MYTHS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE TIMAGAMI OJIBWA.
Introduction.
In the following pages are presented the myths and items of folk-lore
related by various informants through Aleck Paul, the second chief of
the Timagami band of Ojibwa. I present them without any comparisons
with other mythologies at this time, as we may expect before long to
have more northern Algonkian mythology available for study and
analysis.
(1) Nenebuc, the Transformer.
(a) The Magic Birth of Nenebuc and his Four Brothers. [10]
There were two people living, a man and his wife, who had an only
daughter. When she was twelve years old, the age of puberty, she was
taken over a hill and was kept there in a camp alone for twelve days,
neither eating nor drinking, in order that she might have a dream. [11]
If she should eat or drink, she would have no dream. If, while she was
dreaming, a panther came alone, she would be very strong. So her
parents kept her there. The girl dreamed of the sun, so she could not
look at the sun any more, for if she did so, she would have to go away
from her parents and live with the sun. When the girl had had this
dream, she went back to her parents and her father asked her, “What
have you been dreaming?” “I am very sorry, but I have dreamed of the
sun, so I cannot ever look at the sun again,” replied his daughter.
“Well, now it is too bad, but you mustn’t look at the sun,” said her
father. “You stay here all the time. Don’t look at the sun, that’s
all.”
The girl used to get water at the shore and stay there a long time. One
day in March, she went to the water hole, broke the ice and looked into
the water. In so doing, she made a mistake, for there was no cloud in
the sky and the sun was shining brightly near the horizon, so that,
early in the morning, she looked at the sun. [12] She brought the water
back in a birch bark pail and placed it inside the wigwam, but she
could not sit down. “What is the matter?” said her father. “Why, I
looked at the sun,” answered his daughter. “Well, good-bye, you’ve got
to live with the sun now,” said her father. Then the girl and her
parents shook hands and she went away to live with the sun, and is
there yet. Before she went away she said to her father, “You will see
your grandchildren before long.” Then she told him to put his wooden
dish upside down before the fire and to leave it there four days and
four nights and to look under it every morning. Then she went to live
with the sun.
So the old man put the dish upside down before the fire. The first
morning he lifted the edge of the dish, looked under, and there he saw
Nenebuc, the child of the sun, sitting. The next morning he did the
same thing and he saw Nenebuc’s brother sitting with him. He kept doing
this the third, fourth, and fifth mornings, until there were Nenebuc
and his four brothers all sitting under the dish. Then the old man
picked up the dish. One of the brothers, the second brother, had horns
on his head and the old man said to him, “You won’t stay here. You go
to the west.” Then he sent one brother to the east, one to the south,
and one to the north. So Nenebuc, the eldest of the five, was left. The
old man told him to attend to the world and to keep the winds going
just right lest the water get stagnant and bad. Then Nenebuc stayed,
and his four brothers started to the four parts of the earth.
One day Nenebuc asked his grandfather, “Where have I been born? Had I a
mother like other people?” His grandfather would not tell him, but his
grandmother told him that he had been found. This appeared queer to
Nenebuc and he thought to himself, “The other people have mothers, but
I have none. I must find out.” So he took a whetstone and, scraping it
on a rock, he asked it, “Have I any mother?” “Yes, you have a mother,”
replied the whetstone and then it told him his story. Then Nenebuc told
his grandfather, “I have a mother and four brothers besides. The
whetstone told me so.”
Soon Nenebuc began growing larger and he thought it strange that he had
not been sent out into the world like his brothers, so he asked his
grandfather for what reason he had kept him. His grandfather told him
that he had kept him at home so that when he became old and feeble
Nenebuc would be able to help him, cut wood for him, and hunt for him.
This satisfied Nenebuc and he used to help his grandfather in many
ways, spearing fish for him in calm days, hunting for him, and doing
many other things. He never got into any mischief and he grew very
fast.
(b) Nenebuc Tempers the Wind.
One summer Nenebuc was unable to get fish for the whole summer on
account of the high winds. The people almost starved, and then Nenebuc
became very angry. He did not like to see his grandfather starving and
his anger was aroused against the West Wind for blowing so much. So he
told his grandfather that he was going to kill the West Wind for this,
but the old man said to him, “Don’t kill him. Make him let the wind
blow a while and then stop, so that everything will be all right, but
don’t kill him.” “Well, I won’t be long away and I’ll punish my
brother”, replied Nenebuc.
So he went away and finally met his brother, the one with the two
horns, who lived in the west. Nenebuc hammered him soundly with a club
and broke one of his horns. This hurt him, but did not kill him. Then
Nenebuc said, “Don’t blow so hard any more. You don’t care for your
grandfather, but I do and I fear he and the people will starve.” Then
he arranged things with his brother and went back. After this he went
fishing and found it calm with only a little puff of wind now and then.
Then the West Wind told his three brothers not to blow, for if they did
Nenebuc would come and kill them. The winds became frightened at this
and did not blow at all, and because of this the water grew thick and
stagnant and Nenebuc was unable to fish. Then his grandfather said, “We
are going to die. There is no wind and the water is bad. Did you kill
the West Wind?” “No,” said Nenebuc. “I will go and see him and tell him
to send the wind once in a while, not too often but just right.” So
Nenebuc went to his brother, the West Wind, and said to him, “I came
here to tell you that I want a little wind once in a while, but not too
much.” Then everything was arranged satisfactorily. Shortly after this
Nenebuc’s grandparents died and were heard of no more. [13]
(c) Nenebuc Starts Travelling, Anum Suum Castigat for Deceiving Him,
Changes the Colour of the Partridge Family, and Originates Rock Tripe
from his Scabs for the Benefit of the People.
Now Nenebuc grew up and was alone. He was a man and began to travel. He
knew all kinds of things concerning the trees, the world, and
everything which his grandfather had taught him. He set out on his
first journey and went toward the mountains. In one day’s walk he
climbed over three great mountains, something that no man could do.
When he reached the top of the first mountain he found a goose and
killed it. In like manner he killed a goose on the tops of the second
and third mountains. Then he went down to the lake below. He was very,
very tired from his first day’s journey. He made a fire with his
bow-drill [14] and put his geese in the sand, which he had heated to
bake them in. He buried them with their legs sticking out. He lay down
by the fire and ano suo dixit to watch the geese while he slept, so
that no one would steal them. Just as he was dozing off to sleep, anus
ejus dixit, “Somebody’s coming for your geese!” and Nenebuc jumped up.
Sed anus ejus eum deci piebat. It did this three or four times. At last
Nenebuc grew angry. He took a club and anum suum percussit and told it
not to do that again. Then he went to sleep. Some people came along and
stole the geese, but left the legs sticking in the same place.
When Nenebuc awoke, anum suum interrogavit, “Did any one come?” “I
don’t know,” anus ejus respondit. “As soon as you fell asleep, I slept.
I don’t know.” Nenebuc then pulled up the legs of the geese and found
nothing else. “It’s well cooked,” said he. He made a big fire. “Now
I’ll punish you,” ano suo dixit and he held it over the fire.
“Tcį·′įį!” clamavit anus ejus. “You can cry all you want to. I’ll
punish you,” said Nenebuc, ano suo strepitum urendi faciente. He didn’t
feel the burns then. Then he started walking.
Next day he felt a little sick and anus ejus scabi osus fuit. In
walking he got turned around and saw his own tracks. “Somebody’s passed
here,” he said to himself, when he saw them. Then he saw some kind of
meat lying on the ground, and he tasted it. “Somebody had some meat
here,” he said. Then the little bird Gitci·′gi·‵tci·gane‵cįc [15]
(Tom-tit) cried out, “Nenebuc scabies suas edit!” “Oh no, those are not
my scabs. Some old woman passed by and left some dry meat,” said he.
But at last he discovered se scabies suas edisse, but even then he
didn’t care. He kept on walking and felt very sick.
By and by he came upon a brood of young partridges and said, “Where is
your mother?” “Our mother is away,” said they. “What’s your names?”
