The sun was just sinking behind the hills when we started for War
Eagle's lodge.
"To-morrow will be a fine day," said Other-person, "for grandfather
says that a red sky is always the sun's promise of fine weather, and
the sun cannot lie."
"Yes," said Bluebird, "and he said that when this moon was new it
travelled well south for this time of year and its points were up.
That means fine, warm weather."
"I wish I knew as much as grandfather," said Fine-bow with pride.
The pipe was laid aside at once upon our entering the lodge and the old
warrior said:
"I have told you that OLD-man taught the animals and the birds all they
know. He made them and therefore knew just what each would have to
understand in order to make his living. They have never forgotten
anything he told them--even to this day. Their grandfathers told the
young ones what they had been told, just as I am telling you the things
you should know. Be like the birds and animals--tell your children and
grandchildren what I have told you, that our people may always know how
things were made, and why strange things are true.
"Yes--OLD-man taught the Beaver how to build his dams to make the water
deeper; taught the Squirrel to plant the pine-nut so that another tree
might grow and have nuts for his children; told the Bear to go to sleep
in the winter, when the snow made hard travelling for his short
legs--told him to sleep, and promised him that he would need no meat
while he slept. All winter long the Bear sleeps and eats nothing,
because OLD-man told him that he could. He sleeps so much in the
winter that he spends most of his time in summer hunting.
"It was OLD-man who showed the Owl how to hunt at night and it was
OLD-man that taught the Weasel all his wonderful ways--his bloodthirsty
ways--for the Weasel is the bravest of the animal-people, considering
his size. He taught the Beaver one strange thing that you have
noticed, and that is to lay sticks on the creek-bottoms, so that they
will stay there as long as he wants them to.
"Whenever the animal-people got into trouble they always sought OLD-man
and told him about it. All were busy working and making a living, when
one day it commenced to rain. That was nothing, of course, but it
didn't stop as it had always done before. No, it kept right on raining
until the rivers overran their banks, and the water chased the Weasel
out of his hole in the ground. Yes, and it found the Rabbit's
hiding-place and made him leave it. It crept into the lodge of the
Wolf at night and frightened his wife and children. It poured into the
den of the Bear among the rocks and he had to move. It crawled under
the logs in the forest and found the Mice-people. Out it went to the
plains and chased them out of their homes in the buffalo skulls. At
last the Beavers' dams broke under the strain and that made everything
worse. It was bad--very bad, indeed. Everybody except the fish-people
were frightened and all went to find OLD-man that they might tell him
what had happened. Finally they found his fire, far up on a timbered
bench, and they said that they wanted a council right away.
"It was a strange sight to see the Eagle sitting next to the Grouse;
the Rabbit sitting close to the Lynx; the Mouse right under the very
nose of the Bobcat, and the tiny Humming-bird talking to the Hawk in a
whisper, as though they had always been great friends. All about
OLD-man's fire they sat and whispered or talked in signs. Even the
Deer spoke to the Mountain-lion, and the Antelope told the Wolf that he
was glad to see him, because fear had made them all friends.
"The whispering and the sign-making stopped when OLD-man raised his
hand-like that" (here War Eagle raised his hand with the palm
outward)--"and asked them what was troubling them.
"The Bear spoke first, of course, and told how the water had made him
move his camp. He said all the animal-people were moving their homes,
and he was afraid they would be unable to find good camping-places,
because of the water. Then the Beaver spoke, because he is wise and
all the forest-people know it. He said his dams would not hold back
the water that came against them; that the whole world was a lake, and
that he thought they were on an island. He said he could live in the
water longer than most people, but that as far as he could see they
would all die except, perhaps, the fish-people, who stayed in the water
all the time, anyhow. He said he couldn't think of a thing to do--then
he sat down and the sign-talking and whispering commenced again.
"OLD-man smoked a long time--smoked and thought hard. Finally he
grabbed his magic stone axe, and began to sing his war-song. Then the
rest knew he had made up his mind and knew what he would do. Swow! he
struck a mighty pine-tree a blow, and it fell down. Swow! down went
another and another, until he had ten times ten of the longest,
straightest, and largest trees in all the world lying side by side
before him. Then OLD-man chopped off the limbs, and with the aid of
magic rolled the great logs tight together. With withes of willow that
he told the Beaver to cut for him, he bound the logs fast together
until they were all as one. It was a monstrous raft that OLD-man had
built, as he sang his song in the darkness. At last he cried, 'Ho!
everybody hurry and sit on this raft I have made'; and they did hurry.
"It was not long till the water had reached the logs; then it crept in
between them, and finally it went on past the raft and off into the
forest, looking for more trouble.
"By and by the raft began to groan, and the willow withes squeaked and
cried out as though ghost-people were crying in the night. That was
when the great logs began to tremble as the water lifted them from the
ground. Rain was falling--night was there, and fear made cowards of
the bravest on the raft. All through the forest there were bad
noises--noises that make the heart cold--as the raft bumped against
great trees rising from the earth that they were leaving forever.
"Higher and higher went the raft; higher than the bushes; higher than
the limbs on the trees; higher than the Woodpecker's nest; higher than
the tree tops, and even higher than the mountains. Then the world was
no more, for the water had whipped the land in the war it made against
it.
"Day came, and still the rain was falling. Night returned, and yet the
rain came down. For many days and nights they drifted in the falling
rain; whirling and twisting about while the water played with the great
raft, as a Bear would play with a Mouse. It was bad, and they were all
afraid--even OLD-man himself was scared.
