Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems by Hanford Lennox Gordon
page 7 of 448 (01%)
their _teepees,_ their light canoes glided over our waters, and their
hunters chased the deer and the buffalo on the sites of our cities.
To-day, they are not. Let us do justice to their memory, for there was
much that was noble in their natures.

In the Dakota Legends, I have endeavored to faithfully present many of
the customs and superstitions, and some of the traditions, of that
people. I have taken very little 'poetic license' with their traditions;
none, whatever, with their customs and superstitions. In my studies for
these Legends I was greatly aided by the Rev. S.R. Riggs, author of the
_"Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language" "Tah-Koo Wah-Kan,"_
&c., and for many years a missionary among the Dakotas. He patiently
answered my numerous inquiries and gave me valuable information. I am
also indebted to the late Gen. H.H. Sibley, one of the earliest
American traders among them, and to Rev. S.W. Pond, of Shakopee, one of
the first Protestant missionaries to these people, and himself the
author of poetical versions of some of their principal legends; to Mrs.
Eastman's _"Dacotah,"_ and last, but not least, to the Rev. E.D. Neill,
whose admirable _"History of Minnesota"_ so fully and faithfully
presents almost all that is known of the history, traditions, customs,
manners and superstitions of the Dakotas.

In _Winona_ I have "tried my hand" on a new hexameter verse. With what
success, I leave to those who are better able to judge than I. If I have
failed, I have but added another failure to the numerous attempts to
naturalize hexameter verse in the English language.

It will be observed that I have slightly changed the length and the
rhythm of the old hexameter line; but it is still hexameter, and, I
think, improved.
DigitalOcean Referral Badge