(You will doubtless utter curses

After several hundred verses

Of this rhythmic steady metre

Of this steady rhythmic metre

Of this rheady mythmic stetre

Of this meady strythmic rhetre…)

… Nokomis, the Grandmother, whose age and wisdom give her authority among her people, advises Hiawatha to bring home “a wife with nimble fingers”, and it is evident that any other would indeed have been “a useless woman…” [Yep]

… To the women of the tribe fell not only the ordinary household tasks, but also the labour of the field, of the springtime and the harvest, the art of agriculture as taught them by Hiawatha… [?]

Skip [INTRODUCTION] & turn to p.10

[NB: pg.10 is not annotated. WG]

… That even in savage bosoms

There are longings, yearnings, strivings… [yeeuch]

… All your strength is in your union… [ah, a militant!]

Bored yet?

… He could shoot an arrow from him,

And run forward with such fleetness,

That the arrow fell behind him! [Come off it]

… Who shall say what thoughts and visions

Fill the fiery brains of young men? [or, indeed, of young women?]

… Said he, “O my Hiawatha! [You shd see the men in H-block!]