Part XII: The Son of the Evening Star
- Can it be the sun descending
- O'er the level plain of water?
- Or the Red Swan floating, flying,
- Wounded by the magic arrow,
- Staining all the waves with crimson,
- With the crimson of its life-blood,
- Filling all the air with splendor,
- With the splendor of its plumage?
- Yes; it is the sun descending,
- Sinking down into the water;
- All the sky is stained with purple,
- All the water flushed with crimson!
- No; it is the Red Swan floating,
- Diving down beneath the water;
- To the sky its wings are lifted,
- With its blood the waves are reddened!
- Over it the Star of Evening
- Melts and trembles through the purple,
- Hangs suspended in the twilight.
- No; it is a bead of wampum
- On the robes of the Great Spirit
- As he passes through the twilight,
- Walks in silence through the heavens.
- This with joy beheld Iagoo
- And he said in haste: "Behold it!
- See the sacred Star of Evening!
- You shall hear a tale of wonder,
- Hear the story of Osseo,
- Son of the Evening Star, Osseo!
- "Once, in days no more remembered,
- Ages nearer the beginning,
- When the heavens were closer to us,
- And the Gods were more familiar,
- In the North-land lived a hunter,
- With ten young and comely daughters,
- Tall and lithe as wands of willow;
- Only Oweenee, the youngest,
- She the wilful and the wayward,
- She the silent, dreamy maiden,
- Was the fairest of the sisters.
- "All these women married warriors,
- Married brave and haughty husbands;
- Only Oweenee, the youngest,
- Laughed and flouted all her lovers,
- All her young and handsome suitors,
- And then married old Osseo,
- Old Osseo, poor and ugly,
- Broken with age and weak with coughing,
- Always coughing like a squirrel.
- "Ah, but beautiful within him
- Was the spirit of Osseo,
- From the Evening Star descended,
- Star of Evening, Star of Woman,
- Star of tenderness and passion!
- All its fire was in his bosom,
- All its beauty in his spirit,
- All its mystery in his being,
- All its splendor in his language!
- "And her lovers, the rejected,
- Handsome men with belts of wampum,
- Handsome men with paint and feathers.
- Pointed at her in derision,
- Followed her with jest and laughter.
- But she said: 'I care not for you,
- Care not for your belts of wampum,
- Care not for your paint and feathers,
- Care not for your jests and laughter;
- I am happy with Osseo!'
- 'Once to some great feast invited,
- Through the damp and dusk of evening,
- Walked together the ten sisters,
- Walked together with their husbands;
- Slowly followed old Osseo,
- With fair Oweenee beside him;
- All the others chatted gayly,
- These two only walked in silence.
- "At the western sky Osseo
- Gazed intent, as if imploring,
- Often stopped and gazed imploring
- At the trembling Star of Evening,
- At the tender Star of Woman;
- And they heard him murmur softly,
- 'Ah, showain nemeshin, Nosa!
- Pity, pity me, my father!'
- 'Listen!' said the eldest sister,
- 'He is praying to his father!
- What a pity that the old man
- Does not stumble in the pathway,
- Does not break his neck by falling!'
- And they laughed till all the forest
- Rang with their unseemly laughter.
- "On their pathway through the woodlands
- Lay an oak, by storms uprooted,
- Lay the great trunk of an oak-tree,
- Buried half in leaves and mosses,
- Mouldering, crumbling, huge and hollow.
- And Osseo, when he saw it,
- Gave a shout, a cry of anguish,
- Leaped into its yawning cavern,
- At one end went in an old man,
- Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly;
- From the other came a young man,
- Tall and straight and strong and handsome.
- "Thus Osseo was transfigured,
- Thus restored to youth and beauty;
- But, alas for good Osseo,
- And for Oweenee, the faithful!
- Strangely, too, was she transfigured.
- Changed into a weak old woman,
- With a staff she tottered onward,
- Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly!
- And the sisters and their husbands
- Laughed until the echoing forest
- Rang with their unseemly laughter.
- "But Osseo turned not from her,
- Walked with slower step beside her,
- Took her hand, as brown and withered
- As an oak-leaf is in Winter,
- Called her sweetheart, Nenemoosha,
- Soothed her with soft words of kindness,
- Till they reached the lodge of feasting,
- Till they sat down in the wigwam,
- Sacred to the Star of Evening,
- To the tender Star of Woman.
