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How American Indians Love, a non-fiction book by Henry Theophilus Finck |
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A Chippewa Love-Song |
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_ In 1759 great exertions were made by the French Indian Department under General Montcalm to bring a body of Indians into the valley of the lower St. Lawrence, and invitations for this purpose reached the utmost shores of Lake Superior. In one of the canoes from that quarter, which was left on the way down at the mouth of the Utawas, was a Chippewa girl named Paigwaineoshe, or the White Eagle. While the party awaited there the result of events at Quebec she formed an attachment for a young Algonquin belonging to a French mission. This attachment was mutual, and gave rise to a song of which the following is a prose translation:
II. As I embarked to return, he put the white wampum around my neck--a pledge of troth, my sweetheart, my Algonquin. III. I shall go with you, he said, to your native country--I shall go with you, my sweetheart--my Algonquin. IV. Alas! I replied--my native country is far, far away--my sweetheart, my Algonquin. V. When I looked back again--where we parted, he was still looking after me, my sweetheart, my Algonquin. VI. He was still standing on a fallen tree--that had fallen into the water, my sweetheart, my Algonquin. VII. Alas! When I think of him--when I think of him--It is when I think of him, my Algonquin. _ |
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