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LEGEND OF MOUNT HOOD.
- "Tahoma"—thus the native Indian legends run—
- "A god magnificent and pure of soul, dwelt in a grove
- Of giant trees where stands this mountain now. None came to share
- His meditations, or his loneliness,
- 'Till form empyreal, of loveliness
- And grace and majesty and holiness
- Coequal with his own, swept through the vault—a goddess fair,
- On errand from the stars. 'Twas Red Tamahnous, queen of love!
- Tahoma saw; she smiled, and passed beyond the sun.
- Aflame with strange, ecstatic fire, the fervent god,
- In sleepless vigil, waited through the years for her return—
- Ten hundred years. She came at last, at rising of the sun.
- Exalting all his form Tahoma rose
- To greet his queen; in maidenly repose
- She lingered in the west; upon her brows
- A wreathed effulgence flamed. In form the lovers were as one,
- Their ornaments the same. Each learned that fires celestial burn
- Where love is pure. Thus, near opposed, they willing stood.
- Foredoomed to earthly home, Tahoma sued her dear
- Companionship—that she, with silver hair untressed and spread
- In beauty through the skies, no more from stars to sun should roam.
- An errant messenger. She gave consent;
