The league of the Iroquois and other legends : from the Indian muse

122 THE LEAGUE OF THE IROQUOIS.
Nyah-tah-wanta's deeper pain
Her trembling lips but ill
expressed ;
Her tears were like the summer rain,
And like the rain, they soothed and blest ;
Her cheek the sod in anguish pressed,
.
But not for long ;
she leaned her head
On Hayo-went-ha's manly breast
And wept and then was comforted.
Again the days in beauty wore :
Erelong Nyah-tah-wanta pressed
The dream her maiden bosom bore
Her darling to her mother's breast.
As to Nyah-tah-wanta he
In all the years had dearer grown,
So, in her motherhood, was she
More truly Hayo-went-ha's own.
v
Though hers the woman's destiny
Though pain the mother's love unsealed,
No tearful sorrow-burdened cry
The mother's anguished pain revealed ;
For she the lofty faith possessed,
That, coward weakness held in scorn,
Endurance in the mother-breast
Wrought courage in the newly-born. 41