SHOULD you ask me, whence these stories? With the dew and damp of meadows, I should answer, I should tell you, From the land of the Ojibways, From the land of the Dacotahs, From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands, Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, Feeds among the reeds and rushes. I repeat them as I heard them The musician, the sweet singer." I should answer, I should tell you, "In the bird's-nests of the forest, In the lodges of the beaver, In the hoof-prints of the bison, In the eyry of the eagle! "All the wild-fowl sang them to him, In the moorlands and the fen-lands, In the melancholy marshes; Chetowaik, the plover, sang them, Mahng, the loon, the wild goose, Wawa, The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, And the grouse, the Mushkodasa ! " If still further you should ask me, Saying, "Who was Nawadaha ? Tell us of this Nawadaha," I should answer your inquiries In the green and silent valley, Round about the Indian village Spread the meadows and the corn-fields, And beyond them stood the forest, Stood the groves of singing pine-trees, Ever sighing, ever singing. "And the pleasant water-courses, You could trace them through the valley, |