The Song of Hiawatha   ::   Longfellow Henry Wadsworth

You can see his fiery serpents,

The Kenabeek, the great serpents,

Coiling, playing in the water;

You can see the black pitch-water

Stretching far away beyond them,

To the purple clouds of sunset!

"He it was who slew my father,

By hiswicked wiles and cunning,

When he from the moon descended,

When he came on earth to seek me.

He, the mightiest of Magicians,

Sends the fever from the marshes,

Sends the pestilential vapors,

Sends the poisonous exhalations,

Sends the white fog from the fen-lands,

Sends disease and death among us!

"Take your bow, O Hiawatha,

Take your arrows, jasper-headed,

Take your war-club, Puggawaugun,

And your mittens, Minjekahwun,

And your birch-canoe for sailing,

And the oil of Mishe-Nahma,

So to smear its sides, that swiftly

You may pass the black pitch-water;

Slay this merciless magician,

Save the people from the fever

That he breathes across the fen-lands,

And avenge my father's murder!"

Straightway then my Hiawatha

Armed himself with all his war-gear,

Launched his birch-canoe for sailing;

With his palm its sides he patted,

Said with glee, "Cheemaun, my darling,

O my Birch-canoe! leap forward,

Where you see the fiery serpents,

Where you see the black pitch-water!"

Forward leaped Cheemaun exulting,

And the noble Hiawatha

Sang his war-song wild and woful,

And above him the war-eagle,

The Keneu, the great war-eagle,

Master of all fowls with feathers,

Screamed and hurtled through the heavens.

Soon he reached the fiery serpents,

The Kenabeek, the great serpents,

Lying huge upon the water,

Sparkling, rippling in the water,

Lying coiled across the passage,

With their blazing crests uplifted,

Breathing fiery fogs and vapors,

So that none could pass beyond them.