Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Smith Music Hall [PAGE 15]

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Sat the marvellous storyteller. And they said, " 0 good Iagoo, Tell us now a talc of wonder, Tell ns of some strange adventure, That the feast may be more joyous, That the time may pass more gaily, And our guests be more contented!" And Iagoo answered straightway, "You shall hear a tale of wonder, You shall hear of strange adventures."

So he told the strange adventures Of Ossco, the Magician, From the Evening Star descended Such was Hiawatha's Wedding, Thus the wedding-banquet ended, And the wedding-guests departed, Leaving Hiawatha happy With the night and Minnehaha.

INTERMISSION

III. HIAWATHA'S DEPARTURE Smiled, and said, "It cannot be so! Soprano Solo *, Kaw!" they said, "it cannot be so!" SPRING had come with all its splendour, Tenor Solo All its birds and all its blossoms, O'er it, said he,' o'er this water AH its flowers and leaves and grasses, A canoe with wings came flying, Sailing on the wind to northward, Bigger than a grove of pine-trees, Flying in great flocks, like arrows, Taller than the tallest tree-tops! Like huge arrows shot through heaven, Passed the swan, the Mahnahbezee, CHORUS Speaking almost as a man speaks; And the old men and the women And in long lines waving, bending Looked and tittered at each other. Like a bowstring snapped asunder, "Kaw!" they said, "we don't believe it!" The white goose, the Waw-be-wawa; Tenor Solo And in pairs, or singly flying, ions, From its mouth, he said, to greet him, Mahng the loon, with clangorous pinions, Came Waywassimo, the lightning, The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, Came the thunder, Annemeekee! And the grouse, the Mushkodasa. In the thickets and the meadows CHORUS Piped the blue-bird, the Owaissa; And the warriors and the women On the summit of the lodges Laughed aloud at poor Iagoo; Sang the robin, the Opechee; "Kaw!" said they, what tales you tell us!" And the sorrowing Hiawatha, Tenor Solo Speechless in his infinite sorrow, In the great canoe with pinions Heard their voices calling to him, Came, he said, a hundred warriors; Went forth from his gloomy doorway, Painted white were all their faces, "Stood and gazed into the heaven, Gazed upon the earth and waters. And with hair their chins were covered!

CHORUS CHORUS

d From his wanderings far to eastward, From the regions of the morning, From the shining land of Wabun, Homeward now returned Iagoo, The great traveller, the great boaster, Full of new and strange adventures, Marvels many and many wonders. And the people of the village Listened to him as he told them Of his marvellous adventures, Laughing answered him in this wise: • "Ugh! it is indeed Iagoo: No one else beholds such wonders!"* Tenor Solo He had seen, he said, a water Bigger than the Big-Sea Water, Broader than the Gitchc Gumee, Bitter so that none could drink it!

CHORUS

And the warriors and the women Laughed and shouted in derision, Like the ravens on the tree-tops, Like the crows upon the hemlocks. "Kaw!" they said, "what lies you tell usr! Do not think that we believe them!" Only Hiawatha laughed not, But he gravely spake and answered To their jeering and their jesting: Baritone Solo "True is all Iagoo tells us; I have seen it in a vision, Seen the great canoe with pinions, Seen the people with white faces, Seen the coming of this bearded People of the wooden vessel, From the regions of the morning, From the shining land of Wabun. "Gitche Manito, the Mighty, The Great Spirit, the Creator,

At each other looked the warriors, Looked the women at each other,