| |
| DOWNWARD through the evening twilight, | |
| In the days that are forgotten, | |
| In the unremembered ages, | |
| From the full moon fell Nokomis, | |
| Fell the beautiful Nokomis, | 5 |
| She a wife, but not a mother. | |
| She was sporting with her women, | |
| Swinging in a swing of grape-vines, | |
| When her rival the rejected, | |
| Full of jealousy and hatred, | 10 |
| Cut the leafy swing asunder, | |
| Cut in twain the twisted grape-vines, | |
| And Nokomis fell affrighted | |
| Downward through the evening twilight, | |
| On the Muskoday, the meadow, | 15 |
| On the prairie full of blossoms. | |
| “See! a star falls!” said the people; | |
| “From the sky a star is falling!” | |
| There among the ferns and mosses, | |
| There among the prairie lilies, | 20 |
| On the Muskoday, the meadow, | |
| In the moonlight and the starlight, | |
| Fair Nokomis bore a daughter. | |
| And she called her name Wenonah, | |
| As the first-born of her daughters. | 25 |
| And the daughter of Nokomis | |
| Grew up like the prairie lilies, | |
| Grew a tall and slender maiden, | |
| With the beauty of the moonlight, | |
| With the beauty of the starlight. | 30 |
| And Nokomis warned her often, | |
| Saying oft, and oft repeating, | |
| “Oh, beware of Mudjekeewis; | |
| Of the West-Wind, Mudjekeewis; | |
| Listen not to what he tells you; | 35 |
| Lie not down upon the meadow, | |
| Stoop not down among the lilies, | |
| Lest the West-Wind come and harm you!” | |
| But she heeded not the warning, | |
| Heeded not those words of wisdom, | 40 |
| And the West-Wind came at evening, | |
| Walking lightly o’er the prairie, | |
| Whispering to the leaves and blossoms, | |
| Bending low the flowers and grasses, | |
| Found the beautiful Wenonah, | 45 |
| Lying there among the lilies, | |
| Wooed her with his words of sweetness, | |
| Wooed her with his soft caresses, | |
| Till she bore a son in sorrow, | |
| Bore a son of love and sorrow. | 50 |
| Thus was born my Hiawatha, | |
| Thus was born the child of wonder; | |
| But the daughter of Nokomis, | |
| Hiawatha’s gentle mother, | |
| In her anguish died deserted | 55 |
| By the West-Wind, false and faithless, | |
| By the heartless Mudjekeewis. | |
| For her daughter long and loudly | |
| Wailed and wept the sad Nokomis; | |
| “Oh that I were dead!” she murmured, | 60 |
| “Oh that I were dead, as thou art! | |
| No more work, and no more weeping, | |
| Wahonowin! Wahonowin!” | |
| By the shores of Gitche Gumee, | |
| By the shining Big-Sea-Water, | 65 |
| Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, | |
| Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. | |
| Dark behind it rose the forest, | |
| Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees, | |
| Rose the firs with cones upon them; | 70 |
| Bright before it beat the water, | |
| Beat the clear and sunny water, | |
| Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water. | |
| There the wrinkled old Nokomis | |
| Nursed the little Hiawatha, | 75 |
| Rocked him in his linden cradle, | |
| Bedded soft in moss and rushes, | |
| Safely bound with reindeer sinews; | |
| Stilled his fretful wail by saying, | |
| “Hush! the Naked Bear will hear thee!” | 80 |
| Lulled him into slumber, singing, | |
| “Ewa-yea! my little owlet! | |
| Who is this, that lights the wigwam? | |
| With his great eyes lights the wigwam? | |
| Ewa-yea! my little owlet!” | 85 |
| Many things Nokomis taught him | |
| Of the stars that shine in heaven; | |
| Showed him Ishkoodah, the comet, | |
| Ishkoodah, with fiery tresses; | |
| Showed the Death-Dance of the spirits, | 90 |
| Warriors with their plumes and war-clubs, | |
| Flaring far away to northward | |
| In the frosty nights of Winter; | |
| Showed the broad white road in heaven, | |
| Pathway of the ghosts, the shadows, | 95 |
| Running straight across the heavens, | |
| Crowded with the ghosts, the shadows. | |
| At the door on summer evenings | |
| Sat the little Hiawatha; | |
| Heard the whispering of the pine-trees, | 100 |
| Heard the lapping of the waters, | |
| Sounds of music, words of wonder; | |
| “Minne-wawa!” said the pine-trees, | |
| “Mudway-aushka!” said the water. | |
| Saw the fire-fly, Wah-wah-taysee, | 105 |
| Flitting through the dusk of evening, | |
| With the twinkle of its candle | |
| Lighting up the brakes and bushes, | |
| And he sang the song of children, | |
| Sang the song Nokomis taught him: | 110 |
| “Wah-wah-taysee, little fire-fly, | |
| Little, flitting, white-fire insect, | |
| Little, dancing, white-fire creature, | |
| Light me with your little candle, | |
| Ere upon my bed I lay me, | 115 |
| Ere in sleep I close my eyelids!” | |
| Saw the moon rise from the water | |
| Rippling, rounding from the water, | |
