PREFACE

At odd hours during an active and busy life I have dallied with the Muses. I found in them, in earlier years, rest from toil and drudgery and, later, relief from physical suffering.

Broken by over-work and compelled to abandon the practice of my profession—the law, I wrote Pauline after I had been given up to die by my physicians. It proved to be a better 'medicine' for me than all the quackeries of the quacks. It diverted my mind from myself and, perhaps, saved my life. When published, its reception by the best journals of this country and England was so flattering and, at the same time, the criticisms of some were so just, that I have been induced to carefully revise the poem and to publish my re-touched Pauline in this volume. I hope and believe I have greatly improved it. Several of the minor poems have been published heretofore in journals and magazines; others of equal or greater age flap their wings herein for the first time; a few peeped from the shell but yesterday.

I am aware that this volume contains several poems that a certain class of critics will condemn, but they are my "chicks" and I will gather them under my wings.

Much of my life has been spent in the Northwest—on the frontier of civilization, and I became personally acquainted with many of the chiefs and braves of the Dakota and Ojibway (Chippewa) Indians. I have written of them largely from my own personal knowledge, and endeavored, above all things, to be accurate, and to present them true to the life.

For several years I devoted my leisure hours to the study of the language, history, traditions, customs and superstitions of the Dakotas. These Indians are now commonly called the "Sioux"—a name given them by the early French traders and voyageurs. "Dakota" signifies alliance or confederation. Many separate bands, all having a common origin and speaking a common tongue, were united under this name. See "Tah-Koo Wah-Kan," or "The Gospel Among the Dakotas," by Stephen R. Riggs, pp. 1 to 6 inc.

They were but yesterday the occupants and owners of the fair forests and fertile prairies of Minnesota—a brave, hospitable and generous people—barbarians, indeed, but noble in their barbarism. They may be fitly called the Iroquois of the West. In form and features, in language and traditions, they are distinct from all other Indian tribes. When first visited by white men, and for many years afterwards, the Falls of St. Anthony (by them called the Ha Ha) was the center of their country. They cultivated corn and tobacco, and hunted the elk, the beaver and the bison. They were open-hearted, truthful and brave. In their wars with other tribes they seldom slew women or children, and rarely sacrificed the lives of their prisoners.

For many years their chiefs and head men successfully resisted the attempts to introduce spirituous liquors among them. More than a century ago an English trader was killed at Mendota, near the present city of St. Paul, because he persisted, after repeated warnings by the chiefs, in dealing out mini wakan (Devil-water) to the Dakota braves.

With open arms and generous hospitality they welcomed the first white men to their land, and were ever faithful in their friendship, till years of wrong and robbery, and want and insult, drove them to desperation and to war. They were barbarians, and their warfare was barbarous, but not more barbarous than the warfare of our Saxon, Celtic and Norman ancestors. They were ignorant and superstitious. Their condition closely resembled the condition of our British forefathers at the beginning of the Christian era. Macaulay says of Britain: "Her inhabitants, when first they became known to the Tyrian mariners, were little superior to the natives of the Sandwich Islands." And again: "While the German princes who reigned at Paris, Toledo, Aries and Ravenna listened with reverence to the instructions of bishops, adored the relics of martyrs, and took part eagerly in disputes touching the Nicene theology, the rulers of Wessex and Mercia were still performing savage rites in the temples of Thor and Woden."

The days of the Dakotas are done. The degenerate remnants of that once powerful and warlike people still linger around the forts and agencies of the Northwest, or chase the caribou and the elk on the banks of the Saskatchewan, but the Dakotas of old are no more. The brilliant defeat of Custer, by Sitting Bull and his braves, was their last grand rally against the resistless march of the sons of the Saxons. The plow-shares of a superior race are fast leveling the sacred mounds of their dead. But yesterday, the shores of our lakes and our rivers were dotted with their teepees, their light canoes glided over our waters, and their hunters chased the deer and the buffalo on the sites of our cities. To-day, they are not. Let us do justice to their memory, for there was much that was noble in their natures.

