■63 
TOE isCIEN l l^T. 
probability of the Taleg-ewa beino- the 
people called Momidbuilders, but this is 
leserved for a future occasion. Prof. 
Thomas thinks they were Cherokees. 
1 he portion of the Walum Olum pre- 
sented above possesses all the elements 
of poetry. I have heard it read in the 
original tongue by an educated Wyan- 
dotte and in his mouth it sounded like a 
sonorous and solemn chant. Its subject 
is poetical and the treatment distinctly 
so. Put in English meter it is sufficiently 
imaginative and grave to be far above 
contempt as a mere poem. I have 
roughly thrown this part into blank 
verse to illustrate this fact and will close 
by presenting my metrical version: — 
I. 
When time began there was a place where 
grew, 
As ages passed, a mist whose spread- 
ing shroud 
Concealed both earth and sky, and there- 
in dwelt 
The Manito Almighty. There unseen, 
Eternal, omnipresent, lost in spcce. 
The Manito existed. Then he made 
The wide earth, and the tirmament a- 
bove. 
The sun, the moon, the stars, and caused 
them all. 
To move in order. Then a great wind 
rose. 
And blew the fogs away and far and 
strong, 
The waters flowed, and groups of islands 
grew^ 
Above the waves and, steadfast, there 
remained. 
And then again the mighty Manito 
Spoke to all beings, Manitos and men 
And unembodied souls ; to mortals still 
Creator and preserver . From his hand 
The primal mother came of all that live, 
And also fish and turtle, beasts and birds. 
But evil creatures, monsters, flies and 
gnats, 
Were by an evil Manito flr.^t made. 
In those days all were friends ; the 
Manitos 
Were good to men, to those first men of 
all. 
They brought them wives and when man 
wished for food, 
'Tvvas furnished them. In that primeval 
age 
Grief was unknown, unknown was weary 
toil 
And mirth and cheer ruled all man's hap- 
py days. 
But now there crept in secret upon earth 
An Evil One, a mighty sorcerer 
And brought with him a thousand miser- 
ies, — 
Brought wickedness and strife and shai'p 
distress. 
Bad weather, too, he brought, disease 
and death. 
All these things happened on the primal 
earth, 
Bej'ond the great tide-water in old days. 
II. 
Long, Jong ago, there Vas a miglity snake 
And other beings harmful to mankind t 
And this great serpent hated man, and 
sought 
In all waj's to torment him, and both 
sides 
Did evil, each to each; unceasingly 
They warred, till at the last the men over- 
thrown. 
Fled from their homes; yet fought on still 
Against the spoiler. Then the snake re- 
solved 
To do the utmost harm he could to man 
And so he brought three beasts, and with 
them came 
A monster and a torrent; through the 
hills 
The floods rushed down ahd ruined all 
the land. 
At that time on the Turtle Island walked 
The Strong White One, Manito, Nana- 
bnsh, — 
