Page:This Canada of ours and other poems.djvu/43

Rh    In the lodges of his people, Never had been seen a Pale-Face; Never yet had come a Black Robe Bearing Cross of mystic meaning. Only vague and blind traditions, Only secrets of magicians, Empty songs and incantations, Taught him of the world of spirits Of the land of the Hereafter.

Though he well had loved the war-path, And was proud of skill in hunting, Bow and arrows lay neglected, In those heavy days of anguish. But one thought was ever with him, But one wild desire possessed him; For the old men often told him, That by fasting and by dreaming, By forsaking all his kindred, By forgetting all his prowess, He might find the hidden pathway