They answered “Kαckuŋge′s·i” (“Jump out and frighten”). Nenebuc turned
around upon hearing this and super totam familiam defaecavit. Up to
this time the Partridges had been white, but after this they have
always been brown.
Then Nenebuc went to a high bluff near by. He was tired, sick, and
hungry, and he lay upon the bluff sleeping. Partridge came home and
said to his young when he saw what Nenebuc had done to them, “Who did
this?” “A man came along and asked us our name and, when we told him
‘Kαckuŋge′s·i,’ super nos defaecavit. He said he wasn’t frightened by
us.” And so the young Partridges told their father where Nenebuc had
gone. The old Partridge followed his tracks until he came to where
Nenebuc lay on the cliff. He saw him lying right on the edge, so he
walked up slowly to him and then suddenly buzzed his wings, and Nenebuc
jumped up and fell over the cliff. As he slid down, anum suum in
lapidibus scabit and all the scabs rubbed off. As he lay on the ground
he saw the scabs and said, “These Indians will call this wa·′kwαní [16]
and when they go hungry they can make soup for themselves, these
Ojibwa, forever.” Then he was cured.
(d) Nenebuc Prepares a Feast and Gets Caught Between Two Trees, While
the Animals Receive a Distribution of Fat.
After this Nenebuc began travelling again. One time he feasted a lot of
animals. He had killed a big bear, which was very fat and he began
cooking it, having made a fire with his bow-drill. When he was ready to
spread his meat, he heard two trees scraping together, swayed by the
wind. He didn’t like this noise while he was having his feast and he
thought he could stop it. He climbed up one of the trees and when he
reached the spot where the two trees were scraping, his foot got caught
in a crack between the trees and he could not free himself.
When the first animal guest came along and saw Nenebuc in the tree, he,
the Beaver, said “Come on to the feast, Nenebuc is caught and can’t
stop us.” And then the other animals came. The Beaver jumped into the
grease and ate it, and the Otter did the same, and that is why they are
so fat in the belly. The Beaver scooped up the grease and smeared it on
himself, and that is the reason why he is so fat now. All the small
animals came and got fat for themselves. Last of all the animals came
the Rabbit, when nearly all the grease was gone—only a little left. So
he put some on the nape of his neck and some on his groin and for this
reason he has only a little fat in those places. So all the animals got
their fat except Rabbit. Then they all went, and poor Nenebuc got free
at last. He looked around and found a bear’s skull that was all cleaned
except for the brain, and there was only a little of that left, but he
couldn’t get at it. Then he wished himself to be changed into an ant in
order to get into the skull and get enough to eat, for there was only
about an ant’s meal left.
(e) Nenebuc Gets Caught in the Bear’s Skull.
Then he became an ant and entered the skull. When he had enough he
turned back into a man, but he had his head inside the skull; this
allowed him to walk but not to see. On account of this he had no idea
where he was. Then he felt the trees. He said to one, “What are you?”
It answered, “Cedar.” He kept doing this with all the trees in order to
keep his course. When he got too near the shore, he knew it by the kind
of trees he met. So he kept on walking and the only tree that did not
answer promptly was the black spruce, and that said, “I’m
Se·′se·ga‵ndαk” (black spruce). Then Nenebuc knew he was on low ground.
He came to a lake, but he did not know how large it was, as he couldn’t
see. He started to swim across. An Ojibwa was paddling on the lake with
his family and he heard someone calling, “Hey! There’s a bear swimming
across the lake.” Nenebuc became frightened at this and the Ojibwa then
said, “He’s getting near the shore now.” So Nenebuc swam faster, and as
he could understand the Ojibwa language, he guided himself by the
cries. He landed on a smooth rock, slipped and broke the bear’s skull,
which fell off his head. Then the Ojibwa cried out, “That’s no bear!
That’s Nenebuc!” Nenebuc was all right, now that he could see, so he
ran off, as he didn’t want to stay with these people.
(f) Nenebuc Wounds the Giant Lynx, Disguises Himself in a Toad’s Skin,
and Finally Slays Her.
He had his bow and arrow with him, and as he went along he saw a great
snake. [17] He shot it with his arrow. He came to a big lake with a
nice, sandy shore, where he saw Lions [18] (mici·′bizi‵w “giant
lynx”). He couldn’t shoot them with his arrow as they were too far
away, nor was there any place where he could hide himself until they
came to sun themselves by the shore, when they felt too cold in the
water. Finally he hit upon a plan. He took some birch bark from a
rotten stump, rolled it into a hollow cylinder, and placed it, like a
wigwam, near the shore. He got inside and made a little hole in the
bark through which to shoot and kill the Lions.
When the Lions saw the thing on the beach, they grew curious to find
out what this strange thing was on the beach that was not there the day
before. So they sent a big snake to twist around it and to try to upset
it, but the snake did not succeed in doing this, for Nenebuc stood too
firm. So the Lions came ashore upon the sand and Nenebuc shot one of
them with his arrow—a she-lion, the wife of the Lion chief. He did not
kill her, but wounded her badly in the side, and the flint arrow point
stayed in the wound. She was very badly wounded and went back to a hole
which led to a cave in a big rock where she lived. [19] Nenebuc was
sorry that he had not killed the Lion queen.
As he went along the shore, the next morning, he heard someone singing
and shaking a rattle. Nenebuc stood there wondering and waiting, and
pretty soon he saw an old woman making the song. So he went across to
see her, and when they met, he asked her, “What are you doing?” “I’m a
doctor,” she answered. “The queen of the Lions has been shot by Nenebuc
and I am going to cure her.” She didn’t know that it was Nenebuc to
whom she was talking, for she was too old. So Nenebuc told her, “Let me
hear you singing. Is that what you are going to do to cure her?” “Yes,
I will sing and then pull out that arrow.” The Lions had sent for her
at the foot of the lake to cure the queen. Nenebuc picked up a club and
killed her, saying, “You are no doctor (macki·ki·′winini‵k·we
‘medicine-person woman’) at all.” Then he discovered that she was no
person at all, but a big toad (omα′kαk·i·‵). So he skinned her and put
on the skin. The skin had a hole in the groin, and as he had no needle
to sew it up with, his scrotum hung out when he put it on himself. This
did not worry Nenebuc, for he thought, “It will be all right, unless
they notice me too closely.” So he walked past the cave in which the
Lions lived and kept singing and rattling all the time.
When the young lions heard him, they said, “There’s the old medicine
woman coming.” They were very glad to think that their mother would be
cured. So they opened the door in the rock and Nenebuc went in, and one
of the daughters came to meet him and said, “Come in, old woman.” They
were very much pleased. Nenebuc said, “Don’t shut the doors. Leave them
open, as the queen needs plenty of fresh air!” [20] Then he said, “I’m
hungry. I’ve had a long walk and I’m tired.” Then they gave him a good
meal first. While he was eating, he sat with open legs and the children
cried out, “Look at the old woman with testicles hanging out!” But the
older ones told them to be silent, as they thought some old women had
testicles.
When he had finished eating, Nenebuc said, “Don’t watch me. I’m going
to pull out the arrow point. You will hear her suffering and me
singing, but don’t look until you hear her stop suffering. Then she
will be cured, and the arrow point will be out. So don’t look, for I am
going to cure her.” Then he began rattling and singing, and, as he did
so, he shoved the arrow point farther into the wound of the queen in
order to kill her. When she yelled, her people thought that the hurt
was caused in pulling it out. At last one of the little lion children
peeped and saw Nenebuc pushing the arrow farther in. He told his
sister, “That’s Nenebuc himself inside!” Then Nenebuc ran outside and
the Queen Lion was dying. Nenebuc had difficulty to clear himself. He
pulled off the toad skin and tried to climb up the rock.
(g) The Giant Lynx Causes the World Flood and Gathers the Animals on a
Raft; Muskrat Dives for Earth, which Nenebuc Transforms into a New
World.
