BəDİİ ƏSƏRLƏRİn diLİNDƏ DİalektizmləRİn yeri VƏ MÖvqeyi

Indian feasts in Henry Wordsworth Longfellow’s “The song of Hiawatha” 

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untouchable [5, 88-95]. The guest was treated with high respect and no one could dare to hurt his 
guest, as it was rude towards the guest and against the traditions of Indians. Indians shared all the 
best they had with their guests, they brought the best food and drink for them. This is described very 
lively and clear in the part “Ghosts” in “The Song of Hiawatha”. Here ghosts came without asking 
permission to Hiawatha’s wigwam and stayed there as long as they wished. Minnehaha and 
Hiawatha welcomed them and did no gesture of displeasure [5, 152-159].
From the poem we also get information about the dishes from what Indians ate their food. 
Indians made their dishes from the bass-wood and polished them very smoothly. Their spoons were 
black and they made them from the horns of bison and smoothed them carefully. In Hiawatha’s 
wedding Nokomis brings food in these dishes. In Hiawatha’s wedding-feast Longfellow gives us 
full description of what Indians eat. First meal in the feast was made of sturgeon and the pike. Then 
they feasted on pemmican. Pemmican is a paste of dried and pounded meat mixed with melted fat 
and other ingredients, originally made by North American Indians. Pemmican was made of buffalo 
meat in most times and was eaten with buffalo marrow. Pemmican and buffalo marrow were 
inseparable and were used together among the aborigines as bread and butter are used in our daily 
life. To take marrow fat buffalo’s bones were broken into pieces. Then the marrow was boiled 
without bones and put into buffalo bladders. After that the marrow were cooled, it became quite 
hard as tallow and as appearance looked like yellow butter. At feasts slices of marrow were placed 
with pemmican in a bass-wood bowls and were eaten together. Then the old Nokomis served 
haunch of deer, hump of bison, yellow cakes made from maize and the wild rice. Maize and the 
wild rice were cultivated in the region of the Great Lakes. It is interesting fact that Longfellow 
reveals that the food for the feast is cooked. Contrary to popular belief ( that the Indians eat 
uncooked food) The Indians preferred cooked food. Roasting, baking and boiling were known to 
The Indians as we see from the poem.
It is impossible to image a weeding-feast without dance. For Indians dances were important. 
Each dance has some important purpose. Some were religious, some were war and scalp dances and 
some were social. Dances were always accompanied by music. The most popular Indian musical 
instruments were simply time beaters. And the most used one was the rattle. There are some old 
rattles made and used by Shaman which are still exist [2, p-86]. Indian social dances in celebrating 
some important occasions, like wedding-feasts. It is the social dance which Longfellow describes in 
the poem was for amusement at the wedding feast. Old Nokomis asks the great Yenadizze, Pau-
Puk-keewis among the guests with pride and haughtiness. Under the sounds of flutes and drums he 
begins his mystic dance. He was well prepared with his hair beautifully combed and face brightly 
painted to show him in dance and among the maiden through the guests. He starts his dance first 
with slow movements and then the dance becomes faster and faster. He continues his dance 
whirling, leaping over the guests, spinning in circles and eddying around the wigwam. This is 
traditional Beggar’s Dance which is described in the poem with the vivid description by 
Longfellow. This was a spirited performance usually given by the most independent young man in 
the tribe. The Indians prepared for Beggar’s Dance with much care. The hair is combed and 
arranged beautifully. The face and body are painted with the brightest colors. For this dance there 
was a special dress and it often had ancient form and decoration. All these special preparations were 
just to make the dancers look pretty and attractive. For Indians dress and decorations had some 
meanings. In most cases they mimed some creatures or animals, and repeated their gestures, 
movements, even their voices. Sometimes they wore the dress just to be like some great persons of 
their legends. For example, in Buffalo and bear dances, they wore skins and horns, skins of bear in 
order to look like these animals. Also the meanings and usage of dances were different. Each dance 
had its own occasion. For example, before the wars Indians danced a war dance. They painted their 
faces with war colors, and had about them everything that can make them think of war. It was 
believed that war dance gives inspiration to the warriors for battle. In war dance the music, songs,