Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-13
SEsOHALLA.%

Silent as the tread OF panthers,
Gloomy as blasted bough,
Stately as stag with antlers
Stern as Shasta's bandaged brow,
10, the chlettain. great Smohalla,
sought his god-the setting sun,
Ruler o er the yelled Valhalia.
shasta noblest children won.
Sought mis- god-where oceans rocking
Never cradles aught in thrall.
Where no human. trained TO mockiug,
signs or scoffs of Satan's fall.
Where Sierra's shafts upleaping
Culver IN the brow of blue,
Where the ice-gorged mountains sleeping
Dreamt and dream as mountains DO.
Where the sloping landscape wooded
Ever old and ever new,
Stretches from the peaks high hooded
IN the breast of Manitou.
There the chieftain paused and fore him
Surged Pacific's bouDdless Hood;
SGrged as in and round and Ter him
Toiled the tempest of his blood.
And Smohalla-grieved and signing,
Ger the sorrows never fed,
Saw the people round him dying
Heard the murmurs of the dead.
Tongues unseen, gray gods OF Northland.
Sighed and Kissed, reproached, lmplored
Hail Smohalla kise. SO forth and
Helve the hate our blood has stored.
AuISt-AS Nueu d SOUL eAp presses
Pang-b born barbs of bitter fate,
Our from Shasta dread recesses
Stalk d the feshless spe ter-hate?
Full the ruddy rays low setting.
Poured upon the chieftain's face,
Sinking still. as tho regrettipg
Great Smohalla and his race.
l'Speak-o sun-god! throned and CORY,
Speak in the vapors of the sea,
Comes the ashes of my glory
Fades creation now in me?
Burning Bear+-thou red mouthed spirit
Speak, o speak of me and mine.
Dies the world / should inherit?
Bleeds cosote?t Falls the pineY"s
Awful came the suu-god's answer
Broodirg DER the sullen sea,
Glooming cliff and cave-and denser
park'ning DER the drowsy lea.
"List, Smohalla, list and ponder,
List while stored ages tell.
Swifter than the wings of wonder,
God may create may knell.
Tonguing now his proclamation
Times eternal trumpet blast
Shouts aloud, 10, your creation
RiYen remnant seeks the sea.
''Tides that ebb--no more returning.
Coyotes biood-his bleeding mate
Leave you but the bitter learning
Dying nations weave in hate.
Streams Of time forever ebbing-
IS deserted camp-fires burn,
Sized their highland, in shedding,
Know no flooded tides return"
stern the chieftain kiss'd his totem
Eagles carved on mystic bark
Sternly as barb'd fate had smote him
Thus lie spake-gray, grim and dark:
s'uea-ts in hatred stepped and sleeping,
Sons ana souls of fire and flood,
Races lost and remnants weeping
Spirit bonds and bonds of blood
Closer gather, souls in waiting
Hear Smohalla's voice and VOW,
re whose anguish feed my hating
Closer gether-hear me now
'By my totem-now swear it.
Listen spirits, sun and sea,
Hate ne'er tempted dogs to bear it
As the paleface tempted me.
Fang OF storm tear ope amending
ShGstas breasted agony:
Tear and trail, new blent and blending
Smohalla's hate-eternity.
''7bo' the Great Bear frowns to grieve me,
TO destroy me and my mate,
Freedom cannot, dare not leave me,
Power cannot bind my hate.
Still my belt of woven wampum,
Still the death-song and the brand,
Still The scalp that plumes my wigwam
Proves thee mine-my sunset land"
Down the mountain, streaming-poring,
Spectral tribes as vapors chill
swept in columns, Notwithstanding
Great Smohalla's heart and will.
Up from coral watercresses
Waiting signs of sterner fate,
Ghostly chieftain's wierd caresses
Bless Smohalla's hand and hate.