"Tamdoka is swift, but forsooth,
the tongue of his mother is swifter,"
She said, and her face was aflame
with the red of the rose and the lily,
And loud was the roar of acclaim;
but dark was the face of Tamdoka.
They strip for the race and prepare,--
DuLuth in his breeches and leggins;
And the brown, curling locks of his hair
down droop to his bare, brawny shoulders,
And his face wears a smile debonair,
as he tightens his red sash around him;
But stripped to the moccasins bare,
save the belt and the breech-clout of buckskin,
Stands the haughty Tamdoka aware
that the eyes of the warriors admire him;
For his arms are the arms of a bear
and his legs are the legs of a panther.
The drum beats,--the chief waves the flag,
and away on the course speed the runners,
And away leads the brave like a stag,--
like a bound on his track flies the Frenchman;
And away haste the hunters once more
to the hills, for a view to the lakeside,
And the dark-swarming hill-tops, they roar
with the storm of loud voices commingled.
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