_When the meadow-lark trilled o'er the leas
and the oriole piped in the maples,
From my hammock, all under the trees,
by the sweet scented field of red-clover,
I harked to the hum of the bees,
as they gathered the mead of the blossoms,
And caught from their low melodies
the rhythm of the song of Winona_.

(In pronouncing Dakota words give "a" the sound of "ah,"--"e" the sound
of "a,"--"i" the sound of "e" and "u" the sound of "oo." Sound "ee"
the same as in English. The numerals 1-2 etc. refer to notes in the
appendix).


Two hundred white Winters and more
have fled from the face of the Summer,
Since here on the oak shaded shore
of the dark winding swift Mississippi,
Where his foaming floods tumble and roar,
on the falls and white rolling rapids,
In the fair, fabled center of Earth,
sat the Indian town of Ka-tha-ga. [86]
Far rolling away to the north, and the south,
lay the emerald prairies,
Alternate with woodlands and lakes,
and above them the blue vast of ether.
And here where the dark river breaks into spray
and the roar of the Ha-Ha, [76]