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

48 THE LEAGUE OF THE IROQUOIS.
The banquet done, on grassy plain
To chant and song the dance began ;
Each artless maid, untaught to feign
To wait the proffered hand of man,
Unskilled to hide what Nature gave ,
The heart that lit her virgin breast,
Herself to him, the favored brave,
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She proffered with her modest quest.
In beaded costume fine arrayed,
At beat of drum and rattle-clang,
Stood forth each waiting forest maid,
Quick forth each youthful warrior sprang.
Now up, now down, now fast, now slow,
With measured time and agile pace,
Their lithe forms swaying to and fro
A wonder showed of supple grace.
And so he taught them
not in vain
Of every good of labor born,
Till shone afar each hill and plain
With teeming fields of ll1
growing corn.
And often to my ear there come
Glad murmurs of the after years
Of happy maidens bearing home
The burden of the ripened ears.