36

36

There was no wave in the forest. The dark arms closed her round.

But the river of life went flowing,

Flowing away to the darkness,

For her breast grew red with his heart’s blood, in a night where the stars are drowned.

Teach me, O my lover, as you taught me of love in a day,

Teach me of death, and for ever, and set my feet on the way,

To the land of the happy shadows, the land where you are flown.

—And the river of death went weeping,

Weeping away to the darkness.—

Is the hunting good, my lover, so good that you hunt alone?

She rose to her feet like a shadow. She sent a cry thro’ the night,

Sa-sa-kuon, the death-whoop, that tells of triumph in fight.

37

37

It broke from the bell of her mouth like the cry of a wounded bird,

But the river of agony swelled it

And swept it along to the darkness,

And the Mohawks, couched in the darkness, leapt to their feet as they heard.

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