Henry Wadsworth Longfellow begins this delightful work with a sort of bibliography. Where did he get these legends that he is about to tell? He learned them from the lips of Navadaha the musician. And where did Navadaha learn about them? He got his information from the wild animals of America: from the lodges of the beaver, from the eyry of the eagle, etc.
The Peace Pipe
Gitche Manito, the Master of life, was troubled by the quarrels of his children, the American Indians. He went to the pipestone quarry (now in southwest Minnesota) molded the soft rock into a pipe and smoked it. All the Indian tribes saw it and gathered together at the pipestone quarry.
Gitche Manito urged them to stop fighting one another, to smoke the peace pipe together and henceforth live as brothers. He promised to send them a prophet who would guide them.
So they threw down their weapons, washed off their war paint, molded the soft pipestone rock into peace pipes, and returned to their respective homes.
The Four Winds
Longfellow then tells about the four winds. By defeating Mishe-Mokwa, the Great Bear of the mountains, Mudjekeewis became the West Wind and the ruler over all the winds. Mudjekeewis gave the other winds to his children. Wabun became the east wind; Kabibonokka became the North Wind; and Shawondasee became the South Wind.
Hiawatha’s Childhood
Nokomis was the daughter of the Moon. She was a wife, but had not yet given birth to her child. One day a jealous rival cut the grapevine on which she was swinging. Nokomis fell from the full moon, plunged downward, and landed on the prairie. People thought it was a meteor.
On the prairie, she gave birth to a daughter named Wenonah. As she grew, she developed into a beautiful maiden.
Nokomis warned Wenonah to beware of Mudjekeewis, the West Wind. He told her not to lie down on the prairie, lest she suffer harm.
Wenonah did not heed her mother’s warning. Mudjekeewis saw her lying among the lilies. He wooed her with sweet words and soft caresses, till she bore a son in sorrow. Wenonah died, deserted by the West Wind.
Nokomis took care of Hiawatha, Wenonah’s child, in her wigwam, which was situated on the shores of Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior). She taught him many things, showing him Ishkoodah, the comet, and the death-dance of the spirits, which we know as the Aurora Borealis, and the pathway of the ghosts, which we call the Milky Way.
Hiawatha was an inquisitive child. He asked Nokomis why there were spots on the moon. Nokomis replied that it was the body of a woman who had been thrown up there by her angry grandson. Hiawatha noticed a rainbow and wondered what it was. Nokomis said that they were flowers. She said that when the lilies on the prairie fade and perish, they blossom in the heavens above.
As Hiawatha matured, he learned the languages of all the birds and other animals. He became thoroughly acquainted with them and learned all their secrets.
Iagoo, a friend of Nokomis, made a bow for Hiawatha and told him to kill a deer. When the robin, the squirrel, and the rabbit saw him coming, they said: “Do not shoot us, Hiawatha.”
But Hiawatha did not pay any attention to them. He hid in the alder bushes until he saw a deer. He shot it and took it home.
From the hide of the deer, Nokomis made a cloak for Hiawatha. From its meat, she prepared a feast in honor of Hiawatha. The entire village was invited.
Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis
When Hiawatha was fully mature, he became a skilled hunter. He could run faster than an arrow traveled when it was shot from a bow. He had magic mittens with which he could smash rocks asunder. He also had magic moccasins that enabled him to travel a mile with a single step.
From Nokomis, Hiawatha had learned about the beauty of his mother and the falsehood of Mudjekeewis. Hiawatha decided to visit his father. He donned his magic moccasins and traveled swiftly. He crossed the mighty Mississippi, traversed the prairie, and came to the Rocky Mountains and the kingdom of the West Wind.
Mudjekeewis welcomed him warmly. The features of Hiawatha reminded him of the beauty of Wenonah. They conversed for several days. The heart of Hiawatha was hot within him, but he did not betray his feelings.
Hiawatha asked Mudjekeewis if anything could harm him. Mudjekeewis replied that nothing could hurt him except a nearby black rock. Mudjekeewis asked Hiawatha if anything could harm him. Hiawatha replied that nothing could harm him except a nearby bulrush. Neither party was telling the truth.
For a while, the two talked of other matters. Then Hiawatha accused Mudjekeewis of causing the death of his mother. In anguish, Mudjekeewis nodded assent.
