balsam and pitch
of the fir-tree and smeared the seams so that no water might ooze in,
and he asked for the quills of Kagh, the hedgehog, to make a necklace
and two stars for his canoe.

Thus did Hiawatha build his birch canoe, and all the life and magic of
the forest was held in it; for it had all the lightness of the bark of
the birch-tree, all the toughness of the boughs of the cedar, and it
danced and floated on the river as lightly as a yellow leaf.

Hiawatha did not have any paddles for his canoe, and he needed none, for
he could guide it by merely wishing that it should turn to the right or
to the left. The canoe would move in whatever direction he chose, and
would glide over the water swiftly or slowly just as he desired. All
Hiawatha had to do was to sit still and think where he cared to have it
take him. Never was there such a wonderful craft before.

Then Hiawatha called to Kwasind, and asked for help in clearing away all
the sunken logs and all the rocks, and sandbars in the river-bed, and he
and Kwasind traveled down the whole length of the river. Kwasind swam
and dove like a beaver, tugging at sunken logs, scooping out the
sandbars with his hands, kicking the boulders out of the stream and
digging away all the snags and tangles. They went back and forth and up
and down the river, Kwasind working just as hard as he was able, and
Hiawatha showing him where he could find new logs and rocks, and
sandbars to remove, until together they made the channel safe and
regular all the way from where the river rose among the mountains in
little springs to where it emptied a wide and rolling sheet of water
into the bay of Taquamenaw.

VIII

HIAWATHA'S FISHING

IN his wonderful canoe, Hiawatha sailed over the shining Big-Sea-Water
to go fishing and to catch with his fishing-line made of cedar no other
than the very King of Fishes--Nahma, the big sturgeon. All alone
Hiawatha sailed over the lake, but on the bow of his canoe sat a
squirrel, frisking and chattering at the thought of all the wonderful
sport that he was going to see. Through the calm, clear water Hiawatha
saw the fishes swimming to and fro. First he saw the yellow perch that
shone like a sunbeam; then he saw the crawfish moving along the sandy
bottom of the lake, and at last he saw a great blue shape that swept the
sand floor with its mighty tail and waved its huge fins lazily backward
and forward, and Hiawatha knew that this monster was Nahma,