- "Wrapt in visions, lost in dreaming,
- At the banquet sat Osseo;
- All were merry, all were happy,
- All were joyous but Osseo.
- Neither food nor drink he tasted,
- Neither did he speak nor listen;
- But as one bewildered sat he,
- Looking dreamily and sadly,
- First at Oweenee, then upward
- At the gleaming sky above them.
- "Then a voice was heard, a whisper,
- Coming from the starry distance,
- Coming from the empty vastness,
- Low, and musical, and tender;
- And the voice said: 'O Osseo!
- O my son, my best beloved!
- Broken are the spells that bound you,
- All the charms of the magicians,
- All the magic powers of evil;
- Come to me; ascend, Osseo!
- "'Taste the food that stands before you:
- It is blessed and enchanted,
- It has magic virtues in it,
- It will change you to a spirit.
- All your bowls and all your kettles
- Shall be wood and clay no longer;
- But the bowls be changed to wampum,
- And the kettles shall be silver;
- They shall shine like shells of scarlet,
- Like the fire shall gleam and glimmer.
- "'And the women shall no longer
- Bear the dreary doom of labor,
- But be changed to birds, and glisten
- With the beauty of the starlight,
- Painted with the dusky splendors
- Of the skies and clouds of evening!'
- "What Osseo heard as whispers,
- What as words he comprehended,
- Was but music to the others,
- Music as of birds afar off,
- Of the whippoorwill afar off,
- Of the lonely Wawonaissa
- Singing in the darksome forest.
- "Then the lodge began to tremble,
- Straight began to shake and tremble,
- And they felt it rising, rising,
- Slowly through the air ascending,
- From the darkness of the tree-tops
- Forth into the dewy starlight,
- Till it passed the topmost branches;
- And behold! the wooden dishes
- All were changed to shells of scarlet!
- And behold! the earthen kettles
- All were changed to bowls of silver!
- And the roof-poles of the wigwam
- Were as glittering rods of silver,
- And the roof of bark upon them
- As the shining shards of beetles.
- "Then Osseo gazed around him,
- And he saw the nine fair sisters,
- All the sisters and their husbands,
- Changed to birds of various plumage.
- Some were jays and some were magpies,
- Others thrushes, others blackbirds;
- And they hopped, and sang, and twittered,
- Perked and fluttered all their feathers,
- Strutted in their shining plumage,
- And their tails like fans unfolded.
- "Only Oweenee, the youngest,
- Was not changed, but sat in silence,
- Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly,
- Looking sadly at the others;
- Till Osseo, gazing upward,
- Gave another cry of anguish,
- Such a cry as he had uttered
- By the oak-tree in the forest.
- "Then returned her youth and beauty,
- And her soiled and tattered garments
- Were transformed to robes of ermine,
- And her staff became a feather,
- Yes, a shining silver feather!
- "And again the wigwam trembled,
- Swayed and rushed through airy currents,
- Through transparent cloud and vapor,
- And amid celestial splendors
- On the Evening Star alighted,
- As a snow-flake falls on snow-flake,
- As a leaf drops on a river,
- As the thistledown on water.
- "Forth with cheerful words of welcome
- Came the father of Osseo,
- He with radiant locks of silver,
- He with eyes serene and tender.
- And he said: `My son, Osseo,
- Hang the cage of birds you bring there,
- Hang the cage with rods of silver,
- And the birds with glistening feathers,
- At the doorway of my wigwam.'
- "At the door he hung the bird-cage,
- And they entered in and gladly
- Listened to Osseo's father,
- Ruler of the Star of Evening,
- As he said: `O my Osseo!
- I have had compassion on you,
- Given you back your youth and beauty,
- Into birds of various plumage
- Changed your sisters and their husbands;
- Changed them thus because they mocked you
- In the figure of the old man,
- In that aspect sad and wrinkled,
- Could not see your heart of passion,
- Could not see your youth immortal;
- Only Oweenee, the faithful,
- Saw your naked heart and loved you.
- "`In the lodge that glimmers yonder,
- In the little star that twinkles
- Through the vapors, on the left hand,
- Lives the envious Evil Spirit,
- The Wabeno, the magician,
- Who transformed you to an old man.
- Take heed lest his beams fall on you,
- For the rays he darts around him
- Are the power of his enchantment,
- Are the arrows that he uses.'