As soon as the queen died, a giant stream poured out of the cave and
the lake began rising. “That is going to flood the world and be the
end,” said Nenebuc. So he cut trees and made a kind of raft. [21] So he
had his raft ready, and the end of the world came. He couldn’t see any
trees, water covered everything, and he made the flood. He saw all
kinds of animals swimming toward his raft and he took them on. “Come
on, come on,” he cried, “and stay here.” For he wanted to save them, so
that after the flood there would be all kinds of animals. The animals
stayed on the raft with him for a long while. Some time after this he
made a rope of roots and tied it to the Beaver’s tail, telling him to
dive and to try and reach the land underneath. He knew the water would
get lower afterwards. The Beaver couldn’t reach the land and he came up
to the surface of the water again.
Seven days after this he allowed the Muskrat to try and bring the land.
Muskrat dove and they waited for a long time, but he didn’t come up.
This Muskrat doubled up and put his nose into the hair of his breast
which enabled him to breathe by the bubbles clinging there. By doing
this he could rest and dive still deeper. At last he used up all the
air in his breast hair and could only grab a little piece of mud. Then
he started up to the surface of the water, but drowned before he
reached the raft. Nenebuc pulled the Muskrat in and he still was
holding the mud. Nenebuc said, “I am going to dry this. As soon as it
is dry, you can all run around again and have this world.” So he dried
it, but not entirely, and that is the reason why some parts of the
world are swampy and wet, while others are dry like this. So the
animals had the earth again and the world was made.
(h) Nenebuc Sends Crow Out, for Disobedience Changes Him Black and Gull
Partly Black, then Retires to the West, until He Will Return Again.
Nenebuc knew the world was round like a ball, but he didn’t know how
large it was. He was sitting down, tired. So he said to Crow, “Go fly
around the world and don’t eat until you come back again. If you do, we
will know it.” Crow at that time was white. Crow had to do as he was
told, because Nenebuc was chief of all men and animals. So Crow started
and flew and flew along the salt water beach. Soon he became very
hungry and wondered how far he was away from Nenebuc. One morning he
was flying along the shore and he saw an old dead fish. He was so
hungry that he tasted a little bit of it, and finally made a meal of
it. When he finished eating, he found he had turned black. This is the
way Crow became black.
When Crow reached the place from which he started out, he found Nenebuc
and all the animals waiting for him. He told Nenebuc that he had eaten,
and then Nenebuc said to Gull, “You go try. Do the same and don’t eat
until you come here.” So Gull went. When he got to the same place at
which Crow had felt hungry, Gull felt hungry. One morning he saw the
same dead fish. He thought, “Well, I mustn’t eat it, for if I do, I’ll
be as black as Crow.” He took one mouthful and started flying. When
Gull returned, Nenebuc could see a little black on his wings, so he
said, “Gull has had a mouthful too.”
Then he told Owl, “You go and try to go around the world this time. If
you eat, you won’t change colour but remain the same colour as you are
now. But if you eat, you won’t come back here.” So Owl started flying.
He came to the same lake, saw the dead fish and finished it. He ate a
good meal and never returned. [22] But he didn’t change colour.
Then Nenebuc let all the animals go from the raft. He started west and
is there yet, lying on his back, singing and hammering at his wigwam
poles, in place of drumming, all the time. He will stay there until he
gets up again three years before the end of the world, when he will
travel all over the world to see the animals and the Ojibwa again. He
will not die until the end of the world.
(2) Nenebuc Fragment. [23]
Once the Goose met Nenebuc and gave him two wings. He told him that if
he flapped them he could fly with them, but that he must not look
downwards while he flew. So Nenebuc took the wings and began flying.
When he got very far up, he wondered how high he was and looked down.
Then he tumbled down and down until he fell into a big hollow stump
where he couldn’t get out. Soon two girls came along with an axe to get
some wood and began cutting at the hollow pine in which Nenebuc was.
They cut a hole and Nenebuc kept quiet, for he was hoping they would
free him. When they looked in the hole, they saw his belly and they
pulled out a hair. They went back to camp and told their father, “Here
is a porcupine quill we found in a tree.” The old man looked at it and,
laughing, said, “That’s not a porcupine quill, that’s a hair from
Nenebuc’s groin!”
(3) Nenebuc Transforms the Bear. [24]
Nenebuc in his tracks encountered the great Bear that killed and ate
the Indians—so many of them that they feared they would all be killed.
So Nenebuc went to the Bear and said, “You are eating so many of the
Indians that they will all be gone soon. Now I am going to make you
small and harmless.” Then he made him into the Squirrel and turned the
Squirrel into the Bear, and the Bear, now in Squirrel’s shape, felt so
badly that he cried until his eyebrows turned grey. That is the reason
why to this day squirrels have grey eyelids.
“Now,” said Nenebuc, “what will you eat?” The Bear, now a Squirrel,
said he would continue to eat people, but he was so small that he could
not do anything. “That is good,” said Nenebuc. “Now you can’t do any
harm to the Indians. But you had better change your food. Just run up
that black-spruce tree and taste the acorn seeds and then see whether
you want to eat people any more. You are too small to eat people as you
used to do.” So the Squirrel ran up the black-spruce tree and tasted
the sweet seed of the cone. He liked it so well, it tasted so sweet,
that he chose this for his food and said that he would not want
anything better any more. That is his food to-day.
(4) Wemicus.
Wemicus had a very large family. Many of his children had married the
different animals who lived in various parts of the surrounding
country. By and by he had nearly all kinds of animals for his
sons-in-law, and there were still a great many children left in his
family. When winter came, Wemicus was unable to support his family, as
there were too many of them. They were all living in one wigwam.
One day Wemicus said to his wife, “We are all very hungry. I might go
and see one of our sons-in-law; he might have some food.” Next morning
he started out. Wemicus always tried to imitate the actions of
everybody he saw. When he reached the home of his son-in-law Ninicip
(Black Duck) he saw that he also had a large family. Ninicip was inside
of his wigwam, and when he saw Wemicus coming, he told his wife, “You
had better begin to get ready for company and boil water in the stone
pail.” Then he jumped up upon the cross poles in his wigwam [25] and in
vas lapidum sub se [26] defaecavit, telling his wife to stir up the
contents of the pot. Wemicus apparently saw nothing of this. Then one
of the children of Ninicip took spoons and, dipping them in the pot,
said, “Soup, soup, soup, rice soup.” Wemicus tasted the soup, thought
it tasted good, and decided that after this he would make soup in the
same manner.
The next morning, when Wemicus started for home, he was given some rice
soup to take home to his children. Before leaving the wigwam of
Ninicip, however, Wemicus had purposely left behind one of his mittens.
One of the children saw the mitten and Ninicip’s wife sent the child to
return it, bidding him not to go too close to Wemicus but to throw him
the mitten. The child did the bidding of his mother and, when the
mitten was thrown to Wemicus, he said, “Ask your father to come and see
me,” and he named a certain day. On the way back home Wemicus thought,
“I wonder what this soup tastes like when it is cold. I must try it. My
children don’t need any of it, so I might as well eat it all.” So he
ate all of the soup. When he reached his wigwam he said, “Ninicip and
his family are starving also. To-morrow he will come to see us and
perhaps he will bring us something. We had better fix up our wigwam.”
Then they fixed up the wigwam in the same manner as that of Ninicip.
The next day Ninicip came and they gave him the best place. Wemicus
said to his wife, “We’ll get ready to eat now. Put some water in the
stone pail.” “There is no use putting any water in the pail,” answered
his wife, “we have nothing to cook.” “Well, bring the pail, anyway, and
get some spoons,” said Wemicus. When the water began boiling, Wemicus
jumped up on the cross-poles, in vas defaecavit, all over his children
and the inside of the wigwam. Then Ninicip went out. His wife scolded
Wemicus, saying, “You always do something like that. You must have seen
someone do that.” Then Wemicus kept quiet and everything had to be
cleaned up. The wife then invited Ninicip to come in again and he told
her that he would fix up the meal. Igituo interum in vas defaecavit and
they had good rice soup, and everyone, even Wemicus, had a good meal.
