Then gave he man the swiftness of the deer,
And armed his hands with arrows and the bow,
And bade him shelter still his consort dear,
And tread his large domain without a peer.
XXII.
"Then did he send Yotaanit on high,
(For Gods he fashioned as he formed the land,)
And bade him star with fires the azure sky,
And kindle the round blaze of Keesuckquand;
And then, to cheer by night the hunter's eye,
Bright Nanapaushat sprung from Wamponand;
Thus with his will the manittoos comply,
And every region knows its deity.[1]
XXIII.
"All things thus were formed from what was good,
And the foul refuse every evil had;
But it had felt the influence of the God,
(How should it not?) and a black demon, sad
And stern and cruel, loving strife and blood,
Filled with all malice, and with fury mad,
Sprang into life:—such was fell Chepian's birth,
The hate of gods, and terror of the earth.
XXIV.
"Then to the south-west the Great Spirit flew,
Whence the soft breezes of the summer come,
And from the depths Sowaniu's[2] island drew,
And bade its fields with lasting verdure bloom.
O'er it he bent another welkin blue,
Which never night nor clouds nor tempests gloom,
And kindled suns the lofty arches through,
And bade them shine with glory ever new.
