Legends of the Northwest | Page 2

with their tepees. Their light canoes glided over our waters, and
their hunters chased the deer and the buffalo on the sites of our cities.
To-day, they are not. Let us do justice to their memory, for there was
much that was noble in their natures. In the following Dakota Legends
I have endeavored to faithfully represent many of the customs and
superstitions, and some of the traditions, of that people. I have taken
very little "poetic license" with their traditions; none, whatever, with
their customs and superstitions. In my studies for these Legends I have
been greatly aided by Rev. S. R. Riggs, author of the Grammar and
Dictionary of the Dakota language, "Tah-Koo Wah-Kan," &c., and for
many years a missionary among the Dakotas. He has patiently
answered my numerous inquiries and given me valuable information. I
am also indebted to Gen. H. H. Sibley, one of the earliest American
traders among them, and to Rev. S. W. Pond, of Shakopee, one of the
first Protestant missionaries to these people, and himself the author of
poetical versions of some of their principal legends; to Mrs. Eastman's
"Dacotah." and last, but not least, to the Rev. E. D. Neill, whose
admirable "History of Minnesota" so fully and faithfully presents
almost all that is known of the history, traditions, customs, manners and
superstitions of the Dakotas. In Winona I have "tried my hand" on
Hexameter verse. With what success, I leave to those who are better
able to judge than I. If I have failed, I have but added another failure to
the numerous vain attempts to naturalize Hexameter verse in the
English language.
The Earl of Derby, in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, calls it
"That pestilent heresy of the so-called English Hexameter; a metre

wholly repugnant to the genius of our language; which can only be
pressed into the service by a violation of every rule of prosody." Lord
Kames, in his "Elements of Criticism." says, "Many attempts have been
made to introduce Hexameter verse into the living languages, but
without success. The English language, I am inclined to think, is not
susceptible of this melody, and my reasons are these: First, the
polysyllables in Latin and Greek are finely diversified by long and
short syllables, a circumstance that qualifies them for the melody of
Hexameter verse: ours are extremely ill qualified for that service,
because they super-abound in short syllables. Secondly, the bulk of our
monosyllables are arbitrary with regard to length, which is an unlucky
circumstance in Hexameter. * * * In Latin and Greek Hexameter
invariable sounds direct and ascertain the melody. English Hexameter
would be destitute of melody, unless by artful pronunciation; because
of necessity the bulk of its sounds must be arbitrary. The pronunciation
is easy in a simple movement of alternate long and short syllables; but
would be perplexing and unpleasant in the diversified movement of
Hexameter verse."
Beautiful as is the Evangeline of Longfellow, his Hexameter lines are
sometimes hard to scan, and often grate harshly on the ear. He is
frequently forced to divide a word by the central or pivotal pause of the
line, and sometimes to make a pause in the sense where the rhythm
forbids it. Take for example some of the opening lines of
_Evangeline_:
"This is the forest prime|val. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in gar|ments green, indistinct in the twilight.
Loud from its rocky cav|erns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents discon|solate answers the wail of the forest. Lay
in the fruitful val|ley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward."
Again, in order to comply with the Greek and Latin rule of beginning
each line with a long syllable, he is compelled to emphasize words
contrary to the sense. Examples:
In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas _Some_what
apart from the vil|lage, and nearer the Basin of Minas. But a celestial

bright|ness--a more etherial beauty. And the retreating sun the sign of
the scorpion enters. _In_-doors, warmed by the wide-|mouthed
fireplace idly the farmer, Four times the sun had ris|en and set; and
now on the fifth day,
"Greek and Latin Hexameter lines, as to time, are all of the same length,
being equivalent to the time taken in pronouncing twelve long syllables,
or twenty-four short ones. An Hexameter line may consist of seventeen
syllables, and when regular and not Spondiac, it never has fewer than
thirteen: whence it follows that where the syllables are many, the
plurality must be short; where few, the plurality must be long. This line
is susceptible of much variety as to the succession of long and short
syllables. It is however subject to laws that confine its variety within
certain limits. * * *
1st. The