- times half in the water and half on the land.[20] It seems
that this must well be so. The later adventures will teach us why this must be so. The buck was no ordinary animal, but a magic one; that is to say, one with an additional unconscious significance. Hiawatha made for himself gloves and moccasins from its hide; the gloves imparted such strength to his arms that he could crumble rocks to dust, and the moccasins had the virtue of the seven-league boots. By enwrapping himself in the buck's skin he really became a giant. This motive, together with the death of the animal at the ford,[21] in the water, reveals the fact that the parents are concerned, whose gigantic proportions as compared with the child are of great significance in the unconscious. The "toys of giants" is a wish inversion of the infantile phantasy. The dream of an eleven-year-old girl expresses this:
"I am as high as a church steeple; then a policeman comes. I
tell him, 'If you say anything, I will cut off your head.'"
The "policeman," as the analysis brought out, referred
to the father, whose gigantic size was over-compensated
by the church steeple. In Mexican human sacrifices,
the gods were represented by criminals, who were
slaughtered, and flayed, and the Corybantes then clothed
themselves in the bloody skins, in order to illustrate the
resurrection of the gods.[22] (The snake's casting of his
skin as a symbol of rejuvenation.)
Hiawatha has, therefore, conquered his parents, primarily the mother, although in the form of a male animal (compare the bear of Mudjekeewis); and from that
