Till the Day-Spirit [70] rose in the East
--in the red, rosy robes of the morning,
To sail o'er the sea of the skies,
to his lodge in the land of the shadows,
Where the black winged tornadoes [b] arise
--rushing loud from the mouths of their caverns.
And here with a shudder they heard,
flying far from his tee in the mountains,
Wa-kin-yan, [32] the huge Thunder-Bird,
--with the arrows of fire in his talons.

[a] See Hennepin's Description of Louisiana by Shea pp 243 and
256. Parkman's Discovery p. 246--and Carver's Travels, p. 67
[b] The Dakotas like the ancient Romans and Greeks think the home
of the winds is in the caverns of the mountains, and their great Thunder
bird resembles in many respects the Jupiter of the Romans and the Zeus
of the Greeks. The resemblance of the Dakota mythology to that of the
older Greeks and Romans is striking.

Two hundred white Winters and more
have fled from the face of the Summer,
Since here by the cataract's roar,
in the moon of the red blooming lilies, [71]
In the tee of Ta-te-psin [a] was born Winona
--wild-rose of the prairies.
Like the summer sun peeping, at morn,
o'er the hills was the face of Winona;
And here she grew up like a queen
--a romping and lily-lipped laughter,
And danced on the undulant green,