The following morning Ninicip made soup for the family again and then
went home. Soon Wemicus and his family were starving again and Wemicus
said, “I must go and see my son-in-law, Muskrat. He lives not far
away.” “All right,” said his wife and Wemicus set out. When he had
almost reached Muskrat’s home, the little Muskrat children called out,
“Our grandfather is coming.” Wemicus told Muskrat that he was starving
and Muskrat said to his wife, “You had better make a fire in the hot
sand.” So the fire was made, and Muskrat went out with a big sack made
out of hide and returned with the sack full of ice, which he dumped
into the hot ashes. Wemicus expected that it would explode but it only
cooked nicely. Wemicus wondered what it was. Soon Muskrat said, “We are
ready now,” and they took off the sand and there were a lot of nicely
baked potatoes. Wemicus thought that was an easy way in which to
live—just to get ice for potatoes.
Next morning Wemicus started out for home and left his mitten behind as
he had done with Ninicip. Muskrat’s wife sent a child after him and
told the child, “Don’t go too close to Wemicus. He’s always in
mischief.” Everything happened as before. The child threw the mitten to
Wemicus and Wemicus sent an invitation to Muskrat to come to his home
the next day. As Wemicus went on his way he had some potatoes which
Muskrat had given him for his family. Half way home he rested and
thought he would eat the potatoes, as they looked very good. So he ate
every one. “I am the one who works hard,” he said to himself. “My
family can wait until Muskrat comes.” When he reached home he told his
wife, “Muskrat is also starving. I brought nothing. Muskrat is coming
tomorrow to see us.” Next day Muskrat came and they put him on the
opposite side of the wigwam. Wemicus said, “We have nothing much, but,
wife, make a fire in the hot sand.” The wife answered, “I suppose you
saw somebody else do something. Don’t you try any more mischief.” But
he made his wife make the fire. He then went out and returned with the
sack full of ice, which he dumped on the fire. The sack blew up all
over everybody and put out the fire. Then his wife said, “I suppose you
saw someone do that again.” She made another fire and Muskrat said,
“Give me that bag.” He went out and brought back the sack full of ice,
dumped and buried it in the fire, and, after a while, they got the
potatoes. All of them had a good meal. The next morning, before Muskrat
left, he got them another bag of potatoes.
Wemicus does not work, although his family is so large. Well, pretty
soon the whole family was starving again. Then said Wemicus, “I must go
and see Meme (pileated woodpecker), my son-in-law.” He went into the
bush and when he reached Meme’s wigwam he found a large white pine in
back of it. He noticed that Meme had a sharp pointed nose. He saw that
Meme had not much to live on, but nevertheless Meme told his wife to
get the cooking pail ready. Then Meme began climbing the pine tree,
which was at the back of his wigwam, and began pecking in the trunk
with his nose. Pretty soon he came down with a raccoon. [27] When
Wemicus saw this, he thought, “That is a great thing; I must try it.”
Meme burned off the hair and cleaned the raccoon, and shared the meat
on a stick to each one. Wemicus received the best part, as he was the
grandfather.
The next morning they had another raccoon to eat. Then everything
happened as before. Wemicus was given a raccoon to take home. He left
his mitten behind, and sent an invitation to Meme to visit him the next
day. On the way home Wemicus thought to himself, “I wonder how this
raccoon tastes cold.” So he ate the entire raccoon. When he got home,
he told his wife that Meme was starving but that he was coming to visit
them the following day. They put the wigwam in order and Wemicus fixed
up a big pine like that belonging to Meme and cut two pieces of wood,
which he pointed and shoved into his nose to imitate Meme. When Meme
came along he saw Wemicus sitting there with sticks in his nose.
Wemicus told his wife, as usual, to prepare for supper, and she told
him that they had nothing. When she had the water boiling in the pail,
Wemicus climbed up the tree and pecked upon it in imitation of Meme. He
fell down, however, and drove the sticks into his head. He fell into
the fire, but after a while he gained consciousness. Then Meme stepped
out of the wigwam, climbed the tree, and brought down a raccoon. And
then the whole family had a good supper. Next morning Meme got another
raccoon and left it for the family, and then went home.
Still Wemicus did nothing and the family was again in a starving
condition. Then said Wemicus, “I have some more sons-in-law and one is
close. I will go and see him; he will help me until open water. [28] I
will go and see Skunk.” So he set out to visit Skunk. Wemicus was
pretty hungry and Skunk was farther off than the rest of the
sons-in-law, but he finally reached his home. Wemicus found Skunk’s
water hole [29] and saw a great quantity of oil in it. He knew that
Skunk must have killed a great deal of game. So he went into Skunk’s
wigwam and saw a great quantity of food. Skunk said, “We don’t have
much. It is long since I hunted. But come outside.” There Wemicus saw a
piece of ground fenced in. Skunk then produced a little birch bark horn
[30] and said, “What will you have?” Skunk now blew on his horn and all
kinds of game came inside the enclosure. Skunk deinde pepedit and
killed whatever kind Wemicus wanted. They then skinned what he killed
and fried it for supper.
In the morning Skunk said to Wemicus, “I’ll give you three shots and a
horn. You can make a fence for yourself. This horn will last forever,
as long as you don’t lose it. If you do, it will be bad.” Then Skunk
gave Wemicus three shots to be used in the future, and he did this
urinando super eum to load him up three times. He did not give him any
food, because he would be able to get enough for himself. Then Wemicus
thought, “Now I am going to do something.” As Wemicus was on his way
home he said to himself, “I wonder if it will go off!” So, just as he
was passing a tree stump, pepedit at the stump and blew it up. “That’s
fine, but I have only two more shots left,” said he. Later he tried the
same thing and then only had one left. A little while after this he saw
a big pine tree, and thought he would try a shot at this. So he blew up
the pine tree, and so used up all his shots.
When he reached his wigwam, he showed his wife the horn which Skunk had
given him, saying, “Skunk gave me that.” Then he built a large fence of
poles. He told his wife to hold the horn and stay near by, while he got
a club to kill the game with. Then he blew on the horn and the fence
was filled with bear, deer, and all kinds of animals. Although he had
no shots left, Wemicus managed to kill one caribou, and his wife was
very happy. He cut the fat from the breast of the caribou, made a fire,
and got some grease from it. He then spilled the caribou grease in his
water hole in order to deceive Skunk and make him believe that he had a
great quantity of meat. Not long after this Skunk started out to visit
Wemicus and, on his way, he passed the three stumps which Wemicus had
blown up and knew that he had no more shots left. When he reached
Wemicus’ water hole he said, “I guess he got one any way.” When he came
to the wigwam, he found that Wemicus and his family had hardly any meat
left, so he said to Wemicus, “Come out and let me see your fence.” They
went out and Wemicus blew his horn, and inside the fence it became full
of game. Skunk pepedit and killed all of them, and then Wemicus and his
family had plenty. Skunk stayed over night and departed the next
morning.
Wemicus had another son-in-law who was a man. This man’s wife, the
daughter of Wemicus, had had a great many husbands, because Wemicus had
put them to so many different tests that they had been all killed off
except this one. He, however, had succeeded in outwitting Wemicus in
every scheme that he tried on him. Wemicus and this man hunted beaver
in the spring of the year by driving them all day with dogs. The man’s
wife warned him before they started out to hunt, saying, “Look out for
my father; he might burn your moccasins in camp. That’s what he did to
my other husbands.” [31] That night in camp Wemicus said, “I didn’t
tell you the name of this lake. It is called ‘burnt moccasins lake.’”
