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which departed from their lands. In one of the canoes was her beloved, a young French soldier
Algonquin. So the Chibiabos sang the song full of love and praised him and his sweet voice [2, 123].
Among the guests in Hiawatha’s wedding there was Iagoo, the great boaster. Iagoo was a
marvelous story teller and a friend of Old Nokomis. He was jealous with the applause the guests gave
to Chibiabos, so he told a story to the people at the wedding. Iagoo was described as a marvelous
story teller in the poem and a poetic character under the same name. Iagoo was a personage from
Indian folklore. He was the one who always told stories of extraordinary journeys, events, things. He
always spoke stories of his own adventures. But according to poem, he himself never had an
adventure, never shot an arrow, and never did any journey. But if someone listens to him, he’ll believe
his stories as they are so true narrated by Iagoo that it is impossible not to believe him. Among the
Indians telling stories was a great amusement. In the evenings they gathered around the fire in a
wigwam, and listened to old stories of heroes and their deeds [6, 196]. They were fond of stories.
Some of the stories were about themselves, their own adventures and most of them were about some
wise and good man who lived long ago and taught Indian people how they should live. Some stories
were about the explanation of how the things should be used and for what they exist. Most of these
stories could be told at anytime and anywhere. But there were stories that were sacred and they were
told only in some certain occasions and to certain person on particular situation. There were also “old
stories” among some tribes that must not be told in the summer. To the Indians when the trees are full
of green leaves, the spirits of the leaves could listen to the story. These “old stories” were narrated in
the winter, when snow lies on the ground and the leaves have fallen. In winter the trees are sleeping
and this is a good circumstance for Indians to tell their stories in silence and assurance that no one will
listen [2, 31]. In Hiawatha’s wedding feast Iagoo tells the story of the son of the Evening Star, a story
full of magic and mystery. This was the story of Osseo, the son of Evening Star and his wife Oweenee
which shows the power of true love and faithfulness [5, 96-107].
Another interesting theme in feasts was the people’s dressing in feasts. Actually Indians
wore differently from other nations and it was always interesting to people from other worlds. Here
in the poem, Longfellow specifically describes people in feast wearing their best clothes that they
had for the feast. They wore wigwam belts, painted their faces. Telling about the wedding-feast of
Hiawatha Longfellow describes the dress of Pau-Puk-Keewis. He wears a shirt from deerskin. His
deerskin leggings are fringy with quills of hedgehog and ermine. His moccasins were from
buckskins and were decorated with beads and quills. There are feathers on his head and on his heels
are tails of foxes. So from these descriptions Longfellow gives very clear account of what the
typical Indian of eastern North America wore.
Indian way of life does not include only feasts, food and amusements. Their homes, painting
their faces on special occasions, like wars and feasts, means of transportation they used, their way
of communicating and manner of speaking are also given in “The Song of Hiawatha”. The Native
Americans are very rich in history, traditions and their unbelievable triumphs and adventures [3].
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