Told by Peter York.
A good many years ago four Indians wanted to know something about “how
to be a man that would know how to fight and never get hurt.” Well,
they talked about it and decided to go and see Nanabush and ask these
things. They made the journey, which took them two long years to get to
his place. On the way up they could hear Nanabush beating his drum and
saying to them, “Come on, my children.” Well, one day they heard him
saying, “You will get to my place in the morning.” The morning came and
they saw a clean place; everything looked to be good. They saw a big
camp here and went to the door and rapped. Nanabush said, “Come in, my
children,” and shook hands with them. They talked a little while when
Nanabush said something to his daughter, who was a very nice-looking
girl, and she started to cook something which was bear meat, and took
some blueberries and cooked them (both) in a very little pot (about the
size of a cup). While those men were watching the girl one of them
thought, “I could eat all that in the pot with one spoonful.” Nanabush
knew what this fellow was thinking about and said, “You will see if you
can eat that much.” They all sat down and started to eat out of the
little pot. They ate all that they wanted and the pot was still full.
Nanabush said, “You men can’t eat it all.” After the meal Nanabush
said, “Now you must tell me what you want to know. You have walked for
a long time.” The first man said to Nanabush, “I would like to know if
there is a battle in our country, and I would like to know that if I
was shot at I would like the ball not to hit me.” Nanabush said, “This
will happen so, you just think about me when going to fight.”
The next man came before Nanabush and said, “I am a hunter and I would
like to call the game to me when I want them, some wild beasts.”
Nanabush said, “This will be so, when you go hunting you call just what
you want and they will come.”
The third man came before Nanabush. “Well,” he said, “I would like to
get myself a wife, nobody likes me.” Nanabush said, “You see my
daughter, you take her and she will be your wife.”
The fourth man came before Nanabush and said, “I would like to live
forever.” Nanabush said (in reproach), “We all know that every man has
got to die, and you would like to live forever.” He reached out his
hand and took the fourth man and placed him on his side, when the man
became a granite stone, and there were only three men that came back
home. Everything that Nanabush said was so.
Nanabush said to the one that wanted a wife, that he must not speak to
her till they got home, and they all started home happy. On the last
day before reaching home the man who had Nanabush’s daughter wanted to
talk to her, so he spoke to her, but before he had finished his words
the girl was missing and could not be found, so he got home without a
wife. This ends this story.