When the man heard this, he thought that Wemicus was up to some sort of
mischief and was going to burn his moccasins. Their moccasins were
hanging up before a fire to dry and, while Wemicus was not looking, the
man changed the places of Wemicus’ moccasins and his own, and then went
to sleep. Soon the man awoke and saw Wemicus get up and throw his own
moccasins into the fire. Wemicus then said, “Say! something is burning;
it is your moccasins.” Then the man answered, “No, not mine, but
yours.” So Wemicus had no moccasins, and the ground was covered with
snow. After this had happened the man slept with his moccasins on.
The next morning the man started on and left Wemicus there with no
shoes. Wemicus started to work. He got a big boulder, made a fire, and
placed the boulder in it until it became red hot. He then wrapped his
feet with spruce boughs and pushed the boulder ahead of him in order to
melt the snow. In this way he managed to walk on the boughs. Then he
began to sing, “Spruce is warm, spruce is warm.” When the man reached
home he told his wife what had happened. “I hope Wemicus will die,” she
said. A little while after this, they heard Wemicus coming along
singing, “Spruce is warm, spruce is warm.” He came into the wigwam and,
as he was the head man, they were obliged to get his meal ready.
The ice was getting bad by this time, so they stayed in camp a while.
Soon Wemicus told his son-in-law, “We’d better go sliding.” He then
went to a hill where there were some very poisonous snakes. The man’s
wife warned her husband of these snakes and gave him a split stick
holding a certain kind of magic tobacco, which she told him to hold in
front of him so that the snakes would not hurt him. Then the two men
went sliding. At the top of the hill Wemicus said, “Follow me,” for he
intended to pass close by the snakes’ lair. So when they slid, Wemicus
passed safely and the man held his stick with the tobacco in it in
front of him, thus preventing the snakes from biting him. The man then
told Wemicus that he enjoyed the sliding.
The following day Wemicus said to his son-in-law, “We had better go to
another place.” When she heard this, the wife told her husband that, as
it was getting summer, Wemicus had in his head many poisonous lizards
instead of lice. She said, “He will tell you to pick lice from his head
and crack them in your teeth. But take low-bush cranberries and crack
them instead.” So the man took cranberries along with him. Wemicus took
his son-in-law to a valley with a great ravine in it. He said, “I
wonder if anybody can jump across this?” “Surely,” said the young man,
“I can.” Then the young man said, “Closer,” and the ravine narrowed and
he jumped across easily. When Wemicus tried, the young man said
“Widen,” and Wemicus fell into the ravine. But it did not kill him, and
when he made his way to the top again, he said, “You have beaten me.”
Then they went on.
They came to a place of hot sand and Wemicus said, “You must look for
lice in my head.” “All right father,” replied the son-in-law. So
Wemicus lay down and the man started to pick the lice. He took the
cranberries from inside his shirt and each time he pretended to catch a
louse, he cracked a cranberry and threw it on the ground, and so
Wemicus got fooled a second time that day. Then they went home and
Wemicus said to his son-in-law, “There are a whole lot of eggs on that
rocky island where the gulls are. We will go get the eggs, come back,
and have an egg supper.” As Wemicus was the head man, his son-in-law
had to obey him.
So they started out in their canoe and soon came to the rocky island.
Wemicus stayed in the canoe and told the man to go ashore and to bring
the eggs back with him and fill the canoe. When the man reached the
shore, Wemicus told him to go farther back on the island, saying,
“That’s where the former husbands got their eggs, there are their
bones.” He then started the canoe off in the water by singing, without
using his paddle. Then Wemicus told the gulls to eat the man, saying to
them, “I give you him to eat.” The gulls started to fly about the man,
but the man had his paddle with him and he killed one of the gulls with
it. He then took the gulls’ wings and fastened them on himself, filled
his shirt with eggs, and started flying over the lake by the aid of the
wings.
When he reached the middle of the lake, he saw Wemicus going along and
singing to himself. Wemicus, looking up, saw his son-in-law but mistook
him for a gull. Then the man flew over him and defecated in his face,
and Wemicus said, “Gull’s excrement always smells like that when they
have eaten a man.” The man flew back to camp and told his wife to cook
the eggs, and he told his children to play with the wings. When Wemicus
reached the camp, he saw the children playing with the wings and said,
“Where did you get those wings?” “From father,” was the reply. “Your
father? Why, the gulls ate him!” Then he went to the wigwam and there
he saw the man smoking. Then Wemicus thought it very strange how the
man could have gotten home, but no one told him how it had been done.
Thought he, “I must try another scheme to do away with him.”
One day Wemicus said to his son-in-law, “We’d better make two canoes of
birch-bark, one for you and one for me. We’d better get bark.” So they
started off for birch-bark. They cut a tree almost through and Wemicus
said to his son-in-law, “You sit on that side and I’ll sit on this.” He
wanted the tree to fall on him and kill him. Wemicus said, “You say,
‘Fall on my father-in-law,’ and I’ll say, ‘Fall on my son-in-law’, and
whoever says it too slowly or makes a mistake will be the one on whom
it will fall.” But Wemicus made the first mistake, and the tree fell on
him and crushed him. However, Wemicus was a manitu [32] and was not
hurt. They went home with the bark and made the two canoes. After they
were made, Wemicus said to his son-in-law, “Well, we’ll have a race in
our two canoes, a sailing race.” Wemicus made a big bark sail, but the
man did not make any, as he was afraid of upsetting. They started the
race. Wemicus went very fast and the man called after him, “Oh, you are
beating me.” He kept on fooling and encouraging Wemicus, until the wind
upset Wemicus’ canoe and that was the end of Wemicus. When the man
sailed over the spot where Wemicus had upset, he saw a big pike
(ki·nų′je) there, into which Wemicus had been transformed when the
canoe upset. This is the origin of the pike.
(5) Ciŋgibis.
At the time of which my story speaks people were camping just as we are
here. In the winter time they used birch bark wigwams. All animals
could then talk together. Two girls, who were very foolish, talked
foolishly and were in no respect like the other girls of their tribe,
made their bed out-of-doors, and slept right out under the stars. The
very fact that they slept outside during the winter proves how foolish
they were.
One of these girls asked the other, “With what star would you like to
sleep, the white one or the red one?” The other girl answered, “I’d
like to sleep with the red star.” “Oh, that’s all right,” said the
first one, “I would like to sleep with the white star. He’s the
younger; the red is the older.” Then the two girls fell asleep. When
they awoke, they found themselves in another world, the star world.
There were four of them there, the two girls and the two stars who had
become men. The white star was very, very old and was grey-headed,
while the younger was red-headed. He was the red star. The girls stayed
a long time in this star world, and the one who had chosen the white
star was very sorry, for he was so old.
There was an old woman up in this world who sat over a hole in the sky,
and, whenever she moved, she showed them the hole and said, “That’s
where you came from.” They looked down through and saw their people
playing down below, and then the girls grew very sorry and very
homesick. One evening, near sunset, the old woman moved a little way
from the hole. [33]
The younger girl heard the noise of the mite′win down below. When it
was almost daylight, the old woman sat over the hole again and the
noise of mite′win stopped; it was her spirit that made the noise. She
was the guardian of the mite′win.
One morning the old woman told the girls, “If you want to go down from
where you came from, we will let you down, but get to work and gather
roots to make a string-made rope, twisted. The two of you make coils of
rope as high as your heads when you are sitting. Two coils will be
enough.” The girls worked for days until they had accomplished this.
They made plenty of rope and tied it to a big basket. They then got
into the basket and the people of the star world lowered them down.
They descended right into an Eagle’s nest, but the people above thought
the girls were on the ground and stopped lowering them. They were
obliged to stay in the nest, because they could do nothing to help
themselves.
Said one, “We’ll have to stay here until some one comes to get us.”
