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192 Footprints pointing towards a wigwam

Were a sign of invitation,

Were a sign of guests assembling;

Bloody hands with palms uplifted

Were a symbol of destruction,

Were a hostile sign and symbol

All these things did Hiawatha

Show unto his wondering people,

And interpreted their meaning,

And he said: "Behold, your grave-posts

Have no mark, no sign, nor symbol.

Go and paint them all with figures;

Each one with its household symbol,

With its own ancestral Totem;

So that those who follow after

May distinguish them and know them."

And they painted on the grave-posts

Of the graves yet unforgotten,

Each his own ancestral Totem,

Each the symbol of his household;