Saguntum

“ From this Eden of bliss Sakuntala, the mere sweetheart of Dushyanta, is exiled in disgrace. But far different was the aspect of the other hermitage where Sakun­tala,—the mother of Bharat and the incarnation of goodness,—took refuge. There no hermit girls water the trees, nor bedew the creepers with their loving sister-like looks, nor feed the young fawn with handfuls of paddy. ”

“ The forest loves Sassacus, and tells him all its secrets."
"Yet remain not here, my friend, my Sassacus, nor be troubled about Neebin. I will take care of her, and she shall be restored to thee."
"Sassacus trusts his young white brother," said the Indian, "He hears Neebin singing by the river of the Pequots."
"We part here, and perhaps forever," said Arundel. "Farewell, Sagamore. A nobler heart than thine never beat in savage or Christian bosom. I will never forget you." ”

“ There a single boy fills the loving bosom of the entire forest world; he absorbs all the liveliness of the trees, creepers, flowers and foliage. The matrons of the hermitage, in their loving anxiety, are fully taken up with the unruly boy. When Sakuntala appears, we see her clad in a dusty robe, face pale with austerities,... doing the penance of a lorn wife, pure-souled. Her long penances have purged her of the evil of her first union with Dushyanta; she is now invested with the dignity of a matron, she is the image of motherhood, tender and good. ”

“ While with rapid steps through the tempestuous night the retiring party were seeking the forest, one of them, the only one in the dress of the whites, and who for that reason had not ventured into the cabin of the jailer, but had kept watch on the outside, approaching Sassacus, said:
"Let the feet of the chief be swift, for many warriors will be after him with the morning light."
"My brother!" said the delighted Sagamore, recognizing the voice of Arundel. "Let not my brother be afraid. ”

“ In a small room of Count Redondo’s palace, a room that had been set apart for cards, sat three men about a card-table. They were Count Samoval, the elderly Marquis of Minas, lean, bald and vulturine of aspect, with a deep-set eye that glared fiercely through a single eyeglass rimmed in tortoise-shell, and a gentleman still on the fair side of middle age, with a clear-cut face and iron-grey hair, who wore the dark green uniform of a major of Cacadores. ”

“ Sahagun MS. (Biblioteca del Palacio) .—The deity wears a paper crown surmounted by a panache of heron-feathers and a nose-plug like that worn by the other octli-gods. His wig or hair falls over his shoulders. The upper part of his body is nude, but he wears a red-bordered cloth round the head. His shield is a peculiar one, and Sahagun calls it a “shield of the boat.” In shape it is almost like a modern door, and from it depends what seem to be paper strips. He wears bands of some textile material, which are tied behind with knots round the leg, and he is shod with sandals. ”

“ There, in its gloomiest recesses, where the soil is stained with the blood of the negroes He has eaten, dwells that monstrous Deity of human shape and red colour, the great Fetish God, Sasabonsum. I like Sasabonsum: other Gods are sometimes moved to pity and forgiveness, but to Him such weakness is unknown. He is utterly and absolutely implacable; no gifts or prayers, no holocausts of human victims can appease, or ever, for one moment, propitiate Him. ”

“ And when, after many years, he died, the good old man was heard praying that God would take him to the heaven of the white men.
Squantum had joined the powerful tribe of the Wampanoags, his own tribe having become extinct. These Indians brought with them a few skins to sell, and some dried red herrings; and they also announced the rather startling intelligence that their great Sagamore, or King Massasoit, accompanied by his brother Quadequina and a retinue of sixty warriors, was near at hand to pay the Pilgrims a friendly visit. ”

“ The Androscoggins also, with their little navy above Still-Water, floated downward with the very flower of the tribe, and before the sun should arise, the Sagamore of Saco, and his band of warriors, should be no more known than the cloud which yesterday dimmed the horizon, or the vapor which lost itself in the far-off ocean. ”

“ She faltered, and her clear gaze became confused. "Why should your Indians question you?" she asked.
The last ray of the sun reddened the forest, lingered, faded, and went out in ashes. I said:
"God and Tharon are one. Priest and Sagamore, clergyman and Sachem, minister, ensign, Roya-neh—red men or white, all are consecrated before the Master of Life. If in these Indians' eyes you are still to remain sacred, then must you promise yourself to me, little Lois. And let the Sagamore perform the rite at once." ”

