wild shouts OF mon whose souls would
dare
Meet deaths most horrid form that earth may
know
Ere they would quail before a conquering foe7
Or vast By fell disease swept to the tomb,
And round thy home was thrown deeper gloom
Than hadst thou fallen in battles angling strife
Or dust thou peacefully end thy wild, free life
When gray old age had bowed thy peaceful head
And youth and strength far in the past had fed
All, mute and sti:-wlIat thou hast been or how
Vast shuflied off thy mortal COLL is now
Deep buried in Oblivion's Silent breast;
And there thy history must forever rest.
Whate'er thou wast-whate'er thou may'st have
been,
Whate'er Of good, whate'er ofili, IS in
The past. 1t bOoteth not to prate
OF good OF evil deeds or to relate
Wild iancies to Thy crumbling bones,
Or to bewail thy fate in measured toncs:--
We only know that thou hast lived and died;
Ausht else Of thee is by the past denied.