VI.
TOLONGA.
Oh weary heart! I have wandered lone
Close to Niagara’s awful throne;
I’ve gazed till his roar and fearful might
Have dulled mine ear and blinded my sight;
I’ve heard the hoarse and terrible song
Of the mountain waves as they rolled along,
And plunged down the watery precipice steep,
Like white-robed furies that whirl and leap.
I thought of my child’s fair form and face
Grasped in their stormy, cruel embrace,
The tender arms that have clasped me oft
In dying agony flung aloft,
The delicate limbs a helpless prey
To their maddened rage, or demon play;
And I turned aside in anguish wild.
Oh, wretched Father! My child, my child!
But I must be calm and act a part,
Nor show the fierce grief that rends my heart;
A Seneca chief must learn to hide
His pangs ’neath a mask of stoic pride.
VII.
MINAHITA. Prayer.
Hear me, Thou great and glorious One!
Protector of my race!
Whom in the far-off Spirit Land
I shall soon see face to face;
I ask Thee, humbly bending
Before Thy Mighty Throne,
To cleanse me from all stain of sin
And make me soon thine own:
My people guard and bless,
All wrongs and ills redress,
Their enemies subdue,
And for the youth, the life, I freely yield,
Give them peace, plenty, victory in the field,
And honest hearts and true.
VIII.
TOLONGA. Duet
My daughter, let me press thee
Close to my yearning heart,
Ah! once more softly bless thee
Ere we for ever part!
I adjure thee not to falter
In the trial now so nigh,
But, as victim on the altar,
A Sachem’s daughter die.
MINAHITA.