"Can a
flower, which blossomed in the sun, like the shade?"
"A woman of the Narragansetts is happiest in the lodge of her husband."
The eye of the chief met her confiding look with affection, and then it
fell, mild and full of kindness, on the features of the infant that lay at
their feet. There was a minute, during which an expression of utter
melancholy gathered about his brow.
"The Spirit that made the earth," he continued, "is very cunning. He has
known where to put the hemlock, and where the oak should grow. He has left
the moose and the deer to the Indian hunter, and he has given the horse
and the ox to a Pale-face. Each tribe hath its hunting-grounds, and its
game. The Narragansetts know the taste of a clam, while the Mohawks eat
the berries of the mountains. Thou hast seen the bright bow which shines
in the skies, Narra-mattah, and knowest how one color is mixed with
another, like paint on a warrior's face. The leaf of the hemlock is like
the leaf of the sumach; the ash, the chestnut; the chestnut, the linden;
and the linden, the broad-leaved tree which bears the red fruit, in the
clearing of the Yengeese; but the tree of the red fruit is little like the
hemlock! Conanchet is a tall and straight hemlock, and the father of
Narra-mattah is a tree of the clearing, that bears the red fruit.
Pages:
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698