In the Dakota Legends, I have endeavored to faithfully present many of the customs and superstitions, and some of the traditions, of that people. I have taken very little 'poetic license' with their traditions; none, whatever, with their customs and superstitions. In my studies for these Legends I was greatly aided by the Rev. S.R. Riggs, author of the "Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language" "Tah-Koo Wah-Kan," &c., and for many years a missionary among the Dakotas. He patiently answered my numerous inquiries and gave me valuable information. I am also indebted to the late Gen. H.H. Sibley, one of the earliest American traders among them, and to Rev. S.W. Pond, of Shakopee, one of the first Protestant missionaries to these people, and himself the author of poetical versions of some of their principal legends; to Mrs. Eastman's "Dacotah," and last, but not least, to the Rev. E.D. Neill, whose admirable "History of Minnesota" so fully and faithfully presents almost all that is known of the history, traditions, customs, manners and superstitions of the Dakotas.

In Winona I have "tried my hand" on a new hexameter verse. With what success, I leave to those who are better able to judge than I. If I have failed, I have but added another failure to the numerous attempts to naturalize hexameter verse in the English language.

It will be observed that I have slightly changed the length and the rhythm of the old hexameter line; but it is still hexameter, and, I think, improved.

I have not written for profit nor published for fame. Fame is a coy goddess that rarely bestows her favors on him who seeks her—a phantom that many pursue and but few overtake.

She delights to hover for a time, like a ghost, over the graves of dead men who know not and care not: to the living she is a veritable Ignis Fatuus. But every man owes something to his fellowmen, and I owe much.

If my friends find half the pleasure in reading these poems that I have found in writing them, I shall have paid my debt and achieved success.

H.L. GORDON.

Minneapolis, November 1, 1891.

PRELUDE

THE MISSISSIPPI

The numerals refer to Notes in appendix.

[Illustration: THE GAME OF BALL]

THE FEAST OF THE VIRGINS[1]

A LEGEND OF THE DAKOTAS

In pronouncing Dakota words give "a" the sound of "ah",—"e" the sound of "a",—"i" the sound of "e" and "u" the sound of "oo;" sound "ee" as in English. The numerals refer to Notes in appendix.

THE GAME OF BALL[2]

HEYOKA WACIPEE[16]

THE GIANT'S DANCE.

THE FEAST OF THE VIRGINS

TO THE MEMORY OF MY DEVOTED WIFE DEAD AND GONE YET ALWAYS WITH ME I DEDICATE PAULINE THE FLOWER OF MY HEART NURSED INTO BLOOM BY HER LOVING CARE AND OFTTIMES WATERED WITH HER TEARS H.L.G.

INTRODUCTION

THE CAPTAIN'S STORY

[Illustration: STOOPING AND TO THE DIM LIGHT TURNING UP THE GHASTLY FACES, TILL I AT LAST I FOUND HIM WHOM I SOUGHT.]

PART II

PAUL' S HISTORY

[Illustration: WE OFTEN STOLE AWAY AMONG THE PINES, AND CONNED OUR LESSONS FROM THE SELF-SAME BOOK]

[Illustration: "'DEAR CHILDREN? LOVE EACH OTHER,—BEAR AND FORBEAR, AND COME TO ME IN HEAVEN'"]

[Illustration: PAUL'S DREAM]

[Illustration]

[Illustration: 'AND I LOOKED IN UPON MY DARLING DEAD.']

FOOTNOTES

The first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.

Hooker had 90,000 men at Chancellorsville.

These are the very words used by General Hancock on this occasion.

Norse fire-fiend

Cabri—the small, fleet antelope of the northern plains, so called by the Crees and half-breeds.

THE SEA-GULL.[1]

THE LEGEND OF THE PICTURED ROCKS OF LAKE SUPERIOR. OJIBWAY

In the measure of Hiawatha.

[The numerals refer to Notes to The Sea-Gull, in Appendix.]

[Illustration: SEGUN AND PEBOAN]

[Illustration: FLUTTERING FELL THE FRANTIC WOMAN]

POETRY.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

[Illustration: HOW, WE SWUNG UPON THE GRAPE-VINE DOWN BY THE GENESEE, AND I CAUGHT THE SPECKLED TROUT FOR YOU, WHILE YOU GATHERED FLOWERS FOR ME]

BETZKO

A HUNGARIAN LEGEND

WESSELENYI

A HUNGARIAN TALE

[Illustration: WESSELENYI]

ISABEL

BYRON AND THE ANGEL

CHRISTMAS EVE

I

II

[Illustration: AND THE MOTHER DREAMS OF THE BY GONE YEARS, AND THEIR MERRY CHRISTMAS BELLS]

OUT OF THE DEPTHS

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst, they said unto him "Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such be stoned; but what sayest thou?"—[St. John, Chap, viii; 3, 4, 5.

