The Thunderbolt. - Indian Legends.

There is an artless tradition among the Indians, related by Irving, of a warrior who saw the thunderbolt lying upon the ground, with a beautifully wrought moccasin on each side of it. Thinking he had found a prize, he put on the moccasins, but they bore him away to the land of spirits, whence he never returned.     Loud pealed the thunder     From arsenal high,     Bright flashed the lightning     Athwart the broad sky;     Fast o'er the prairie,     Through torrent and shade,     Sought the red hunter     His hut in the glade.     Deep roared the cannon     Whose forge is the sun,     And red was the chain     The thunderbolt spun;     O'er the thick wild wood     There quivered a line,     Low 'mid the green leaves     Lay hunter and pine.     Clear was the sunshine,     The hurricane past,     And fair flowers smiled in     The path of the blast;     While in the forest     Lay rent the huge tree,     Up rose the red man,     All unharmed and free.     Bright glittered each leaf     With sunlight and spray,     And close at his feet     The thunder-bolt lay,     And moccasins, wrought     With the beads that shine,     Where the rainbow hangeth     A wampum divine.     Wondered the hunter     What spirit was there,     Then donned the strange gift     With shout and with prayer;     But the stout forest     That echoed the strain,     Heard never the voice of     That red man again.     Up o'er the mountain,     As torrents roll down,     Marched he o'er dark oak     And pine's soaring crown;     Far in the bright west     The sunset grew clear,     Crimson and golden     The hunting-grounds near:     Light trod the chieftain     The tapestried plain,     There stood his good horse     He'd left with the slain;     Gone were the sandals,     And broken the spell;     A drop of clear dew     From either foot fell.     Long the dark maiden     Sought, tearful and wide;     Never the red man     Came back for his bride;     With the forked lightning     Now hunts he the deer,     Where the Great Spirit     Smiles ever and near.