story that his heart
felt like a coal of fire. He said to Nokomis: "I will talk with
Mudjekeewis, my father, and to find him I will go to the Land of the
Sunset, where he has his kingdom."

So Hiawatha dressed himself for travel and armed himself with bow and a
war-club, took his magic mittens and his magic moccasins, and set out
all alone to travel to the kingdom of the West-wind. And although
Nokomis called after him and begged him to turn back, he would not
listen to her, but went away into the forest.

For days and days he traveled. He passed the Mississippi River; he
crossed the prairies where the buffaloes were herding, and when he came
to the Rocky Mountains, where the panther and the grizzly bear have
their homes, he reached the Land of the Sunset, and the kingdom of the
West-wind. There he found his father, Mudjekeewis.

When Hiawatha saw his father he was as nearly afraid as he had ever been
in his life, for his father's cloudy hair tossed and waved in the air
and flashed like the star we call the comet, trailing long streams of
fire through the sky. But when Mudjekeewis saw what a strong and
handsome man his son had grown to be, he was proud and happy; for he
knew that Hiawatha had all of his own early strength and all the beauty
of the dead Wenonah.

"Welcome, my son," said Mudjekeewis, "to the kingdom of the West-wind. I
have waited for you many years, and have grown very lonely." And
Mudjekeewis and Hiawatha talked long together; but all the while
Hiawatha was thinking of his dead mother and the wrong that had been
done to her, and he became more and more angry.

He hid his anger, however, and listened to what Mudjekeewis told him,
and Mudjekeewis boasted of his own early bravery and of his body that
was so tough that nobody could do him any harm. "Can nothing hurt you?"
asked Hiawatha, and Mudjekeewis said: "Nothing but the black rock
yonder." Then he smiled at Hiawatha and said: "Is there anything that
can harm you, my son?" And Hiawatha, who did not wish Mudjekeewis to
know that nothing in the world could do him injury, told him that only
the bulrush had such power.

Then they talked about other things--of Hiawatha's brothers who ruled
the winds, Wabun and Shawondasee and Kabibonokka, and about the
beautiful Wenonah, Hiawatha's mother. And Hiawatha cried out then in
fury: "Father though you be, you killed Wenonah!" And he struck with his
magic mittens the black rock, broke it into pieces, and th