“ The poetical merit of Kalidasa’s Sakuntala is universally admitted, and it ranks among the best of the world’s masterpieces of dramatic art. Its beauty of thought and its tenderness in the expression of feeling are exquisite, while its creative fancy is rich, and the charm of its spirit is full. ”

“ These Indians had for some time been rather unfriendly to the English, and an act of gross outrage roused them to combine in co-operation with King Philip. An illustrious Indian, by the name of Squando, was sachem of the Sokokis tribe, which occupied the region in the vicinity of Saco. He was a man of great strength of mind, elevation of character, and of singular gravity and impressiveness of address. One day his wife was paddling down the River Saco in a canoe, with her infant child. ”

“ The stanza in the original is hopelessly confused. Glaum: this horse of Atli’s is mentioned by name elsewhere. Long-maned: uncertain. The manuscript indicates no gap, but something has evidently been lost. Gods of slaughter: perhaps the phrase, usually applied to Othin and the other gods, is here used simply to mean “heroes,” i.e., Atli, Gunnar, and Hogni. Line 4 suggests Guthrun’s tearlessness after Sigurth’s death (cf. Guthrunarkvitha II, 11) . [494]
32. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker. Sigtyr (“Victory-God”) : Othin; what particular mountain (if any) is meant is unknown. ”

“ At our first coming hither John Sagamore was the chiefest Sachim in these parts. He falling sick, our Pastor Mr. Wilson hearing of it (and being of some acquaintance with him) went to visit him, taking one of the deacons of our Church with him, and withall, a little Mithridate and strong water. When he came to his lodging, (which they call a Wigwam) hearing a noyse within, hee looked over the mat of the door, to discerne what it meant, and saw many Indians gathered together, and some Powwaws amongst them, who are their Priests, Physitians, and Witches. ”

“ By six o'clock on this fine May morning he had already ridden far—from Sahagun, indeed, where he had spent some idle days, lounging, and exchanging observations on the weather with the inhabitants. He had been popular, for he was perfectly simple, and without airs; never asked what he did not want to know, and never refused to answer what it was obviously desired he should. But man cannot live upon small talk; and as he had taken up his rest in Sahagun in a moment of impulse—when he saw that it possessed a church-dome covered with glazed green tiles—so now he left it. ”

“ How do you do, young sir? I’m pleased to meet you,” and he shook hands with Titus.
Titus was as proud as his grandfather, so he, too, did not seek enlightenment.
Suddenly Mrs. Everest stood at the Judge’s side. He did not know how she got there.
“Worked my shoulders through the press,” she said, gayly; “there’s an art in it. You turn one blade, then the other, and they cut the crowd. Dear Judge, the house is packed—not another one can get in. They’re lining up on the sidewalk and the middle of the street. Just see. You can’t shake hands with all. You’ll have to make a speech.” ”

“ The eyes of Sassacus are opened. There can be no peace with Owanux."
"Good!" answered the Knight, whose apprehensions, lest plans which he cherished might be defeated by the precipitancy of the chief, were quieted by the answer, knowing that the pacification of the tribes among themselves was no easy matter, and would require time. "Good! the eyes of the Sagamore are sharp. He is wise when he says that he will do nothing until he has made friends with the Narraghansetts and the Taranteens. ”

“ Unconsciously he had cast himself down by the wigwam of the prophet of the tribe. It was the custom of the Indians to build the tent or wigwam of those whose duty it was to watch all omens bearing upon the welfare of the people, in some secluded spot within the sound of great falls, or in proximity to some natural cave or grotto, where they might, undisturbed, exercise their spells and incantations. A hand, cold, and wasted by fastings nearly to the bone, was laid upon the shoulder of the sagamore. ”

“ The Squaw-Sachem, like her husband, the New Moon, has maintained her principal dignity in our early annals, as the parent of Wonohaquaham and Montowampate, better known as Sagamore John and Sagamore James. [FN] The former lived, before the English came, at the old residence of his father, in Medford; subsequently, at Winnesimet, anciently called Rumney Marsh, and situated partly in Chelsea, and partly in Saugus. James, who was Sachem of the Saugus Indians, and had jurisdiction of Lynn and Marble-head, resided on Sagamore hill, near the eastern end of Lynn beach. ”

