39
250
The friendly and flowing savage, Who is he?
Is he waiting for civilization, or past it, and mastering it?
251
Is he some south-westerner, rais'd out-doors? Is he Kanadian?
Is he from the Mississippi country? Iowa, Oregon, California? the mountains? prairie-life, bush-life? or from the sea?
252
Wherever he goes, men and women accept and desire him;
They desire he should like them, touch them, speak to them, stay with them.
253
Behavior lawless as snow-flakes, words simple as grass, uncomb'd head, laughter, and naiveté,
Slow-stepping feet, common features, common modes and emanations;
They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers;
They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath—they fly out of the glance of his eyes.
