Forever she sank mid the wail,
and the wild lamentation of women.
Her lone spirit evermore dwells
in the depths of the Lake of the Mountains,
And the lofty cliff evermore tells
to the years as they pass her sad story.[BW]
In the silence of sorrow the night
o'er the earth spread her wide, sable pinions;
And the stars[18] hid their faces; and light
on the lake fell the tears of the spirits.
As her sad sisters watched on the shore
for her spirit to rise from the waters,
They heard the swift dip of an oar,
and a boat they beheld like a shadow,
Gliding down through the night in the gray,
gloaming mists on the face of the waters.
'Twas the bark of DuLuth on his way
from the Falls to the Games at _Keoza_.
[BW] The Dakotas say that the spirit of Winona forever haunts the lake.
They say that it was many, many winters ago when Winona leaped from the
rock,--that the rock was then perpendicular to the water's edge and she
leaped into the lake, but now the rock has partly crumbled down and the
waters have also receded, so that they do not now reach, the foot of the
perpendicular rock as of old.
Pages:
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257