[13] And again the sturgeon, Nahma,
Heard the shout of Hiawatha,
Heard his challenge of defiance,
The unnecessary tumult,
Ringing far across the water.
. . . .
In his wrath he darted upward,
Flashing leaped into the sunshine,
Opened his great jaws and swallowed
Both canoe and Hiawatha.
—Hiawatha
THE DEPARTURE OF MANABUSH
Menomini
NOW Manabush was going away. He went to Mackinac. When he reached there, he made a high, narrow rock, and this he leaned against the cliff. This rock is as high as an arrow can be shot from a bow. At this place he was seen by his people for the last time. Before he went, he talked with them.
Manabush said, “I am going away now. I have been badly treated by other people who live in the land about you. I shall go across a great water towards the rising sun, where there is a land of rocks. There I shall set up my wigwam. When you hold a mita-wiko-nik and are all together, you shall think of me. When you speak my name, I shall hear you. Whatever you ask, that I will do.”
Then Manabush spoke no more to his people. He entered the canoe. Then he went slowly over the great water, to the land of rocks. He vanished from his people as he went towards the rising sun.[14]
[14] The Ojibwas say he went toward the setting sun.
Thus departed Hiawatha,
Hiawatha the Beloved,
In the glory of the sunset,
In the purple mists of evening,
To the regions of the home-wind,
Of the Northwest wind, Keewaydin ...
—Hiawatha