FAME

WINONA.

(In pronouncing Dakota words give "a" the sound of "ah,"—"e" the sound of "a,"—"i" the sound of "e" and "u" the sound of "oo." Sound "ee" as in English. The numerals refer to Notes in appendix.)

[Illustration: FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY. FACSIMILE OF THE CUT IN CARVER'S TRAVELS, PUBLISHED AT LONDON, IN 1778, FROM A SURVEY AND SKETCH MADE BY CAPT. J. CARVER, NOV. 17, 1766. PERPENDICULAR FALL, 30 FEET; BREADTH NEAR 600 FEET.]

[Illustration: FATHER RENE MENARD]

[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF DULUTH AT KATHAGA]

THE FOOT RACES.

THE WAKAN-WACEPEE, OR SACRED DANCE. [81]

WINONA'S WARNING.

DULUTH'S DEPARTURE

[Illustration:TWO HUNDRED WHITE WINTERS AND MORE HAVE FLED FROM THE FACE OF THE SUMMER ... * * * * * AH, LITTLE HE DREAMED THEN, FORSOOTH, THAT A CITY WOULD STAND ON THAT HILL SIDE]

THE CANOE RACE.

IN CAMP.

[Illustration:NEARER AND NEARER THEY GLIDE LIKE GHOSTS ON THE FIELDS OF THEIR BATTLES. TILL CLOSE ON THE SLEEPERS, THEY BIDE FOR THE SIGNAL OF DEATH FROM TAMDOKA]

WINONA AND TA-TE-PSIN.

FAMINE.

[Illustration]

DEATH OF TA-TE-PSIN.

DEATH OF WINONA.

[Illustration: DOWN WHIRLING AND FLUTTERING SHE FELL, AND HEADLONG PLUNGED INTO THE WATERS.]

FOOTNOTES

Tee—teepee, the Dakota name for tent or wigwam

See Hennepin's Description of Louisiana, by Shea, pp. 243 and 256. Parkman's Discovery, p. 246—and Carver's Travels, p. 67.

The Dakotas, like the ancient Romans and Greeks, think the home of the winds is in the caverns of the mountains, and their great Thunder-bird resembles in many respects the Jupiter of the Romans and the Zeus of the Greeks. The resemblance of the Dakota mythology to that of the older Greeks and Romans is striking.

Tate—wind,—psin—wild-rice—wild-rice wind.

mountain antelope.

Little Rice River. It bears the name of Rice Creek to-day and empties into the Mississippi from the east, a few miles above Minneapolis.

See the account of Father Menard, his mission and disappearance in the wilderness. Neill's Hist. Minnesota, pp 104-107, inc.

It is wonderful!

The morning.

A lodge set apart for guests of the village.

Moccasins.

The Ottawa name for the region of the St. Lawrence River.

"Mysterious metal"—or metal having a spirit in it. This is the common name applied by the Dakotas to all firearms.

Lightning.

Tah-mdo-kah, literally, the buck-deer.

The Dakotas say that for many years in olden times war-eagles made their nests in oak trees on Spirit-island—Wanagi-wita, just below the Falls till frightened away by the advent of white men.

The Dakotas called Nicollet Island Wi-ta Waste—the Beautiful Island.

A part of one of the favorite songs of the French voyageurs.

Head-chief

Pronounced Ray-mne-chah—The village of the Mountains, situate where Red Wing now stands.

Sacred Dance—The Medicine-dance—See description infra.

The wings.

A favorite boast of the Dakota braves.

The wind.

About equivalent to Oho!—Aha!—fudge!

Hurra there!

"Sacred Spirit! Father! have pity on me always."

Riggs' Takoo Wakan, p. 90.

Slander.

The Dakotas say the humming-bird comes from the "Land of the rain-bow."

See Legend of the Falls, or Note 28—Appendix.

My Sister.

