Ever colder and colder it grew,
till the frozen ground cracked and split open;
And harder and harder it blew,
till the hillocks were bare as the boulders.
To the southward the buffalos fled,
and the white rabbits hid in their burrows;
On the bare sacred mounds of the dead
howled the gaunt, hungry wolves in the night-time,
The strong hunters crouched in their _tees_;
by the lodge-fires the little ones shivered;
And the Magic-Men[BK] danced to appease,
in their _teepee_, the wrath of _Waziya_;
But famine and fatal disease,
like phantoms, crept into the village.
The Hard Moon[BL] was past, but the moon
when the coons make their trails in the forest[BM]
Grew colder and colder. The coon,
or the bear, ventured not from his cover;
For the cold, cruel Arctic simoon
swept the earth like the breath of a furnace.
In the _tee_ of Ta-te-psin the store
of wild-rice and dried meat was exhausted;
And Famine crept in at the door,
and sat crouching and gaunt by the lodge-fire.
But now with the saddle of deer
and the gifts came the crafty Tamdoka;
And he said, "Lo I bring you good cheer,
for I love the blind Chief and his daughter.
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