Symbol Analysis
As soon as you get to Part 5 of this poem, you'll realize that one of Hiawatha's biggest nemeses is Kahgahgee, the King of Ravens. The dude's not some giant monster or anything. He's just a regular raven. But it's understandable that some legends would paint ravens as bad because ravens have a tendency to dig up seeds and ruin gardens. That's why Hiawatha needs to keep the King away from his cornfields in the spring. As the poem says, he "Drove away, with scoffs and shoutings,/ Kahgahgee, the king of ravens" (5.303-305).
Old Kahgahgee never learns his lesson though. He's determined to gather his armies and eat up all of Hiawatha's corn. He eventually flies right into a trap and gets all his troops killed in the process. As the poem tells us, "Only Kahgahgee, the leader,/ Kahgahgee, the King of Ravens,/ He alone was spared among them/ As a hostage for his people" (13.183-186). In other words, Hiawatha keeps Kahgahgee alive and ties him to the front of a wigwam just to humiliate him and to warn away any other ravens.
The last time we see Kahgahgee is when the mischievous Pau-Puk-Keewis comes by Hiawatha's wigwam and kills the raven just for the fun of it. As the narrator says, "By the neck he seized the raven,/ Whirled it round him like a rattle" (16.256-257). It's a shame because, even though the King of Ravens is a jerk, there's still something we respect about him. The poor guy deserved a better death than a random strangling by some punk kid.
- Lines 5.303-16.222 (off and on): Kahgahgee and his raven armies try to dig up the grave of a recently buried demigod named Mondamin. But Hiawatha keeps his promise to the dead and stays up day and night, chasing the birds away.
- One day, Kahgahgee thinks he spots a chance to dig up Hiawatha's corn seeds and ruin the whole year's harvest. He and his armies swoop in. But they fly right into one of Hiawatha's traps. Hiawatha kills all of them except Kahgahgee, who he keeps as a prisoner.
- Kahgahgee spends the rest of the poem tied up to Hiawatha's wigwam until a punk named Pau-Puk-Keewis struts by and kills the raven out of sheer boredom.