Keguh, ke gun ah wain e ma, (Your mother cares for you.)
Nebaun—nebaun—nebaun, e we yea, (Sleep, thrice, lullaby.)
Kago, saigizze-kain, nedaunis-ais, (Do not fear, my little daughter.)
Nebaun—nebaun—nebaun, (Sleep, thrice.)
Kago, saigizze-kain, wa wa, e we yea, (third line repeated.)
(c.)
Wa wa—wa wa—wa we yea, (Swinging, twice, lullaby.)
Kaween neezheka kediausee, (Not alone art thou.)
Ke kan nau wai, ne me go, suhween, (Your mother is caring for you.)
Nebaun—nebaun—nedaunis-ais, (Sleep, sleep, my little daughter.)
Wa wa—wa wa—wa we yea, (Swinging, &c., lullaby.)
Nebaun—nebaun—nebaun, (Sleep! sleep! sleep.[51])
[51] These translations are entirely literal—the verbs to "sleep" and to "fear," requiring the imperative mood, second person, present tense, throughout. In rendering the term "wa-wa" in the participial form some doubt may exist, but this has been terminated by the idea of the existing motion, which is clearly implied, although the word is not marked by the usual form of the participle in ing. The phrase lul-la-by, is the only one in our language, which conveys the evident meaning of the choral term e-we-yea. The substantive verb is wanting, in the first line of b. and the third of c. in the two forms of the verb, to care, or take care of a person; but it is present in the phrase "kediausee" in the second line of c. These facts are stated, not that they are of the slightest interest to the common reader, but that they may be examined by philologists, or persons curious in the Indian grammar.
THE HARE AND THE LYNX.
3. The story of the Wabose, (Hare,) and the Pighieu, (Lynx,) will at once remind the reader of the so often recited tale of little Red Riding Hood, in which the reciter imitates the tones of the wolf, and the little nursery listener hears with a growing amazement, and starts as if he felt the real wolf's teeth at the close.
This story is partly spoken and partly sung. The Teller imitating alternately the Hare, and its enemy, the Lynx.
There was once, she says, a little Hare living in the lodge with its grandmother, who was about to send it back to its native land. When it had gone but a little way, a Lynx appeared in the path, and began to sing,
| Where pretty white one? |
| Where little white one, |
| Where do you go? |
Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! cried the Hare, and ran back to its grandmother. "See, grandmother," said the timid little creature, "what the Lynx is saying to me," and she repeated the song. "Ho! Nosis," that is to say, courage my grandchild, run along, and tell him you are going home to your native land: so the Hare went back and began to sing,