Brother, the spirit of my son is gone;
I burned my lodge to speak my mighty grief.
Williams says, “The chiefe and most aged peaceable father of the countrey, Canonnicus, having buried his sonne, he burned his own palace, and all his goods in it, (amongst them to a great value), in a solemn remembrance of his son, and in a kind of humble expiation to the gods, who (as they believe) had taken away his sonne from him.”
I am thy father, thou shalt be my son.
See the extract from Williams’ testimony, in [note to stanza xxxiii, of canto iv].
The sable fox-hide did his loins enclose—
The sable fox-tail formed his nodding crest.
The Indians had a superstitious regard for the black fox. Williams says, they considered it a Manittoo—a god, spirit, or divine power.