Minnehaha

“ But Minnehaha is at times the ward of another—an old man whose white locks are so often the sport of the winds, whose very presence makes the limbs of mortals tremble, and their teeth chatter at his approach. ”

“ In the canoe is Minnehaha dressed as an angel and using paddle. The soft sweet music grows nearer and louder, and the halo of light surrounding her brighter as the canoe approaches. The Indians stop their various pursuits and stand in attitudes of astonishment watching the canoe approach. Hiawatha, stepping forward to the margin of the lake when Minnehaha is first seen, stands shading his eyes, expectantly watching and waiting. Nokomis also comes forth from her tepee. Minnehaha beckons to Hiawatha. ”

“ WITCHES’ GULCH, Dells of the Wisconsin.
But if Minnehaha is beautiful in spring-time, it is sublime when folded in the crystal arms of winter, a frozen cascade of puffs and snow-balls, hibernating after its season of sporting, awaiting the return of bird, flower and lover. Not far away are lakes of various sizes, like Minnetonka and Great Bear, to which thousands resort when sultry winds blow and the blazing sun of summer-time drives sweltering humanity to such cool retreats. ”

“ I see him beckoning to me from his wigwam!"
"Ah no, my child," said Nokomis sadly; "it is nothing but the smoke of our fire curling upward to the smoke-flue."
"Oh," said Minnehaha, "I see the eyes of Death glaring at me in the darkness! I feel his icy fingers clasping mine! Hiawatha! Hiawatha!"
The wretched Hiawatha, miles away in the dark forest, [87] heard Minnehaha cry to him and he hurried homeward with a sinking heart, but before he reached his wigwam he heard the voice of Nokomis wailing through the night. What a sight met his eyes as he burst into his dreary lodge! ”

“ She the dying Minnehaha.
⁠"Hark!" she said; "I hear a rushing,
Hear a roaring and a rushing,
Hear the Falls of Minnehaha
Calling to me from a distance!"
"No, my child!" said old Nokomis,
"'T is the night-wind in the pine-trees!" ”

“ Act, Hiawatha:
Hiawatha rushed into the wigwam,
Saw the old Nokomis slowly
Rocking to and fro and moaning,
Saw his lovely Minnehaha
Lying dead and cold before him,
And his bursting heart within him
Uttered such a cry of Anguish,
That the forest moaned and shuddered,
That the very stars in heaven
Shook and trembled with his anguish. Hiawatha, astounded, shocked, then mournfully.
Dead out of the empty heaven,
Dead among the starving people, Calling to Heaven, despairingly:
Master of Life! ”

“ And the dragon-fly and the grasshopper, the [55] spider and the caterpillar, all knew that they could not cross the magic circle of Minnehaha's footsteps.
When the morning came, however, Kahgahgee gathered about him all his black and rascally crew of ravens and jays and crows and blackbirds, shrieking with laughter, and with harsh cries and raucous clamor they all left the tree-tops and flapped eagerly down upon the cornfields. "Kaw! Kaw!" they shrieked, "we will dig up the corn from the soft earth, and we will eat all we can hold, in spite of Minnehaha and her foolish circle!" ”

“ Large bags, filled with straw, may be covered in the same manner, and placed around the doorway of the wigwam at each side of the stage, to represent snow banks. Minnehaha has on the same costume we have before described, and is reclining on a bed of robes near the entrance of the wigwam. Her body should be propped up so that she can be easily seen. A dark robe is thrown across the lower portion of her form, [Pg 119] a calm, resigned look is on the countenance. Her hands are folded on her breast, eyes closed as if in sleep. At her side, sitting on a low seat, is Nokomis. ”

“ Hiawatha and Minnehaha are to be seen (while Arrow-maker is thus sitting at the doorway and meditating) ; first winding in and out among the trees, then climbing the rocks, coming into view, then disappearing behind rocks; then again being seen wending their way higher and higher upon the rocks, and when the SUMMIT of the MINNEHAHA FALLS is reached, they are seen, Hiawatha, with his arm around Minnehaha, pointing to the wigwam in the valley below. The Old Arrow-maker sees them at the same time, rises, (shading his eyes with his hand) and looks upward at them. ”

