The American Indians / Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and Manuscripts

by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

Lynx.	Tah kau	(where ah!)
	Tah kau	(where ah!)
	Wa bose	(little white one)
	Wa bose	(little white one)
	Ke te e zha	(are you going?)
Hare.	Na kwa oushing	(to the point of land)
	Ain dah nuk e aum baun	(in my native country)
	In de e zha	(I go.)
Lynx.	Au neen	(what!)
	Au neen	(what!)
	A nau be kaus o yun aig	(causes it,)
	Kish ke mun ing	(why like stripes of leather)
	Ish o tow ug a una,	(are your ears?)
Hare.	Nish ish sha ug	(my uncles,)
	O sha wun e nong	(when from the south)
	Ke e zha waud	(they came,)
	Ningeeaizh e goob un eeg	(they did fix me so.)
Lynx.	Tah kau	(where ah!)
	Tah kau	(where ah!)
	Wa bose	(little white one,)
	Wa bose	(little white one,)
	Ke de e zha	(are you going?)
	Au neen	(why?)
	Na naub o kos o yun	(look they so,)
	Kish ke mun a,	(like dry bits of leather,)
	I izh e zida una,	(your feet ha!)

4. THE KITE AND THE EAGLE.

This is a specimen of Indian satire. The coward is boastful when there is no danger: pretension succeeds in the absence of real merit! A Kite was boasting how high he could fly, and ventured to speak disparagingly of the eagle, not knowing that the latter overheard him. He began to sing in a loud voice,

I upward fly

I! I alone disdain the air

Till I hang as by a hair

Poised in the sky.

The Eagle answers disdainfully, looking down from a branch far above the Kite,

Who mounts the sky?

Who is this, with babbling tongue

As he had on the storm-cloud hung,

Who flies so high?

The Kite in a shrinking, feeble voice,

The great Khakake

I've sometimes thought he flew so high

That he must see within the sky

The dawn awake.

The Eagle despises him, and yet cannot forbear to answer.

I spurn you all, ye prating throng

How often have I passed ye by

When my broad pinions fleet and strong,

Soared up where leapt the thunder cry!

Nor ye with feeble wing might dare,

Those hill-tops high, to mount in air.