The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1882-09-22
POETRY.
THE KINDoo's SEARCH FOR TRUTH.
A. &. LYALL.

All over the world. Iwonder, in lands that
/ never have trod,
Are the people eternally seeking for the signs
and steps of God?
westward across the ocean, and northward
ayont the snow,
DO they all stand gazing, as ever, and what
do the wisest know?
Here, in this mystical India, the deities hover
and swarm,
Like the wild bees heard in the tree-tops OF
the gusts of a gathering storm
In the air men hear their voices, their feet on
the rocks are seen.
Yet we all say, Whence is the message, and
what may the wonders mean"
4 million shrines stand open, and ever the
censer swings,
As they bow to a mysticsymbol, or the figures
of ancient kings;
And the incense rises ever, and rises the end.
less cry
OF those who are heavy laden and of towards
10th TO die.
For the Destiny drives us together, like deer
in pass of hills,
Above is the sky. and around us the sound
and the shot that kills;
Pushed by power we see not and struck by
hand unknown,
We pray TO the trees for a shelter and press
our lips to a stone
The trees wave shadowy answer, and the
rock trowns hollow and grim,
And the form and nod of the demon are
caught in the twilight dim;
And we look to the sunlight falling afar on
the mountain-crest
Is there never a path runs upward to refuge
there, and a rest?
The path all who has shown 1t, and which
is the faithful guide?
The haven, ah who has known it? for steep
Is the mountain side.
Forever the shot strikes surely, and ever the
wasted breath
or the praying multitude rises whose answer
is only death
Here are the tombs of my kinsfolk, the first
Of an ancient name,
Chiefs who were slain on the war field, and
women who died in flames
They are gods, these kings of the foretime,
they are spirits who guide our race
Ever watch and worship they sit with a
marble face.
And the myriad idols around me, and the
legion of nuttcring priests,
The revels and rites anholy, the dark un.
speakable feasts;
What have they wrung from the silence
hath even whisper come
OF the secret-Whence and whittier? Alas
for the gods are dumb.
Shall list to the words of the English, who
come from the uttermost sea?
"The secret, hath it been told you. and what
is your message to me-"
1t is naught but the worldwide story, how
the earth and the heavens began.
How the gods are glad and angry, and a deity
once was man.
had thought, "Perchance in the cities where
the rulers of India dwell,
Whose orders fash from the far land, who
girdle the earth with spell,
They have fathomed the depth we float on
or measured the unknown main"
Sadly they turn from the venture, and say
that the quest is vain.
Is life then dream and delusion, and where
shall The dreamer awake?
Is the world seen like shadows on water, and
swhat if the mirror break?
Shall il pass, rs a camp that is struck, as
tent that is gathered and gone,
From the sands that were lamp-lit at eve, and
at morning are level and lone?
Is there naught in the heavens above whence
the hail and the rain are hurled,
But the wind that Is swept around us, by the
rush Of the rolling world?
The wind that shall scatter my ashes and bea1
me TO silence and sleep,
With the dirge and the sounds OF lamentint
and voices of women who weep?
Co mill Magazine.