Page:Song of Hiawatha (1855).djvu/244

234 Steering through the reedy islands.

Now their broad black beaks they lifted,

Now they plunged beneath the water,

Now they darkened in the shadow,

Now they brightened in the sunshine.

"Pishnekuh!" cried Pau-Puk-Keewis,

"Pishnekuh! my brothers!" said he,

"Change me to a brant with plumage,

With a shining neck and feathers,

Make me large, and make me larger,

Ten times larger than the others."

Straightway to a brant they changed him,

With two huge and dusky pinions,

With a bosom smooth and rounded,

With a bill like two great paddles,

Made him larger than the others,

Ten times larger than the largest,

Just as, shouting from the forest,

On the shore stood Hiawatha.

Up they rose with cry and clamor,