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XI
You
shall hear how Pau-Puk-Keewis,
How the handsome
Yenadizze
Danced at Hiawatha's wedding;
How the
gentle Chibiabos,
He the sweetest of musicians,
Sang his songs of love and longing;
How Iagoo, the
great boaster,
He the marvellous story-teller,
Told his tales of strange adventure,
That the feast
might be more joyous,
That the time might pass more
gayly,
And the guests be more contented.
Sumptuous was the feast Nokomis
Made at Hiawatha's
wedding;
All the bowls were made of bass-wood,
White and polished very smoothly,
All the spoons of
horn of bison,
Black and polished very smoothly.
She had sent through all the village
Messengers with
wands of willow,
As a sign of invitation,
As a
token of the feasting;
And the wedding guests
assembled,
Clad in all their richest raiment,
Robes of fur and belts of wampum,
Splendid with
their paint and plumage,
Beautiful with beads and
tassels.
First they ate the sturgeon, Nahma,
And
the pike, the Maskenozha,
Caught and cooked by old
Nokomis;
Then on pemican they feasted,
Pemican
and buffalo marrow,
Haunch of deer and hump of
bison,
Yellow cakes of the Mondamin,
And the
wild rice of the river.
But the gracious Hiawatha,
And the lovely Laughing Water,
And the careful
old Nokomis,
Tasted not the food before them,
Only waited on the others
Only served their guests in
silence.
And when all the guests had finished,
Old Nokomis, brisk and busy,
From an ample pouch of
otter,
Filled the red-stone pipes for smoking
With tobacco from the South-land,
Mixed with bark of
the red willow,
And with herbs and leaves of
fragrance.
Then she said, "O Pau-Puk-Keewis,
Dance for us your merry dances,
Dance the Beggar's
Dance to please us,
That the feast may be more
joyous,
That the time may pass more gayly,
And
our guests be more contented!"
Then the handsome Pau-Puk-Keewis,
He the idle Yenadizze,
He the merry
mischief-maker,
Whom the people called the
Storm-Fool,
Rose among the guests assembled.
Skilled was he in sports and pastimes,
In the merry
dance of snow-shoes,
In the play of quoits and
ball-play;
Skilled was he in games of hazard,
In
all games of skill and hazard,
Pugasaing, the Bowl
and Counters,
Kuntassoo, the Game of Plum-stones.
Though the warriors called him Faint-Heart,
Called him coward, Shaugodaya,
Idler, gambler,
Yenadizze,
Little heeded he their jesting,
Little
cared he for their insults,
For the women and the
maidens
Loved the handsome Pau-Puk-Keewis.
He was
dressed in shirt of doeskin,
White and soft, and
fringed with ermine,
All inwrought with beads of
wampum;
He was dressed in deer-skin leggings,
Fringed with hedgehog quills and ermine,
And in
moccasins of buck-skin,
Thick with quills and beads
embroidered.
On his head were plumes of swan's down,
On his heels were tails of foxes,
In one hand a
fan of feathers,
And a pipe was in the other.
Barred with streaks of red and yellow,
Streaks of
blue and bright vermilion,
Shone the face of Pau-Puk-Keewis.
From his forehead fell his tresses,
Smooth, and
parted like a woman's,
Shining bright with oil, and
plaited,
Hung with braids of scented grasses,
As
among the guests assembled,
To the sound of flutes
and singing,
To the sound of drums and voices,
Rose the handsome Pau-Puk-Keewis,
And began his
mystic dances.
First he danced a solemn measure,
Very slow in step and gesture,
In and out among the
pine-trees,
Through the shadows and the sunshine,
Treading softly like a panther.
Then more
swiftly and still swifter,
Whirling, spinning round
in circles,
Leaping o'er the guests assembled,
Eddying round and round the wigwam,
Till the leaves
went whirling with him,
Till the dust and wind
together
Swept in eddies round about him.
