Hiawatha painted the picture of an egg with different colored
points toward the north and the south, the east and the west, to show
that the Great Spirit was watching over all the world, and could be
found everywhere at once.

For the Evil Spirit, Hiawatha painted the picture of a great serpent to
show that the Evil Spirit was as deadly and wicked and treacherous as
any snake that crawled in the green marsh grass. For Life and Death,
Hiawatha drew two round spots, and painted one of them white and the
other black. The white one was meant for Life, because white is clear
and fair to look upon; the black was meant for Death, because black is
hideous and dark. And Hiawatha painted the sun and the moon and all the
stars of heaven, and he painted forests and mountains, lakes and rivers,
animals and birds. For the earth he drew a straight line, like the line
of the horizon, and for the sky he drew a curved line like a bow. He
filled in the space between with white paint that was to mean the white
light of day; he painted a point at each side, one for sunrise and the
other for sunset, and he drew a number of little stars to represent the
night. And Hiawatha drew all sorts of pictures of men and wigwams and
bows and arrows and canoes, each with its own meaning, until he had
drawn different figures for the different thoughts of men.

He called the Indians to come and see what he had painted, and he said
to them: "Look and learn the meaning of these different figures; go and
paint upon the graves of those whom you remember, some mark that will
always show who it is that lies there buried;" and the Indians painted
on the grave-posts of the graves they had not yet forgotten, figures of
bear and reindeer, and turtles, and cranes, and beavers. Each one of
them invented some sign by which he might always know his dead, and from
these signs many of the Indians have been remembered to this day. On
their birch canoes the Indians drew many different shapes, and the
brightest of them all was the figure of Love. It was painted in deep
scarlet, because scarlet is the strongest of all colors, and the color
meant: "I am greater than all others;" for the Indians believed that
love was mightier than life or death, and more dangerous than either war
or hunting.

Other figures were also painted there, and by looking at the pictures
drawn by an Indian you could tell who he was, and what family he came
from, and whether he was stern and cruel or