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(From The Song of Hiawatha)
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, | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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, | 15 |
| 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 | 20 |
| 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, | 25 |
| 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, | 30 |
| 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; | 35 |
| 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, | 40 |
| Saw the red eyes of the lightning, | |
| Was afraid, and crouched and trembled. | |
| Then Waywassimo, the lightning, | |
| Smote the doorways of the caverns, | |
| With his war-club smote the doorways, | 45 |
| Smote the jutting crags of sandstone, | |
| And the thunder, Annemeekee, | |
| Shouted down into the caverns, | |
| Saying, “Where is Pau-Puk-Keewis, | |
| And the crags fell, and beneath them | 50 |
| Dead among the rocky ruins | |
| Lay the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis, | |
| Lay the handsome Yenadizze, | |
| Slain in his own human figure. | |
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