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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44935 ***
+
+       MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE
+          MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
+               AND THE
+             GREAT LAKES
+
+
+        Selected and Edited by
+         KATHARINE B. JUDSON
+
+  AUTHOR OF "MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF
+  CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST,"
+  "MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE PACIFIC
+        NORTHWEST," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+             ILLUSTRATED
+
+            [Illustration]
+
+
+               CHICAGO
+         A. C. McCLURG & CO.
+                 1914
+
+
+              Copyright
+         A. C. McCLURG & CO.
+                1914
+
+        Published August, 1914
+
+   W. F. Hall Printing Co., Chicago
+
+
+
+
+  _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
+
+  MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE GREAT PLAINS.
+    _Illustrated. Small quarto._
+      _$1.50 net._
+
+  MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST.
+    _Over fifty full-page illustrations. Small quarto._
+      _$1.50 net._
+
+  MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF ALASKA.
+    _Beautifully illustrated. Small quarto._
+      _$1.50 net._
+
+  MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.
+    Especially of Washington and Oregon.
+    _With fifty full-page illustrations. Small quarto._
+      _$1.50 net._
+
+  MONTANA: "The Land of Shining Mountains."
+    _Illustrated. Indexed. Square 8vo._
+      _75 cents net._
+
+  WHEN THE FORESTS ARE ABLAZE.
+    _Illustrated. Crown 8vo._
+      _$1.35 net._
+
+  A. C. McClurg & Co., Publishers
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: EARLY INDIAN DRAWING SHOWING A WRESTLING BOUT FOR
+  A TURKEY.
+    The Donor, a Hunter, is the Shrouded Figure on the Horse.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Mystery, magic, and manitoes abound in the land of Hiawatha, in the
+land of the Ojibwas, among the green islands, graceful and beautiful,
+lying amidst the dancing blue waters when the sun shines over Gitche
+Gomee, the Great Water.[1] Manitoes, great and mighty, lived in the
+cool depths of the mighty forests, in the rivers and lakes, and even
+in the snows of winter. And adventures there were in those early days
+amongst these islands of the North, when manitoes directed the affairs
+of men.
+
+    [1] Gitche Gomee is Lake Superior.
+
+But the animal fathers lived upon the earth before there came the
+"two-legged walkers." There were many animals. There were many
+beavers. It was the beavers who made Gitche Gomee, the Great Water.
+They made it by building two dams. The first they built at the Grand
+Sault, and the second was five leagues below. When Great Hare came up
+the river, he said, "This must not be so." Therefore he stepped upon
+the first dam. But he was in haste. He did not break it down;
+therefore there are now great falls and whirlpools at that place. But
+at the second dam, Great Hare stepped upon it mightily; therefore
+there are now few falls and only a little swirling water at that
+place. Great Hare was very mighty. When he chased Beaver he stepped
+across a bay eight leagues wide.
+
+Around Michilimackinack was the land of Great Hare. There, amongst the
+green islets, under the cool shade of wide spreading trees, where fish
+leaped above the rippling waters, he made the first fish net. He made
+it after watching Spider weave a web for catching flies.
+
+It was Wenibojo,[2] who, in Ojibwa land, discovered the wild rice and
+taught the Indians to use it. He first pointed out the low grassy
+islands in the lakes, waving their bright green leaves and spikes of
+yellowish-green blossoms. He showed them how to cut paths through the
+wild rice beds before the grain was ripe, and later, to beat it into
+their canoes. He told them always to gather the wild rice before a
+storm, else the wind would blow it all into the water. Therefore the
+Indians use wild rice in all their feasts. They even taught the white
+men to use it.
+
+    [2] Wenibojo is only a variation of the name also given as
+    Manabush. Both are identical with Hiawatha.
+
+When the snows of winter lay deep upon the forests of the North, when
+ice covered lakes and rivers, then the story tellers of the Ojibwas,
+as of all other Indian tribes, told the tales of the olden times, when
+manitoes lived upon the earth, and when the animal fathers roamed
+through the forest. But such stories are not told in summer. All the
+woods and shores, all the bays and islands, are, in summer, the home
+of keen-hearing spirits, who like not to have Indians talking about
+them. But when the deep snows come, then the spirits are more drowsy.
+Then the Indians, when North West rattles the flaps of the wigwams,
+and wild animals hide in the shelter of the deep forest, tell their
+tales. All winter they tell them, while the fires burn in the
+wigwams--tell them until the frogs croak in the spring.
