The Song of Hiawatha. By H. W. Longfellow. Illustrated by
Harrison Fisher. (E. Grant Richards. 7s. 63. net.)—The illus- trator of Hiawatha has a difficulty before him which he can never quite overcome. The poet's braves, and fair maidens, and wizards, and all the multitude of his characters stand for beings or influences,—it is not easy to say what, but certainly at once greater and more vague than can be rightly represented by any human figures. Apart from this consideration, Mr. Fisher's pictures are of varying merit. The face which serves as a tail-piece to "Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis " is but a poor imagining of ". Laughing Water." It is the face of a somewhat prim-looking Early Victorian girl. The Indian on the opposite page, Hiawatha himself, belongs to a quite different world. The woman on p. 57 is quite commonplace, while the musician on p. 59 is vigorous enough.
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