Tamdoka first reaches the post,
          and his are the knife and the blanket,
By the mighty acclaim of the host
          and award of the chief and the judges. 
Then proud was the tall warrior’s stride,
          and haughty his look and demeanor;
He boasted aloud in his pride,
          and he scoffed at the rest of the runners. 
“Behold me, for I am a man![AB]
          my feet are as swift as the West-wind. 
With the coons and the beavers I ran;
          but where is the elk or the cabri?[80]
Come!—­where is the hunter will dare
          match his feet with the feet of Tamdoka? 
Let him think of Tate[AC] and beware,
          ere he stake his last robe on the trial.”
“Oho!  Ho!  Ho-heca!"[AD] they jeered,
          for they liked not the boast of the boaster;
But to match him no warrior appeared,
          for his feet wore the wings of the west-wind.

[AA] The wings.

[AB] A favorite boast of the Dakota braves.

[AC] The wind.

[AD] About equivalent to Oho!—­Aha!—­fudge!

Then forth from the side of the chief
          stepped DuLuth and he looked on the boaster;
“The words of a warrior are brief,—­
          I will run with the brave,” said the Frenchman;
“But the feet of Tamdoka are tired;
          abide till the cool of the sunset.” 
All the hunters and maidens admired,
          for strong were the limbs of the stranger.
“Hiwo Ho!"[AE] they shouted
          and loud rose the cheers of the multitude mingled;
And there in the midst of the crowd
          stood the glad-eyed and blushing Winona.

[AE] Hurra there!

Now afar o’er the plains of the west
          walked the sun at the end of his journey,
And forth came the brave and the guest,
          at the tap of the drum, for the trial. 
Like a forest of larches the hordes
          were gathered to witness the contest;
As loud as the drums were their words
          and they roared like the roar of the Ha-ha.
For some for Tamdoka contend,
          and some for the fair, bearded stranger,
And the betting runs high to the end,
          with the skins of the bison and beaver. 
A wife of tall Wazi-kute—­
          the mother of boastful Tamdoka—­
Brought her handsomest robe from the tee
          with a vaunting and loud proclamation: 
She would stake her last robe on her son
          who, she boasted, was fleet as the cabri,
And the tall, tawny chieftain looked on,
          approving the boast of the mother. 
Then fleet as the feet of a fawn
          to her lodge ran the dark-eyed Winona,
She brought and she spread on the lawn,
          by the side of the robe of the boaster,
The lily-red mantel DuLuth,
          with his own hands, had laid on her shoulders.