HUGH SWINTON LEGARE.

SHINGEBISS.

AN INDIAN TRADITION.

THEI HERE was once a Shingebiss* living alone in a solitary lodge on the shores of the deep bay of a lake in the coldest winter weather. The ice had formed on the water, and he had but four logs of wood to keep his fire. Each of these would, however, burn a month, and, as there were but four cold winter months, they were sufficient to carry him through till spring.

Shingebiss was hardy and fearless, and cared for no one. He would go out during the coldest day and seek for places where flags and rushes grew through the ice, and, plucking them up with his bill, would dive through the openings in quest of fish. In this way he found plenty of food, while others were starving, and he went home daily to his lodge dragging strings of fish after him on the ice.

Kabeboniccat observed him, and felt a little piqued at his perseverance and good

luck in defiance of the severest blasts of wind he could send from the North-west.

"Why, this is a wonderful man," said he; "he does not mind the cold, and appears as happy and contented as if it were

*The name of a kind of duck.

† A personification of the North-west.

He poured forth tenfold colder blasts and drifts of snow, so that it was next to impossible to live in the open air. Still the fire of Shingebiss did not go out; he wore but a single strip of leather around his body, and he was seen in the worst weather searching the shores for rushes and carrying home fish.

"I shall go and visit him," said Kabebonicca one day as he saw Shingebiss dragging along a quantity of fish; and accordingly that very night he went to the door of his lodge.

Meantime, Shingebiss had cooked his fish and finished his meal, and was lying partly on his side before the fire singing his songs. After Kabebonicca had come to the door and stood listening there, he sang as follows:

"Ka be bon oc ca Neej in in ec we-ya! Ka be bon oc ca Neej in in ec we-ya!" The number of words in this song are few and simple, but they are made up from compounds which carry the whole of their original meanings and are rather suggestive of the ideas floating in the mind than actual expressions of those ideas. Literally, he sings,

"Spirit of the North-west, you are but my fellow-man." By being broken into syllables to correspond with a simple chant, and by the power of intonation and repetition, with a chorus, these words are expanded into melodious. utterance, if we may be allowed the term, and may be thus rendered:

"Windy god, I know your plan:
You are but my fellow-man.
Blow you may your coldest breeze,
Shingebiss you cannot freeze;

Sweep the strongest wind you can,
Shingebiss is still your man.
Heigh for life! and ho for bliss!
Who so free as Shingebiss?"

The hunter knew that Kabebonicca was

at his door, for he felt his cold and strong breath, but he kept on singing his songs and affected utter indifference. At length Kabebonicca entered and took his seat on the opposite side of the lodge, but Shingebiss did not regard or notice him. He got up as if nobody were present, and, taking his poker, pushed the log, which made his fire burn brighter, repeating as he sat down again,

"You are but fellow-man."
my

Very soon the tears began to flow down Kabebonicca's cheeks, which increased so fast that presently he said to himself,

"I cannot stand this; I must go out." He did so, and left Shingebiss to his songs, but resolved to freeze up all the flag-orifices and make the ice thick, so that he could not get any more fish. Still, Shingebiss, by dint of great diligence, found means to pull up new roots and dive under for fish. At last Kabebonicca was compelled to give up the

527

civilized nations on whose confines they dwelt, and whom for centuries they threatened with destruction. Their sole occupation was war, which, repelled by no natural boundaries, they waged, as an inborn passion for adventure suggested, in vast masses and with irresistible force. They overflowed Upper and Middle Italy and conquered Rome; they scattered the hitherto invincible phalanx of the Macedonians and carried to Tolosa the treasures of the Delphic temple; they seized the ships which were to have prevented them from crossing over into Asia and by their means effected the passage, and for a time the ancient Ilion was their stronghold. It became a vital necessity for the polished nations of the ancient world to free themselves from these enemies. When, after long and severe conflicts, this had been effected, Julius Cæsar sought them out in their own homes and subdued them in those memorable campaigns.

By these means not only were the two great peninsulas of the Mediterranean and the adjacent islands and coasts upon which the Greek and Roman culture unfolded itself

for a long period, at least-secured against all danger from the interior of the European continent, but at the same time in the very midst of it new abodes were prepared for civilization. Tribes of an inexhaustible vital energy, brave and ingenious, were drawn within its circle and subjected to its ideas. After their defeat the Gauls begin for the first time the general cultivation of their native land, and to enjoy the advantages which its geographical position afforded for peaceful occupations. The Romans filled the country with those great works which everywhere indicate their presence-amphitheatres, baths, aque

It were to be wished that a computation could be made of the number of persons of Latin or Italian extraction who settled in Gaul; the first centuries were characterized by a colonizing and civilizing activity which produced here an entirely new world, but there is no doubt that the native inhabitants united with the new-comers with joyful alacrity. From the blending of the tribes and races which had hitherto inhabited the land with the colonies of the conquerors there arose a new people-a great and distinct Romanic nation. In the second century Gaul was the most populous, and in the fourth one of the most civilized, of the Roman provinces, although in the interior many national peculiarities were still preserved.

Wherever the peculiar genius of the native races came in contact with some branch of the Latin culture they attained at once to a remarkable degree of perfection. For a long time there were no schools more frequented than those in Gaul; Romans themselves learned Latin eloquence, in the acceptation of the age, on the banks of the Garonne. The most important operation of this change was its effect upon the religion of the primIt has been remarked that the religion of the Gallic Druids was the only one whose peculiarities the Romans did not tolerate; wherever altars are found on which the Celtic gods are represented together with those of Greece and Rome, they appear sim

itive races.

ality or polity. The human sacrifices had to disappear. This prohibition cannot be regarded, however, as a mere political transaction. The emperor Claudius, who destroyed the Druidical system, was, without knowing it, an ally of the universal religion of humanity, which even then was beginning to appear in another place. When Christianity, then, made more and more progress in its contest with the various systems of pagan idolatry, the Romanized Gauls, among others, were most deeply interested in its doctrines and in the questions to which it gave rise. They accounted it an honor that the house of the Roman emperors which in the contest between the various religions gave the decision in favor of Christianity had its chief abode in Gaul; it was there, it was said, that Constantine had placed the sign of the Christian faith upon the labarum. Some time elapsed, however, before the people were converted. It was not till the second half of the fourth century that the Pannonian warrior St. Martin appeared, who, exposing his own person, destroyed before the eyes of the people the objects of their worship-the conic monuments and sacred trees of the native gods, as well as the temples and statues of the Roman deities, for both had stood, and now both fell, together-and erected Christian churches on their ruins. He founded the great minster at Tours, which was succeeded by many other monkish institutions, both in the interior of the land and on the neighboring islands-seminaries alike for theological studies and for the service of the Church, which gave bishops to the cities and missionaries to the rural districts.

Translation of M. A. GARVEY.