The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

The wooing and marriage of Hiawatha aro
circumstantially described. He journeys to a
distant land, that he may wed a daughter of
the Dacotahs—the fair Minnehaha, the lovely
Laughing Water. He prospers in his wooing,
and returns home with his bride :
Sumptuous was the feast Nokomis,
Made at Hiawatha's wedding ;
All the bowls were made of bass-wood,
White and polished very smoothly,
All the spoons of horn of bison,
Black and polished very smoothly.
She had sent through all the village
Messengers with wands of willow,
As a sign of invitation,
As a token of the feasting ;
And the wedding guests assembled.
Clad in all their richest raiment,
Robes of fur and belts of wampum,
Splendid with their paint and plumage,
Beautiful with beads and tassels.
First they ate the sturgeon, Nahma,
And the pike, the Maskenozha,
Caught and cooked by old Nokomis;
Then on Pemican they feasted,
Pemican and buffalo marrow,
Haunch of deer and hump of bison,
Yellow cakes of the Mondamin,
And the wild rioe of the river.
But the gracious Hiawatha
And the lovely Laughing Water,
And the careful old Nokomis,
Tasted not the food before them,
Only waited on the others,
Only served their guests in silence.
And when all the guests had finished,
Old Nokomis, brisk and busy,
From an ample pouch of otter,
Filled the red stone pipes for smoking
With tobacco from the South-land,
Mixed with bark of the red willow,
And with herbs and leaves of fragrance.
Then she said, " 0 Pau-Puk-Keewis,
Dance for us your merry dances,
Dance the Beggar's Dance to please us,
That the feast may be more joyous,
That the time may pass more gayly,
And our guests be more contented I "

Pau-Puk-Keewis is an Indian beau of the
first water:—

For the women and the maidens
Loved the handsome Pau-Puk-Keewis.
He was dressed in shirt of doe-skin,
White and soft, and fringed with ermine,
All inwrought with beads of wampum;
He was dressed in deer-skin leggings,
Fringed with hedgehog quills and ermine.
And in moccasons of buckskin,

Thick with quills and beads embroidered.
On his head were plumes of swan's down,
On his heels were tails of foxes,
In one hand a fan of feathers,
And a pipe was in the other.
Barred with streaks of red and yellow,
Streaks of blue, and bright vermillion,
Shone the face of Pau-Puk-Keewis.
Other sports succeed, and
Thus the wedding banquet ended,
And the wedding guests departed,
Leaving Hiawatha happy
With the night and Minnehaha.

The most poetical passage in the book seems to
us that descriptive of a famine which in a severe
winter visits the Indian land, and which
Hiawatha, with all his skill and strength,
strives in vain to resist:

O the famine and the fever!
0 the wasting of the famine !
0 the blasting of the fever!
O the wailing of the children !
0 the anguish of the women I
All the earth was sick and famished;
Hungry was the air around them,
Hungry was the sky above them,
And the hungry stars in Heaven
Like the eyes of wolves glared at them!
Into Hiawatha's wigwam
Came two other guests, as silent
As the ghosts were, and as gloomy,
Waited not to be invited,
Did not parley at the doorway,
Sat there without word of welcome
In the seat of Laughing Water;
Looked with haggard eyes and hollow
At the face of Laughing Water.
And the foremost said : " Behold me !
1 am Famine, Bukadawin!"
And the other said: " Behold me !
1 am Fever, Alikosewin !"
And the lovely Minnehaha
Shuddered as they looked upon her,
Shuddered at the words they uttered,
Lay down on her bed in silence,
Hid her face, but made no answer;

Lay there trembling, freezing, burning,
At the looks they cast upon her,
At the fearful words they uttered.
Hiawatha roams abroad hoping to procure
food, but is compelled 19 return upsue-
eeseful ;

SATURDAY,

Over snow-fields waste and pathless,
Under snow-encumbered branches,
Homeward hurried Hiawatha,
Empty-handed, heavy-hearted,
Heard Nokomis moaning, wailing :
" Wahonomin ! Wahonomin I
Would that I had perished for you,
Would that I were dead as you are I
Wahonomin I Wahonomin! "
And he rushed into the wigwam,
Saw the old Nokomis slowly
Rocking to and fro and moaning,
Saw his lovely Minnehaha
Lying dead and cold before him,
And his bursting heart within him',
Uttered such a cry of anguish,
That the forest moaned and shuddered,
That the very stars in Heaven
Shook and trembled with his anguish.
Then he sat down, still and speechless,
On the bed ofMinnehaha,
At the feet of Laughing Water,
At those willing feet that never
More would lightly run to meet him,
Never more would lightly follow.
With both hands his face he covered,
Seven long days and nights he sat there,
As if in a swoon he sat there,
Speechless, motionless, unconscious
Of the daylight or the darkness.
Then they buried Minnehaha ;
In the snow a grave they made her,
In the forest deep and darksome,
Underneath the moaning hemlocks ;
Clothed her in her richest garments,
Wrapped her in her robes of ermine,
Covered her with snow, like ermine;

Thus they buried Mintiehaha.
When " pale-faces " visit the land, and a
black•robed chief,

With the Cross upon his bosom,
comes to tell the people of the Virgin Mary
and her Blessed Son the Saviour, Hiawatha
commends the visitors to the care of his
people, and takes his departure for " the region
of the North-West Wind, for the islands of the
blessed."

We do not know how far this " Song of
Hiawatha " is to be regarded as a faithful
representation of Indian tradition, though
from Mr. Longfellow's own account we must
suppose it to be mainly imaginary. Possibly
it may have some deeper significance than we
can penetrate on a cursory perusal. But,
viewed as a work of imagination and art, as
the chosen theme of a poet, it seems extremely
meagre iu design and feeble in execution.
The Indian's " belt of wampum," and his
" paint and feathers," are the images in the
poem which recur most frequently. It is
probable that Mr. Longfellow has caught the
wild and mythical character of Indian tradi-
tion ; but even in this respect his poem seems
to want consistency, while he certainly has not
succeeded in presenting the human and
romantic interest which we may suppose to
be attached to some Indian legends.
Two editions of the poem are published—
one, as a railway book, at a shilling, the other
in a pretty volume, neatly bound.
2. To Mr. Browning must be accorded a
foremost place in the fragmentary or spas-
modic school. He is evidently of opinion that
to be poetic it is necessary to be obscure. He
expects us to understand passion from a dash,
pathos from a note of admiration, and a whole
tumult of emotions from an unfinished sen-
tence. He has heard of the ancient artist who
indicated the father's emotion at his daugh-
ter's sacrifice by hiding his face. Mr. Brown-
ing is always veiling his meaning that we may
understand the more from his absence of
expression. He is a master of dark speech,
and of fathomless intent. His meaning lies
so deep, that no plummet we know of can
sound it. After vain attempts to comprehend
some of his poems—there are fifty of them in
the two volumes, he tells us—we are forced to
abandon the effort in despair. His Sphinx is
too cunning for us. In the volume of Arago's
works just published, the French philosopher
insists that clearness or intelligibility is the
politeness au author owes to his readers. How
Mr. Browning must scoff at such a rule. By
his practice he insists that what is intelligible
is worthless. It is the part of genius to pro-
duce what is incomprehensible. Like the
tuneful Jubb in Little Pedlington, he has
written poems which none but he can coin-
prehend. We must give some examples, for
in truth the book is of that kind which only
specimens can describe, Here is one poem
complete ;--