Music — Poetry — Fiction 



And puny men who walk the earth ne'er dream 1894 



Of the great force beneath my glassy face; &*Saltu« 



And, so, from my brown bed up to the sod, 

 I seem in all my majesty supreme 



Defying time and earth, and fate and space, 

 To be the tumult of the tears of God! 



TRUMBULL, WILLIAM. The legend of the white canoe. N. Y. and 1894 

 Lond.: Putnam. 1894. Trumkull 



A story told in verse of the ancient Indian custom among the tribes in 

 the vicinity of Niagara, of a sacrifice to the Spirit of the Falls. In a 

 white birch-bark canoe was sent over the Falls the fairest maiden of the 

 tribe, surrounded by ripe fruits and blooming flowers. The sacrifice was 

 supposed to propitiate the Spirit of the Falls and gain for the tribe pros- 

 perity and abundant crops. 



Proem. 

 Mid the rush of mighty waters, in the thundering cataract's roar, 

 Where Niagara's streaming rapids down in headlong torrent pour ; 

 When the serried waves like chargers madly leaping to the fray, 

 Fling aloft their snowy crests and toss their manes of flying spray, 

 Rearing, plunging, onward urging — Nature's glorious cavalry ! 

 Where the eternal sweep of waters like the unending surge of time, 

 Pulsing, throbs in rhythmic measure to a wondrous strain sublime : 

 Dwells, so ancient legends say, the mighty Spirit of the Falls, 

 Who, from out the tumult, hoarsely, for unbounded homage calls. 

 Here the children of the forest, spellbound by that deafening roar, 

 Stopped to gaze with listening wonder, in the simpler days of yore ; 

 Awe-struck, gazed in silent worship, well beseeming Nature's 



child, 

 As in chase they roamed the plain, or tracked in war the path- 

 less wild; 

 And as often as they listened, on the voices of the flood 

 Deep were borne the Spirit's mutterings, calling fierce for human 



blood ; 

 Ay, and sacrifice more cruel in that cry, they understood: 

 Gift of Nature's choicest treasure, peerless budding womanhood! 



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