Captive! Is there a hell to him like this?
\nA taunt more galling than the Huron’s hiss?
\nHe\u2014proud and scornful, he\u2014who laughed at law,
\nHe\u2014scion of the deadly Iroquois,
\nHe\u2014the bloodthirsty, he\u2014the Mohawk chief,
\nHe\u2014who despises pain and sneers at grief,
\nHere in the hated Huron’s vicious clutch,
\nThat even captive he disdains to touch!<\/p>\n
Captive! But never<\/i> conquered; Mohawk brave
\nStoops not to be to any<\/i> man a slave;
\nLeast, to the puny tribe his soul abhors,
\nThe tribe whose wigwams sprinkle Simcoe’s shores.
\nWith scowling brow he stands and courage high,
\nWatching with haughty and defiant eye
\nHis captors, as they council o’er his fate,
\nOr strive his boldness to intimidate.
\nThen fling they unto him the choice;<\/p>\n
“Wilt thou
\nWalk o’er the bed of fire that waits thee now\u2014
\nWalk with uncovered feet upon the coals,
\nUntil thou reach the ghostly Land of Souls,
\nAnd, with thy Mohawk death-song please our ear?
\nOr wilt thou with the women rest thee here?”
\nHis eyes flash like an eagle’s, and his hands
\nClench at the insult. Like a god he stands.
\n“Prepare the fire!” he scornfully demands.<\/p>\n
He knoweth not that this same jeering band
\nWill bite the dust\u2014will lick the Mohawk’s hand;
\nWill kneel and cower at the Mohawk’s feet;
\nWill shrink when Mohawk war drums wildly beat.<\/p>\n
His death will be avenged with hideous hate
\nBy Iroquois, swift to annihilate
\nHis vile detested captors, that now flaunt
\nTheir war clubs in his face with sneer and taunt,
\nNot thinking, soon that reeking, red, and raw,
\nTheir scalps will deck the belts of Iroquois.<\/p>\n
The path of coals outstretches, white with heat,
\nA forest fir’s length\u2014ready for his feet.
\nUnflinching as a rock he steps along
\nThe burning mass, and sings his wild war song;
\nSings, as he sang when once he used to roam
\nThroughout the forests of his southern home,
\nWhere, down the Genesee, the water roars,
\nWhere gentle Mohawk purls between its shores,
\nSongs, that of exploit and of prowess tell;
\nSongs of the Iroquois invincible.<\/p>\n
Up the long trail of fire he boasting goes,
\nDancing a war dance to defy his foes.
\nHis flesh is scorched, his muscles burn and shrink,
\nBut still he dances to death’s awful brink.
\nThe eagle plume that crests his haughty head
\nWill never<\/i> droop until his heart be dead.
\nSlower and slower yet his footstep swings,
\nWilder and wilder still his death-song rings,
\nFiercer and fiercer thro’ the forest bounds
\nHis voice that leaps to Happier Hunting Grounds.
\nOne savage yell\u2014<\/p>\n
Then loyal to his race,
\nHe bends to death\u2014but never<\/i> to disgrace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-48","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/48\/revisions\/301"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/48\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/flintandfeather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}