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In those days said Hiawatha,
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"Lo! how all things fade and perish!
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From the memory of the old men
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Pass away the great traditions,
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The achievements of the warriors,
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The adventures of the hunters,
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All the wisdom of the Medas,
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All the craft of the Wabenos,
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All the marvellous dreams and visions
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Of the Jossakeeds, the Prophets!
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"Great men die and are forgotten,
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Wise men speak; their words of wisdom
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Perish in the ears that hear them,
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Do not reach the generations
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That, as yet unborn, are waiting
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In the great, mysterious darkness
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Of the speechless days that shall be!
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"On the grave-posts of our fathers
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Are no signs, no figures painted;
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Who are in those graves we know not,
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Only know they are our fathers.
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Of what kith they are and kindred,
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From what old, ancestral Totem,
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Be it Eagle, Bear, or Beaver,
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They descended, this we know not,
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Only know they are our fathers.
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"Face to face we speak together,
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But we cannot speak when absent,
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Cannot send our voices from us
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To the friends that dwell afar off;
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Cannot send a secret message,
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But the bearer learns our secret,
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May pervert it, may betray it,
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May reveal it unto others."
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Thus said Hiawatha, walking
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In the solitary forest,
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Pondering, musing in the forest,
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On the welfare of his people.
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From his pouch he took his colors,
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Took his paints of different colors,
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On the smooth bark of a birch-tree
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Painted many shapes and figures,
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Wonderful and mystic figures,
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And each figure had a meaning,
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Each some word or thought suggested.
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Gitche Manito the Mighty,
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He, the Master of Life, was painted
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As an egg, with points projecting
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To the four winds of the heavens.
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Everywhere is the Great Spirit,
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Was the meaning of this symbol.
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Mitche Manito the Mighty,
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He the dreadful Spirit of Evil,
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As a serpent was depicted,
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As Kenabeek, the great serpent.
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Very crafty, very cunning,
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Is the creeping Spirit of Evil,
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Was the meaning of this symbol.
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Life and Death he drew as circles,
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Life was white, but Death was darkened;
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Sun and moon and stars he painted,
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Man and beast, and fish and reptile,
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Forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers.
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For the earth he drew a straight line,
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For the sky a bow above it;
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White the space between for daytime,
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Filled with little stars for night-time;
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On the left a point for sunrise,
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On the right a point for sunset,
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On the top a point for noontide,
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And for rain and cloudy weather
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Waving lines descending from it.
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Footprints pointing towards a wigwam
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Were a sign of invitation,
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Were a sign of guests assembling;
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Bloody hands with palms uplifted
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Were a symbol of destruction,
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Were a hostile sign and symbol.
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All these things did Hiawatha
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Show unto his wondering people,
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And interpreted their meaning,
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And he said: "Behold, your grave-posts
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Have no mark, no sign, nor symbol,
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Go and paint them all with figures;
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Each one with its household symbol,
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With its own ancestral Totem;
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So that those who follow after
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May distinguish them and know them."
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And they painted on the grave-posts
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On the graves yet unforgotten,
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Each his own ancestral Totem,
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Each the symbol of his household;
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Figures of the Bear and Reindeer,
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Of the Turtle, Crane, and Beaver,
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Each inverted as a token
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That the owner was departed,
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That the chief who bore the symbol
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Lay beneath in dust and ashes.
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And the Jossakeeds, the Prophets,
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The Wabenos, the Magicians,
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And the Medicine-men, the Medas,
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Painted upon bark and deer-skin
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Figures for the songs they chanted,
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For each song a separate symbol,
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Figures mystical and awful,
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Figures strange and brightly colored;
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And each figure had its meaning,
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Each some magic song suggested.
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The Great Spirit, the Creator,
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Flashing light through all the heaven;
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The Great Serpent, the Kenabeek,
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With his bloody crest erected,
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Creeping, looking into heaven;
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In the sky the sun, that listens,
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And the moon eclipsed and dying;
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Owl and eagle, crane and hen-hawk,
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And the cormorant, bird of magic;
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Headless men, that walk the heavens,
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Bodies lying pierced with arrows,
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Bloody hands of death uplifted,
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Flags on graves, and great war-captains
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Grasping both the earth and heaven!
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Such as these the shapes they painted
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On the birch-bark and the deer-skin;
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Songs of war and songs of hunting,
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Songs of medicine and of magic,
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All were written in these figures,
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For each figure had its meaning,
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Each its separate song recorded.
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Nor forgotten was the Love-Song,
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The most subtle of all medicines,
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The most potent spell of magic,
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Dangerous more than war or hunting!
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Thus the Love-Song was recorded,
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Symbol and interpretation.
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First a human figure standing,
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Painted in the brightest scarlet;
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'T is the lover, the musician,
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And the meaning is, "My painting
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Makes me powerful over others."
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Then the figure seated, singing,
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Playing on a drum of magic,
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And the interpretation, "Listen!
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'T is my voice you hear, my singing!"
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Then the same red figure seated
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In the shelter of a wigwam,
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And the meaning of the symbol,
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"I will come and sit beside you
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In the mystery of my passion!"
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Then two figures, man and woman,
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Standing hand in hand together
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With their hands so clasped together
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That they seemed in one united,
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And the words thus represented
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Are, "I see your heart within you,
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And your cheeks are red with blushes!"
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Next the maiden on an island,
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In the centre of an island;
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And the song this shape suggested
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Was, "Though you were at a distance,
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Were upon some far-off island,
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Such the spell I cast upon you,
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Such the magic power of passion,
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I could straightway draw you to me!"
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Then the figure of the maiden
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Sleeping, and the lover near her,
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Whispering to her in her slumbers,
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Saying, "Though you were far from me
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In the land of Sleep and Silence,
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Still the voice of love would reach you!"
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And the last of all the figures
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Was a heart within a circle,
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Drawn within a magic circle;
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And the image had this meaning:
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"Naked lies your heart before me,
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To your naked heart I whisper!"
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Thus it was that Hiawatha,
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In his wisdom, taught the people
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All the mysteries of painting,
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All the art of Picture-Writing,
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On the smooth bark of the birch-tree,
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On the white skin of the reindeer,
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