IX

HIAWATHA AND THE PEARL-FEATHER

ONCE Nokomis was standing with Hiawatha beside her upon the shore of the
Big-Sea-Water, watching the sunset, and she pointed to the west, and
said to Hiawatha: "There is the dwelling of the Pearl-Feather, the great
wizard who is guarded by the fiery snakes that coil and play together in
the black pitch-water. You can see them now." And Hiawatha beheld the
fiery snakes twist and wriggle in the black water and coil and uncoil
themselves in play. Nokomis went on: "The great wizard killed my father,
who had come down from the moon to find me. He killed him by wicked
spells and by sly cunning, and now he sends the rank mist of marshes and
the deadly fog that brings sickness and death among our people. Take
your bow, Hiawatha," said Nokomis, "and your war-club and your magic
mittens. Take the oil of the sturgeon, Nahma, so that your canoe may
glide easily through the sticky black pitch-water, and go and kill this
great wizard. Save our people from the fever that he breathes at them
across the marshes, and punish him for my father's death."

Swiftly Hiawatha took his war-club and his arrows and his magic mittens,
launched his birch canoe upon the water and cried: "O Birch Canoe, leap
forward where you see the snakes that play in the black pitch-water.
Leap forward swiftly, O my Birch Canoe, while I sing my war-song," and
the canoe darted forward like a live thing until it reached the spot
where the fiery serpents were sporting in the water.

"Out of my way, O serpents!" cried Hiawatha, "out of my way and let me
go to fight with Pearl-Feather, the awful wizard!" But the serpents only
hissed and answered: "Go back, Coward; go back to old Nokomis,
Faint-heart!"

Then Hiawatha took his bow and sent his arrows singing among the
serpents, and at every shot one of them was killed, until they all lay
dead upon the water.

"Onward, my Birch Canoe!" cried Hiawatha; "onward to the home of the
great wizard!" and the canoe darted forward once again.

It was a strange, strange place that Hiawatha had entered with his birch
canoe! The water was as black as ink, and on the shores of the lake dead
men lit fires that twinkled in the darkness like the eyes of a wicked
old witch. Awful shrieks and whistling echoed over the water, and the
heron flapped about the marshes to tell all the evil beings who lived
there that Hiawatha was coming to fight with the great wizard.

Hiawatha sailed over this disma