+
+Tales they tell of how Gitche Manito, the Good One, taught the Indians
+how to plant the Indian corn, how to strip and bury Mondamin, and how
+to gather the corn in the month of falling leaves, that there may be
+food in the camps when the snows of winter come. Tales they tell of
+Gitche Manedo, the Evil One, who brings only distress and
+sickness--tales of the land of Hiawatha. Mystery and magic lay all
+about them.
+
+It is a far cry from the stories of the North along the banks of the
+Mississippi, from that land of long winters, through the country of
+the mound builders, to the sunnier Southland; yet from north to south,
+around the glimmering Indian fires, grouped eager men and women and
+children, listening to the story tellers.
+
+But quite different are the tales of the Southland--of the Cherokees,
+Biloxis, and Chitimachas. They are stories of wild turkeys, of
+persimmons and raccoons, and of the spirits which dwell in the
+mountain places where none dare go. Stories also are they of Brer
+Rabbit and the tar wolf, which came from Indian slaves working in the
+fields in early days, through the negro slaves working beside them, to
+the children of the white men.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is a loss to American literature that so much of the legendary
+history of these Indian tribes has gone, beyond hope of recovery.
+Exquisite in color, poetical in feeling, these legends of sun, moon,
+and stars, of snow, ice, lightning, thunders, the winds, the life of
+the forest birds and animals about them, and the longing to understand
+the why and the how of life--all which we have only in fragments.
+Longfellow's work shows the wonderful beauty of these northern
+legends, nor has he done violence to any of them in making them
+poetical. His picture of the departure of Hiawatha, the lone figure
+standing stately and solemn, as the canoe drifted out towards the
+glowing sunset, while from the shore, in the shadow of the forest,
+came the low Indian chant, mingling with the sighing of the pine
+trees, is truely Indian. For the mystical and poetical is strong in
+the Indian nature.
+
+As in all the other volumes of this series, no effort has been made to
+ornament or amplify these legends in the effort to make them
+"literary," or give them "literary charm." They must speak for
+themselves. What editing has been done has been in simplifying them,
+and freeing them from the verbose setting in which many were found.
+For in this section of the country, settled before it was realized
+that there was an Indian literature, the original work of noting down
+the myths was very imperfectly done.
+
+Thanks are due to the work of Albert E. Jenks, on the wild rice
+Indians of the upper lakes; to James Mooney, for the myths of the
+Cherokees; to George Catlin, for some of the upper Mississippi
+legends; to the well-known but almost inaccessible work of
+Schoolcraft, and to others.
+
+                                                    K. B. J.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                PAGE
+  The Earth-Maker                                 _Winnebago_      1
+
+  Creation                                       _Chitimacha_      5
+
+  The Creation                                      _Wyandot_      8
+
+  Creation of the Races                              _Biloxi_     12
+
+  Story of the Creation                              _Ojibwa_     14
+
+  Creation (a fragment)                              _Ojibwa_     16
+
+  Creation of the Mandans                            _Mandan_     17
+
+  The Flood                                      _Chitimacha_     19
+
+  The Great Flood (a fragment)                       _Mandan_     20
+
+  The Great Flood                                  _Menomini_     21
+
+  Origin of Fire                                   _Menomini_     26
+
+  The Thunderers and the Origin of Fire            _Menomini_     28
+
+  The Origin of Fire                             _Chitimacha_     31
+
+  The Gifts of the Sky God                       _Chitimacha_     32
+
+  Mondamin                                           _Ojibwa_     34
+
+  Mondamin                                           _Ottawa_     37
+
+  The Corn Woman                                   _Cherokee_     40
+
+  Discovery of Wild Rice                             _Ojibwa_     42
+
+  Origin of Wild Rice                                _Ojibwa_     44
+
+  Origin of Winnebago                              _Menomini_     45
+
+  The Origin of Tobacco                            _Menomini_     49
+
+  Origin of Maple Sugar                            _Menomini_     51
+
+  Manabush and the Moose                           _Menomini_     53
+
+  Origin of Day and Night                          _Menomini_     54
+
+  Origin of the Bear                               _Cherokee_     56
+
+  Origin of the Word Chicago                         _Ojibwa_     58
+
