e.
Proclamation was made, that, the holy rites being performed, it was
lawful for the hungry to taste food. But first came the sacrifice. The
deer's flesh was laid on the burning coals, and the warriors who had
fasted danced their most solemn dance around the hearth of sacrifice.
The priest most reputed for intimacy with the Great Spirit, he who had
oftenest, by his incantations, procured plentiful crops of maize, who
had oftenest charmed the bisons to the unsheltered prairies, called
the deer from the tangled coverts, and the horses from the hills of
the Men of Black Garments[A], and given to the enemies of the Lenape
the heart of the bird that runs low among the grass[B], arose, and
began his hymn of supplication:

SONG OF THE LENAPE PRIEST.

Wangewaha dreamed a dream,
The Hard Heart slept,
When to him came the Manitou of Night,
And visions danced before his eyes.
What did Wangewaha see?
This he saw.

He saw the valiant warriors of his land,
Assembled as for warfare; wives and babes
Were at their feet; the aged on their sheds.
The dogs were harnessed;
The bones of many generations
Were taken from the burial places, where
They had reposed for countless suns;
The food was all prepared,
Dried corn and pemmican,
And folded tents proclaimed that the Lenapes
Had shod their mocassins for lengthened travel.

Dread Master of the earth,
Wahconda of the thunder, and the winds,
Who bid'st the earth shake, and the hills be thick
With hail and snow,
Shall we arise, and take
Our father's relics from the burial shed?
Shall we depart, and wilt thou guide
Our feet to fairer lands?
Does success await us,
In this, our distant pilgrimage?
Will these, our young men, strike and overcome?
Shall we possess the lands the dreamer saw?
And will their maidens look with favouring eyes
Upon our warriors?
Answer us, Spirit of the Mighty Voice!

[Footnote A: The Spaniards.]

[Footnote B: The partridge, a common figure with the Indians to
express cowardice.]

Scarcely had the song of the priest ceased, when the voice of the
Wahconda was heard sounding as sweetly as the notes of the
mocking-bird rejoicing for the return of her mate, whom she chides for
his long absence. The chiefs and warriors understood not the words he
spoke, but they were heard by the priest, who repeated them to the
awe-struck cr