Mendota—properly Mdo-te—meaning the out-let of a lake or river into another, commonly applied to the region about Fort Snelling.

Tanka-Mede—Great Lake, i.e. Lake Superior. The Dakotas seem to have had no other name for it. They generally referred to it as Mini-ya-ta—There at the water.

The rabbit. The Dakotas called the Crees "Mastincapi"—Rabbits.

i.e. fire-arms which the Dakotas compare to the roar of the wings of the Thunder-bird and the fierey arrows he shoots.

DuLuth was a devout Catholic.

Nee-wah-shtay—Thou art good.

Spirit-River, now called Rum River.

Fire-arm—spirit-metal.

Lake Superior—at that time the home of the Ojibways (Chippewas).

"Burnt woods"—half-breeds.

Wita Waste—"Beautiful Island"; the Dakota name for Nicollet Island.

Ojibways.

Mille Lacs

See Hennepin's account of "Aqui-pa-que-tin," and his village. Shea's Hennepin, 225.

Now called "Mud River"—it empties into the Mississippi at Aitkin.

Gitchee See-bee—Big River—is the Ojibway name for the Mississippi, which is a corruption of Gitchee Seebee—as Michigan is a corruption of Gitchee Gumee—Great Lake, the Ojibway name of Lake Superior.

The Ojibways called the St. Louis River Gitchee-Gumee See-bee—Great-lake River, i.e. the river of the Great Lake (Lake Superior).

The route of DuLuth above described—from the mouth of the Wild-Rice (Mud) River, to Lake Superior—was for centuries, and still is, the Indians' canoe-route. I have walked over the old portage from the foot of the Dalles to the St. Louis above—trod by the feet of half-breeds and voyageurs for more than two centuries, and by the Indians for perhaps a thousand years.

The Apostle Islands.

At the Sault Ste. Marie.

Cranberries.

Wee-chah kah—literally "Faithful".

The Robin—the name of Winona's Mother.

My Daughter; My Daughter.

Alas, O My Daughter,—My Daughter!

Wild-goose

Medicine-men.

January.

February.

The pheasant feeds on birch-buds in winter. Indians eat them when very hungry.

Wazíya's Star is the North-star.

A strap used in carrying burdens.

Wolves sometimes attack people at night, but rarely, if ever, in the day time. If they have followed a hunter all night, and "treed" him, they will skulk away as soon as the sun rises.

Lake Superior,—The Gitchee Gumee of the Chippewas.

The Dakota name for the Mississippi, see note 76 in Appendix.

Wild Geese.

Lake Pepin, by Hennepin called Lake of Tears—Called by the Dakotas Remnee-chah-Mday—Lake of the Mountains.

Pah-hin—the porcupine—the quills of which are greatly prized for ornamental work.

The Dakotas say that the spirit of Winona forever haunts the lake. They say that it was many, many winters ago when Winona leaped from the rock,—that the rock was then perpendicular to the water's edge and she leaped into the lake, but now the rock has partly crumbled down and the waters have also receded, so that they do not now reach, the foot of the perpendicular rock as of old.

SPRING

[ILLUSTRATION: SPRING ADA MARY HUNTLY WILLIE]

TO MOLLIE

TO SYLVA

THANKSGIVING.

[Nov. 26, 1857, during the great financial depression.]

CHARITY

CHARITY

[Written in a friend's book of autographs, 1876.]

SAILOR-BOY'S SONG

MY DEAD

DUST TO DUST

O LET ME DREAM THE DREAMS OF LONG AGO

THE PIONEER

[MINNESOTA—1860-1875]

[Illustration: THE PIONEER]

FOOTNOTES

Scalp-locks.

NIGHT THOUGHTS

DANIEL

[Written at the grave of an old friend.]

MINNETONKA[BZ]

[Illustration: CRYSTAL BAY LAKE MINNETONKA]

FOOTNOTES

The Dakota name for this beautiful lake is We-ne-a-tan-ka—Broad Water. By dropping the "a" before "tanka" we have changed the name to Big Water.

Spirit-Knob was a small hill upon a point in the lake in full view from Wayzata. It is now washed away by the waves. The spirit of a Dakota mother, whose only child was drowned in the lake during a storm many years ago, often wailed at midnight (so the Dakotas said), on this hill. So they called it Wa-na-gee Pa-zo-dan—Spirit-Knob. (Literally—little hill of the spirit.)