Bear passed by. The girls cried out, “Bear, come and get us. You are
going to get married sometime. Now is your chance!” Bear thought, “They
are not very good-looking women.” He pretended to climb up and then
said, “I can’t climb up any further.” And he went away, for the girls
didn’t suit him. Next came Lynx. The girls cried out again, “Lynx, come
up and get us. You will go after women some day!” Lynx answered, “I
can’t, for I have no claws,” and he went away. Then an ugly-looking
man, Wolverine, passed and the girls spoke to him. “Hey, Wolverine,
come and get us.” Wolverine started to climb up, for he thought it a
very fortunate thing to have these women and was very glad. When he
reached them, they placed their hair ribbons in the nest. Then
Wolverine agreed to take one girl at a time, so he took the first one
down and went back for the next. Then Wolverine went away with his two
wives and enjoyed himself greatly, as he was ugly and nobody else would
have him. They went far into the woods, and then they sat down and
began to talk. “Oh!” cried one of the girls, “I forgot my hair
ribbons.” Then Wolverine said, “I will run back for it.” And he started
off to get the hair ribbons. Then the girls hid and told the trees,
whenever Wolverine should come back and whistle for them, to answer him
by whistling. Wolverine soon returned and began to whistle for his
wives, and the trees all around him whistled in answer. Wolverine,
realizing that he had been tricked, gave up the search and departed
very angry.
The girls continued through the woods until they came to a big marsh,
late in the afternoon. There they saw a big birch bark house.
Everything around the house was very clean, the poles were scraped
clean of their bark and were perfectly white, while there was neither
smoke nor ashes to be seen anywhere. The girls looked at this and said,
“The person who lives here must be very clean; we have never seen such
a clean house.” There was no dry or green wood lying around, but inside
the house they saw a fire-place and plenty of hay. One girl said to the
other, “We’d better cut a little wood.” So they cut wood and made the
fire in case the man came home late. By this time, the ice was
beginning to break. Late in the evening they heard someone crying out,
“Who spoiled my wigwam? Who made smoke and ashes?” The owner of the
wigwam didn’t know who had done this, so he came in and looked at the
two girls. He then cut all the wood. This man was Woodpecker (Meme
“pileated woodpecker”). Woodpecker made a fire of the hay, which was
beaver hay. It gave no smoke to stain the wigwam and burned as well as
wood. He brought in two nice beavers which belonged to him, and gave
one to the girls, saying, “You can have this.” He then cooked the other
one for himself. He showed the girls where to sleep and since the place
where they were to sleep was not near him, they knew that he would not
marry either of them.
Next morning, after breakfast, he said to them, “Go! Don’t stay here.
You go that way and you will find a big river. There you’ll find lots
of people and maybe you’ll get married.” So the girls went on. They
left Woodpecker and he is there yet. They came to the big river and
beheld canoes and all kinds of people passing. First they saw White
Duck (wa′bəci·p). He was a good looking man, and as he passed them in
his canoe, the girls said to him, “Put us in your canoe, you are going
to get married sometime.” White Duck answered, “My canoe is too small.
Other people are coming; they will marry you.” And he passed on. Next
came Fish Duck (azi′k), a good looking man. They cried out, “Put us in
your canoe, you are going to get married anyway.” “No, my canoe is too
small,” replied Fish Duck. A great many people passed, but all of them
said that their canoes were too small, so the girls had to stay where
they were. The people were passing to the mouth of the creek where the
village of the chief was. At last came Black Duck (ni′nicip). He was
also nice looking. “Come over and get us; you will get married
sometime,” cried the girls. “No, My canoe is too small. Ciŋgibis is
coming soon and he will marry you.” He was going to be the last person
to pass. At last Ciŋgibis came along.
When they saw him, one of the girls said, “He is a very ugly man, but
we will go in his canoe and, when we get to the village, we’ll get rid
of him.” So they called out to him, “Come over and get us; you will get
married anyway.” Ciŋgibis was very glad to have two wives, so he
paddled over and got the two girls. They said, “Your canoe is a very
small canoe.” “Oh no,” said Ciŋgibis, “my canoe is a magic canoe. It is
enough.” So the girls got into the canoe and they went down the stream.
By and by one girl said, “I’m getting hungry.” “Well,” said Ciŋgibis,
“not far down is a nice rock and there we will have lunch. You can pull
roots for lunch.” So Ciŋgibis and the two girls went ashore and pulled
roots and made a string out of them. “That’s enough,” said Ciŋgibis to
one of the girls. “Tie the string to my leg and I’ll dive for something
to eat. When you see the string jerk, pull me up.” They did this, and
he dove into the water. When the girls saw the string jerk, they pulled
him up and he brought with him a big beaver. They skinned and cooked
the beaver for lunch; then Ciŋgibis and his two wives continued their
journey. Soon Ciŋgibis said, “Well, we are not far from the village
now. I am going to place my caribou snare.” He meant rabbit when he
said caribou. So he placed his snares. He then told the girls, “At the
village your sister-in-law will come down to see you. Maŋg (Loon) is
the name of the chief of the village. But we won’t camp near them;
we’ll camp a little to one side.” They went down the river until they
came to the mouth, and at that point they saw the wigwams.
All the people yelled when they saw Ciŋgibis, for he was a great man,
although he was the ugliest one among them. They cried, “Ee Ciŋgibis!
He has two wives.” So they all laughed and the sister of Ciŋgibis came
to shake hands with his two wives. Then Ciŋgibis pitched his wigwam.
Soon a man who was a second chief came to Ciŋgibis and said, “Chief
Maŋg wants to see you. He is going to have a dance tonight.” Ciŋgibis
said to his wives, “Stay here and don’t go to the dance. There are too
many nice-looking men there.” On account of this the two wives became
angry with him. Ciŋgibis put on his best clothes and went to the dance.
By and by the wives heard drumming and fine voices singing. So they
decided to go and peep in at the dancers if Ciŋgibis should not see
them. They did this and peeped in through the bark, and there they saw
Loon singing. He was a fine-looking man with a fine voice and fine
clothes. Ciŋgibis was beside Loon, looking exceedingly ugly in contrast
to him. The wives said, “It is a shame that Loon is so good-looking.”
They then went back to camp and put two stumps in the place where they
were to sleep, covered them with blankets and ran off.
Ciŋgibis came back from the dance and, thinking that he was sleeping
with his two wives, he lay down between the two stumps and fell asleep.
But his two wives went to sleep with Chief Loon. By and by ants began
to bite Ciŋgibis and he scolded his wives, saying, “Don’t do that.” At
last he discovered the stumps and threw them out. At daybreak he went
to the chief’s wigwam and there, sleeping with the Chief, he saw his
two wives. “You are a dead man for this!” said Ciŋgibis.
He then went to his grandmother. “What do you want?” asked she. “I want
a chisel and a flint.” “What do you want with them, grandchild? Are you
going to be in mischief again?” said the grandmother. However, she gave
them to him, and Ciŋgibis tied two flints to his feet and placed the
chisel in the fire to make it red hot. Then he asked for some eagle
feathers (but this was a wiske·djak (Canadian Jay) feather). He got
them and placed them on his head. When the ice chisel became red hot,
the old grandmother said, “Say, Ciŋgibis, don’t do any mischief again,”
but Ciŋgibis picked up the chisel and ran away with it to the wigwam of
Loon.
Loon always slept with his mouth open. When Ciŋgibis reached the
wigwam, he found every one in it asleep. He shoved the chisel into
Loon’s open mouth, killing him, ran off to his canoe, jumped into it,
and paddled away to his snares. He did this so that no one would
suspect that he had killed their chief. This is the reason why the Loon
always has a black mouth—from where he was burned. Ciŋgibis found a
rabbit in his snare. He placed the blood of the rabbit in some hay and
tied the hay to his stomach.
When he returned to the camp, the people were mourning for Loon.
Ciŋgibis came in slowly. The second chief said, “Ciŋgibis will be very
sorry when he hears that Chief Loon is dead. He was his great friend.
We must tell him before he arrives.” Then the people called to
Ciŋgibis, “Ee Ciŋgibis, the chief is dead.” “What!” said Ciŋgibis, “the
chief is dead!” Then he drew out his knife and pierced the hay full of
rabbit blood. The blood ran out and all the people thought that he had
killed himself. Ciŋgibis then dived into the water and the people came
out in their canoes to look for him. They saw the rabbit blood upon the
water and gave up looking for him. After a few days, they made another
chief, Goose (nixka′), since both Loon and Ciŋgibis were dead.
