1898-99. | PRIMITIVE NATURE STUDY. Ja 
‘“ In this beautiful field, 
Where many birds sing, 
There lives a girl, 
For whom I am dying.” 
The highest limit of primitive love and nature lyrics is reached in the 
songs of the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, who were true lovers of 
nature and no mean poets. 
Even the Minnesanger or the best lyrical poets of to-day could hardly 
excel the idea embodied in this Aztec song : 
“On a certain mountain side, 
Where they pluck flowers, 
I saw a pretty maiden 
Who plucked from me my heart. 
Whither thou goest, 
There go I.” 
Following is “ The Song of the Salmon Fishing,” sung to C. E. S. 
Wood, in 1877, by a niece of a chief of the Tlinkit Indians of Alaska. 
(Century, Vol. 24, p. 338): 
‘* Why is the young man sorrowful ? 
Oh! why is the young man sad ? 
Ah-Ka. His maiden has left him. 
The long suns have come. 
The ice now is melting ; 
Now comes the salmon, 
He leaps in the river, 
In the moon's gentle twilight 
He throws up a bow— 
A bow of bright silver. 
Lusty and strong he darts through the water, 
He sports with his mate ; 
He springs from the water. 
All the dark season 
He has lain hidden. 
Now he comes rushing, 
And ripples the river. 
Purple and gold, and red and bright silver, 
Shine on his sides and flash in his sporting's, 
How he thrashes the net ! 
How he wrenches the spear ! 
But the red of his sides 
Is stained with a redder ; 
The maid of the young man leans o’er the salmon. 
White laugh her teeth, 
Clear rings her laughter ; 
Which passes canoes all busy and happy, 
Which outstrips the noise of the many mixed voices, 
And pierces the heart of her sorrowful lover. 
She has forgot him, 
