194

CANTO XVIII
The Death of Kwasind 210

CANTO XIX
The Ghosts 216

CANTO XX
The Famine 227

CANTO XXI
The White Man's Foot 235

CANTO XXII
Hiawatha's Departure 245

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The Song of Hiawatha first appeared in 1855. In it Mr. Longfellow has
woven together the beautiful traditions of the American Indians into one
grand and delightful epic poem. The melodies of its rhythm and measure
flow from his classic pen in unison with the hoof-beats of the bison,
the tremulous thunder of the Falls of Minnehaha, the paddle strokes of
the Indian canoeist, and he has done more to immortalize in song and
story the life and environments of the red man of America than any other
writer, save perhaps J. Fenimore Cooper. It was from a perusal of the
Finnish epic "Kalevala" that both the measure and the style of
"Hiawatha" was suggested to Mr. Longfellow. In fact, it might
appropriately be named the "Kalevala" of North America. Mr. Longfellow
derived his knowledge of Indian legends from Schoolcraft's Algic
Researches and other books, from Heckewelder's Narratives, from Black
Hawk, with his display of Sacs and Foxes on Boston Common, and from the
Ojibway chief, Kahge-gagah-bowh, whom he entertained at his own home.

Hiawatha had a wide circulation, both in America and Europe, and was
universally admired by readers and critics on both Continents. Large
audiences gathered to hear it read by public readers. It was set to
music by Stoepel, and at the Boston Theater it was rendered with
explanatory readings by the famous elocutionist, Matilda Heron. The
highest encomiums were passed upon it by such critics of ripe
scholarship as Emerson and Hawthorne. A part of it was translated into
Latin and used as an academic text book. Those who wish to read more
about it will find interest and pleasure in perusing the masterly
criticisms of Dr. O. W. Holmes in the Annals of the Massachusetts
Historical Society, and that of Horatio Hale in the Proceedings of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1881.

THE SONG OF HIAWATHA.

INTRODUCTION.

Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions,
With the odors of the forest,
With the dew and damp of m