THE ARROW-HEAD 



SAGITTARIA VARIABILIS Engelm. 



HOMEWARD now went Hiawatha; 

 Only once his pace he slackened, 

 Only once he paused or halted, 

 Paused to purchase heads of arrows 

 Of the ancient Arrow-maker, 

 In the land of the Dacotahs, 

 Where the Falls of Minnehaha 

 Flash and gleam among the oak-trees, 

 Laugh and leap into the valley. 



There the ancient Arrow-maker 

 Made his arrow-heads of sandstone, 

 Arrow-heads of chalcedony, 

 Arrow-heads of flint and jasper, 

 Smoothed and sharpened at the edges, 

 Hard and polished, keen and costly. 



With him dwelt his dark-eyed daughter, 

 Wayward as the Minnehaha, 

 Feet as rapid as the river, 

 Tresses flowing like the water, 

 And as musical a laughter; 

 And he named her from the river, 

 From the waterfall he named her 

 Minnehaha Laughing Water. 



[75] 



