The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American India | Page 2

there are few in the original.[1] The Indian
effects his purposes, almost entirely, by changes of the verb and
demonstrative pronoun, or by adjective inflections of the substantive.
Good and bad, high and low, black and white, are in all cases employed
in a transitive sense, and with strict relation to the objects characterized.
The Indian compound terms are so descriptive, so graphic, so local, so
characterizing, yet so flexible and transpositive, that the legends derive
no little of their characteristic features as well as melody of utterance
from these traits. Sometimes these terms cannot be literally translated,
and they cannot, in these cases, be left out without damaging the
stories.
With regard to the thought-work of the legends, those who have
deemed the Indians exclusively a cruel and blood-thirsty race, always
seeking revenge, always invoking evil powers, will not be disappointed
that giants, enchanters, demons, and dark supernatural agencies, should

form so large a part of the dramatis personæ. Surprise has been
expressed,[2] that the kindlier affections come in for notice at all, and
particularly at the occurrence of such refined and terse allegories as the
origin of Indian Corn, Winter and Spring, and the poetic conception of
the Celestial Sisters, &c. I can only add, that my own surprise was as
great when these traits were first revealed. And the trait may be quoted
to show how deeply the tribes have wandered away from the type of the
human race in which love and affection absorb the heart;[3] and how
little, indeed, we know of their mental character.
These legends have been out of print several years. They are now
reproduced, with additional legendary lore of this description from the
portfolios of the author, in a revised, and, it is believed, a more terse,
condensed, and acceptable form, both in a literary and business garb.[4]
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
Washington, D.C., April 28, 1856.
[1] If Edwards the younger, to whom the Mohican was familiar from
his childhood, could say, that he doubted whether there were any true
adjectives in that language, it can easily be imagined that the subtlety
of the transitive principle had not been sufficiently analyzed; but the
remark is here quoted in relation to the paucity of adjectives.
[2] Vide Criterion.
[3] When the volumes of Algic Researches, in 1839, were published,
the book-trade had hardly awakened to that wide and diffusive impulse
which it has since received. No attention had been given to topics so
obscure as inquiries into the character of the Indian mind--if, indeed, it
was thought the Indian had any mind at all. It was still supposed that
the Indian was, at all times and in all places, "a stoic of the woods,"
always statuesque, always formal, always passionless, always on stilts,
always speaking in metaphors, a cold embodiment of bravery,
endurance, and savage heroism. Writers depicted him as a man who
uttered nothing but high principles of natural right, who always
harangued eloquently, and was ready, with unmoved philosophy on all

occasions, to sing his death song at the stake to show the world how a
warrior should die.
[4] The songs and chants which form so striking a part of the original
legends, and also the poetic use of aboriginal ideas, are transferred to
the end of the volume, and will thus, it is apprehended, relieve and
simplify the text.

CONTENTS.
Page
Hiawatha; or, Manabozho 13
Paup-puk-keewiss 52
Osseo; or, the Son of the Evening Star 71
Kwasind; or, the fearfully Strong Man 77
The Jeebi; or, Two Ghosts 81
Iagoo 85
Shawondasee 88
Puck Wudj Ininees; or, the Vanishing Little Men 90
Pezhiu and Wabose; or, the Lynx and Hare 95
Peboan and Seegwun. An Allegory of Winter and Spring 96
Mon-daw-min; or, the Origin of Indian Corn 99
Nezhik-e-wa-wa-sun; or, the Lone Lightning 105
The Ak Uk O Jeesh; or, the Groundhog Family 107

Opeechee; or, the Origin of the Robin 109
Shingebiss. An Allegory of Self-reliance 113
The Star Family; or, the Celestial Sisters 116
Ojeeg Annung; or, the Summer-Maker 121
Chileeli; or, the Red Lover 129
Sheem, the forsaken Boy, or Wolf Brother 136
Mishemokwa; or, the War with the Gigantic Bear wearing the precious
prize of the Necklace of Wampum, or the Origin of the Small Black
Bear 142
The Red Swan 161
Tau-wau-chee-hezkaw; or, the White Feather 180
Pauguk, and the mythological interpretation of Hiawatha 188
Iëna, the Wanderer; or, Magic Bundle 194
Mishosha; or, the Magician of Lake Superior 202
Peeta Kway, the Foam-Woman 213
Pah-hah-undootah, the Red Head 216
The White Stone Canoe 223
Onaiazo, the Sky-Walker. A Legend of a Visit to the Sun 228
Bosh-kwa-dosh; or, the Mastodon 233
The Sun-Catcher; or, the Boy who set a Snare for the Sun. A Myth of
the Origin of the Dormouse 239

Wa-wa-be-zo-win; or,