Hiawatha crushed the black rock and started throwing the pieces at Mudjekeewis, but the West Wind blew them back at his assailant. Mudjekeewis uprooted the bulrush and used it as a weapon. A terrific fight followed.
To stop the fight, Mudjekeewis informed Hiawatha that he could not be killed, since he was immortal. Mudjekeewis told him that the fight was a test of his son’s valor. As a reward for his bravery, he was to go back to his people and cleanse the earth of all the monsters that troubled it, just as Mudjekeewis himself had slain Mishe-Mokwa, the Great Bear. Then, when the eyes of Pauguk (Death) glared at Hiawatha from the darkness, Mudjekeewis would share his kingdom with his son.
No longer angry, Hiawatha returned home. Along the way, he stopped at the home of an ancient arrow maker in the land of the Dakotahs, who lived by the falls of Minnehaha. He had a beautiful dark-eyed daughter whom he named Minnehaha after the waterfall. Minnehaha means “Laughing Waters.”
Hiawatha did not really make the visit because he needed arrowheads. He wanted to see Minnehaha peeping from behind the curtain.
When he returned home, he told Nokomis everything that had happened, but he did not say a word about Minnehaha.
Hiawatha’s Fasting
Hiawatha built a wigwam in the forest and fasted for seven days. As he fasted, he prayed for the good of his people. On the first day of his fast, he contemplated the wild animals that his people were accustomed to hunt. On the second day, he contemplated the wild plants of the forest from which his people were accustomed to gather food. On the third day, he contemplated the fish that his people were accustomed to eat. Each day, he asked the Master of life: “Must our lives depend on these things?”
On the fourth day of his fasting, he lay in his wigwam exhausted. He dreamed that a youth approached. He was dressed in green and yellow garments. Plumes of green were bending over his forehead, and his hair was soft and golden.
The youth stood in the doorway of the wigwam of Hiawatha, and told him that his prayers had been heard in heaven. The youth identified himself as Mondamin, the friend of man. He had come to show him how hard labor would give his people the blessings for which Hiawatha prayed.
The youth told Hiawatha to get up and start wrestling with him. Though his fasting had sapped his strength, he arose, left his wigwam, and wrestled with Mondamin in the glory of the sunset. As they wrestled, Hiawatha grew stronger. When it grew dark, Mondamin told Hiawatha that he would come tomorrow at sunset, and they would wrestle once more.
On the fifth day and on the sixth day of Hiawatha’s fast, Mondamin came at the appointed time. Each time they wrestled until it grew dark
Before leaving on the sixth day, Mondamin told Hiawatha that tomorrow he would obtain the victory. He instructed Hiawatha to make him a bed to lie in, where the rain could fall upon him and the sun could warm him. He should strip off his green and yellow garments and lay him in the earth. He should protect Mondamin as he slept. No weeds or ravens should disturb his slumber. Hiawatha should keep watch till Mondamin awakened.
The next day, the seventh fast day, Nokomis came with food and urged him to eat. Hiawatha told her that he would eat at sunset.
That evening, the wrestling resulted in the death of Mondamin. Hiawatha then buried Mondamin as he had been instructed to do. He then went home but returned each day to watch the grave of Mondamin. Eventually a small green feather sprouted. Before the summer ended, the maize stood there in all its beauty.
Hiawatha fetched Nokomis and Iagoo and showed them the new food that would nourish the nations. Lster, the new food served as the viand for the first feast of Mondamin.
Hiawatha’s Friends
Hiawatha had two faithful friends: a musician named Chibiabos and a strong man named Kwasind. The music of Chibiabos was so excellent that even the brook, the squirrel, and the rabbit stopped to listen. Kwasind was the strongest of mortals, but his strength was allied with goodness. He was somewhat listless and was considered lazy, but he helped without complaint when ordered to do something.
Hiawatha’s Sailing
Hiawatha asked the birch tree for its bark so that he could make a canoe. Then he asked the cedar for its boughs so that he could make the canoe more steady. Then he asked the tamarack for its roots so that he could bind his canoe together. Then he asked the fir tree for its resin so that he could caulk up the seams of his canoe. Finally he asked the hedgehog for his quills so that he could use them to decorate his canoe. Hiawatha did not need any paddles because his thoughts could make the canoe glide wherever he wanted it to go.
