Come all the Elephants, and in the floud
Washing themselves (as if to purifie)
They prostrate fall; and when religiously
They have adored the Moon, return again
Into the woods with joy.”
[246] In his Latin poem on New England, which the Rev. William Morell wrote during his eighteen months’ residence at Wessagusset as the spiritual head of the Robert Gorges settlement of 1623, there is a description of the Indian and his garments. The following is the author’s English rendering of his more elegant Latin original:—
“Whose hayre is cut with greeces, yet a locke
Is left; the left side bound up in a knott:
Their males small labour but great pleasure know,
Who nimbly and expertly draw the bow;