I have for several years devoted many of my leisure hours to the study
of the language, history, traditions, customs and superstitions of the
Dakotas. These Indians are now commonly called the "Sioux"--a name given
them by the early French traders and _voyageurs_. "Dakota" signifies
_alliance_ or _confederation_. Many separate bands, all having a common
origin and speaking a common tongue, were united under this name. See
"_Tah-Koo Wah-Kan_," or "_The Gospel Among the Dakotas_," by Stephen R.
Riggs, pp. 1 to 6 inc.
They were, but yesterday, the occupants and owners of the fair forests
and fertile prairies of Minnesota--a brave, hospitable and generous
people,--barbarians, indeed, but noble in their barbarism. They may be
fitly called the Iroquois of the West. In form and features, in language
and traditions, they are distinct from all other Indian tribes. When
first visited by white men, and for many years afterwards, the Falls of
St. Anthony (by them called the Ha-Ha) was the center of their country.
They cultivated tobacco, and hunted the elk, the beaver and the bison.
They were open-hearted, truthful and brave. In their wars with other
tribes they seldom slew women or children, and rarely sacrificed the
lives of their prisoners.
For many years their chiefs and head men successfully resisted the
attempts to introduce spirituous liquors among them. More than a century
ago an English trader was killed at Mendota, because he persisted,
after repeated warnings by the chiefs, in dealing out _mini-wakan_
(Devil-water) to the Dakota braves.
With open arms and generous hospitality they welcomed the first white
men to their land; and were ever faithful in their friendship,
till years of wrong and robbery, and want and insult, drove them to
desperation and to war. They were barbarians, and their warfare was
barbarous, but not more barbarous than the warfare of our Saxon and
Celtic ancestors. They were ignorant and superstitious, but their
condition closely resembled the condition of our British forefathers
at the beginning of the Christian era. Macaulay says of Britain, "Her
inhabitants, when first they became known to the Tyrian mariners, were
little superior to the natives of the Sandwich Islands." And again,
"While the German princes who reigned at Paris, Toledo, Arles and
Ravenna listened with reverence to the instructions of Bishops, adored
the relics of martyrs, and took part eagerly in disputes touching the
Nicene theology, the rulers of Wessex and Mercia were still performing
savage rites in the temples of Thor and Woden."
The day of the Dakotas is done. The degenerate remnants of that once
powerful and warlike people still linger around the forts and agencies
of the Northwest, or chase the caribou and the bison on the banks of the
Sascatchewan, but the Dakotas of old are no more. The brilliant defeat
of Custer, by Sitting Bull and his braves, was their last grand rally
against the resistless march of the sons of the Saxons and the Celts.
The plow-shares of a superior race are fast leveling the sacred mounds
of their dead. But yesterday, the shores of our lakes, and our rivers,
were dotted with their tepees. Their light canoes glided over our
waters, and their hunters chased the deer and the buffalo on the sites
of our cities. To-day, they are not. Let us do justice to their memory,
for there was much that was noble in their natures. In the following
Dakota Legends I have endeavored to faithfully represent many of the
customs and superstitions, and some of the traditions, of that people.
I have taken very little "poetic license" with their traditions; none,
whatever, with their customs and superstitions. In my studies for these
Legends I have been greatly aided by Rev. S. R. Riggs, author of the
Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota language, "Tah-Koo Wah-Kan," &c.,
and for many years a missionary among the Dakotas. He has patiently
answered my numerous inquiries and given me valuable information. I am
also indebted to Gen. H. H. Sibley, one of the earliest American traders
among them, and to Rev. S. W. Pond, of Shakopee, one of the first
Protestant missionaries to these people, and himself the author of
poetical versions of some of their principal legends; to Mrs. Eastman's
"Dacotah." and last, but not least, to the Rev. E. D. Neill, whose
admirable "History of Minnesota" so fully and faithfully presents almost
all that is known of the history, traditions, customs, manners and
superstitions of the Dakotas. In _Winona_ I have "tried my hand" on
Hexameter verse. With what success, I leave to those who are better able
to judge than I. If I have failed, I have but added another failure to
the numerous vain attempts to naturalize Hexameter verse in the English
language.
The Earl of Derby, in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, calls
it "That pestilent heresy of the so-called English Hexameter; a metre
wholly repugnant to the genius of our language; which can only be
pressed into the service by a violation of every rule of prosody." Lord
Kames, in his "Elements of Criticism." says, "Many attempts have been
made to introduce Hexameter verse into the living languages, but
without success. The English language, I am inclined to think, is
not susceptible of this melody, and my reasons are these: First, the
polysyllables in Latin and Greek are finely diversified by long and
short syllables, a circumstance that qualifies them for the melody of
Hexameter verse: ours are extremely ill qualified for that service,
because they super-abound in short syllables. Secondly, the bulk of our
monosyllables are arbitrary with regard to length, which is an unlucky
circumstance in Hexameter. * * * In Latin and Greek Hexameter invariable
sounds direct and ascertain the melody. English Hexameter would
be destitute of melody, unless by artful pronunciation; because of
necessity the bulk of its sounds must be arbitrary. The pronunciation
is easy in a simple movement of alternate long and short syllables;
but would be perplexing and unpleasant in the diversified movement of
Hexameter verse."