At Hiawatha’s request, Kwasind cleared the river of sunken logs and sandbars. Hiawatha then sailed down the rushing Taquamenaw.
Hiawatha’s Fishing
With a fishing line of cedar, Hiawatha went fishing on Gitche Gumee. He wanted to catch the sturgeon, the king of fishes. When he saw one, he told it repeatedly to take his bait; but the sturgeon did not pay attention.
Eventually, the sturgeon got tired of the clamor that Hiawatha was making. He told the pike to take the bait and break the line of rude fisherman.
Hiawatha felt a tug on the line and began to draw up the fish. However, when he saw that it was a pike, he said: “You are not the fish I wanted.”
The disgusted sturgeon told the sunfish to break the line of the great boaster. It took the bait and put up a fierce struggle. However, when Hiawatha saw it, he said: “You are not the fish I wanted.”
Then the sturgeon decided to put an end to the clamor. It swallowed both the canoe and Hiawatha. However, Hiawatha killed the sturgeon by striking its heart with his fist. The great fish floated to shore, where the seagulls started to eat it. Soon they pecked a hole in the fish, and Hiawatha escaped from his prison.
He told Nokomis to let the seagulls finish eating. After they were satisfied and flew away, she should bring pots and kettles and make oil for winter.
The sturgeon was a huge creature. For three days, the seagulls fed on his flesh till sunset; for three nights, Nokomis made oil till dawn. In the end, only the skeleton of the sturgeon remained.
Hiawatha and the Great Pearl-Feather
Megissogwon, the great Pearl-Feather, was a mighty magician. He lived in the west, guarded by fiery serpents. He sent pestilence and fever from the marshes. He had killed the father of Nokomis.
At the request of Nokomis, he traveled westward in his canoe to fight with the great Pearl-Feather. When the great fiery serpents refused to let him pass, he shot them with his arrows. He then sailed for a long time on black pitch-water till he saw the wigwam of Megissogwon.
A fierce battle ensued. Megissogwon had an impenetrable shirt of wampum. At the end of the day, the war club of Hiawatha was broken, his mittens were tattered, and only three arrows remained.
Then a woodpecker advised him to shoot at his head. With his three remaining arrows, Hiawatha hit the magician at the roots of his tuft of hair, his only vulnerable spot. Megissogwon then saw the fiery eyes of Pauguk glare upon him.
Hiawatha rewarded the woodpecker by staining his crown with the blood of the magician. The woodpecker’s head is still red today.
The magician had great wealth. Hiawatha took it home and divided it among his people.
Hiawatha’s Wooing
Nokomis wanted Hiawatha to take a bride from among his own people, but Hiawatha could not forget the Dakotah maiden Minnehaha.
Nokomis reminded Hiawatha that wars had often been fought between his people and the Dakotahs. Hiawatha pointed out that his marriage with Minnehaha would bring strife and bloodshed to an end.
So he journeyed to the land of the Dakotahs. Though he covered a mile with each stride, the journey seemed long to him. His heart outran his footsteps.
In the meantime, Minnehaha was thinking of the hunter who had come to buy arrows from her father. She wondered if he would ever return.
Hiawatha shot a red deer and brought it to the ancient arrow maker and his daughter. Minnehaha brought them food and listened as they talked. Hiawatha told the arrow maker about himself. Then he pointed out that there was peace between the Dakotahs and his people, the Ojibways. He suggested that if the arrow maker gave Minnehaha to him as a wife, the marriage would serve as a seal to the friendship of the two tribes.
The arrow maker agreed, provided that Minnehaha was willing. Minnehaha silently sat beside Hiawatha and said: “I will follow you, my husband.”
Hiawatha and Minnehaha walked slowly homeward, but the pleasant journey seemed short to Hiawatha. He cleared away the brush so she could travel more easily. He carried her over the rivers. She seemed to be as light as a feather. At night, he made a lodge with branches and a bed with boughs of hemlock. The sleepless stars watched over them as they slept.
Hiawatha’s Wedding-Feast
When they arrived at the land of the Ojibways, Nokomis made a sumptuous feast for their wedding.
