from the interpreter Tanner, and the numerous specimens of native
Californian chants recorded by Powers, as well as many others of this
class which might be mentioned, are mainly of this character.

Consequently, they show very poorly in a translation, and
are apt to convey an unjustly depreciatory notion of the
nations which produce them. To estimate them aright, the
meter and the music must be taken into consideration, and also
their suitability to the minds to which they were addressed.[69]

But the anthology of America is not limited to specimens of this kind.
In the Iroquois _Book of Rites_ there are funeral dirges of
considerable length, expressive and touching in meaning; and in the
Algonkin a few have been preserved in the original, which are authentic
and pleasing. Here, for instance, is a nearly literal version of a
Chippeway love song:--

"I will walk into somebody's dwelling,
Into somebody's dwelling will I walk.

To thy dwelling, my dearly beloved,
Some night will I walk, will I walk.

Some night in the winter, my beloved,
To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk.

This very night, my beloved,
To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk."[70]