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

260 THE GREAT SNAKE OF CAXAXDAIGUA.
Or hissing like a roaring blast,
With eyes like demon, fierce and red,
Swift as the wind went writhing past,
The hapless Indian's scourg*e and dread.
When in the vale he horrid sang
The frightened beasts with howlings fled ;
The woods, the while his rattles rang,
Stood shivering with a scaly dread.
When leaping from the rocky steeps
He floundered in the frightened waves,
The fishes in the startled deeps
Went shuddering to the rocky caves.
With jaws distent and high in air,
With fiery tongue, that went and came,
A roaming horror everywhere
Destroyer of the Indian's game.