In the course of the celebration, the merry mischief-maker Pau-puk-keewis danced for the assembly. He began to dance in a slow stately fashion, but the tempo gradually increased till he whirled about with dizzying speed.
Then Chibiabos sang songs of love. The most poignant of the romantic thoughts that he uttered were the words: “When thou art not pleased, beloved, then my heart is sad and darkened, as the shining river darkens when the clouds drop shadows on it! When thou smilest, my beloved, then my troubled heart is brightened, as in sunshine gleam the ripples that the cold wind makes in rivers.”
The Son of the Evening Star
Iagoo then told the following story. In an earlier age, when heaven and earth were in closer communion with one another, there lived ten beautiful sisters. Nine of them married handsome husbands. Oweenee, the youngest, had many suitors who were attractive and rich, but instead she married Osseo, the son of the Evening Star.
Osseo was old and ugly, and her rejected suitors ridiculed her because of this. Oweenee paid no attention to them, because she saw the beauty of Osseo’s spirit.
All ten sisters and their husbands were invited to a feast. As they approaching their destination, the nine oldest sisters and their husbands ridiculed Osseo. Osseo prayed to his father, the Evening Star. Osseo became young, and his wife became old. This drew upon her the ridicule of her sister’s and their husbands, but Osseo treated her tenderly.
When they reached the wigwam and began to feast, Osseo did not eat. He periodically looked upward. Suddenly, he heard his father say that the spell to which he had been subject was broken. The lodge in which they were feasting gradually rose upward. The wooden dishes changed into shells of scarlet. The earthen kettles changed into bowls of silver. The wigwam itself underwent a glorious transformation. Because of the mockery that they had heaped upon Osseo, Oweenee’s nine sisters and their husbands were turned into birds. The last transformation was Oweenee. She became young and beautiful once more.
They were all transported to the Evening Star. The father of Osseo welcomed him and warned him to avoid the magician who had previously turned him into an old man. The birds were confined in a cage.
Oweenee bore Osseo a son. When he was still a little boy, Osseo made a little bow and arrows for him and let the birds out of the cage so that the boy could amuse himself by shooting at them. When he shot a bird, it turned back into one of the sisters and lay on the ground bleeding.
As soon as the blood touched the sacred Star of the Evening, the spell was broken. Osseo, Oweenee, their son, and all the birds descended to earth and landed on an island in Gitche Gumee. The birds regained their human form, but not their original stature. They became little people.
After finishing his tale, Iagoo warned the people not to scoff and jeer at great men, since the tale of Osseo clearly showed the fate of such jesters. Since the people often mocked Iagoo because of his inordinate bragging, it was easy to figure out what Iagoo meant.
After Chibiabos sang another song of love, the guests departed.
Blessing the Cornfields
The days that followed were happy and prosperous. The tribes were at peace, and the people enjoyed peaceful pursuits.
In accordance with instructions given by Hiawatha, Minnehaha blessed the cornfield when it became dark. She laid aside all her garments and walked about the cornfield. The circle formed by her footprints would protect the cornfield from blight and other evils. As she performed this ritual, Guskewau, the darkness, wrapped her in his sacred mantle, so that no one could see her beauty.
The ravens had heard the instructions that Hiawatha gave to Minnehaha. They thought that they could steal the corn in spite of the blessing. However, when they came the next day to carry out their nefarious plans, they were captured in traps that Hiawatha had set for them. Hiawatha killed them and hung them up as a warning to other marauders. He spared the life of the king of ravens and kept him as a hostage.
The people had an enjoyable and bountiful harvest. If a maiden encountered a red ear while she was husking the maize, it was a sign that she would marry a handsome husband.
The Picture-Writing
Hiawatha noticed that the dead were gradually being forgotten, so he invented a system of symbolic pictures and taught it to his people. The people then erected totems on the graves of those who were not yet forgotten.
Hiawatha’s Lamentation
The evil manitos of mischief feared the wisdom of Hiawatha, and they did not like the friendship that prevailed between Chibiabos and Hiawatha. So when Chibiabos was hunting a deer in winter, they laid a trap for him. As he walking on frozen Gitche Gumee, they broke the ice beneath him an dragged him downward, so that he drowned.
Hiawatha lamented in his wigwam for seven long weeks. The fir trees shared his sorrow. When spring came, the bluebirds, robins, and other creatures looked in vain for Chibiabos and began to lament.
