jekeewis, came and whispered tenderly into her ear until she loved
him. But the West-wind did not love Wenonah long. He went away to his
kingdom on the mountains, and after he had gone Wenonah had a son whom
she named Hiawatha, the child of the West-wind. But Wenonah was so sad
because the West-wind had deserted her that she died soon after Hiawatha
was born, and the infant Hiawatha, without father or mother, was taken
to Nokomis' wigwam, which stood beside a broad and shining lake called
"The Big-Sea-Water."

There he lived and was nursed by his grandmother, Nokomis, who sang to
him and rocked him in his cradle. When he cried Nokomis would say to
him: "Hush, or the naked bear will get thee," and when he awoke in the
night she taught him all about the stars, and showed him the spirits
that we call the northern lights dance the Death-dance far in the north.

On the summer evenings, little Hiawatha would hear the pine-trees
whisper to one another and the water lapping in the lake, and he would
see the fire-flies twinkle in the twilight; and when he saw the moon and
all the dark spots on it he asked Nokomis what they were, and she told
him that a very angry warrior had once seized his grandmother and
thrown her up into the sky at midnight, "right up to the moon," said
Nokomis, "and that is her body that you see there."

When Hiawatha saw the rainbow, with the sun shining on it, he said:
"What is that, Nokomis?" and Nokomis answered, saying: "That is the
heaven of the flowers, where all the flowers that fade on the earth
blossom once again." And when Hiawatha heard the owls hooting through
the night he asked Nokomis: "What are those?" And Nokomis answered:
"Those are the owls and the owlets, talking to each other in their
native language."

Then Hiawatha learned the language of all the birds of the air, all
about their nests, how they learned to fly and where they went in
winter; and he learned so much that he could talk to them just as if he
were a bird himself. He learned the language of all the beasts of the
forest, and they told him all their secrets. The beavers showed him how
they built their houses, the squirrels took him to the places where they
hid their acorns, and the rabbits told him why they were so timid.
Hiawatha talked with all the animals that he met, and he called them
"Hiawatha's brothers."

Nokomis had a friend called Iagoo the Boaster, because he told so many
stories about great deeds that he had n