The Welsh name for the robin.

Lodges.

Wanm-dee—the war-eagle of the Dakotas.

Lake Superior.

Pronounced Yoon-hay-hay—the exclamation used by Dakota women in their lament for the dead, and equivalent to "woe-is-me."

BEYOND

LINES

On the death of Captain Hiram A. Coats, my old schoolmate and friend.

MAULEY

THE BRAVE FERRY-MAN

[NOTE.—The great Sioux massacre in Minnesota commenced at the Agency village, on the Minnesota River, early in the morning of the 16th day of August, 1862, precipitated, doubtless, by the murders at Acton on the day previous. The massacre and the Indian war that followed developed many brave men, but no truer hero than Mauley, an obscure Frenchman, the ferry-man at the Agency. Continually under fire, he resolutely ran his ferry-boat back and forth across the river, affording the terror-stricken people the only chance for escape. He was shot down on his boat just as he had landed on the opposite shore the last of those who fled from the burning village to the ferry-landing. The Indians disemboweled his dead body, cut off the head, hands and feet and thrust them into the cavity. See Heard's Hist. Sioux War, p 67.]

[Illustration: MAULEY THE BRAVE FERRY-MAN]

FOOTNOTES

Pronounced Soo; a name given to the Dakotas in early days by the French traders.

MEN

HELOISE

CHANGE

FIDO

THE REIGN OF REASON

LOVE WILL FIND

AN OLD ENGLISH OAK

THE LEGEND OF THE FALLS[CH]

[Read at the Celebration of the Old Settlers of Hennepin County, at the Academy of Music, Minneapolis, July 4, 1879.]

[The Numerals refer to Notes in Appendix.]

THE LEGEND

[Illustration: Anpétu-sâpa]

FOOTNOTES

An-pe-tu Sa-pa—Clouded Day—was the name of the Dakota mother who committed suicide, as related in this legend, by plunging over the Falls of St. Anthony. Schoolcraft calls her "Ampata Sapa." Ampata is not Dakota. There are several versions of this legend, all agreeing in the main points.

The small island of rock a few rods below the Falls, was called by the Dakotas Wanagee We-ta—Spirit-Island. They say the spirit of Anpetu Sapa sits upon that island at night and pours forth her sorrow in song. They also say that from time out of mind, war-eagles nested on that island, until the advent of white men frightened them away. This seems to be true. See Carver's Travels (London, 1778), p. 71.

Or Capa Ska—White beaver. White beavers are very rare, very cunning and hard to catch.

E-tan-can—Chief.

A-pe—leaf,—duta—Scarlet,—Scarlet leaf

Stars, the Dakotas say, are the faces of the departed watching over their friends and relatives on earth.

The Dakotas called the Jesuit priests "Black Robes," from the color of their vestments.

Wee-tah Wah-stay—Beautiful Island,—the Dakota name for Nicollet Island, just above the Falls.

Drapa, a Norse funeral wail in which the virtues of the deceased are recounted.

Mee-heen-yah—My husband.

Pronounced Walk-on,—Sacred, inhabited by a spirit.

Fairy Island,—Wita-Waste—Nicollet Island.

CHICKADEE

ANTHEM

[APRIL, 1861.]

HURRAH FOR THE VOLUNTEERS

[May, 1861.]

CHARGE OF "THE BLACK-HORSE"

[First battle of Bull Run.]

ONLY A PRIVATE KILLED

[The soldier was Louis Mitchell, of Co. 1, 1st Minn. Vols., killed in a skirmish, near Ball's Bluff, October 22, 1861.]

DO THEY THINK OF US?

[October, 1861, after the Battle of Ball's Bluff.]

CHARGE OF FREMONT'S BODY-GUARD

A MILLION MORE

[AUGUST, 1862.]

FOOTNOTES

There were four millions of slaves in the South when the war began.

ON READING PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S LETTER

To Horace Greeley, of date Aug. 22, 1862—"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it," etc.

THE DYING VETERAN

GRIERSON'S RAID

THE OLD FLAG

[Written July 4, 1863.]

GETTYSBURG: CHARGE OF THE FIRST MINNESOTA