Beautiful as is the _Evangeline_ of Longfellow, his Hexameter lines
are sometimes hard to scan, and often grate harshly on the ear. He is
frequently forced to divide a word by the central or pivotal pause of
the line, and sometimes to make a pause in the sense where the rhythm
forbids it. Take for example some of the opening lines of _Evangeline_:
"This is the forest prime|val. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in gar|ments green, indistinct in the twilight.
Loud from its rocky cav|erns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents discon|solate answers the wail of the forest.
Lay in the fruitful val|ley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward."
Again, in order to comply with the Greek and Latin rule of beginning
each line with a _long_ syllable, he is compelled to emphasize words
contrary to the sense. Examples:
_In_ the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas
_Some_what apart from the village, and nearer the Basin of Minas.
_But_ a celestial bright|ness--a more etherial beauty.
_And_ the retreating sun the sign of the scorpion enters.
_In_-doors, warmed by the wide-|mouthed fireplace idly the farmer,
_Four_ times the sun had ris|en and set; and now on the fifth day,
"Greek and Latin Hexameter lines, as to time, are all of the same
length, being equivalent to the time taken in pronouncing twelve long
syllables, or twenty-four short ones. An Hexameter line may consist of
seventeen syllables, and when regular and not Spondiac, it never has
fewer than thirteen: whence it follows that where the syllables are
many, the plurality must be short; where few, the plurality must be
long. This line is susceptible of much variety as to the succession of
long and short syllables. It is however subject to laws that confine its
variety within certain limits. * * *
1st. The line must always commence with a _long_ syllable, and close
with two long preceded by two short.
2d. More than two short syllables can never be found together, nor
_fewer_ than two.
3d. Two long syllables which have been preceded by two short can not
also be followed by two short.
These few rules fulfill all the conditions of an Hexameter line
with relation to order of arrangement."--_Lord Kames, "Elements of
Criticism."_ One who attempts to write English Hexameter, under the
Greek and Latin rules, will speedily be made aware that the English
language "super-abounds in short syllables." Why then should we rigidly
adhere to rules repugnant to the genius of our language, if they can be
modified so as to adapt the sonorous Hexameter to the structure of our
mother-tongue? Can they be so modified? I have attempted it. I venture
to change them as follows:
1st. By beginning each line with a _short_ syllable instead of a long
one. And it will be seen that I often begin a line with two short
syllables.
2d. By often using one short syllable unaccompanied by another.
3d. I have increased the average number of syllables in the line to
better adapt it to our super-abundance of short syllables.
4th. In _Winona_ I have introduced a rhyme at the pivotal pause of
the line, not because my Hexameter requires it, but because I think it
increases the melody, and more emphatically marks the central pause.
I am not quite sure that, in a long poem, the rhyme is not detrimental.
That depends greatly, however, upon the skill with which it is handled.
Surely the same Hexameter can be written as smoothly and more vigorously
without rhyme. Rhyme adds greatly to the labor of composition; it rarely
assists, but often hinders, the expression of the sense which the author
would convey. At times I have been on the point of abandoning it
in despair, but after having been under the hammer and the file, at
intervals for the last four years, _Winona_ is at last _done_, if not
finished.
It will be observed that I have slightly changed the length and the
rhythm of the old Hexameter line, but it is still Hexameter, and, I
think, improved. I am not afraid of intelligent criticism. I invoke it,
and will endeavor to profit by it in the future as in the past.
The reception of my _Pauline_ at home and abroad has been so flattering
that I have been encouraged to attempt something better. That was my
first real effort and full of crudities but if the Legends are received
by our best critics as well as _Pauline_ was received I shall be well
pleased with my efforts.
After much thought I have decided to publish the first edition of my
_Legends_ here at home:
1st Because they pertain particularly to the lakes and rivers to the
fair forests and fertile fields of our own Minnesota and ought to be
appreciated here if anywhere.
2d Because many of our people are competent to judge whether my
representations of Dakota customs, life, traditions, and superstitions
are correct or not and at the same time the reading public of the North
west is as intelligent and discriminating as that of any other portion
of our country. If these _Legends_ be appreciated and approved by our
own people who are familiar with the scenery described and more or less,
with the customs, traditions and superstitions of the Dakotas, and if
beyond that these poems shall stand the test of candid criticism I may
give them a wider publication.