+  Origin of the Word Chicago                       _Menomini_     60
+
+  The Coming of Manabush                           _Menomini_     61
+
+  The Story of Manabush                            _Menomini_     62
+
+  Manabozho and West                                 _Ojibwa_     65
+
+  Manabush and the Great Fish                      _Menomini_     69
+
+  The Departure of Manabush                        _Menomini_     72
+
+  The Return of Manabush                           _Menomini_     74
+
+  The Request for Immortality                      _Menomini_     75
+
+  Peboan and Seegwun                                 _Ojibwa_     77
+
+  The Grave Fires                                    _Ojibwa_     79
+
+  The Death Trail                                  _Cherokee_     82
+
+  The Duck and the North West Wind                   _Ojibwa_     84
+
+  How the Hunter Destroyed Snow                    _Menomini_     87
+
+  The Pipe of Peace                                  _Ojibwa_     90
+
+  The Thunder's Nest                                 _Ojibwa_     92
+
+  The Pipestone                                       _Sioux_     93
+
+  The Pipestone                                 _Knisteneaux_     94
+
+  Pau-puk-kee-wis                                    _Ojibwa_     95
+
+  Iagoo, the Boaster                                 _Ojibwa_    102
+
+  Ojeeg, the Summer-Maker                            _Ojibwa_    104
+
+  Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting                         _Cherokee_    109
+
+  Rabbit and the Tar Baby                            _Biloxi_    111
+
+  Rabbit and Tar Wolf                              _Cherokee_    114
+
+  Rabbit and Panther                               _Menomini_    116
+
+  How Rabbit Stole Otter's Coat                    _Cherokee_    118
+
+  Rabbit and Bear                                    _Biloxi_    122
+
+  Why Deer Never Eat Men                           _Menomini_    125
+
+  How Rabbit Snared the Sun                          _Biloxi_    128
+
+  When the Orphan Trapped the Sun                    _Ojibwa_    130
+
+  The Hare and the Lynx                              _Ojibwa_    134
+
+  Welcome to a Baby                                _Cherokee_    137
+
+  Baby Song                                        _Cherokee_    139
+
+  Song to the Firefly                                _Ojibwa_    140
+
+  Song of the Mother Bears                         _Cherokee_    141
+
+  The Man in the Stump                             _Cherokee_    143
+
+  The Ants and the Katydids                          _Biloxi_    144
+
+  When the Owl Married                             _Cherokee_    145
+
+  The Kite and the Eagle                                         147
+
+  The Linnet and the Eagle                           _Ojibwa_    148
+
+  How Partridge got his Whistle                    _Cherokee_    149
+
+  How Kingfisher got his Bill                      _Cherokee_    151
+
+  Why the Blackbird Has Red Wings                _Chitimacha_    153
+
+  Ball Game of the Birds and Animals               _Cherokee_    155
+
+  Why the Birds Have Sharp Tails                     _Biloxi_    158
+
+  The Wildcat and the Turkeys                        _Biloxi_    159
+
+  The Brant and the Otter                            _Biloxi_    161
+
+  The Tiny Frog and the Panther                                  163
+
+  The Frightener of Hunters        _Choctaw_ (_Bayou Lacomb_)    166
+
+  The Hunter and the Alligator     _Choctaw_ (_Bayou Lacomb_)    167
+
+  The Groundhog Dance                              _Cherokee_    169
+
+  The Racoon                                       _Menomini_    171
+
+  Why the Opossum Plays Dead                         _Biloxi_    172
+
+  Why the 'Possum's Tail is Bare                   _Cherokee_    174
+
+  Why 'Possum Has a Large Mouth    _Choctaw_ (_Bayou Lacomb_)    176
+
+  The Porcupine and the Two Sisters                _Menomini_    177
+
+  The Wolf and the Dog                             _Cherokee_    179
+
+  The Catfish and the Moose                        _Menomini_    180
+
+  Turtle                                           _Menomini_    181
+
+  The Worship of the Sun                             _Ojibwa_    185
+
+  Tashka and Walo                  _Choctaw_ (_Bayou Lacomb_)    189
+
+  Sun and Moon                                     _Menomini_    192
+
+  The Moon Person                                    _Biloxi_    193
+
+  The Star Creatures                               _Cherokee_    194
+
+  Meteors                                          _Menomini_    195
+
+  The Aurora Borealis                              _Menomini_    196
+
+  The West Wind                                  _Chitimacha_    197
+
+  The Lone Lightning                                 _Ojibwa_    198
+
+  The Thunders                                     _Cherokee_    200
+
+  Months of the Year                                _Natchez_    201
+
