The Song of Hiawatha
Henry W. Longfellow

CONTENTS

Introductory Note                            1
Introduction                                 2
I       The Peace-Pipe                       5
II      The Four Winds                       9
III     Hiawatha's Childhood                15
IV      Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis            20
V       Hiawatha's Fasting                  26
VI      Hiawatha's Friends                  32
VII     Hiawatha's Sailing                  36
VIII    Hiawatha's Fishing                  39
IX      Hiawatha and the Pearl-Feather      44
X       Hiawatha's Wooing                   50
XI      Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast            55
XII     The Son of the Evening Star         60
XIII    Blessing the Corn-Fields            67
XIV     Picture-Writing                     71
XV      Hiawatha's Lamentation              76
XVI     Pau-Puk-Keewis                      81
XVII    The Hunting of Pau-Puk-Keewis       86
XVIII   The Death of Kwasind                93
XIX     The Ghosts                          96
XX      The Famine                         101
XXI     The White Man's Foot               105
XXII    Hiawatha's Departure               110
Vocabulary                                 115

Introductory Note

    The Song of Hiawatha is based on the legends and stories of
many North American Indian tribes, but especially those of the
Ojibway Indians of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 
They were collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the reknowned
historian, pioneer explorer, and geologist.  He was
superintendent of Indian affairs for Michigan from 1836 to 1841.

    Schoolcraft married Jane, O-bah-bahm-wawa-ge-zhe-go-qua (The
Woman of the Sound Which the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky),
Johnston.  Jane was a daughter of John Johnston, an early Irish
fur trader, and O-shau-gus-coday-way-qua (The Woman of the Green
Prairie), who was a daughter of Waub-o-jeeg (The White Fisher),
who was Chief of the Ojibway tribe at La Pointe, Wisconsin.  

    Jane and her mother are credited with having researched,
authenticated, and compiled much of the material Schoolcraft
included in his Algic Researches (1839) and a revision published
in 1856 as The Myth of Hiawatha.  It was this latter revision
that Longfellow used as the basis for The Song of Hiawatha.

    Longfellow began Hiawatha on June 25, 1854, he completed it
on March 29, 1855, and it was published November 10, 1855.  As
soon as the poem was  published its popularity was assured. 
However, it also was severely criticized as a plagiary of the
Finnish epic poem Kalevala.  Longfellow made no secret of the
fact that he had used the meter of the Kalevala; but as for the
legends, he openly gave credit to Schoolcraft in his notes to the
poem.

    I would add a personal note here.  My father's roots include
Ojibway Indians: his mother, Margaret Caroline Davenport, was a
daughter of Susan des Carreaux, O-gee-em-a-qua (The Chief Woman),
Davenport whose mother was a daughter of Chief Waub-o-jeeg. 
Finally, my mother used to rock me to sleep reading portions of
Hiawatha to me, especially:

            "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, 
            Ere in sleep I close my eyelids!"

Woodrow W. Morris
April 1, 1991