That night, returning from the accustomed pool, Came Waban laden with the beavers’ spoils, And joy seemed dancing in his very soul As he displayed the produce of his toils; Much he rejoiced, and Williams heard the whole,-- How long he watched, how many were his foils; Then how the cunning beasts were captured all, As through the fractured ice they sought to crawl. XL. “Bravely,” said Williams, “has my brother done, No more the cunning wights will mock his skill. Waban is rich; will he not hie him soon To the pale wigwams, and his girdle fill With the bright wampum?--Ere to-morrow’s sun Shall hide behind the crest of yonder hill, Waban may gain the pale-faced stranger’s town, And in his brother’s wigwam sit him down.” XLI. “The hunter goes,” said Waban in reply; Then fired his calumet and curled its smoke, And silent sate in all the dignity Which conscious worth can give the human look. But when the fragrant clouds to mount on high Had ceased, he from the bowl the embers shook, And spread on earth the brown deer’s rustling hide, Expanding to the eye its naked side. XLII. Then thus he spake: “My brother doth require Waban to show where neighboring Sachems reign;-- Doubtless he seeks to light his council fire Within some good and valiant chief’s domain, That he may shun the persecutor’s ire, And pray his God without the fear of men. On Waban’s words my brother may repose, Whilst these far feet imprint the distant snows.” XLIII. Then from the hearth a quenchéd brand he took, And on the skin traced many a curving line; Here rolled the river, there the winding brook, Here rose the hills, and there the vales decline, Here spreads the bay, and there the ocean broke, Along red Waban’s map of rude design. The work now finished, he to Williams spoke, “Here, brother, on the red man’s country look. XLIV. “Here’s Waban’s lodge, thou seest it smokes between Dark rolling Seekonk and Cohannet’s wave;[8] Both floods on-flowing through their borders green, In Narraganset’s basin find their grave. O’er all the country ’twixt those waters sheen Reigns Massasoit, Sachem good and brave; Yet he has subject Keenomps far and near, Who bring him tribute of the slaughtered deer, [8] Cohannet, the Indian name for Taunton, is here applied to the river. XLV. “And bend his battle bow.--Strong is he now, But has been stronger. Ere dark pestilence Devoured his warriors--laid his hundreds low,-- That Sachem’s war-whoop roused to his defence Three thousand bow-men; and he still can show A mighty force, whene’er the kindling sense Of common wrong does in the bosom glow, And prompts to battle with the offending foe. XLVI.