** 



With the odors of the forest, 



With the dew and damp of meadows, 



Should you ask where Nawadaha 

 Found these songs so wild and wayward, 

 Found these legends and traditions, 

 I should answer, I should tell you, 

 ' In the bird's-nests of the forest, 

 In the lodges of the beaver.' " 



And the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis, fleeing from 

 the wrath of Hiawatha, ran, 



" Till he came unto a streamlet 

 In the middle of the forest, 

 To a streamlet still and tranquil, 

 That had overflowed its margin, 

 To a dam made by the beavers, 

 To a pond of quiet water, 

 Where knee-deep the trees were standing, 

 Where the water-lilies floated, 

 Where the rushes waved and whispered. 



On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis, 

 On the dam of trunks and branches, 

 Through whose chinks the water spouted, 

 O'er whose summit flowed the streamlet. 

 From the bottom rose the beaver, 

 Looked with two great eyes of wonder, 

 Eyes that seemed to ask a question, 

 At the stranger Pau-Puk-Keewis." 



