THE INCANTATION.
Half-way up Indoda[1] climbing,
Hangs the wizard forest old,
From whose shade is heard the chiming
Of a streamlet clear and cold:
With a mournful sound it gushes
From its cavern in the steep;
Then at once its wailing hushes
In a lakelet dark and deep.
Standing by the dark-blue water,
Robed in panther's speckled hide,
Who is she? Jaluhsa's daughter,
Bold Makanna's widowed bride.
Stern she stands, her left hand clasping
By the arm her wondering child;
He, her shaggy mantle grasping,
Gazes up with aspect wild.
Thrice in the soft fount of nursing
With sharp steel she pierced a vein,—
Thrice the white oppressor cursing,
While the blood gushed forth amain,—
Wide upon the dark-blue water,
Sprinkling thrice the crimson tide,—
Spoke Jaluhsa's high-souled daughter,
Bold Makanna's widowed bride.
- ↑ The Man Mountain, so named by natives by reason of its supposed resemblance to the human figure.
