The Song of Hiawatha   ::   Longfellow Henry Wadsworth

Was it the wind above the smoke-flue,

Muttering down into the wigwam?

Was it the owl, the Koko-koho,

Hooting from the dismal forest?

Sure a voice said in the silence:

"These are corpses clad in garments,

These are ghosts that come to haunt you,

From the kingdom of Ponemah,

From the land of the Hereafter!"

Homeward now came Hiawatha

From his hunting in the forest,

With the snow upon his tresses,

And the red deer on his shoulders.

At the feet of Laughing Water

Down he threw his lifeless burden;

Nobler, handsomer she thought him,

Than when first he came to woo her,

First threw down the deer before her,

As a token of his wishes,

As a promise of the future.

Then he turned and saw the strangers,

Cowering, crouching with the shadows;

Said within himself, "Who are they?

What strange guests has Minnehaha?"

But he questioned not the strangers,

Only spake to bid them welcome

To his lodge, his food, his fireside.

When the evening meal was ready,

And the deer had been divided,

Both the pallid guests, the strangers,

Springing from among the shadows,

Seized upon the choicest portions,

Seized the white fat of the roebuck,

Set apart for Laughing Water,

For the wife of Hiawatha;

Without asking, without thanking,

Eagerly devoured the morsels,

Flitted back among the shadows

In the corner of the wigwam.

Not a word spake Hiawatha,

Not a motion made Nokomis,

Not a gesture Laughing Water;

Not a change came o'er their features;

Only Minnehaha softly

Whispered, saying, "They are famished;

Let them do what best delights them;

Let them eat, for they are famished."

Many a daylight dawned and darkened,

Many a night shook off the daylight

As the pine shakes off the snow-flakes

From the midnight of its branches;

Day by day the guests unmoving

Sat there silent in the wigwam;

But by night, in storm or starlight,

Forth they went into the forest,

Bringing fire-wood to the wigwam,

Bringing pine-cones for the burning,

Always sad and always silent.