"At last the sun came but there was no land. All was water. The water
was the world. It reached even to the sky and touched it all about the
edges. All were hungry, and some of them were grumbling, too. There
are always grumblers when there is great trouble, but they are not the
ones who become great chiefs--ever.
"OLD-man sat in the middle of the raft and thought. He knew that
something must be done, but he didn't know what. Finally he said: 'Ho!
Chipmunk, bring me the Spotted Loon. Tell him I want him.'
"The Chipmunk found the Spotted Loon and told him that OLD-man wanted
him, so the Loon went to where OLD-man sat. When he got there, OLD-man
said:
"'Spotted Loon you are a great diver. Nobody can dive as you can. I
made you that way and I know. If you will dive and swim down to the
world I think you might bring me some of the dirt that it is made
of--then I am sure I can make another world.'
"'It is too deep, this water,' replied the Loon, 'I am afraid I shall
drown.'
"'Well, what if you do?' said OLD-man. 'I gave you life, and if you
lose it this way I will return it to you. You shall live again!'
"'All right, OLD-man,' he answered, 'I am willing to try'; so he
waddled to the edge of the raft. He is a poor walker--the Loon, and
you know I told you why. It was all because OLD-man kicked him in the
back the night he painted all the Duck-people.
"Down went the Spotted Loon, and long he stayed beneath the water. All
waited and watched, and longed for good luck, but when he came to the
top he was dead. Everybody groaned--all felt badly, I can tell you, as
OLD-man laid the dead Loon on the logs. The Loon's wife was crying,
but OLD-man told her to shut up and she did.
"Then OLD-man blew his own breath into the Loon's bill, and he came
back to life.
"'What did you see, Brother Loon?' asked OLD-man, while everybody
crowded as close as he could.
"'Nothing but water,' answered the Loon, 'we shall all die here, I
cannot reach the world by swimming. My heart stops working.'
"There were many brave ones on the raft, and the Otter tried to reach
the world by diving; and the Beaver, and the Gray Goose, and the Gray
Goose's wife; but all died in trying, and all were given a new life by
OLD-man. Things were bad and getting worse. Everybody was cross, and
all wondered what OLD-man would do next, when somebody laughed.
"All turned to see what there could be to laugh at, at such a time, and
OLD-man turned about just in time to see the Muskrat bid good-by to his
wife--that was what they were laughing at. But he paid no attention to
OLD-man or the rest, and slipped from the raft to the water.
Flip!--his tail cut the water like a knife, and he was gone. Some
laughed again, but all wondered at his daring, and waited with little
hope in their hearts; for the Muskrat wasn't very great, they thought.
"He was gone longer than the Loon, longer than the Beaver, longer than
the Otter or the Gray Goose or his wife, but when he came to the
surface of the water he was dead.
"OLD-man brought Muskrat back to life, and asked him what he had seen
on his journey. Muskrat said: 'I saw trees, OLD-man, but I died before
I got to them.'
"OLD-man told him he was brave. He said his people should forever be
great if he succeeded in bringing some dirt to the raft; so just as
soon as the Muskrat was rested he dove again.
"When he came up he was dead, but clinched in his tiny hand OLD-man
found some dirt--not much, but a little. A second time OLD-man gave
the Muskrat his breath, and told him that he must go once more, and
bring dirt. He said there was not quite enough in the first lot, so
after resting a while the Muskrat tried a third time and a third time
he died, but brought up a little more dirt.
"Everybody on the raft was anxious now, and they were all crowding
about OLD-man; but he told them to stand back, and they did. Then he
blew his breath in Muskrat's mouth a third time, and a third time he
lived and joined his wife.
"OLD-man then dried the dirt in his hands, rubbing it slowly and
singing a queer song. Finally it was dry; then he settled the hand
that held the dirt in the water slowly, until the water touched the
dirt. The dry dirt began to whirl about and then OLD-man blew upon it.
Hard he blew and waved his hands, and the dirt began to grow in size
right before their eyes. OLD-man kept blowing and waving his hands
until the dirt became real land, and the trees began to grow. So large
it grew that none could see across it. Then he stopped his blowing and
sang some more. Everybody wanted to get off the raft, but OLD-man said
'no.'
"'Come here, Wolf,' he said, and the Wolf came to him.
"'You are swift of foot and brave. Run around this land I have made,
that I may know how large it is.'
"The Wolf started, and it took him half a year to get back to the raft.
He was very poor from much running, too, but OLD-man said the world
wasn't big enough yet so he blew some more, and again sent the Wolf out
to run around the land. He never came back--no, the OLD-man had made
it so big that the Wolf died of old age before he got back to the raft.
Then all the people went out upon the land to make their living, and
they were happy, there, too.
"After they had been on the land for a long time OLD-man said: 'Now I
shall make a man and a woman, for I am lonesome living with you people.
He took two or three handfuls of mud from the world he had made, and
moulded both a man and a woman. Then he set them side by side and
breathed upon them. They lived!--and he made them very strong and
healthy--very beautiful to look upon. Chippewas, he called these
people, and they lived happily on that world until a white man saw an
Eagle sailing over the land and came to look about. He stole the
woman--that white man did; and that is where all the tribes came from
that we know to-day. None are pure of blood but the two humans he made
of clay, and their own children. And they are the Chippewas!
"That is a long story and now you must hurry to bed. To-morrow night I
will tell you another story--Ho!"