“ MANY were the pleasant days that followed the wedding of Minnehaha and Hiawatha. All the tribes were at peace with one another, and the hunters roved wherever they chose, built their birch canoes, hunted and fished and trapped the beaver without once hearing the war-cry or the hiss of a hostile arrow. The women made sugar from the sap of the maple-trees, gathered the wild rice and dressed the skins of the deer and beaver, while all around the peaceful village waved green and sunny fields of corn. ”

“ Minnehaha is a beautiful waterfall. It is not so frightfully large and grand as Niagara, but it is very fine, and if the State of Minnesota would catch the man who nails his signs on the trees around there, and choke him to death near the falls on a pleasant day, a large audience wold attend with much pleasure, I believe that the fence-board advertiser is not only, as a rule, wicked, but he also lacks common sense. Who ever bought a liver pad or a corset because he read about it on a high board fence? ”

“ He was brought up as a child among them, took to wife the Dakota girl, Minnehaha ("Laughing Water") , hunted, fought, and lived as a warrior; yet, when need came, he could change his form to any shape of bird, fish, or plant that he wished. He spoke to friends in the voice of a woman and to enemies in tones like thunder. A giant in form, few dared to resist him in battle, yet he suffered the common pains and adversities of his kind, and while fishing in one of the great lakes in his white stone canoe, that moved whither he willed it, he and his boat were swallowed by the king of fishes. ”

“ Act, Hiawatha and Minnehaha:
From the wigwam he departed,
Leading with him Laughing Water;
Hand in hand they went together,
Left the old man standing lonely
At the doorway of his wigwam. Arrow-maker, very sorrowfully:
Fare thee well, O Minnehaha!
[Pg 20]
Act, Arrow-maker:
And the ancient Arrow-maker
Turned again unto his labor,
Sat down by his sunny doorway,
Murmuring to himself, and saying: Arrow-maker, (meditatively and with much expression) :
“Thus it is our daughters leave us
Those we love, and those who love us! ”

“ My father moved to Minnesota Territory in '50. We lived with my uncle, Mr. Tuttle, who had a mill for some time on this side. He was living in a small house belonging to the government, but my father and he added two more rooms so we could stay with them. In the spring my father took up land and built a house down by the river not far from the Minnehaha Falls. He began to work on the Godfrey mill at Minnehaha. My mother was very timid. The sight of an Indian would nearly throw her into a fit. ”

“ To excite the pity of these daughters Nanahboozhoo jumped into some water, and then crawling out, wet and cold, he slowly approached the wigwam. Here the two daughters found him, and he looked so miserable that they took pity on him and at once carried him into the wigwam and set him down near the sacred fire, that he might soon get warm and dry."
"How very kind that was of the old man's daughters," said Minnehaha.
"I don't know about that," said the more matter-of-fact Sagastao; "folks sometimes get into trouble by taking up everything that comes along. ”

“ Presently Gladiola ran out of raw material168 and subsided, while we all applauded her with our fingers crossed, and two very thoughtful ladies began to talk fast to Gladiola so as to take her mind off the piano.
This excitement was followed by another catastrophe named Minnehaha Jones, who picked up a couple of soprano songs and screeched them at us.
Minnehaha is one of those fearless singers who vocalize without a safety-valve. She always keeps her eyes closed so she can't tell just when her audience gets up and leaves the room. ”

“ We have four hundred thousand men in the field, and three times four makes twelve. Don't you see it?"
Minnehaha and Minneboohoo!
Some gentlemen fresh from a Western tour, during a call at the White House, referred in the course of conversation to a body of water in Nebraska, which bore an Indian name signifying "weeping water." Mr. Lincoln instantly responded: "As 'laughing water,' according to Mr. Longfellow, is 'Minnehaha,' this evidently should be 'Minneboohoo.'"
Lincoln and the Artist. ”

“ Minna von Barnhelm (min ́ä fon bärn ́helm) .—A comedy by Lessing, published in 1767. It is the first German national drama which deals with contemporary events.
Minnehaha (min-e-hä ́hä) .—Hiawatha, Henry W. Longfellow. The daughter of the arrow maker of Dacotah, and wife of Hiawatha. She was called Minnehaha from the waterfall of that name.
Minnesingers (min ́e-sing-erz) .—A name given to the German lyric poets of the middle ages, on account of love being the principal theme of their lays, the German word “minne” being used to denote a pure and faithful love. ”

“ As the home where Sagastao and Minnehaha lived was near a trail along which numbers of Indian hunters were accustomed to travel when on their way to the trading post with their furs, they frequently called in to see their loved friends the palefaces. These hunters were always welcome, and as they were very seldom in a hurry the children drew from them many a quaint Indian legend or story of animal life. ”