The medicine men came to Hiawatha and healed him of his depression. Then they summoned the spirit of Chibiabos. They gave him a burning firebrand and made him ruler of the dead. They instructed him to set campfires along the way as he journeyed to Ponemah, the land of the hereafter, so that those who died later would not have trouble as they followed his footsteps.
Chibiabos journeyed for four days. When he came to the melancholy river, he crossed it on a swinging log. When he came to the Lake of Silver, a stone canoe took him to the Islands of the Blessed.
Now that Hiawatha had recovered from the cruel misfortune, he traveled eastward and westward, teaching people the antidotes to poisons and showing them how to cure diseases.
Pau-puk-keewis
While Hiawatha liked to help people, Pau-puk-keewis preferred mischief. While Iagoo was telling some people a story, the mischief maker entered and taught them a game of chance. He won a vast amount of riches and he obtained the nephew of Iagoo as his servant.
After this victory, he noticed that the wigwam of Hiawatha was empty and unguarded. He strangled the king of ravens, which Hiawatha was keeping as a hostage. He left the body hanging from the ridge-pole of the wigwam as an insult to Hiawatha. Then he threw the household things around in wild disorder as an insult to Nokomis and Minnehaha. Then he climbed the rocky headlands and lay down there, killing birds to divert himself.
The Hunting of Pau-puk-keewis
When Hiawatha returned and learned of all the mischief that Pau-puk-keewis had done, he became very angry and resolved to kill him. Pau-puk-keewis fled.
At his request, the beavers turned Pau-puk-keewis into an extra large beaver and made him their king. However, Hiawatha was not fooled. He came with his hunters, tore open the roof of the lodge where the giant beaver was hiding, and clubbed him to death.
However, the Jeebi, or ghost, still lived on as Pau-puk-keewis. It wiggled out of the beaver’s body, took the regular form of Pau-puk-keewis, and fled. Hiawatha noticed what had happened and pursued him.
At the request of Pau-puk-keewis, the brants turned him into an extra large brant. (A brant is a type of goose.) The brants warned their new companion not to look downward as he flew. Then they all fled northward.
Suddenly the giant brant heard a commotion on the earth below and recognized the voice of Hiawatha. He forgot the warning, looked downward, and plunged to his death. However, the ghost of Pau-puk-keewis once more took on his natural features and fled, with Hiawatha in hot pursuit.
As he fled along the coast of Gitche Gumee, Pau-puk-keewis came to the rocky headlands, to the pictured rocks of sandstone. At his request, the Manito of the Mountains opened the rocky doorway and gave him shelter in the deep abyss. When Hiawatha demanded entrance, the Manito of the Mountains refused to admit him. Nor was he able to force his way in with his magic mitten. So Hiawatha called upon the thunder and the lightning. They caused the crags to collapse, and Pau-puk-keewis died. Hiawatha grabbed the spirit of Pau-puk-keewis and turned him into an eagle.
The Death of Kwasind
The powerful Kwasind had aroused the ire of the little people, and they planned to murder him.
Kwasind had one weakness. A seed-cone of a pine or fir tree could kill him if it hit the crown of his head. The little people knew this secret. So they gathered a heap of cones together and lay in wait for Kwasind on a red rock that jutted out over the river.
On a hot summer day, Kwasind floated lazily down the Taquamenaw in his canoe. He yielded to the Spirits of Sleep. When he floated under the red rock, the little people hurled their cones down upon him. At least one cone struck his vulnerable spot. He fell out of his canoe and died.
The Ghosts
Two pallid old women entered the wigwam of Hiawatha when Nokomis and Minnehaha were home. They were silent and sat in the shadows. When Hiawatha came home with a red deer and dinner was prepared, the two women devoured the choicest portions reserved for Minnehaha and retreated silently into the corner of the wigwam. Laughing Water defended their actions on the grounds that they were famished.
For many days, the two strangers sat silently in the wigwam and ate the choicest morsel at mealtime. At night, they went out and gathered firewood and cones for burning. Never once did anyone in the family reprove them, in order that their rights as guests might not be diminished.
