To finish off this chapter I here give a very free translation of a song, whose words I was able to catch and remember, which came from the lips of my dear friends upon my returning among them after a long absence:
"O'er mountains and rivers you have passed to come amongst us as a friend, as a friend who will not hurt us, and behold we are here to meet you bearing with us all that the forest has yielded us to-day.
"The clear and beautiful mountain announced the good news and now you have returned to us who rejoice at seeing you again".
The form was not so but I have given the thought exactly, a thought, as you see, full of affection and with a very faint perfume of poetry about it. You will not accuse me, therefore, of being too optimistic when I affirm that the Sakai, in spite of his semblance to a wild man of the bush, savage, suspicious and superstitious as he is, is susceptible of rapid intellectual progress whenever the right means are used in his favour, and towards that end.
Footnotes:
[15] Pronounced chinneloy—Translator's Note.
