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Song of the Priestess

XXVIII.

“The black clouds are moving
Athwart the dull moon,
The hawks high are roving,

“Before a thunder-shower these birds [night-hawks] are seen at an amazing height in the air, assembled together in great numbers.”—

Carver.

The strife shall be soon.
Then burst thou deep thunder!
Pour down all ye floods!
Ye flames rive in sunder
The pride of the woods!
But O thou! who guidest
The flood and the fire,
In lightning who ridest,
Directing its ire;—
If darker to-morrow
The wrath of the strife,
175

Be the white man's the sorrow,
And thine be his life!
The elk-skin about him,
The crow-skin above,

It has been already mentioned, that the skin of some dark coloured bird was made use of at all conjurations. The Elk-skin was also employed, according to Carver and others. Charlevoix says that it was always considered a good omen, to dream of the Elk.


To thee we devote him,
The pledge of mixed love.
For ever and ever
The slaves of thy will,
Let ours be thy favour,
O Spirit of ill!”

XXIX.

She had not ceased, when on the blast
A warning shriek of horror past;
Emerging from the woodland gloom,
They saw a form unearthly come.
White were its locks, its robes of white,
And gleaming through their lurid light,
Swift it advanced. The Pów-wahs stood,
Palsied amid their rites of blood;
E'en the stern Prophet feared to trace
The awful features of that face,
176

And shrunk, as if toward their flame
Yohewah's angry presence came.

XXX.

He grasped the witch by her skinny arm,
Her powerless frame confessed the charm;
Before his bright, indignant glance,
Her eyes were fixed in terror's trance.
“Away,” the stranger cried, “away!
Votaries of Moloch! yield your prey!
Have ye not heard the wrath on high
Speak o'er your foul iniquity?
Know ye not, for such worship fell,
Deep yawns the eternal gulf of hell?”
Then, bursting from his dream of fear,
To front the intruder rushed the SEER,—
When straight, o'er all the vaulted heaven,
Kindled and streamed the glittering levin;
Pale and discoloured shone below
The embers in that general glow,
As blind amid the blaze they reel,
Rattled and crashed the deafening peal;
177

And with its voice so long and loud,
Fell the burst torrent from the cloud;
It dashed impetuous o'er the pile;
The hissing waters rave and boil;
The smothered fires a moment soar,
Spread their swarth glare the forest o'er,
Then sink beneath their whelming pall,
And total darkness covers all.

XXXI.

O many a shriek of horror fell,
Amid that darkness terrible,
Unlit, save by the lightning's flash,
And echoing with the tempest crash
Those stifled screams of fear;
They deem in every bursting peal
The avenging Spirits' rage they feel,
And crouching, shuddering hear.
While ever and anon ascended
The dying Priestess' maddened cry,—
With muttering curses fearful blended
It rose convulsed on high.
178

And when their palsying dread was gone,
And a dim brand recovered shone,
And when they traced by that sad light
The scene of their unfinished rite,
And many a look uncertain cast,
The STRANGER and the CHILD had past.
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