--- title: Opening, part 1 — Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems · full text with trees · page 2 description: Opening, part 1, «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: =Kulóskap the Master= --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/1/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kulóskap the master, and other Algonki…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/) / Opening, part 1 # Opening, part 1 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/1/) **2** During more than one-third of a life which began in 1824, I have passed almost annually over the continent of Europe.[107](../../107/ "tree and pragmatics") I have lived for the past fifteen years in Florence, in touch with the Apennines, or opposite Bellosguarda, sung by many a poet, and the Alps and castled crags of the Rhine come to me often in my dreams; yet I never found in it all that strange and sweet charm like a song without words which haunts the hills and valleys of rural New England.[108](../../108/ "tree and pragmatics") That it has existed and been deeply felt and clearly recognized, is evident in the works of Hawthorne, with whom we may include Washington Irving, Judd\[1\] and indeed many more, every one of whom bears witness of having been awakened by a spell which he never felt in other lands.[109](../../109/ "tree and pragmatics") And this spirit of its memory is the most beautiful which I have at command:[110](../../110/ "tree and pragmatics") “I feel its magic from afar Like another life in me; I hear--though not with living ear And see the forms which with my eye I ne’er again shall see!”[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") Yet with all this, there was still one thing wanting; that which Nature itself would not give fully, even to a Wordsworth: the subtle final charm of human tradition, poetry, or romance.[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") True, it may be the slightest--a mere touch of gold-leaf or an illuminated letter, or a sun-gleam on the mountain top--but the most inspired poet can never feel that he is really “heart-intimate” with scenery, if it has for him no ties of tradition or folk-lore.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") When I was young, I felt this lack, and bore in patience the very common reproach of Europeans that we had a land without ancient legends or song.[114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") But now that I am older grown, I have learned that this want is all in our own ignorance and neglect of what we had only to put forth our hand to reach.[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") We bewailed our wretched poverty when we had in our lap a casket full of treasure which we would not take the pains to open.[116](../../116/ "tree and pragmatics") Few indeed and far between are those who ever suspected till of late years that every hill and dale in New England had its romantic legend, its beautiful poem, or its marvellous myth--the latter equal in conception and form to those of the Edda--or that a vast collection of these traditions still survives in perfect preservation among the few remaining Indians of New England and the Northeast Coast, or the \_Wabano\_.[117](../../117/ "tree and pragmatics") This assertion is, I trust, verified by what is given in the Micmac tales by the late Rev. S. Rand, the collection made by Miss Abbey Alger of Boston, and my own “Algonquin Legends of New England,”\[2\] which I, \_sit venia\_, may mention was the first to appear of the series.[118](../../118/ "tree and pragmatics") And I venture to say from the deepest conviction that it will be no small occasion of astonishment and chagrin, a hundred years hence, when the last Algonkin Indian of the \_Wabano\_ shall have passed away, that so few among our literary or cultured folk cared enough to collect this connected aboriginal literature.[119](../../119/ "tree and pragmatics") Unto which I may truly add that, when such collection was made, there were far more critics to find fault with the way in which it was done, than persons to do it.[120](../../120/ "tree and pragmatics") A few of the poems contained in this volume have already appeared in prose form in the “Algonquin Legends of New England.”[121](../../121/ "tree and pragmatics") As these were in fact poetry, or chanted in rude measure, I had at first the intention to give them in English in their original form and to group all those referring to the divinity in an epic, as Lönnrot made the Finnish Kalevala, or Homer his own great works.[122](../../122/ "tree and pragmatics") This I have to a degree accomplished in the present volume.[123](../../123/ "tree and pragmatics") To render my meaning clear as to the legends having been poems, the reader may be aware that all rude races make no distinction between prose narrative and poetry.