a's wigwam and said: "Hiawatha,
my name is Mondamin, and I have been sent by the Great Manito to tell
you that he has heard your prayers and will give you the food that you
wish to find. But you must work hard and suffer a great deal before this
food is given you, and you must now come out of your wigwam and wrestle
with me in the forest."

Then Hiawatha rose from his bed of leaves and branches, but he was so
weak that it was all he could do to follow Mondamin from the wigwam. He
wrestled with Mondamin, and as soon as he touched him his strength began
to return. They wrestled for a long time and at last Mondamin said: "It
is enough. You have wrestled bravely, Hiawatha. To-morrow I will come
again and wrestle with you." He vanished, and Hiawatha could not tell
whether he had sunk into the ground or disappeared into the air.

[Illustration: "DEAD HE LAY THERE IN THE SUNSET"--_Page 153_]

On the next day, when the sun was setting, Mondamin came again to
wrestle with Hiawatha, and the day after that he came also and they
wrestled even longer than before. Then Mondamin smiled at Hiawatha and
said to him: "Three times, O Hiawatha, you have bravely wrestled with
me. To-morrow I shall wrestle with you once again, and you will overcome
me and throw me to the earth and I shall seem to be dead. Then, when I
am lying still and limp on the ground, do you take off my gay clothes
and bury me where we have wrestled. And you must make the ground above
the place where I am buried soft and light, and take good care that
weeds do not grow there and that ravens do not come there to disturb me,
until at last I rise again from the ground more beautiful than ever."

True to his word, Mondamin came at sunset of the next day, and he and
Hiawatha wrestled together for the last time. They wrestled after
evening had come upon them, until at last Hiawatha threw Mondamin to the
ground, who lay there as if dead.

Then Hiawatha took off all the gay green clothes that Mondamin wore, and
he buried Mondamin and made the ground soft and light above the grave,
just as he had been told to do. He kept the weeds from growing in the
ground, and kept the ravens from coming to the place, until at last he
saw a tiny little green leaf sticking up out of the grave. The little
leaf grew into a large plant, taller than Hiawatha himself, and the
plant had wonderful green leaves and silky yellow fringes and gay
tassels that waved behind it in the wind. "It is Mondam