+  Why the Oaks and Sumachs Redden                       _Fox_    202
+
+  The Man of Ice                                   _Cherokee_    205
+
+  The Nunnehi                                      _Cherokee_    207
+
+  The Little People                                _Cherokee_    210
+
+  War Song                                           _Ojibwa_    212
+
+  The War Medicine                                 _Cherokee_    213
+
+  The Coming of the White Man                       _Wyandot_    214
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  Early Indian drawing showing a wrestling bout         _Frontispiece_
+
+  Early Indian pottery                                              20
+
+  Wild rice tied in bunches or sheaves                              42
+
+  Wild rice kernels after threshing and winnowing                   42
+
+  Birch-bark yoke, and sap buckets, used in maple sugar making      52
+
+  Picture writing. An Ojibwa Meda song                              84
+
+  Permanent ash-bark wigwam of the wild rice gathering Ojibwa      104
+
+  Shell gorget showing eagle carving                               128
+
+  Indian jar from the mounds of Arkansas                           128
+
+  Spider gorgets                                                   158
+
+  Shell pins made and used by Indians of the Mississippi Valley    176
+
+  Ojibwa dancer's beaded medicine bag                              198
+
+
+
+
+MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND THE GREAT LAKES
+
+
+
+
+THE EARTH-MAKER
+
+_Winnebago_
+
+
+When Earth-maker came to consciousness, he thought of the substance
+upon which he was sitting. He saw nothing. There was nothing anywhere.
+Therefore his tears flowed. He wept. But not long did he think of it.
+He took some of the substance upon which he was sitting; so he made a
+little piece of earth for our fathers. He cast this down from the high
+place on which he sat. Then he looked at what he had made. It had
+become something like our earth. Nothing grew upon it. Bare it was,
+but not quiet. It kept turning.
+
+"How shall I make it become quiet?" thought Earth-maker. Then he took
+some grass from the substance he was sitting upon and cast it down
+upon the earth. Yet it was not quiet.
+
+Then he made a man. When he had finished him, he called him Tortoise.
+At the end of all his thinking, after he came to consciousness, he
+made the two-legged walkers.
+
+Then Earth-maker said to this man, "The evil spirits are abroad to
+destroy all I have just created. Tortoise, I shall send you to bring
+order into the world." Then Earth-maker gave him a knife.
+
+But when Tortoise came to earth, he began to make war. He did not look
+after Earth-maker's creation. So Earth-maker took him back.
+
+Then he sent Hare down to earth to restore order. He said, "See,
+Grandmother, I have done the work my father directed me to do. The
+lives of my uncles and aunts, the two-legged walkers, will be endless
+like mine."
+
+His grandmother said, "Grandson, how could you make the lives of your
+uncles and aunts endless like yours? How could you do something in a
+way Earth-maker had not intended it to be? Earth-maker could not make
+them thus."
+
+Hare thought, "My grandmother must be related to some of the evil
+spirits I have killed. She does not like what I have done, for she is
+saying that I killed the evil spirits."
+
+Now grandmother heard him think. "No, Grandson, I am not thinking of
+that. I am saying that our father made death so there should not be a
+lack of food on earth. He made death to prevent overcrowding. He also
+made a spirit world in which they should live after death."
+
+Hare did not like what she said. "Grandmother surely does not like
+it," he thought. "She must be related to the evil spirits."
+
+"No, Grandson, it is not so. But to quiet you, your uncle and aunts
+will live to be very old." Then she spoke again, "Now, Grandson, stand
+up. The two-legged walkers shall follow me always. I shall follow you
+always. Therefore try to do what I tell you. Remember you are a man.
+Do not look back after you have started."
+
+Then they started to go around the earth.
+
+"Do not look back," she said.
+
+"I wonder why she says that," thought Hare. Then he turned his head
+the least little bit to the left, and looked back to the place from
+which they had started. Instantly everything caved in.
+
+"Oh, my! Oh, my!" exclaimed grandmother. "Grandson, a man you are; but
+I thought you were a great man, so I greatly encouraged you. Now even
+if I wished to, I could not prevent death."
+
+This she meant, so they say.
+
+Then they went around the earth, to the edge of the fire which
+encircles the earth. That way they went, so they say.
+
+
+
+
+CREATION
+
+_Chitimacha_
+
+
+There was a Creator of All Things. This Great Mystery understood all
+things. He had no eyes, yet he could see. He had no ears, yet he could
+hear. He had a body, but it could not be seen.