| Saw the flecks and shadows on it, | |
| Whispered, “What is that, Nokomis?” | 120 |
| And the good Nokomis answered: | |
| “Once a warrior, very angry, | |
| Seized his grandmother, and threw her | |
| Up into the sky at midnight; | |
| Right against the moon he threw her; | 125 |
| ’T is her body that you see there.” | |
| Saw the rainbow in the heaven, | |
| In the eastern sky, the rainbow, | |
| Whispered, “What is that, Nokomis?” | |
| And the good Nokomis answered: | 130 |
| “’T is the heaven of flowers you see there? | |
| All the wild-flowers of the forest, | |
| All the lilies of the prairie, | |
| When on earth they fade and perish, | |
| Blossom in that heaven above us.” | 135 |
| When he heard the owls at midnight, | |
| Hooting, laughing in the forest, | |
| “What is that?” he cried in terror, | |
| “What is that,” he said, “Nokomis?” | |
| And the good Nokomis answered: | 140 |
| “That is but the owl and owlet, | |
| Talking in their native language, | |
| Talking, scolding at each other.” | |
| Then the little Hiawatha | |
| Learned of every bird its language, | 145 |
| Learned their names and all their secrets | |
| How they built their nests in Summer, | |
| Where they hid themselves in Winter, | |
| Talked with them whene’er he met them, | |
| Called them “Hiawatha’s Chickens.” | 150 |
| Of all beasts he learned the language, | |
| Learned their names and all their secrets, | |
| How the beavers built their lodges, | |
| Where the squirrels hid their acorns, | |
| How the reindeer ran so swiftly, | 155 |
| Why the rabbit was so timid, | |
| Talked with them whene’er he met them, | |
| Called them “Hiawatha’s Brothers.” | |
| Then Iagoo, the great boaster, | |
| He the marvellous story-teller, | 160 |
| He the traveller and the talker, | |
| He the friend of old Nokomis, | |
| Made a bow for Hiawatha; | |
| From a branch of ash he made it, | |
| From an oak-bough made the arrows, | 165 |
| Tipped with flint, and winged with feathers | |
| And the cord he made of deer-skin. | |
| Then he said to Hiawatha: | |
| “Go, my son, into the forest, | |
| Where the red deer herd together, | 170 |
| Kill for us a famous roebuck, | |
| Kill for us a deer with antlers!” | |
| Forth into the forest straightway | |
| All alone walked Hiawatha | |
| Proudly, with his bow and arrows; | 175 |
| And the birds sang round him, o’er him, | |
| “Do not shoot us, Hiawatha!” | |
| Sang the robin, the Opechee, | |
| Sang the bluebird, the Owaissa, | |
| “Do not shoot us, Hiawatha!” | 180 |
| Up the oak-tree, close beside him, | |
| Sprang the squirrel, Adjidaumo, | |
| In and out among the branches, | |
| Coughed and chattered from the oak-tree, | |
| Laughed, and said between his laughing, | 185 |
| “Do not shoot me, Hiawatha!” | |
| And the rabbit from his pathway | |
| Leaped aside, and at a distance | |
| Sat erect upon his haunches, | |
| Half in fear and half in frolic, | 190 |
| Saying to the little hunter, | |
| “Do not shoot me, Hiawatha!” | |
| But he heeded not, nor heard them, | |
| For his thoughts were with the red deer; | |
| On their tracks his eyes were fastened, | 195 |
| Leading downward to the river, | |
| To the ford across the river, | |
| And as one in slumber walked he. | |
| Hidden in the alder-bushes, | |
| There he waited till the deer came, | 200 |
| Till he saw two antlers lifted, | |
| Saw two eyes look from the thicket, | |
| Saw two nostrils point to windward, | |
| And a deer came down the pathway, | |
| Flecked with leafy light and shadow. | 205 |
| And his heart within him fluttered, | |
| Trembled like the leaves above him, | |
| Like the birch-leaf palpitated, | |
| As the deer came down the pathway. | |
| Then, upon one knee uprising, | 210 |
| Hiawatha aimed an arrow; | |
| Scarce a twig moved with his motion, | |
| Scarce a leaf was stirred or rustled, | |
| But the wary roebuck started, | |
| Stamped with all his hoofs together, | 215 |
| Listened with one foot uplifted, | |
| Leaped as if to meet the arrow; | |
| Ah! the singing, fatal arrow, | |
| Like a wasp it buzzed and stung him! | |
| Dead he lay there in the forest, | 220 |
| By the ford across the river; | |
| Beat his timid heart no longer, | |
| But the heart of Hiawatha | |
| Throbbed and shouted and exulted, | |
| As he bore the red deer homeward, | 225 |
| And Iagoo and Nokomis | |
| Hailed his coming with applauses. | |
| From the red deer’s hide Nokomis | |
| Made a cloak for Hiawatha, | |
| From the red deer’s flesh Nokomis | 230 |
| Made a banquet to his honor. | |
| All the village came and feasted, | |
| All the guests praised Hiawatha, | |
| Called him Strong-Heart, Soan-ge-taha! | |
| Called him Loon-Heart, Mahn-go-taysee! | 235 |
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