The poor little Jackdaw,
When the monks he saw,

Feebly gave vent to the ghost of a caw;
And turn'd his bald head, as much as to say,
"Pray, be so good as to walk this way!"
Slower and slower

He limp'd on before,

Till they came to the back of the belfry-door,
Where the first thing they saw,

'Midst the sticks and the straw,

Was the ring, in the nest of that little Jackdaw!

Then the great Lord Cardinal call'd for his book, And off that terrible curse he took;

The mute expression

Serv'd in lieu of confession,

And, being thus coupled with full restitution,
The Jackdaw got plenary absolution.

When those words were heard,

That poor little bird

Was so changed in a moment, 'twas really absurd : He grew sleek and fat;

In addition to that,

A fresh crop of feathers came thick as a mat!
His tail waggled more

Even than before;

But no longer it wagged with an impudent air,
No longer he perch'd on the Cardinal's chair.
He hopped now about

With a gait devout;

At Matins, at Vespers, he never was out;
And, so far from any more pilfering deeds,

He always seem'd telling the Confessor's beads.

If any one lied, or if any one swore,

Or slumber'd in pray'r time and happened to snore, That good Jackdaw

Would give a great "caw,"

As much as to say, "Don't do so any more!"

While many remarked, as his manners they saw, That they never had known such a pious Jackdaw! He long lived the pride

Of that country side,

And at last in the odour of sanctity died;

When, as words were too faint

His merits to paint,

The conclave determined to make him a Saint;
And on newly-made Saints and Popes, as you know,
It's the custom at Rome new names to bestow,
So they canoniz'd him by the name of Jem Crow!

PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

IT is an astounding but gratifying proof of the rapid march of civilization, that periodical literature springs up and flourishes among tribes and nations which, but twenty or thirty years ago, had hardly advanced a few steps beyond barbarism. A Cherokee newspaper has for some time been published, and in the Sandwich Islands a gazette has recently been established; and a file of a paper called "the Indian Phoenix," published in the United States, under the superintendence of an Indian editor, and addressed exclusively to his countrymen, has just fallen under our notice. These are pleasing facts for the consideration of every true philanthropist, and stable data on which the philosopher may argue that the day is not far distant when the rays of knowledge shall illumine every nation of the earth. Wherever a newspaper is established, ignorance must diminish; for the newspaper is not only the effect, but the cause of cizilization,—not only the work itself, but the means by which the work is performed. The Indian Phoenix is published in the English language at Washington,and is from thence distributed among these roving aborigines, not only in every part of the United States, but throughout the vast territories of Mexico and Texas. The paper is not only edited, but printed by Indians; and, whatever may be said of the intellectual portions of it, the mechanical parts will certainly bear comparison with the provincial journals of England, and are much before the newspapers of several of the nations of Europe, those of Germany and Portugal for instance, which are as wretched specimens of typography as it is now possible to meet with.

For the amusement of our readers we shall proceed to make a few extracts from these very curious journals. The principles which are advocated therein will, no doubt, appear startling at first sight; but a little reflection will show, that, although strange, they are not altogether unfounded. These men have, by the strong arms of European civilization, been driven from the wild forests inherited by their forefathers, the woods they hunted in have been converted into corn-fields, and the clear waters of the lonely rivers beside which they dwelt have been contaminated by the refuse of smoky manufactories, and rendered busy with the sails and paddle-wheels of enterprising commerce. The civilization which thus came upon the land from afar has now reached its original inhabitants; and the Indians, savages no more, have begun to employ the arts of peace and the powerful weapons of opinion to reconquer a portion of the broad lands of which they have been despoiled. The struggles in Texas, and the unsettled state of Mexico, have caused them to turn their eyes in that direction; and they have been inspired by the hope that Mexico is to be the region in which all the scattered tribes will be collected together to form one great independent nation. It is not intended in this brief notice to speculate upon the probability or improbability of such a scheme, or to say whether or not these dispersed and dis

membered clans, without leader or bond of union, will ever be able to accomplish so gigantic a project. It is sufficient to state that such is their object, in order that the reader may understand the allusions in the extracts which we shall place before him. The following will show the prose these Indians are capable of writing (we shall come to their poetry by and by), and will also give an idea of their political creed. In the leading article of the first number, the editor says,

"Our creed may be met with in these words. We render unto the self-esteemed civilized world the things which are the self-esteemed civilized world's, and unto the long-oppressed, yet noble, elevated, and dignified Indian the things which once belonged and shall again belong to him."

