A dramatization of Longfellow's Hiawatha: A spectacular drama in six acts

ACT I.
THE PEACE PIPE.

Scenery:

Description as nearly as possible to follow description according to the poem. In background, high mountains. In foreground, lower hills, with forest trees and Indian tents in the distance: GITCHE MANITO; The great Spirit and FATHER of all NATIONS descends from the clouds encircled in a flood of bright lights of various colors; strains of soft sweet Music, as from a distance, accompanying his descent as though from Heaven to Earth or to the top of the mountain. The Indian representatives from all Nations in their peculiar distinct dress of the several different tribes, grouped here and there among the trees and rocks are attracted by the smoke signal and are then seen coming from all directions in full Indian war paint and costume; when signaled to by GITCHE MANITO, the Great Spirit, as per the following poem:

Act and Description of Gitche Manito:

On the Mountains of the Prairie,

On the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,

Gitche Manito, the Mighty,

He the Master of Life DESCENDING,

On the red craigs of the quarry

Stood erect, and called the Nations,

Called the tribes of men together.

From his footprints flowed a river,

Leaped into the light of morning,

O’er the precipice plunging downward

Gleamed like Ishkoodah, the comet.

And the Spirit, stooping earthward,

With his finger on the meadow

Traced a winding pathway for it,

Saying to it,

Gitche Manito:

Run in this way!

From the red stone of the quarry

With his hand he broke a fragment,

Moulded it into a pipe-head,

Shaped and fashioned it with figures;

From the margin of the river

Took a long reed for a pipe-stem,

With its dark green leaves upon it;

Filled the pipe with bark of willow,

With the bark of the red willow;

Breathed upon the neighboring forest,

Made its great bows chafe together,

Till in flame they burst and kindled;

And erect upon the mountains

Gitche Manito, the Mighty,

Smoked the calumet, the Peace Pipe,

As a signal to the nations,

And the smoke rose slowly, slowly,

Through the tranquil air of morning,

First a single line of darkness,

From the vale of Tawasenthena,

From the Valley of Wyoming

From the groves of Tuscaloosa,

From the far-off Rocky Mountains,

From the Northern lakes and rivers.

Act, Indians:

All the tribes beheld the signal,

Saw the distant smoke ascending,

The Pukwana of the Peace Pipe.

Indian Warriors (to each other, pointing):

Behold it, the Pukwana!

By this signal from afar off,

Bending like a wand of willow,

Waving like a hand that beckons,

Gitche Manito, the Mighty,

Calls the tribes of men together,

Calls the warriors to his council!

Act of Indian Tribes:

Down the rivers o’er the prairies,

Came the warriors of the nations,

All the warriors drawn together

By the signal of the Peace Pipe

To the Mountains of the Prairie,

To the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry.

And they stood there on the meadow,

With their weapons and their war-gear,

Painted like the leaves of Autumn,

Painted like the sky of morning,

Wildly glaring at each other;

In their faces stern defiance,

In their hearts the feuds of ages,

The hereditary hatred

The ancestral thirst of vengeance.

Act, Gitche Manito:

Gitche Manito, the mighty,

The Creator of the nations,

Looked upon them with compassion,

With paternal love and pity;

Over them he stretched his right hand.

Gitche Manito:

O my children; my poor children!

Listen to the words of wisdom,

Listen to the words of warning!

From the lips of the Great Spirit,

From the Master of life, who made you!

I have given you lands to hunt in,

I have given you streams to fish in,

I have given you bear and bison,

I have given you roe and reindeer,

I have given you brant and beaver,

Filled the marshes full of wild fowl,

Filled the rivers full of fishes;

Why then are you not contented?

Why then will you hunt each other?

I am weary of your quarrels,

Weary of your wars and bloodshed,

Weary of your prayers for vengeance,

All your strength is in your union,

All your danger is in discord;

Therefore be at peace henceforward,

And as brothers live together.

“I will send a Prophet to you,

Hiawatha will I send to you

A deliverer of the nations,

Who shall guide you and shall teach you

Who shall toil and suffer with you.

If you listen to his counsels,

You will multiply and prosper;

If his warnings pass unheeded

You will fade away and perish!

Bathe now in the stream before you

Wash the war-paint from your faces,

Wash the blood stains from your fingers,

Bury your war clubs and your weapons,

Break the red stone from this quarry,

Mould and make it into Peace Pipes,

Take the reeds that grow beside you,

Deck them with your brightest feathers,

Smoke the calumet together,

And as brothers live henceforward!”

Act, Indians:

Then upon the ground the warriors

Threw their cloaks and shirts of deer-skin,

Threw their weapons and their war-gear,

Leaped into the rushing river,

Washed the war-paint from their faces.

Clear above them flowed the water,

Clear and limpèd from the footprints

Of the Master of Life descending;

Dark below them flowed the water,

Soiled and stained with streaks of crimson,

As if blood were mingled with it.

From the river came the warriors.

Cleaned and washed from all their war-paint,

On the banks their clubs they buried,

Buried all their warlike weapons.

Act, Gitche Manito:

Gitche Manito, the Mighty,

The Great Spirit, the Creator,

Smiled upon his helpless children.

Act, Indians:

And in silence all the warriors

Broke the red stone of the quarry,

Smoothed and formed it into Peace Pipes,

Broke the long reeds by the river.

Decked them with their brightest feathers.

A beautiful transformation. Scene and tableaux can be given here with the groups of Indians, Bright colored lights, soft Heavenly music, and GITCHE MANITO ASCENDING again to Heaven in a CLOUD of SMOKE.

(See following description.)

While the Master of Life, ascending

Through the opening of cloud-curtains,

Through the doorways of the heaven

Vanished from before their faces,

In the smoke that rolled around him.

A dramatization of Longfellow's Hiawatha: A spectacular drama in six acts

About This Book

ACT I. THE PEACE PIPE.

ACT I.
THE PEACE PIPE.