SONG OF HIAWATHA, The. 'The Song of Hiawatha,' which Longfellow pub lished in 1855, is the most notable of the many responses to the demand — very strong during the first half of the 19th century— that the myths and legends of the aborigines he made into a truly American poem. Characteristically, he took his measure from a European epic, the Finnish (Kalevala,) but the substance was from actual Indian traditions as Longfellow found them in such writers as Catlin, Heckewelder and especially Schoolcraft, whose 'Algic Re searches) (1839) contains an interesting prose version of much of Longfellow's material. The scene of the poem is the southern shore of Lake Superior, among the Ojibways. The ac tion concerns itself with the life of a famous legendary prophet called Manabozho by the Ojibways, and by the Iroquois, Hiawatha ("he makes rivers"), who was said to have taught his people the beneficent arts of peace. Such a personage was of course more congenial to Longfellow than a mere fighter would have been. Hiawatha, though strong and valiant,
fights only against the dangerous forces of nature. He clears the river channels, finds out how to cultivate maize, invents picture-writing; he is a gentleman and a true lover. Longfellow therefore had good reasons for selecting the gentler elements of Indian life and thought for his narrative, and it is partly beside the mark to say that 'Hiawatha' lacks its proper meas ure of savagery. Realistic its setting and per sonages are not, but the naive Indian legends, appealing in their barest form, have been kept fresh by Longfellow's tender sympathy and clear and cheerful, though somewhat facile, style. Fenimore Cooper had given the Indian once for all his reputation as a crafty warrior. Longfellow added primitive goodness and re ligion to the perennial attributes of the In dian of romance.