The Song of Hiawatha

Anthony. Minnehaha, Laughing Water; wife of Hiawatha. Minne-wa'wa, a pleasant sound, as of the wind in the trees* Mishe-Mo'kwa, the Great Bear. Mtshe-Nah'ma, the Great Sturgeon. Miakodeed', the Spring Beauty, the Claytonia Virginica. Monda min, Indian Corn. Moon of Bright Nights, April. Moon of Leaves, May. Moon of Strawberries, June. Moon of the Falling Leaves, September. Moon of Snow-Shoes, November. Mudjekee'wis, the West-Wind; father of Hiawatha. Madway-aosh'ka, sound of waves on a shore. Mushkoda'sa, the grouse.

Na'gow Wud'joo, the Sand Dunes of Lake Superior.

Nah'ma, the sturgeon.

Xah'ma-wusk, spearmint.

Nee-ba-naw'baigB, water spirits.

Nenemoo'sha, sweetheart.

Nepah'win, sleep.

Noko'mis, a grandmother; mother of Wenonak.

No'aa, my father.

Noshlm, amp;»*/ look!

Odah'min, the strawberry.

Okahah'wia, the fresh-water herring.

Ome'mee, the pigeon.

Ona'gon, a bowl.

Onaway', awake.

Ope'chee, the robin.

Osse'o, Son of the Evening Star,

Owais'sa, the bluebird.

Oweenee', wife of Osseo.

Ozawa'beek, a round piece of brass or copper in the Game of the

Bowl. Pah-puk-kee'na, the grasshopper. Pau'gnk, death.

Pau-Puk-Kee'wis, the handsome Yenadizze, the Storm-Fool Pauwating, Sault Sainte Marie. Pe1)oaii, Winter.

Pem'ic amp;n, meat of the deer or buffalo dried and pounded, Pezheekee', the bison. Pishnekuh', the brant. Pone'mah, hereafter. Pugasaing', Game of the Bowl Puggawau'gun, a war-dub.

Puk-Wudj'ies, little wild men of the woods; pygmies. Sah-sah-je'wun, rapids. Sah'wa, the perch. Segwnn', Spring. Sha'da, the pelican. Shahbo'min, the gooseberry. Shah-shah, long ago. Shaugoda'ya, a coward. Shawgashee', the craw-fish. Shawonda'see, the South-Wind. Shaw-shaw, the swallow.

Shesh'ebwug, ducks; pieces in the Game of the Bowl Shio'gebis, the diver or grebe. Showain' neme'shin, pity me.

Shnh-shnh'gah, the blue heron.

Soan-ge-ta'ha, strong hearted.

Subbeka'she, the spider.

Sagge'ma, the mosquito.

Totem, family coat of arms.

Ugh, yes.

Ugndwash', the sun-fish.

Unktahee', the God of Water.

Wabas'ao, the rabbit; the North.

Wabe'no, a magician, a juggler.

Wabe'no-wnsk, yarrow.

Wa-bnn, the East-Wind.

\.Va'bun An'nung, the Star of the East, the Morning Star.

Wahono'win, a cry of lamentation.

Wah-wah-tay'see, the fire-fly.

Wam'pum, beads of shell.

Waubewy'on, a white skin wrapper.

Wa'wa, the wild goose.

Waw'beek, a rock.

Waw-be-Wwa, the white goo*.

Wawonais'sa, the whippoorwUl.

Way-muk-kWna, the caterpillar.

Wen'digoes, giants.

Weno'nah, Hiawatha's mother, daughter of Nokomis

Yenadiz'ze, an idler and gambler; an Indian dandy.

[" Suddenly and immensely popular in this country, greatly admired by many foreign critics, imitated with perfect ease by any clever school-boy, serving as a model for metrical advertisements, made fun of, sneered at, abused, admired, but, at any rate, a picture full of pleasing fancies and melodious cadences. The very names are jewels which the most fastidious muse might be proud to wear. Coming from the realm of the Androscoggin and of Moosetukmaguntuk, how could he have found two such delicious names as Hiawatha and Minnehaha ? The eight-syllable trochaic verse of Hiawatha, like the eight-syllable iambic verse of The Lady of the Lake, and others of Scott's poems, has a fatal facility, which I have elsewhere endeavored to explain on physiological principles. The recital of each line uses up the air of one natural expiration, so that we read, as we naturally do, eighteen or twenty lines in a minute, without disturbing the normal rhythm of breathing, which is also eighteen or twenty breaths to the minute. The standing objection to this is, that it makes the octosyllabic verse too easy writing and too slipshod reading. Yet in this most frequently criticised composition the poet has shown a subtle sense of the requirements of his simple story of a primitive race, in choosing the most fluid of measures, that lets the thought run through it in easy sing-song, such as oral tradition would be sure to find on the lips of the story-tellers of the wigwam." – Oliver Wendell Holmes : Remarks at meeting of Massachusetts Historical Society, April 13, 1882.]

Page 3. In the Vale of Tawasentha.

This valley, now called Norman's Kill, is in Albany County, New York.

Page 6. On the Mountains of the Prairie.

Mr. Catlin, in his Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American In-dians, vol. ii. p. 160, gives an interesting account of the Coteau des Prairies, and the Red Pipestone Quarry. He says: -

" Here (according to their traditions) happened the mysterious birth of the red pipe, which has blown its fumes of peace and war to the remotest corners of the continent; which has visited every warrior, and passed through its reddened stem the irrevocable oath of war and desolation. And here, also, the peace-breathing calumet was born, and fringed with the eagle's quills, which has shed its thrilling fumes over the land, and soothed the fury of the relentless savage.