[124](../../124/ "tree and pragmatics") When an Indian, an Italian mountaineer, an Arab, and sometimes a Gypsy (I have had experience of all in this respect) would spin off some long romantic yarn, he either gives you a choice, or, more frequently, begins to intone or chant the tale in a manner which is something between plain-song and the singing of “Captain Kidd” in a northeaster by one who has no vocal gift.[125](../../125/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the voice falls into one or the other of two measures which I believe I have accurately followed in the present work.[126](../../126/ "tree and pragmatics") This primitive rhythm is quite irregular, following only a general cadence rather than observing any fixed number of beats in each line.[127](../../127/ "tree and pragmatics") I have endeavored to represent this peculiarity in the English version by not adhering too strictly to an unvarying measure.[128](../../128/ "tree and pragmatics") These Amerindian\[3\] metres are not all like that of Hiawatha, which is, however, quite in accord with the form of the Slavonic and Spanish romances.[129](../../129/ "tree and pragmatics") Although not entirely ignorant of Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Micmac, I am not proficient therein and have chiefly based my work on very careful translations executed by others.[130](../../130/ "tree and pragmatics") Here, however, I avail myself of the assistance and authority of my \_collaborateur\_, J. Dyneley Prince, who as these pages witness, has seriously studied the eastern Algonkin dialects, especially the idiom of the Canadian Abenakis.[131](../../131/ "tree and pragmatics") A Penobscot woman once told me that it was \_Klûskâbe\_--she did not call him \_Kulóskap\_, as the Passamaquoddies do--who divided the great mountain of which Boston originally consisted into \_three hills\_.[132](../../132/ "tree and pragmatics") I have since learned from an authentic legend gathered by Miss Roma Lister that Virgil did the same at Rome.[133](../../133/ "tree and pragmatics") Here the seven hills were confused with three.[134](../../134/ "tree and pragmatics") Every reader of Scott will recall the great wizard Michael Scott, who was believed to have worked the same miracle:[135](../../135/ "tree and pragmatics") “And, Warrior, I could say to thee The word that cleft Eildon hills in three.”[136](../../136/ "tree and pragmatics") These coincidences are very remarkable.[137](../../137/ "tree and pragmatics") I regret that I have not the Penobscot song in which the division of the Boston hill is described, but I believe that it exists.[138](../../138/ "tree and pragmatics") The traditions and, to some extent, the languages and histories of the aboriginal tribes are quite as worthy of being taught at our universities to all who propose to become American scholars as many other branches which are endowed at great expense, and are a great source of pride.[139](../../139/ "tree and pragmatics") But the true value of work like this is, that the country will be if those who love it so desire, once more repeopled with the fairies of yore.[140](../../140/ "tree and pragmatics") Those who will may walk in the spirit-haunted paths, trodden in the early time by strange beings; the rocks will have their goblins again and the “Diana’s Bath,” as it is now styled, will be known by its ancient Indian name of “The Home of the Water Elves.”[141](../../141/ "tree and pragmatics") \[4\] It was Bryant, I think, who declared that the forest trees of New England were all the summer time repeating in Indian words “their old poetic legends to the wind,” and it is a tradition that there are ancient Indians who understand the language of Mūūin the Bear--wherein may lurk more truth than most would deem, according to the latest faith!--but these were unto all lost tongues, and the dreams were thinnest air.[142](../../142/ "tree and pragmatics") Now that it is indeed possible from these poems and such tales as have begun to reappear to see the forms of olden time once more.[143](../../143/ "tree and pragmatics") I venture to express the hope that all who love nature in New England will turn to the study of its folk-lore and thereby secure the final flash of gold on the mountain tops, the last touch in the picture of which I have spoken.[144](../../144/ "tree and pragmatics") When I was a boy my happiest hours were spent in the rural scenery of Massachusetts.[145](../../145/ "tree and pragmatics") Could I have had such books then, I could have enjoyed it all far more.[146](../../146/ "tree and pragmatics") Therefore, I wish with all my heart, and truly from no selfish point of view, that every lover of rock and river and greenwood tree would master these old Indian tales or poems, and see in all Nature new charms.[147](../../147/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/1/) **2** - ← previous: [page 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/1/) - next →: [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/2/) - ↑ back to [Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/)