The Song of Hiawatha

Hiawatha grows concerned that his people have no way of sharing wisdom and memory with future generations. Important stories become lost once the men who tell them die, and none of the graves can be identified outside of memory. Hiawatha goes into the forest for several days and comes up with a method of recording stories using different color paints to draw pictures. Hiawatha designs symbols for the Great Spirit, the Evil Spirit, life and death, and other things the tribes might think about. After, his people choose symbols to represent their families. The storytellers and the healers draw pictures to represent their songs and stories. The most sacred symbol of all is for love. Now, the symbols a man paints identify his family and temperament.

Jealous of Hiawatha’s fast friendship with Chibiabos, evil spirits plot to destroy them both. Hiawatha advises caution to his friend, but Chibiabos laughs away his cares. One winter day, Chibiabos is hunting a deer that runs across a frozen lake. Chibiabos follows it, but the evil spirits break the ice and pull Chibiabos down to the bottom. Hiawatha knows his friend is dead and cries out sorrowfully. For seven weeks he stays at home in mourning. As spring comes, the medicine men of the village bring give Hiawatha a yarrow potion and sing a curing song, charms to drive away his grief. When sorrow leaves Hiawatha’s heart, the medicine men summon Chibiabos’ spirit and give him a burning coal to light the way for all the dead. Chibiabos becomes king of the Land of Spirits, while Hiawatha travels to other tribes to teach them the use of healing medicines.

Pau-Puk-Keewis, who danced the Beggar’s Dance, comes upon Iagoo telling the young men of the village a story about how Ojeeg the weasel and his friend the wolverine made a hole in the sky to let the summer warmth come in. Pau-Puk-Keewis is jealous of the attention Iagoo gets, so he distracts the men with a game he has invented: Tossing figurines to see how they fall, which represents a score. The young men gamble, and by the end of the day Pau-Puk-Keewis has won everything they have. He announces that he will play one last round: If he loses, he will return the men’s possessions; if he wins, he will take Iagoo’s young nephew as a slave. Iagoo loses and Pau-Puk-Keewis leaves in a good mood. He passes Hiawatha’s empty home and goes inside to throw everything into chaos. Then he sits by the lake and beats the curious seagulls who come to see him. One of the seagulls sends word to Hiawatha.

Hiawatha is enraged at the damage Pau-Puk-Keewis has done and vows to hunt him down. Pau-Puk-Keewis runs until he comes to a beaver stream, and he entreats them to turn him into a beaver ten times larger than all the rest. Thus transformed, Pau-Puk-Keewis becomes their king. Hiawatha and his men catch up to him, however. Because of his size, Pau-Puk-Keewis’s beaver form is trapped killed. But Pau-Puk-Keewis is still alive, and he escapes until he reaches a lake and entreats the geese there to turn him into one of them, ten times larger than all the rest. They fly into the air, but Pau-Puk-Keewis’s large size causes him to fall and his goose form is killed. Pau-Puk-Keewis escapes again as a snake and hides in a tree, but Hiawatha breaks the tree apart. Finally, Pau-Puk-Keewis hides in a cave under the mountains. With the help of thunder and lightning, Hiawatha splits the mountain and Pau-Puk-Keewis, in his own shape, is killed under the falling rocks. Then Hiawatha turns Pau-Puk-Keewis’s spirit into a great eagle to dance in the sky.