Then
along the sandy margin
Of the lake, the
Big-Sea-Water,
On he sped with frenzied gestures,
Stamped upon the sand, and tossed it
Wildly in the
air around him;
Till the wind became a whirlwind,
Till the sand was blown and sifted
Like great
snowdrifts o'er the landscape,
Heaping all the
shores with Sand Dunes,
Sand Hills of the Nagow
Wudjoo!
Thus the merry Pau-Puk-Keewis
Danced his
Beggar's Dance to please them,
And, returning, sat
down laughing
There among the guests assembled,
Sat and fanned himself serenely
With his fan of
turkey-feathers.
Then they said to Chibiabos,
To
the friend of Hiawatha,
To the sweetest of all
singers,
To the best of all musicians,
"Sing to
us, O Chibiabos!
Songs of love and songs of longing,
That the feast may be more joyous,
That the time
may pass more gayly,
And our guests be more
contented!"
And the gentle Chibiabos
Sang in
accents sweet and tender,
Sang in tones of deep
emotion,
Songs of love and songs of longing;
Looking still at Hiawatha,
Looking at fair Laughing
Water,
Sang he softly, sang in this wise:
"Onaway! Awake, beloved!
Thou the wild-flower of the
forest!
Thou the wild-bird of the prairie!
Thou
with eyes so soft and fawn-like!
"If thou only
lookest at me,
I am happy, I am happy,
As the
lilies of the prairie,
When they feel the dew upon
them!
"Sweet thy breath is as the fragrance
Of
the wild-flowers in the morning,
As their fragrance
is at evening,
In the Moon when leaves are falling.
"Does not all the blood within me
Leap to meet thee,
leap to meet thee,
As the springs to meet the
sunshine,
In the Moon when nights are brightest?
"Onaway! my heart sings to thee,
Sings with joy when
thou art near me,
As the sighing, singing branches
In the pleasant Moon of Strawberries!
"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.
"Smiles the earth, and smile the
waters,
Smile the cloudless skies above us,
But
I lose the way of smiling
When thou art no longer
near me!
"I myself, myself! behold me!
Blood of
my beating heart, behold me!
Oh awake, awake,
beloved!
Onaway! awake, beloved!"
Thus the gentle
Chibiabos
Sang his song of love and longing;
And
Iagoo, the great boaster,
He the marvellous
story-teller,
He the friend of old Nokomis,
Jealous of the sweet musician,
Jealous of the
applause they gave him,
Saw in all the eyes around
him,
Saw in all their looks and gestures,
That
the wedding guests assembled
Longed to hear his
pleasant stories,
His immeasurable falsehoods.
Very boastful was Iagoo;
Never heard he an adventure
But himself had met a greater;
Never any deed of
daring
But himself had done a bolder;
Never any
marvellous story
But himself could tell a stranger.
Would you listen to his boasting,
Would you only
give him credence,
No one ever shot an arrow
Half so far and high as he had;
Ever caught so many
fishes,
Ever killed so many reindeer,
Ever
trapped so many beaver!
None could run so fast as he
could,
None could dive so deep as he could,
None
could swim so far as he could;
None had made so many
journeys,
None had seen so many wonders,
As this
wonderful Iagoo,
As this marvellous story-teller!
Thus his name became a by-word
And a jest among the
people;
And whene'er a boastful hunter
Praised
his own address too highly,
Or a warrior, home
returning,
Talked too much of his achievements,
All his hearers cried, "Iagoo!
Here's Iagoo come
among us!"
He it was who carved the cradle
Of the
little Hiawatha,
Carved its framework out of linden,
Bound it strong with reindeer sinews;
He it was
who taught him later
How to make his bows and
arrows,
How to make the bows of ash-tree,
And the
arrows of the oak-tree.
So among the guests
assembled
At my Hiawatha's wedding
Sat Iagoo,
old and ugly,
Sat the marvellous story-teller.
And they said, "O good Iagoo,
Tell us now a tale of
wonder,
Tell us of some strange adventure,
That
the feast may be more joyous,
That the time may pass
more gayly,
And our guests be more contented!"
And Iagoo answered straightway,
"You shall hear a
tale of wonder,
You shall hear the strange
adventures
Of Osseo, the Magician,
From the
Evening Star descending."
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