+
+When the earth was first made, the Creator of All Things placed it
+under the water. The fish were first created. But when the Creator
+wanted to make men, there was no dry land. Therefore Crawfish was sent
+down to bring up a little earth. He brought up mud in his claws.
+Immediately it spread out and the earth appeared above the waters.
+Then the Great Mystery made men. He made the Chitimachas. It was at
+Natchez that he first made them.
+
+He gave them laws but the people did not follow the laws. Therefore
+many troubles came, so that the Creator could not rest. Therefore the
+Creator made tobacco. Then men could become quiet and rest. Afterwards
+he made women, but at first they were like wood. So he directed a
+chief to teach them how to move, and how to cook, and to sew skins.
+
+Now when the animals met the Chitimachas, they ridiculed them. For
+these men had no fur, and no wool, and no feathers to protect them
+from storms, or rain, or the hot sun. The Chitimachas were sad because
+of this.
+
+Then the Creator gave them bows and arrows, and taught them how these
+things should be used. He told them that the flesh of the animals was
+good for food, and their skins for covering. Thus the animals were
+punished.
+
+The Creator taught them also how to draw fire from two pieces of wood,
+one flat and the other pointed; thus they learned to cook their food.
+The Creator taught them also to honor the bones of their relatives;
+and so long as they lived, to bring them food.
+
+Now in those days, the animals took part in the councils of men. They
+gave advice to men, being wiser. Each animal took especial care of the
+Chitimachas. Therefore the Indians respect the animals which gave good
+advice to their ancestors, and this aids them even today in time of
+need.
+
+The Creator also made the moon and the stars. Both were to give life
+and light to all things on earth. Moon forgot the sacred bathing,
+therefore he is pale and weak, giving but little light to man. But Sun
+gives light to all things. Sun often stops on her trail to give more
+time to the Indians when they are hunting, or fighting their enemies.
+Moon does not, but always pursues his wife over the sky trail. Yet he
+can never catch up with her.
+
+The mounds in the Chitimacha country are the camping places of the
+spirit sent down by the Creator to visit the Indians. This spirit
+taught the men how to cook their food and to cure their wounds. He is
+still highly honored.
+
+
+
+
+THE CREATION
+
+_Wyandot_
+
+
+There was, in olden days, something the matter with the earth. It has
+changed. We think so. We think the Great Mystery made it and made men
+also. He made them at a place called Mountains. It was eastward. When
+he had made the earth and these mountains, he covered the earth over
+with something. He did it with his hands.
+
+Under this, he put men. All the different tribes were there. One of
+the young men climbed up and found his way to the surface. It was very
+beautiful. Then a deer ran past, with an arrow in its side. He
+followed it to where it fell and died. He looked back to see its
+tracks, and he soon saw other tracks. They were the footprints of the
+person who shot the deer. He soon came up. It was the Maker of Men.
+Thus he taught the Indians what they must do when they came out of the
+earth. The creator showed the Indian how to skin the deer, and prepare
+it for food, and how to use the skin for dress.
+
+When everything was ready, he said, "Make a fire."
+
+The Indian said, "I do not know how."
+
+Therefore the creator made the fire. Then he said, "Put the meat on
+the fire. Roast it."
+
+The Indian did this, but he did not turn the stick. Therefore it was
+burned on one side and not roasted on the other. So the creator showed
+him how to turn the stick.
+
+Then the Great Mystery called all the Indians up out of the earth.
+They came out by tribes. To each tribe he gave a chief. Then he made a
+head chief over all the tribes, who should teach them what they should
+do.
+
+The Great Mystery also made Good and Evil. They were brothers. One
+made pleasant things grow. The other spent all his time spoiling his
+brother's work. He made stony places, and rocks, and made bad fruits
+to grow. He made great trouble among men. He annoyed them very much.
+Good had to go back and do his work over again. It kept him very busy.
+Then Good decided to destroy Evil.
+
+Therefore Good proposed to run a race with Evil. When they met, Good
+said, "Tell me first--what do you most fear?"
+
+"Bucks' horns," said Evil. "What do you most fear?"
+
+"Indian grass braided," said Good.
+
+Then Evil at once went to his grandmother, who braided Indian grass.
+He got a great deal of it. He put the grass in the trail, and put it
+in the limbs of the trees along the trail where Good was to run. Good
+also filled the path, where his brother Evil was to run, with bucks'
+horns.
