NARAGANSIT

The text is by Samson Occum, a Native-American author and one of the founders of Dartmouth college. It depicts the final walk of Jesus to the cross in quite graphic terms, the lines of poetry could only have been written by one who was himself, "aquainted with grief."

The air is a variant of a popular 18th century song called THE INDIAN PHILOSOPHER.The tune was popular in it's secular and sacred variants. As a hymn tune it was called GANGES, and usually set to the poem "Waked by Sinai's awful sound." also by Occum. Curiously, another variant appears in the 1859 Sacred Harp that resembles Ingalls version moreso than the GANGES version, it's title is INDIAN'S SONG. Hear it now as led by Rev. Donald Towle the founder of the Jeremiah Ingalls Society.

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Links:

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/collections

http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/occom.htm