Page:Song of Hiawatha (1855).djvu/180

170 All the birds with shining feathers,

Fluttering, falling, wafted downward,

Like the painted leaves of Autumn;

And the lodge with poles of silver,

With its roof like wings of beetles,

Like the shining shards of beetles,

By the winds of heaven uplifted,

Slowly sank upon the island,

Bringing back the good Osseo,

Bringing Oweenee, the faithful.

"Then the birds, again transfigured,

Reassumed the shape of mortals,

Took then: shape, but not their stature;

They remained as Little People,

Like the pigmies, the Puk-Wudjies,

And on pleasant nights of Summer,

When the Evening Star was shining,

Hand in hand they danced together

On the island's craggy headlands,

On the sand-beach low and level.