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

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 person?. 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
I?na, 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, the Swing on the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior 243
Mukakee Mindemoea; or, the Toad-Woman 246
Eroneniera; or, an Indian Visit to the Great Spirit 251
The Six Hawks; or, Broken Wing 258
Weeng, the Spirit of Sleep 262
Addik Kum Maig; or, the Origin of the White Fish 265
Bokwewa; or, the Humpback Magician 269
Aggodagauda and his Daughter; or, the Man with his Leg tied up 274
Iosco; or, the Prairie Boys' Visit to the Sun and Moon 278
The