The Song of Hiawatha   ::   Longfellow Henry Wadsworth

But his soul, his ghost, his shadow,

Still survived as Pau-Puk-Keewis,

Took again the form and features

Of the handsome Yenadizze,

And again went rushing onward,

Followed fast by Hiawatha,

Crying: "Not so wide the world is,

Not so long and rough the way Is,

But my wrath shall overtake you,

But my vengeance shall attain you!"

And so near he came, so near him,

That his hand was stretched to seize him,

His right hand to seize and hold him,

When the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis

Whirled and spun about in circles,

Fanned the air into a whirlwind,

Danced the dust and leaves about him,

And amid the whirling eddies

Sprang into a hollow oak-tree,

Changed himself into a serpent,

Gliding out through root and rubbish.

With his right hand Hiawatha

Smote amain the hollow oak-tree,

Rent it into shreds and splinters,

Left it lying there in fragments.

But in vain; for Pau-Puk-Keewis,

Once again in human figure,

Full in sight ran on before him,

Sped away in gust and whirlwind,

On the shores of Gitche Gumee,

Westward by the Big-Sea-Water,

Came unto the rocky headlands,

To the Pictured Rocks of sandstone,

Looking over lake and landscape.

And the Old Man of the Mountain,

He the Manito of Mountains,

Opened wide his rocky doorways,

Opened wide his deep abysses,

Giving Pau-Puk-Keewis shelter

In his caverns dark and dreary,

Bidding Pau-Puk-Keewis welcome

To his gloomy lodge of sandstone.

There without stood Hiawatha,

Found the doorways closed against him,

With his mittens, Minjekahwun,

Smote great caverns in the sandstone,

Cried aloud in tones of thunder,

"Open! I am Hiawatha!"

But the Old Man of the Mountain

Opened not, and made no answer

From the silent crags of sandstone,

From the gloomy rock abysses.

Then he raised his hands to heaven,

Called imploring on the tempest,

Called Waywassimo, the lightning,

And the thunder, Annemeekee;

And they came with night and darkness,

Sweeping down the Big-Sea-Water

From the distant Thunder Mountains;

And the trembling Pau-Puk-Keewis

Heard the footsteps of the thunder,

Saw the red eyes of the lightning,

Was afraid, and crouched and trembled.