Page:Tale of Paraguay - Southey.djvu/42

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Feasts and carousals, vanity and strife, Could have no place with them in solitude To break the tenor of their even life. Quiara day by day his game pursued, Searching the air, the water, and the wood, With hawk-like eye, and arrow sure as fate; And Monnema prepared the hunter's food: Cast with him here in this forlorn estate, In all things for the man was she a fitting mate.

The Moon had gather'd oft her monthly store Of light, and oft in darkness left the sky, Since Monnema a growing burthen bore Of life and hope. The appointed weeks go by; And now her hour is come, and none is nigh To help: but human help she needed none. A few short throes endured with scarce a cry, Upon the bank she laid her new-born son. Then slid into the stream, and bathed, and all was done.