ces.

Six tall hunters bore the body of the beaver homeward, and it was so
heavy that they had to carry it slung from poles and branches that
rested on their shoulders. But within the dead body Pau-Puk-Keewis still
lived, and thought and felt exactly as a man; and at last, with great
effort he gathered himself together, left the beaver's body and,
assuming once more his own form, he vanished in the forest.

Hiawatha saw the figure as it stole away amid the shadows of the
pine-trees, and with a shout he leaped to his feet and gave chase with
all his hunters, who followed the flying Pau-Puk-Keewis as the rain
follows the wind. The hunted man, all breathless and worn out, came to a
large lake in the middle of the forest, and there he saw the wild geese
that we call the brant, swimming and diving among the water-lilies and
enjoying themselves upon the water.

"O my brothers," called Pau-Puk-Keewis, "change me to a brant with
shining feathers and two strong wings to carry me wherever I will go,
and make me ten times larger than any of you!"

At once they changed him into a huge brant, ten times larger than the
others, and with loud cries and a clamor of wings they rose in the air
and flew high up into the sunlight. As they flew they said to
Pau-Puk-Keewis: "Take care that you do not look downward as you fly, or
something strange and terrible will happen to you."

But suddenly they heard a sound of shouting far beneath them, and
Pau-Puk-Keewis, who recognized the voice of Iagoo and the tones of
Hiawatha, forgot the warning about looking downward, and drew in his
long black neck to gaze upon the distant village. The swift wind that
was blowing behind him caught his mighty tail-feathers, tipped him over,
and Pau-Puk-Keewis, struggling in vain to get his balance, fell through
the clear air like a heavy stone. He heard the shouting of the people
grow louder and louder; he saw the brant become little specks in the air
above him, and plunging downward the great goose struck the ground with
a heavy, sullen thud and lay there dead.

But Pau-Puk-Keewis still lived in the crushed body of the giant bird,
and he swiftly took his own form again and rushed along the shore of the
Big-Sea-Water, with Hiawatha close upon his heels. And Hiawatha shouted
at him as they ran: "The world is not so rough and wide but I shall
catch you, Pau-Puk-Keewis. Hide where you will, but I shall reach you
with my anger!" and he was so close to Pau-Puk-Ke