Niva-vo-donza
Selections From "Hiawatha"

The Four Winds

"Honor be to Mudjekeewis!"
Cried the warriors, cried the old men,
Henceforth he shall be the West Wind,
And hereafter and forever,
Shall he hold supreme dominion
Over all the winds of heaven.

Thus was Mudjekeewis chosen
Father of the Winds of Heaven.
For himself he kept the West Wind,
Gave the others to his children;
Unto Wabun gave the East Wind,
Gave the South to Shawondasee,
And the North Wind, wild and cruel,
To the firece Kabibonokka.

Young and beautiful was Wabun;
He it was who brought the morning,
He it was whose silver arrows
Chased the dark o'er hill and valley,
And whose voice awoke the village,
Called the deer, and called the hunter.

But the fierce Kabibonokka,
Had his dwelling among icebergs,
In the everlasting snow drifts.
He it was who sent the snow-flakes,
Sifting, hissing through the forest,
Froze the ponds, the lakes, the rivers.

Shawondasee, fat and lazy
Had his dwelling far to southward,
In the drowsy, dreamy sunshine,
In the never ending Summer.
He it was who sent the wood-birds,
Sent the robin, the Opechee,
Sent the melons and tobacco,
And the grapes in purple clusters.

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Thus the Four Winds were divided,
Thus the sons of Mudjekeewis,
Had their stations in the heavens,
At the corners of the heavens;
In the days that are forgotten,
In the unremembered ages.

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow