26 JOHN EEADE ON 



Breathes over our country, 



And breaks down the pine boughs." ^ 



But while the commou speech of some of the tribes seems thus to pass naturally into 

 poetic expression, there are aboriginal chants which sound poorly or even absurdly in a 

 translation. Apart from their natural surroundings they seem to have lost all meaning. 

 Indeed, it sometimes happens, in civilised as in savage life, that, while compositions ex- 

 pressly put forM^ard as poetical, are devoid of meaning, grace or melody, words uttered 

 in joy or grief, or just indignation, glow with the live heat of poetic passion. 



This is shown very clearly in the contrast between the "Dakota Mother's Lament," 

 written by Mrs. Riggs, after listening to the wail of a poor, bereaved tenant of the tepee — a 

 production which her learned husband pronoimced to the life — and some of the songs of the 

 Dakota people, gathered by Mr. Riggs himself All these specimens are included in that 

 admirable storehouse of information on the Dakotas, or Sioux, entitled the " Tahkoo- 

 Wahkau, or the Bible among the Dakotas," a work practically out of print, but kindly 

 lent me by Mr. Horatio Hale, a philologist and ethnologist, whom Canada is proud to 

 number among her citizens. 



The Indian Mother's Lament consists of five unrhymed stanzas, of which I give a 

 part of the first and the last : — 



" Me-choonk-she ! Me-choonk-she ! My Daughter ! My Daughter! Alas! alas! my comfort 

 has departed and my heart is very sad. My joy is turned into sorrow and my song into wailing. 

 Shall I never behold thy sunny smile ? The Great Spirit has entered my topee in anger and taken 

 from me my first, my only child. . . . Me-choonk-she ! Me-choonk-she ! 



" My Daughter, I come, I come ! I bring the parched corn. Oh I how long wi!t thou sleep ? . . . 

 I will lie down by thy side, . . . and together we will sleep that long sleep from which I cannot awake 

 thee. . . . Me-choonk-she ! Me-choonk-she ! " 



Now, if we compare the foregoing with any translation of the actual songs of the 

 chase, of war, of love or friendship, we cannot but mark the inferiority of the latter. 



" Cling fast to me and you'll ever have a plenty, 



(bis) 

 Cling fast to me." 



" Whenever we choose, 



Together we'll dwell : O 



Mother so says. 



This finger-ring 



Put on and wear." 



These are Dakota love-songs. Here is a Dakota war-song : — 



" Terrifying all I journey, 



(bis) 

 By the Toonk-kan at the North, 

 ' Terrifying all I journey." 



' What is of most interest to the ethnologist regarding the Zuni people, is contained in the admirably illustrated 

 account contributed by Mr. Gushing to the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. His articles in the 

 Century (Dec, 1882, and Feb. and JNIay, I880) may also be consulted with advantage. 