These sentiments, and their open avowal, although they may not cause the settler to tremble for the safety of his homestead, ought nevertheless to make the statesman ponder well on the condition and aspirations of this ill-used race. The editor continues : . . :

"In the deep gloom of the future position of these countries we see no evidence of a single periodical grasping with energetic vision the coming time. Alone, therefore, do we step on the arena of public opinion. With nerved heart and nerved hand shall we advance: the curiosity of the many, the surprise of others, the encouragement of the few, the denunciations of the National Gazette, or New York American, or all who may follow in their fetid and nauseous trail, shall not turn aside one of the barbed arrows which shall now and henceforth be launched unsparingly at all who cross our path." "We are not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and soberness."

The following little bit of Scriptural exposition will, no doubt, cause a smile even on the grave faces of the learned doctors who are versed in Biblical knowledge. The Indians, stigmatized by the civilized nations of the earth for the cruel practice of scalping their fallen enemies, bring forward the authority of our sacred book in their justification. Even David, the man after God's own heart, and one of the finest poets the world ever produced, went out on the war-path like a Mohican or a Cherokee, and bore away the scalps of his enemies! The editor hints that this alone would warrant the assertion which has been so often put forth, that America was peopled by the lost ten tribes of Israel. He says,

"We invite the attention-we throw down the gauntlet of defiance to all and every civilized Christian in Europe or America to gainsay or dispute the correctness or validity of the inferences and facts stated below. The Scriptures say,

"And Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.

"And Saul said, I will give him her that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.

"And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David: the king desireth not any dowry, but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged on the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

"Wherefore David arose, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men, and David brought their foreskins, and they

gave them in full toll to the king, that he might be the king's sonin-law.'

"We see from this," (continues the editor of the Phoenix,)" that David, who was a great Jewish warrior, went out on the war-path not from any motive of war, or to revenge the death of his fallen comrades; but for what? Why, to get a marriage portion to lay before the king of the Jewish nation. And what was this marriage portion? Lo! it was one hundred scalps of the Philistines. *

At the conclusion we are told that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him. Why? Because he was a great warrior, who had taken many scalps, and, moreover, David behaved himself wisely, that is, cunning, in taking of scalps from the Philistines, so that his name was much set by. As the Jews were in the time of Saul and David, so are the Indian tribes of the West and of North America. They go out on the warpath, they return with scalps; and the daughters of the tribe sing, as in the days of David, 'The warrior Dutch hath slain his tens, but the warrior Smith hath slain his fifties in the villages of the Tarwargans.'

The following is a specimen of the poetry,-one of the war-songs of these regenerated Indians. We cannot say it is quite equal to the prose, but it is certainly more curious.

"Indian chiefs, arise!

The glorious hour's gone forth,

And in the world's eyes

Display who gave you birth!
Indian chiefs, let us go

In arms to Mexico;

Till the Spanish blood shall flow

In a river at our feet.

Then, manfully despising
The pale faces' yoke,

Let your tribes see you rising

Till your chains is broke!"

Fastidious readers may object both to the vigour and the grammar of the above; but we have still richer specimens in store for them. The song continues :

"As rose the tribes of Judah

In days long past and gone,
I'll lead you to as good a
Land to be your own.

Cherokee! in slumbers

Why lethargic wilt thou lie?
Arise, and bring thy numbers
Us to ally.

Arouse! Oh, then, awake thee!
And hasten to my standard;
For I will ne'er forsake thee,
But ever lead the vanguard!

Come on, the brave Oneida,
Seneca, Delaware,

The promised land divide a

-Mong you when you're there."