 | Yamoyden, a tale of the wars of King Philip : in six cantos |  |
Song of the Pow-Wahs.
XVII.
“Beyond the hills the Spirit sleeps,The sun was often worshipped as the visible God. In the most solemn sacrifices, the fire was sometimes kindled from his heat.—Carver, La Hontan, Vol. Second. The Hurons are said to have confounded Areskoui with the Sun.—Charlevoix. When the Sun has set, they say he is dead.—
Carver, Charlevoix, iii. 219. Adair, 76.His watch the Power of evil keeps;
The Spirit of fire has sought his bed,
The Sun, the hateful Sun is dead.
Profound and clear is the sounding wave,
In the chambers of the Wakon-cave;
Darkness its ancient portal keeps;
And there the Spirit sleeps,—he sleeps.
XVIII.
“Come round on raven pinions now,Spirits of ill, to you we bow!
While the storm around is sweeping,
Mid the thunder shock, from rock to rock
To view the lightning leaping;
As ye guide the bolt, where towers afar
The knotted pine to heaven,
And where it falls, your serpent scar
On the blasted trunk is graven:—
“Ces Peuples ne connoissent pas mieux la nature du Tonnerre; quelques uns le prenoient pour la voix d'une espéce particuliere d'Hommes, qui voloient dans les airs: d'autres disoient que ce bruit venoit de certains Oiseaux, qui leur étoient inconnus. Selon les Montaguais, c'etoit l'effort, que faisoit une Génie pour vomir une Couleuvre, qu'il avoit avalée; et ils appuyoient ce sentiment sur ce que, quand le Tonnerre étoit tombé sur un Arbre, on y voyoit une figure assez approchante de celle d'une Couleuvre.”—
Charlevoix, iii. 401.The other superstitions referred to in this Stanza, being local, and some of them belonging, moreover, to the Hurons, are farfetched for an Incantation of the New-England Powaws.—Transeant cum cæteris. “Nearly half way between Saganaum Bay and the north-west corner of the Lake, lies another, which is termed Thunder Bay. The Indians, who have frequented these parts from time immemorial, and every European traveller that has passed through it, have unanimously agreed to call it by this name.”— Carver, 91. “One of the Chipeway chiefs told me that some of their people, being once driven on the island of Maurepas, found on it large quantities of heavy, shining, yellow sand, that, from their description, must have been gold dust. Being struck with the beautiful appearance of it, in the morning, when they re-entered their canoe, they attempted to bring some away; but a spirit, of an amazing size, according to their account, sixty feet in height, strode in the water after them, and commanded them to deliver back what they had taken away. Since this incident, no Indian that has ever heard of it, will venture near the same haunted coast.”— Idem, 85. This Island is known by the name of Manataulin, which signifies a Place of Spirits, and is considered by the Indians as sacred as those already mentioned in Lake Superior. Two small islands near Detroit were called ‘les Isles de Serpens à Sonnettes;’ Charlevoix says, “on assûre qu'elles sont tellement remplies de ces Animaux, que l'Air en est infecte.” Serpent worship was common to all the Indians, but more peculiarly cultivated among some nations, as the Malhomines.—
Charlevoix, 291.Whether your awful voices pour
Their tones in gales that nightly roar;—
Whether ye dwell beneath the lake;
In whose depths eternal thunders wake,—
Gigantic guard the glittering ore,
That lights Maurepas' haunted shore,—
On Manataulin's lonely isle,
The wanderer of the wave beguile,—
Or love the shore where the serpent-hiss,
And angry rattle never cease,—
Come round on raven pinions now!
Spirits of evil! to you we bow.
XIX.
“Come ye hither, who o'er the thatchOf the coward murderer hold your watch;
“Les Hurons étendoient le corps mort sur des Perches, au haut d'une Cabanne, et le Meurtrier étoit obligé de se tenir plusieurs jours de suite immédiatement au dessous, et de recevoir tout ce qui découloit de ce Cadavre, non-seulement sur soi, mais encore sur son manger, qu'on mettoit auprès de lui, à moins que par un présent considérable, fait à la Cabanne du Défunt il n'obtînt de garantir ses Vivres de ce Poison.”—
Charlevoix, iii. p. 274.Moping and chattering round who fly
Where the putrid members reeking lie,
Piece-meal dropping, as they decay,
O'er the shuddering recreant day by day;
Till he loathes the food that is whelmed amid
The relics, by foul corruption hid;
And the crawling worms about him bred
Mistake the living for the dead!
XX.
“Come ye who give powerTo the curse that is said,
And a charm that shall wither
To the drops that are shed,
On the cheek of the maiden,
Who never shall hear
The kind name of Mother
Saluting her ear;
On the bare branch reclining,
She shall sit in the desert,
Consuming and pining;
With a grief that is silent,
Her beauty shall fade,
Like a flower nipt untimely,
On its stem that is dead.