- "Many years, in peace and quiet,
- On the peaceful Star of Evening
- Dwelt Osseo with his father;
- Many years, in song and flutter,
- At the doorway of the wigwam,
- Hung the cage with rods of silver,
- And fair Oweenee, the faithful,
- Bore a son unto Osseo,
- With the beauty of his mother,
- With the courage of his father.
- "And the boy grew up and prospered,
- And Osseo, to delight him,
- Made him little bows and arrows,
- Opened the great cage of silver,
- And let loose his aunts and uncles,
- All those birds with glossy feathers,
- For his little son to shoot at.
- "Round and round they wheeled and darted,
- Filled the Evening Star with music,
- With their songs of joy and freedom
- Filled the Evening Star with splendor,
- With the fluttering of their plumage;
- Till the boy, the little hunter,
- Bent his bow and shot an arrow,
- Shot a swift and fatal arrow,
- And a bird, with shining feathers,
- At his feet fell wounded sorely.
- "But, O wondrous transformation!
- `T was no bird he saw before him,
- `T was a beautiful young woman,
- With the arrow in her bosom!
- "When her blood fell on the planet,
- On the sacred Star of Evening,
- Broken was the spell of magic,
- Powerless was the strange enchantment,
- And the youth, the fearless bowman,
- Suddenly felt himself descending,
- Held by unseen hands, but sinking
- Downward through the empty spaces,
- Downward through the clouds and vapors,
- Till he rested on an island,
- On an island, green and grassy,
- Yonder in the Big-Sea-Water.
- "After him he saw descending
- All the birds with shining feathers,
- Fluttering, falling, wafted downward,
- Like the painted leaves of Autumn;
- And the lodge with poles of silver,
- With its roof like wings of beetles,
- Like the shining shards of beetles,
- By the winds of heaven uplifted,
- Slowly sank upon the island,
- Bringing back the good Osseo,
- Bringing Oweenee, the faithful.
- "Then the birds, again transfigured,
- Reassumed the shape of mortals,
- Took their shape, but not their stature;
- They remained as Little People,
- Like the pygmies, the Puk-Wudjies,
- And on pleasant nights of Summer,
- When the Evening Star was shining,
- Hand in hand they danced together
- On the island's craggy headlands,
- On the sand-beach low and level.
- "Still their glittering lodge is seen there,
- On the tranquil Summer evenings,
- And upon the shore the fisher
- Sometimes hears their happy voices,
- Sees them dancing in the starlight !"
- When the story was completed,
- When the wondrous tale was ended,
- Looking round upon his listeners,
- Solemnly Iagoo added:
- "There are great men, I have known such,
- Whom their people understand not,
- Whom they even make a jest of,
- Scoff and jeer at in derision.
- From the story of Osseo
- Let us learn the fate of jesters!"
- All the wedding guests delighted
- Listened to the marvellous story,
- Listened laughing and applauding,
- And they whispered to each other:
- "Does he mean himself, I wonder?
- And are we the aunts and uncles?"
- Then again sang Chibiabos,
- Sang a song of love and longing,
- In those accents sweet and tender,
- In those tones of pensive sadness,
- Sang a maiden's lamentation
- For her lover, her Algonquin.
- "When I think of my beloved,
- Ah me! think of my beloved,
- When my heart is thinking of him,
- O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!
- "Ah me! when I parted from him,
- Round my neck he hung the wampum,
- As a pledge, the snow-white wampum,
- O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!
- "`I will go with you, he whispered,
- Ah me! to your native country;
- Let me go with you, he whispered,
- O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!
- "Far away, away, I answered,
- Very far away, I answered,
- Ah me! is my native country,
- O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!
- "When I looked back to behold him,
- Where we parted, to behold him,
- After me he still was gazing,
- O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!
- "By the tree he still was standing,
- By the fallen tree was standing,
- That had dropped into the water,
- O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!
- "When I think of my beloved,
- Ah me! think of my beloved,
- When my heart is thinking of him,
- O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!"
- Such was Hiawatha's Wedding,
- Such the dance of Pau-Puk-Keewis,
- Such the story of Iagoo,
- Such the songs of Chibiabos;
- Thus the wedding banquet ended,
- And the wedding guests departed,
- Leaving Hiawatha happy
- With the night and Minnehaha.
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