y or the brooks murmur so gently as Chibiabos, and all the hearts
of men were softened by the pathos of his music. But dear as he was to
Hiawatha, no less dear was Kwasind. Idle and dreamy was Kwasind so that
even his mother taunted him. "Lazy Kwasind," said she one winter's day,
"you never help me in my work. The fishing nets are hanging at the door,
dripping, freezing with the water--go and wring them out for me!" Slowly
Kwasind rose from his seat, and going to the doorway did as she bade
him, but, to his mother's dismay, the nets broke beneath his powerful
fingers as if they were wisps of straw! Sometimes Kwasind used his vast
strength to good purpose; for instance, when Hiawatha built himself a
swift canoe, Kwasind dived into the water and cleared the whole
river-bed of sunken logs and sandbars in order to insure a safe passage
for his friend.

[Illustration]

Shortly after this Hiawatha set out in his canoe to catch the sturgeon
Nahma, king of fishes. The monster fish lay on the white sand at the
bottom of the river, and Hiawatha, line in hand, sat in his canoe,
shouting: "Take my bait, O Nahma; come up and let us see which is the
stronger!" At length Nahma grew weary of this clamor, and said to the
pike: "Take the bait of this rude fellow and break his line." The pike
tugged at the line till the birch canoe stood almost endwise, but
Hiawatha only pulled the harder, and when the fish rose to the surface
he cried with scorn: "You are but the pike; you are not the king of
fishes," and the pike sank down ashamed to the bottom of the river. Then
Nahma bade the sun-fish break Hiawatha's tackle, but again Hiawatha
pulled the great fish to the surface of the water and again cast him
down, crying: "You are not the fish I wanted; you are not the king of
fishes!" Then Nahma grew angry, and, opening his huge jaws, swallowed
both canoe and Hiawatha. Finding himself in utter darkness, Hiawatha
groped about till he felt the monster's heart which he smote so fiercely
that he killed him. Anxious to escape from his dark prison, Hiawatha
waited till the giant sturgeon drifted on to the shore, then called for
aid to his friends the sea-gulls, who worked with their claws and beaks
till they made a wide rift in Nahma's side and set Hiawatha free.

[Illustration]

Proud of her grandson's bravery, old Nokomis now set him a difficult
task. "In a land lying westward, a land of fever and pestilence, lives
the mighty magician, Pearl-Feat