Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/214

626 Non-English Writings II labic blank verse, but every important speech is cast in such verse as this quotation from the speech of OUantay, the hero, when he goes to ask the hand of his daughter from the Inca Pachacuti : 'Twas I that struck the fatal blow When warlike Huncavila rose Disturbing thy august repose, And laid the mighty traitor low. ' Earlier in the play the friends of Ollantay warn him that his too ambitious passion for the Inca's daughter has been discovered; the warning is given in a song purporting to be addressed to the little field finch, in what appears to have been a favourite song measure : Thou must not feed, O Tuyallay, In Nusta's field, O Tuyallay, Thou must not rob, Tuyallay, The harvest maize, O Tuyallay. Let us select three of the many song sequences which are available for study, presenting three characteristic stages of literary development : the Songs of the Mide Brethren, a simple song ritual; the Hako, which might be described as a morality play or masque; and the Night Chant of the Navaho, which tends toward a generic American dramatic method. The Mide Wiwin, or society of Shamans, is a secret organ- ization of the Ojibway , including both men and women, and has for its object the attainment of mastery over the means of life, health, and subsistence, through communion with Spirit Power. Its chief interests to the Uterary student are the facts that it is one of the few literary enterprises which make use of "song boards," or "board plates," in which between straight lines are incised or painted mnemonic keys to the songs, and that the forms of those songs closely resemble the modem poetic mode which goes by the name of Imagism. " Sir Clements Markham.