Ten days after this had happened, early in the morning the people heard
somebody singing near the shore three times, “Who killed our chief? I
am the one.” They awoke Chief Goose and he exclaimed, “I was thinking
that that Ciŋgibis was in all kinds of mischief. So we must try to kill
him.” Accordingly he sent all the men after him in canoes. When
Ciŋgibis dived, they could only see his feathers which his grandmother
had given him, but they could not catch him. Ciŋgibis said to them,
“You are all spirits. Drink all this water and you will get me.” Then
the Ducks and Geese drank all the lake dry and chased Ciŋgibis among
the rocks, and thought that they would catch him. “No, no,” laughed
Ciŋgibis, “I know some more tricks yet.” So he ran about and kicked the
rocks with the flints his grandmother had given him, which were
fastened to his feet, and water began flowing out and finally covered
everything. The people who were pursuing him had to swim for their
lives. They all became ducks. This is the origin of all the ducks. When
the people left their canoes, they were obliged to swim and so they are
swimming yet.
(6) Beaver Gives a Feast.
All the animals, once upon a time, were camped together—the Beaver, the
Otter, the Muskrat, and the others. Their chief was Beaver. Every once
in a while he would give a big feast, build a big wigwam, and invite
all the men and women to come in and eat with him. He would tell them,
“Well, I want to give a feast.” Then they would come in, sit around the
inside of his big wigwam and pass the food around from one to the
other. He would provide lots of grease in birch-bark dishes. Now, one
time, when he gave one of his feasts, Beaver cut his grease supply into
cakes which he served around to his guests. Every time he passed a cake
to a guest, pepedit. Indeed, every time he moved, pepedit, or when he
would go and cut a new block of grease. [34] Now every time the Beaver
broke wind, the Otter laughed. He did not seem to know that this would
offend the Beaver, because he was a little foolish. The other guests
told the Otter, “You mustn’t laugh when Beaver does that; he is our
chief.” Despite this, every time they went to a feast, castore pedente,
the Otter laughed at him.
So one time the Beaver sent a man to invite all the people to another
feast. He sent the messages all through the camp. Now the people told
the Otter this time, “You must not come; you never keep your mouth
shut; you always laugh. If you only knew enough to keep still like the
rest of us, it would be all right, but you had better stay home.” “Oh
well, all right,” said the Otter, “I’ll stay back.” All went to the
feast except the Otter. But he asked the others, “You will have to
bring my share to me, since I can’t come. Tell the chief to send me my
share.” The others agreed and went to attend the feast; but they asked
him, “How big a piece of grease do you want?” The Otter replied, “Bring
me a piece the size of my forearm.” (The otter has a very small
forearm.) When the guests arrived at the feast, the Beaver chief saw
that the Otter was not with them. Said he, “Where, indeed, is Otter? I
like him because he is so funny.” They informed him that the Otter had
not come, but that he wanted the chief to send him a piece of grease as
large as his forearm. The Beaver cut a piece that size and sent it to
the Otter; that is all the Otter got. He did not get very much because
he had such a short forearm. That is the end of my story.
(7) Tcaka·bįs.
Tcaka·bįs lived with his grandmother. One time he made a long journey
and was away for quite a while. He came to where there were some giant
women who were scraping frozen beaver skins, “kąc, kąc.” He returned
home and told his grandmother, “I heard the giant women scraping beaver
hides.” “Don’t go near them,” said his grandmother. And she repeated
this warning often to Tcaka·bįs.
However, one day he returned to where he had heard the giant women, and
when he reached the lake, there they were, chasing beaver on the ice.
When he came up, they knew him and cried out, “Ee, come on, come on,
Tcaka·bįs!” So he went over to them and they said, “There is a beaver
here and you must pull him up.” Tcaka·bįs was small and they thought
the beaver would pull him through the hole into the ice. But he caught
hold of the beaver’s tail and pulled him through all right. Then they
asked him to stay with them, but he went away after he had stolen the
big beaver tail, six feet long, and went back to his grandmother. When
he got home, he showed her the tail, and she asked, “Did you steal it?”
“No, no,” answered he. Then he made a door for their wigwam out of the
tail.
Soon the giant woman came to where he lived and called. “Tcaka·bįs, you
are a dead man!” They came for the purpose of eating Tcaka·bįs and his
grandmother. Then the grandmother said, “I told you not to go there.
Now they say you are a dead man.” But Tcaka·bįs said, “Don’t be afraid,
grandmother. I will take care of you.” Then he took his witch stone
[35] and threw it up inside the wigwam, and the whole wigwam turned to
stone except a little hole in the top for the smoke to come through.
The stone was so thick that they were unable to hear the giant women
pounding on the outside. Then the giant women went away and Tcaka·bįs
lay inside of the wigwam in safety. But he felt a little sick, because
he had eaten too much beaver fat.
Some time after this, Tcaka·bįs went back again to the giant women and
found them pounding up and boiling moose bones to make soup. As he came
up, one of the giant women seized him and threw him into the pot. There
he stayed for a long time, boiling and circling round and round in the
pot, but still he was alive. At last, when the giant women needed
grease, they dipped up Tcaka·bįs with a wooden spoon and threw him
outside. Then Tcaka·bįs went back to his grandmother. He was very thin,
because he had been boiled so long, nothing but skin and bones. That’s
the end; he was a small fellow.
(8) Aniwɔ·ye, [36] the Giant Skunk, and the Origin of Skunks.
Aniwɔ·ye was the monster Skunk. He used to travel all over this world,
trying to find the Ojibwa. He hunted them to kill them. He often took
the form of a man. Whenever he would encounter people, he would
approach them et pepedit towards their camp with his back to them,
killing the people malo ejus odore. In those days there was no other
sickness. That was the only sickness which people had to kill them.
Once upon a time in a camp where there were lots of people, hunters of
a big band, they beheld the tracks of Aniwɔ·ye near one of their
trails. It was winter time. When they saw these tracks, they turned
back from their object because they were afraid Aniwɔ·ye would see
their own tracks and follow them to camp and kill all their people. On
this account they started off in every direction in order to lead
Aniwɔ·ye away from the camp and so save their own people and possibly
themselves. Said they, “We will go to Big Fisher lake, where the Big
Fisher lives.” So they started off. But there was one old woman who
could hardly see. She could not travel with them, so they had to leave
her, as nobody could carry her.
Soon Aniwɔ·ye found their trails and followed them, and soon he came to
the wigwam in which the people had left the old woman. He looked in the
door and saw her sitting near the fire. “Where are all your people?” he
asked her. “They have gone away,” she answered. “They saw Aniwɔ·ye’s
track and departed. But I am too old. I can’t see, I can’t walk; so
they left me here.” This poor old woman thought it was a young man who
spoke to her; she did not know, indeed, that it was Aniwɔ·ye himself.
Then Aniwɔ·ye spoke, “If you can’t walk, I can cure you, so that you
will be as well and strong as you ever were.” So he turned his back to
her et pepedit. He blew the wigwam and the old woman all to pieces.
Then Aniwɔ·ye followed on the trail of the people. When he had tracked
them to Big Fisher lake, he could see right across the lake, because
there was no island in the way, and there, on the other side, he saw
where Big Fisher lived. The people had arrived here after a hard trip
and begged Big Fisher for protection from Aniwɔ·ye. So fast had they
travelled that some of the old people, unable to keep up with the
younger ones, had died of their efforts to hurry. Those who had reached
Big Fisher’s camp kept watching for Aniwɔ·ye to appear across the lake
on their tracks. At last they saw him emerge on the lake and come
towards them. All the way along this pursuit, when he had found the
people who had died on the march, he pulled at them to see if they were
dead. Now, when Aniwɔ·ye appeared Big Fisher said to the people, “We
will go to meet him. You men go ahead and I will hide behind you. So we
will approach him until we get almost within his range. Do not let him
see me, sed cum anum suum nobis verteret, spread apart and let me pass
you to the front. While his back is turned to us, we will fix him.”