“ ACT III. Hiawatha’s Wooing. Scene 1—Hiawatha grown to manhood—Desires to wed Minnehaha, a Dakotah maiden—Discussion—Departs on journey—Nokomis sorrowing. Scene 2—Hiawatha in forest—Shoots a deer—Shoulders it. Scene 3—Tribe of Dakotahs—Minnehaha Falls—Wigwam of Arrow-maker—Hiawatha’s arrival and welcome—Wooing of Minnehaha—Departure of Hiawatha and Minnehaha—Climbing of Falls—Arrow-maker’s despondency—Tableaux.
ACT IV. Wedding Feast. Forest—Ojibway village—Arrival of Hiawatha and Minnehaha—Welcome—Festivities—Feasts, songs, feats of skill, games, dancing and specialties—Tableaux. ”

“ He couldn’t eat the coarse and ill-cooked food Minnie put before him. He couldn’t sleep. He dreamed with sick longing of old days, of big, airy rooms, gay little suppers, he remembered his chest of drawers, with piles of clean linen and silk socks, his neckties, his boots. This unhappy slattern, this pale bit of a child, what had they to do with his dreams? They were unreal, didn’t belong to him.
He lived in a ghastly solitude; he confided in no one, was in touch with no one. He believed that the human being did not live who could comprehend his anguish. ”

“ High resolves, divine unselfishness, fired her; she wanted to help everyone, not only Minnie and her grandmother, but every single human soul. She felt urged to a mighty destiny....
Then the mood ebbed, and left her chilled and lonely. She could hear Minnie in the kitchen directly beneath her; her pleasant voice talking to Michael; sometimes a cough from the old lady. Like a knife her love pierced her, love for everything safe, familiar and homely.
In another minute she would have rushed down the stairs to fling her arms round her sister, to tell her she would not, could not, ever leave her. ”

“ She looked at Minnie’s obstinate, tear-stained face, and was filled with a great regret and a sort of loneliness.
“Oh, Minnie!” she cried. “Do try to understand a little! Don’t you see that I couldn’t bear a life like this?”
“There’s no use talking about it. Only, Frankie, don’t imagine it hasn’t been hard for me,” she answered. “After all, I suppose I am a human being.”
“I know it, darling, I’m awfully sorry for you!” Frances assured her contritely.
Minnie had a not very admirable trait of always pressing an advantage. ”

“ He brought forward a chair.
“Miss Defoe!” he exclaimed. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you!”
“Five years, nearly,” she answered with a sigh and a smile. “But you haven’t changed a bit!”
She had, he thought; she had improved. She looked older; no longer a girl, but straighter, more vigorous, more nobly honest than ever. Her face was a little cold in its severe, composed beauty, but not at all hard. A woman who expected a great deal, but who also forgave a great deal. She was dressed very plainly but with distinction, with pride. He could see no sort of resemblance to Minnie. ”

“ So absolutely what it should be was Minnie’s attitude. She was worn and tired, her eyes reddened with crying, all of which rendered so touching her pleasantness and politeness, her willingness to answer questions. A womanly little soul, altogether. The old lady fancied she saw in her the amiable and domestic creature desired by all old people, the consolation of her age; youth with none of youth’s disadvantages, the sedateness, the responsibility of maturity with the vigour and charm proper to her twenty years. She acclaimed Minnie a paragon, a Phœnix among maidens. ”

“ She had a passionate, an exaggerated love for animals; compassion rather than love; for every dumb creature she saw she felt a distressing pity and, of course, being Minnie, an anxious sense of responsibility. She was forever worried by the thought that some beast was being ill-used. She even went so far as to follow carters to make sure they weren’t cruel. She had repeated disagreements with her grandmother because the old lady wouldn’t allow Michael to usurp her chair. ”

“ Nevertheless he was of the greatest use to Minnie, because he knew how to do everything and she being so very “handy” was able to learn from his explanations. From the bedroom window Frances used to see her talking to him over his gate, or watching him as he illustrated some point of carpentry with grave gestures, and come tramping home again, in her shapeless old hat and a big apron, to work with noble cheerfulness.
Not for anything on earth would she have admitted that this cheerfulness was genuine, that it sprang from her satisfaction at finding work within her power, for the first time. ”