Page:Psychology of the Unconscious (1916).djvu/414

 flame. This demon is, therefore, an excellent libido symbol; he also produced fire.

After this prologue in the second song, the hero's previous history is related. The great warrior, Mudjekeewis (Hiawatha's father), has cunningly overcome the great bear, "the terror of the nations," and stolen from him the magic belt of wampum," a girdle of shells. Here we meet the motive of the "treasure attained with difficulty," which the hero rescues from the monster. Who the bear is, is shown by the poet's comparisons. Mudjekeewis strikes the bear on his head after he has robbed him of the treasure.

"With the heavy blow bewildered Rose the great Bear of the mountains, But his knees beneath him trembled, And he whimpered like a woman."

Mudjekeewis said derisively to him:

"Else you would not cry, and whimper, Like a miserable woman!

But you, Bear! sit here and whimper, And disgrace your tribe by crying, Like a wretched Shaugodaya, Like a cowardly old woman!"

These three comparisons with a woman are to be found near each other on the same page. Mudjekeewis has, like a true hero, once more torn life from the jaws of death, from the all-devouring "terrible mother." This deed, which, as we have seen, is also represented as