"'And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David: the king desireth not any dowry, but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged on the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
"'Wherefore David arose, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men, and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full toll to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law.'
"We see from this," (continues the editor of the Phœnix,) "that David, who was a great Jewish warrior, went out on the war-path not from any motive of war, or to revenge the death of his fallen comrades; but for what? Why, to get a marriage portion to lay before the king of the Jewish nation. And what was this marriage portion? Lo! it was one hundred scalps of the Philistines. * * * * *
At the conclusion we are told that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him. Why? Because he was a great warrior, who had taken many scalps, and, moreover, David behaved himself wisely, that is, cunning, in taking of scalps from the Philistines, so that his name was much set by. As the Jews were in the time of Saul and David, so are the Indian tribes of the West and of North America. They go out on the war-path, they return with scalps; and the daughters of the tribe sing, as in the days of David, 'The warrior Dutch hath slain his tens, but the warrior Smith hath slain his fifties in the villages of the Tarwargans.'"
The following is a specimen of the poetry,—one of the war-songs of these regenerated Indians. We cannot say it is quite equal to the prose, but it is certainly more curious.
"Indian chiefs, arise! The glorious hour's gone forth, And in the world's eyes Display who gave you birth! Indian chiefs, let us go In arms to Mexico; Till the Spanish blood shall flow In a river at our feet.
Then, manfully despising The pale faces' yoke, Let your tribes see you rising Till your chains is broke!"
Fastidious readers may object both to the vigour and the grammar of the above; but we have still richer specimens in store for them.
The song continues:
"As rose the tribes of Judah In days long past and gone, I'll lead you to as good a Land to be your own.