“ What more than all things must have plagued a man with that face was probably the unavoidable meanness of his career. When we study the chapters of Suetonius, we are forced to feel that, though the situation and the madness of Caligula were dramatically impressive, his crimes were trivial and, small. ”

“ The Sachem or Sagamore of Sagus made choise, when hee came to mans estate, of a Lady of noble discent, Daughter to Papasiquineo, the Sachem or Sagamore of the territories neare Merrimack River, a man of the best note and [Pg 155] estimation in all those parts, and (as my Countryman Mr. A marriage. Wood declares in his prospect) a great Nigromancer; this Lady the younge Sachem with the consent and good liking of her father marries, and takes for his wife. ”

“ Sahagun was a good and holy man, who was doubtless inspired of God, in the face of much opposition and many doubts, to perpetuate, for the benefit of the race, these wonderful testimonials of man's existence, condition, opinions, and feelings in the last great cataclysm which shook the whole world and nearly destroyed it. ”

“ Blood-snake: a sword. Sinfjotli: cf. note on stanza 6. [294]
9. Elm: a not uncommon word for “man.” Blood-flecked: i.e., won in battle.
10. Fifteen: until early in the eleventh century a Norwegian or Icelandic boy became “of age” at twelve, and Maurer cites this passage as added proof of the poem’s lateness. Hunding: the annotator (introductory prose to Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II) calls him king of Hundland, which shows no great originality. Saxo mentions a Hunding who was a Saxon king ruling in Jutland, probably the origin of Helgi’s traditional foe. ”

“ The prose passage, indicating the substance of what, if anything, is lost, runs as follows: “ ‘Be welcome among us, and give me that store of gold which is ours by right, the gold that Sigurth had, and that now belongs to Guthrun.’ Gunnar said: ‘Never shalt thou get that gold, and men of might shalt thou find here, ere we give up our lives, if it is battle thou dost offer us ”

“ Prose. Some editors place all or part of this prose passage after stanza 35. Following-spirits: the “fylgja” was a female guardian spirit whose appearance generally betokened death. The belief was common throughout the North, and has come down to recent times in Scottish and Irish folk-lore. Individuals and sometimes whole families had these following-spirits, but it was most unusual for a person to have more than one of them. Alf: son of the Hrothmar who killed Helgi’s grandfather, and [287] who was in turn later killed by Helgi. Sigarsvoll (“Sigar’s Field”) : cf. stanza 8 and note ”

“ Being auld, and unfeary, and fail’d of his strength,
Then she cowp’d him o’er the kale-pot with a kevil,
And there he lay labouring all his long length.
His body was soddy, and sore he was bruised,
The bark of his shins was all standing in peaks;
No stivat e’er lived was so much misused
As sare as auld Sawney for claiming the breeks.
The noise was so great all the neighbours did hear them,
She made his scalp ring like the clap of a bell;
But never a soul had the mense to come near them,
Tho’ he shouted murder with many a yell. ”

“ Meanwhile Rosamund in her eagerness had advanced until she stood at Sakr-el-Bahr’s elbow.
“God is helping us!” she said in a voice of fervent gratitude. “This is your opportunity. The men will obey you.”
He looked at her, and smiled faintly upon her eagerness. “Ay, mistress, they will obey me,” he said. But in the few moments that were sped he had taken his resolve. Whilst undoubtedly Asad was right, and the wise course was to lie close in this sheltering cove where the odds of their going unperceived were very heavily in their favour, yet the men’s judgment was not altogether at fault. ”

“ Why should you doubt it?’
‘You see, Saunders,’ said Bellingham, with sudden fire, ‘it’s all or nothing. She must remain my wife, or we must separate. There’s no third way. I can’t spend the rest of my life in the waters of Tantalus. I’m only a man, God help me!’
For a while we left it at that.
3
Saunders has an exasperating habit of stopping in the middle of a story, and behaving as though it were finished. He did this now. I reminded him that I was still listening.... ”