One night, Hiawatha noticed that the two women were crying. When Hiawatha expressed concern, they told him that they were ghosts of the departed. The dead had heard cries of anguish, calling upon the dead to return to the land of the living. So they had come in a trial basis. They found that no one knew them or heeded them and that the dead have no place among the living. They asked Hiawatha to tell the people not to sadden the departed souls with their lamentations. Nor should they put heavy furs, wampum, pots, and kettles in the graves of the departed. Such heavy things were a burden to the dead. They needed only a little food for their four day journey to the Islands of the Blessed. Also, a light should be kindled on a grave for four successive nights so that the spirits would not grope in darkness as they journeyed.
The spirits then bade Hiawatha farewell. They complimented him for bearing with patience the insult of their presence. They urged him not to fail in the greater trial that was about to come.
The Famine
The winter was cold and hard, and game was scarce. All the earth was sick and famished.
Two other guests came into Hiawatha’s wigwam. They were as silent as the ghosts were. They looked with haggard eyes at the face of Laughing Water. They told her that they were famine and fever. Minnehaha shuddered at their presence. She silently lay down on her bed and hid her face.
Hiawatha madly rushed outside, armed for hunting. He asked Gitche Manito to give his people food. He searched the forest all day long.
In the meantime, Minnehaha was dying. She thought she heard the waterfall that had delighted her when she was a child. Nokomis said that it was only the wind in the pine trees.
Then she thought that she saw her father beckoning to her from the land of the Dakotahs. Nokomis replied that it was only the smoke that waves and beckons.
Then she saw the glaring eyes of Pauguk and cried out for Hiawatha. Hiawatha heard the cry and rushed home. When he arrived, his wife was dead; and Nokomis was rocking her in her arms. He cried out in anguish, looking at the willing feet that would never again run out to greet him. He covered his face with his hands and sat there for seven days.
They buried Minnehaha. Mindful of the ghost’s instructions, Hiawatha lighted a candle on her grave for four successive nights. He told her not to return, for she would only suffer. He assured her that he would soon follow her to Islands of the Blessed.
The White Man’s Foot
An old man sat in his lodge beside a river. His breath froze the waters; and when he shook his hoary locks, snow fell. He was Winter.
A young man paid him a visit. When he breathed upon the landscape, flowers sprang up everywhere. When he shook his locks, showers bathed the land; plants lifted up their heads with joy; and birds returned home.
The two men talked till the sun rose. The old man became speechless and began to melt away.
Thus the severe winter came to an end, and the land was blessed with the joys of springtime.
Iagoo had been traveling. He now returned and told the people of new wonders that he experienced. He claimed that he had seen waters that were far bigger than Gitche Gumee. They were bitter, and no one could drink them.
Iagoo claimed that he saw a large canoe approaching the shore of this large body of water. It was bigger than a grove of pine trees and taller than the tallest treetops. From its mouth, thunder and lightning came to greet him. One hundred warriors came from the great canoe. There faces were white and there was hair on their chins.
Since Iagoo was an inveterate boaster, the people ridiculed his story, but Hiawatha did not laugh. He told the people that Iagoo spoke the truth. He had seen it in a vision. Gitche Manito was sending these people. They were bringing an important message. Hiawatha urged his children to receive them as friends.
Hiawatha also had seen a vision of the future: a bustling nation and his people in disarray because they had failed to heed his counsels.
Hiawatha’s Departure
As Hiawatha watched from the door of his wigwam, a black-robed prophet and his attendants approached, sailing toward shore in a birch canoe with paddles. Hiawatha raised his hands in welcome. He expressed his joy that they had come so far to see him, and invited them into his wigwam. Nokomis served them.
The people of the village also came and welcomed the strangers. Then the black-robed prophet preached the Christian message to the assembly. He explained how Jesus died, rose again, and ascended into heaven. The people promised to think about the message and left.
While his guests were sleeping, Hiawatha bade farewell to Nokomis. He was going on a long and distant journey. He committed his guests to her care.
Then he bade farewell to his people. He said that it would be a long time before they saw him again. He urged them to treat his guests with respect and to heed their message.
Hiawatha then entered his canoe and headed westward to the Islands of the Blessed.
Reference:
Archive: Full Text of “The Song of Hiawatha”
http://www.archive.org/stream/songhiawathathe00longrich/songhiawathathe00longrich_djvu.txt
