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

'"'
THE FORE-WORLD. 13
peerless realm ! of liill and vale,
Of mountain, moorland, wood and glado.
Traced only by the narrow trail
That dusky moccasined feet had made
;
Where many a smiling meadow shone,
Fenced by the ether's purple ledge,
With waving grasses overgrown,
High greening to the billows 1 edge.
vanished days
!
no more to be,
Days when beside these limpid springs
Wide roamed the Elk as fleet and free
As though his very feet had wings.
The Moose his mighty antlers bore
O'er pastures green with kingly rule ;
The red Deer flocked each grassy shore
Stood mirrored in the crystal pool.
What time the patient Beaver wrought
A type of noblest brotherhood !
As though his meaner soul had caught
The vision of earth's highest good ;
When through an instinct brute and dim,
-The dream that haunts the wisest sage
To-day, was realized in him :
liude prophet of a riper age !