They did as they were told, and the band started forward to meet
Aniwɔ·ye, who also approached them slowly.
When they were near enough ut odore ejus attingerentur, Aniwɔ·ye turned
slowly. When his back was toward them, et cum pediturus esset, they
opened ranks and Big Fisher ran forth et prius anum Aniwɔ·yei cepit
quam hie pedere posset. He pinched anum ejus dure. “Ayu!” exclaimed
Aniwɔ·ye. “Ayu, ayu! Let go of me! Non iterum pedam!” But Big Fisher
held on and would not let go. They struggled for some time, but Big
Fisher held fast, and at last Aniwɔ·ye died because he could not
discharge. He died and they were all exceedingly glad, rejoicing that
he was done for. So they cut him up into small bits and scattered the
bits all about. Immediately these turned into little skunks which ran
off into the bush. That was the end of Aniwɔ·ye, the Monster Skunk, but
there are plenty of small skunks now.
(9) The Man Who Transformed a Doll into a Woman and Followed Her into
the World Above.
There was once a man. He was hunting. He had his own wigwam, where he
lived with an old man and an old woman who called him grandchild. He
did not even know his father and mother. He had never seen young
people, so when he became about twenty years old, he began to think
that he ought to get himself a wife. So he started out and travelled
all over, but could not find one. At last, one day, he took a piece of
wood and tried to carve for himself a big doll. He worked hard and
after a while he made it so nearly perfect that it could speak a
little. It was a female, but it did not seem to be complete quite yet.
Said the doll to him, “Put me in your wigwam, cover me up, and do not
look at me for three days. Be sure not to look, because if you do, I
won’t be here.”
“All right,” said he; and placed his doll in his wigwam. To remove
himself from the temptation of breaking her rule he went away by
himself and stayed the first night. The next afternoon he came back and
began wondering to himself. “If I sleep here,” thought he, “I might,
indeed, be tempted to look.” The more he pondered, the more he
weakened. At last, he decided to take a little look. He peeped inside
the wigwam and saw a very nice-looking young girl seated there. Then,
gaining control of himself, he hurried away and camped again that night
alone. The third day he came back again to look at his wife. When he
came near the camp, he went to the water-hole. [37] There he saw a
woman’s track going away from the water-hole. Thought he to himself,
“Alas! my wife has gone.” He walked up to the wigwam, looked in, and
found that the woman had actually gone. [38]
He now decided to follow her. He went to the woods, cut a piece of
cedar, and made himself a bow and a lot of arrows. The next day he
started—this was two days after the woman had left. Then he walked very
fast, starting early in the morning. Soon he came to a small lake lying
still and frozen. When he reached the edge of the ice, he shot an arrow
across, then he sped so fast that he reached the other side of the lake
before the arrow got there. Before noon-time he came to where a camp
was located, and going up to it, beheld an old woman cooking there.
“Oh, my grandchild,” said she, “don’t stand there looking in the door.
Come in and eat.” So he went in. Then he asked her whether she had seen
a woman pass there. She answered, “Yesterday, about noon.” And the old
woman gave him a mess of corn and said, “My dear grandchild, it is very
hard where you are going. Many people have tried to go where your road
leads; but they have never gotten there, for many creatures are seeking
their lives. But I will help you.” Then she gave him a leg-bone of a
lynx. “When you are in trouble, you may need this,” she told him. Then
he started on, following the tracks of his woman. Every time he came to
a lake, he shot an arrow across and sped before it as he had done at
first. He was fast indeed.
Soon he came to another wigwam and peeped into this as he had done into
the first. An old woman who was cooking inside spoke to him, as had the
first, and invited him to come in and eat. Then he asked her when she
had seen the woman pass by. “A little after noon time,” she replied.
Now, by this, he knew that he had not gained very much. As before, he
ate a little snack of corn and the old woman said to him, “Where you
are going will be a very hard trip for you. Many people try it, but
never succeed. They die.” And she, too, gave him a lynx bone and told
him, as the other had done, that it would help him in time of need on
his journey; and he started on again, doing the same at every lake,
until it began to grow late in the day. He had been going so fast that
he felt very tired.
By and by he came to another camp and peeped in, as before, asked the
same question, and was received in the same way. After he had eaten
here, the old woman gave him a squirrel’s tail to help him overcome the
dangers which she warned him against. Said she, “From now on you won’t
see any more camps. Walk very fast now. Soon you will see a big tree
with a square trunk, which will reach very far up into the sky. Now you
won’t see any trail, but look carefully around. That is where your wife
climbed up. There are, indeed, steps cut into the trunk, but you will
not be able to see them. To you it will look smooth.”
So he proceeded on his way and soon came to the place she had spoken
about. There was the big tree, but no tracks were in sight. Around the
base he saw lots of bones, bones of people who had tried to climb but
had fallen down and died. He was bewildered. Then suddenly he
recollected the bones the old women had given him. Taking one in each
hand, like a pick, he began climbing up the great tree. At last he
ascended so high that the bones began to wear away. When they were so
short that he could hardly use them, he looked down. He had gone so
high that he could neither see the world beneath nor the end of the
tree in the sky above. Now his bones were too short to help him, but he
had his bow on his back. He could hardly hold on any longer, so he
cried and yelled for help, but nobody could hear him. Soon he heard a
spirit nearby which murmured to him, “Close your eyes and look through
the tree. You will see steps to climb on.” Then he did as the voice
said and perceived steps. He placed his feet in them and started
running up. But now he made another mistake, he did not keep his eyes
closed. When he looked, lo! he found himself back to where he had begun
to climb the steps, holding on with his worn-out bones. Then he
bethought himself of the squirrel’s tail, and at the same moment found
himself transformed into a squirrel. He found that he could run up the
great tree by tapping his tail on the trunk at each step. At last he
came to a hole in the sky, in the middle of which the great tree
protruded. A wide space, however, surrounded the tree, separating it
from the edge of the sky. It would be necessary for him to jump across
from the trunk to this edge. He made a great effort and sprang for the
edge, but he just managed to catch on at the line of his waist; his
upper parts, which reached above the edge, at once became human; his
lower parts, extending below the edge, remained in the form of the
squirrel.
Then he beheld his wife coming across the surface of this upper world
toward him. Said she, “You should not have come here, because, after
all your trouble, you will die anyway.” She took hold of him and made
shift to raise him. Then she pulled him out after teasing him a little
while. “Now,” she said to him, “we always play ball up here. There are
men here whom you will meet. They are your brothers-in-law. They will
want you to play ball. If they beat you in the game, they will kill
you; but if you beat them, you will survive.”
Then she led him away to a village, where they saw a lot of great White
Bears. This was the great White Bear’s home and his family. Now the old
Bear arranged a contest for the stranger. Said he, “You take this ball
and go around the edge of this world, running. One of these Bears will
race with you, to see who gets back here first.” So they started. The
Bear took the ball in his mouth and, as soon as he started running, the
man jumped upon his back and shook his ears, which made the Bear drop
the ball. Then he threw the ball ahead. In this way, repeating the
trick, they went around the world, and the man succeeded in getting
back first. When he reached the starting point, the Bears said, “You
seem to be a pretty good man; but there are still more tricks for you
to perform. If you win, you can stay.”
And they all went out together and came to a big rock. One of the White
Bears tried to move this rock, and with a great effort he succeeded in
moving it a little. “Now, you try,” said they, “and if you can’t move
it, you are a dead man.” Then the man took his bow and arrow and shot
it at the rock. The rock immediately broke into fragments. “Indeed, you
are a great man, our brother-in-law, and can stay here and hunt and
live with us,” said the old White Bear. Then the old Bear told him,
after a while, that he had better go and hunt, or he would grow
lonesome in his new life. By this time they had grown to like him very
much.