Iagoo's description of the white men, their ships and appearance, to his people on the return from his travels, will greatly please the children.
He had seen, he said, a water
Bigger than the Big-Sea-Water,
Broader than the Gitche Gumee,
Bitter so that none could drink it!
At each other looked the warriors,
Looked the women at each other,
Smiled, and said, "It cannot be so!
Kaw!" they said, "It cannot be so;"
"O'er it," said he, "o'er this water
Came a great canoe with pinions,
A canoe with wings came flying,
Bigger than a grove of pine-trees,
Taller than the tallest tree-tops!"
And the old men and the women
Looked and tittered at each other;
"Kaw!" they said, "we don't believe it!"
The story of Hiawatha has been used sufficiently in primary grades to show how many are its suggestions for drawing and constructive work. Little children take delight in drawing the Indian tents, bows and arrows, pine forests, Indian warriors and dress, the canoe, the tomahawk, the birds and animals. The cutting of these forms in paper they have fully enjoyed.
Pictures of Indian life, collections of arrow-heads, the peace-pipes, articles of dress, cooking utensils, wampum, stone hatchets, red pipe-stone ornaments, or a visit to any collection of Indian relics are desirable as a part of this instruction. The museums in cities and expositions are rich in these materials, and in many private collections are just the desired objects of study.
It is well known that children love to construct tents, dress in Indian style, and imitate the mode of life, the hunting, dancing, and sports of Indians. Teachers have taken advantage of this instinct to allow them to construct an Indian village on a small scale, and assume the dress and action of Hiawatha and his friends, and even to dramatize parts of the story.
It is only certain selected parts of the "Hiawatha" that lend themselves best to the oral treatment with children, and that, at first, not in the poetic form. In fact, the oral treatment of a story in beautiful poetic form demands a peculiar method.
For example, in treating the childhood of Hiawatha as he dwelt with old Nokomis in the tent beside the sea, the main facts of this episode, or a part of it, may be talked over by means of description, partly also by development, question, and answer, and when these things are clear, let this passage of the poem be read to the children. The preliminary treatment and discussion will put the children in possession of the ideas and pictures by which they can better appreciate and assimilate the poem. This mode of introducing children to a poem or literary masterpiece is not uncommon with children in later years, at least in the middle grades.
It has been customary to use nearly the whole poem in fourth or fifth school year for regular reading, and it is well suited to this purpose. Its use in primary grades for such oral treatment as we have described will not interfere with its employment as reading matter later on, but rather increase its value for that purpose.
The method of handling such a poem as reading has been discussed in the Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics.