Then glad as the robin in May
was the voice of Winona exulting;
Tamdoka turned sullen away,
and sulking he walked by the river;
He glowered as he went and the fire
of revenge in his bosom was kindled:
Dark was his visage with ire
and his eyes were the eyes of a panther.
THE WAKAN-WACEPEE, OR SACRED DANCE. [81]
Lo the lights in the _"Teepee-Wakan!"_
'tis the night of the _Wakan Wacepee_.
Round and round walks the chief of the clan,
as he rattles the sacred _Ta-sha-kay_; [81]
Long and loud on the _Chan-che-ga_ [81]
beat the drummers with magical drumsticks,
And the notes of the _Cho-tanka_ [81]
greet like the murmur of winds on the waters.
By the friction of white-cedar wood
for the feast was a Virgin-fire [20] kindled.
They that enter the firm brotherhood
first must fast and be cleansed by _E-nee-pee_;[81]
And from foot-sole to crown of the head
must they paint with the favorite colors;
For _Unktehee_ likes bands of blood-red,
with the stripings of blue intermingled.
In the hollow earth, dark and profound,
_Unktehee_ and fiery _Wakinyan_
Long fought, and the terrible sound
of the battle was louder than thunder;
The mountains were heaved and around
were scattered the hills and the boulders,
And the vast solid plains of the ground
rose and fell like the waves of the ocean.
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