XXI.
“Come ye who as hawks hover o'erThe spot where the war club is lying,
Defiled with the stain of their gore,
The foemen to battle defying;
On your dusky wings wheeling above,
Who for vengeance and slaughter come crying;
For the scent of the carnage ye love,
The groans of the wounded and dying.
XXII.
“Come ye, who at the sick man's bed,As before mentioned, sickness is always ascribed to the agency of some spirit, of whatever form the Juggler's fancy pleases, which must be driven out of the patient, before his recovery can be effected. If the force of imagination, in sickness, be duly considered, the practice of treating all diseases as cases of hypochondria, may not be so ridiculous, as the fantastic manœuvres of these quacks would, at first sight, imply.
Watch beside his burning head;
Charm and fast to sooth his pain,
And his fever-balm and herbs applies,
Your death watch ye sound till your victim dies.
XXIII.
“And ye who delightThe soul to affright,
“Ils disent que l'Ame séparée du corps conserve les mêmes inclinations, qu'elle avoit auparavant, et c'est la raison pourquoi ils enterrent avec les Morts tout ce qui étoit a leur usage.” “Les Ames lorsque le tems est venu qu'elles doivent se séparer pour toujours de leurs corps, vont dans une Région, qui est destinée pour être leur demeure éternelle. Cette Région, disent les Sauvages, est fort éloignée vers l'Occident, et les Ames mettent plusieurs mois à s'y rendre. Elles ont même de grandes difficultés a surmonter, et elles courent de grands risques, avant que d'y arriver.” “Dans le Pays des Ames, selon quelques-uns, l'Ame est transformée en Tourterelle.”—
Charlevoix, pp. 351, 352.When naked and lonely,
Her dwelling forsaken,
To the country of spirits
Her journey is taken;
When the wings of a dove
She has borrowed to fly,
Ye swoop from above,
And around her ye cry;
She wanders and lingers
In terror and pain,
While the souls of her kindred
Expect her in vain.
XXIV.
“By all the hopes that we forswear;By the potent rite we here prepare;
By every shriek whose echo falls
Around the Spirits' golden walls;
By our eternal league made good;
By all our wrongs and all our blood;
By the red battle-axe uptorn;
By the deep vengeance we have sworn;
By the uprooted trunk of peace,
And by the wrath that shall not cease,
Where'er ye be, above, below,
Spirits of ill! we call ye now!
XXV.
“Not beneath the mantle blueSpread below Yohewah's feet;
Not through realms of azure hue
Incense breathing to his seat;
Not with fire, by living light
Kindled from the orb of glory;
Taught us in our fathers' story;
Not with odours, fruit or flower,
Thee we summon, dreadful Power!
Power of darkness! Power of ill!
Present in the heart and will,
Plotting, despite of faith and trust,
Treason, avarice, murder, lust!
From caverns deep of gloom and blood,
Attend our call, O serpent God!
This is one of the forms under which the Indians supposed the Evil Spirit to appear. “Another power they worship whom they call Hobbamock, and to the northward of us Hobbamoqui; this as farre as wee can conceive is the devill; him they call upon to cure their wounds and diseases. This Hobbomock appears in sundry formes unto them, as in the shape of a man, a deare, a fawne, an eagle, &c., but most ordinarily as a Snake.”— Winslow's ‘Good News from New-England,’ Anno 1622, in Purchas, iv. p. 1867. And see ante, Notes on this Canto.
Thee we summon by our rite,
Hobamóqui! Power of night!
XVI.
“Behold the sacrifice!A harmless infant dies,
To whet thine anger's edge;
A Christian woman's pledge,
Begot by Indian sire,
Ascends thy midnight pyre.
For thy friendship, for our wrongs,
To thee the child belongs.”
XVII.
Did the fiend hear and answer make?Above them loud the thunders break;
The livid lightning's pallid hue
Their dusky canopy shone through;
Then tenfold blackness gathering far
Presaged the elemental war.
While yet in air the descant rung,
Upward the listening priestess sprung,
By instant impulse; as if yet
The spirit of her youth survived,
As if from that lethargic state,
Quickened by power vouchsafed, she lived.
She tore the sable mats away,
And there Yamoyden's infant lay,
By potent opiates lulled to keep
The silence of the dreamless sleep,
O'er which that night should sink;
Swathed in the sacrificial vest,
Its bier the unconscious victim prest.
The hag's long, shrivelled fingers clasp
The babe in their infernal grasp,
Rapidly, giddily she hurls
The child, as her withered form she whirls;
And chants, with accents hoarse and strong,
The last, the dedicating song.
| Yamoyden, a tale of the wars of King Philip : in six cantos | |