+
+They said, "Who shall run first?" They argued about it. At last Good
+said, "Well, I will, because I proposed the race." So he started off
+and Evil followed him. When Good became tired, he pulled down a strand
+of braided green grass and chewed it. Thus he ran rapidly. But Evil
+became tired. Yet Good would not stop until he reached the end of the
+trail.
+
+The next day Evil started on his trail. Everywhere he was stopped by
+the branches of bucks' horns. They greatly annoyed him. He said to
+Good, "Let me stop." Good said, "No, you must go on." At last, towards
+evening, Evil fell in the trail. At once Good took bucks' horns and
+killed him.
+
+Then Good returned to his grandmother. She was very angry. She loved
+Evil. That night Good was awakened by a sound. The spirit of Evil was
+talking with his grandmother. Then when Evil knew Good was awake, he
+said, "Let me into the wigwam." But Good always said, "No."
+
+At last Evil said, "I go to the northwest land. You will never see me
+more. Those who follow me will never come back. Death will keep them."
+
+
+
+
+CREATION OF THE RACES[3]
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+    [3] Obviously influenced by missionary teaching, but a most
+    curious myth.
+
+Kuti Mankdce, the One Above, made people. He made one person, an
+Indian. While the Indian was sleeping, he made a woman. Then the One
+Above went away to find food for the man and woman.
+
+After he left, something was standing there upright. It was a tree. A
+person said, "Why do you not eat the fruit of this tree? I think he
+made it for you to eat."
+
+So the woman pulled off some fruit and stewed it and she and the
+Indian ate it. Shortly after, the One Above returned. Now he had gone
+away to find food for them. When he found they had stewed this fruit,
+he was very angry. He said, "Work for yourself. Find your own food,
+else you shall be hungry."
+
+When the One Above had been a long time gone, he sent back a letter to
+the Indians. But the Indians did not receive it, because the Americans
+took it. That is why Americans know how to read and write.
+
+Now after the letter came, the people found a very clear stream of
+water. The American found it first and lay down in it; therefore he is
+very white all over. Next came the Frenchman, but the water was not so
+clear. Then came the Indians; therefore Indians are not of light
+complexion, because they did not find the water when it was clear.
+Afterwards came the Spaniard, and he was not white, because the water
+had become very muddy.
+
+Some time after the Negro was made. The One Above thought he should
+attend to work, so he made the Negro's nose flat. And by this time the
+water was very muddy, and the stream was very low. So the Negro washed
+only the palms of his hands. Therefore Negroes are very black except
+on the palms of their hands.
+
+
+
+
+STORY OF THE CREATION
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+When Gitche Manito, the Good Mystery, created the earth-plain, it was
+bare, without trees or shrubs. Then he created two Indians, a man and
+a woman. Now when there were ten persons on the earth-plain, death
+happened. The first man lamented, and went back and forth over the
+plain, complaining.
+
+He said, "Why did the Good Spirit send death so soon?" The Good
+Mystery heard this. He called a great council. He said, "Man is not
+happy. I have made him very frail, therefore death happens. What shall
+we do?"
+
+The council lasted six days, and there was not a breath of air to
+disturb the waters. The seventh was the _nageezhik_, the excellent
+day. The sky was blue and there were no clouds. On that day Gitche
+Manito sent down a messenger to earth. In his right hand was a piece
+of white hare's skin, and in the left the head of a white-headed
+eagle. On each was the blue stripe of peace.
+
+The messenger said, "Gitche Manito sent me. He has heard your words.
+You must obey his commands." Then he gave to the Indians the hare's
+skin, the eagle's head, and a white otter skin with the blue stripe of
+peace.
+
+Thus Gitche Manito taught the Indians how to make magic and how to be
+strong.
+
+
+
+
+CREATION
+
+(A fragment)
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Long ago, Nokomis came down from Sky-land, but remained fluttering in
+mid air. There was no place on which to rest her foot.
+
+The Fishes at once held a great council. Now Tortoise had a
+shell-covered back, very broad. After the council, he rose to the
+surface so that Nokomis might rest upon his back. Then the
+drift-masses of the sea gathered about the Tortoise. Thus the land was
+made.
+
+Then Nokomis found herself alone on the land. So she married a manido
+from the Sky-land. Two sons had Nokomis--twin brothers. But the
+brothers were not friends. One was a good huntsman; the other could
+kill no game at all. So they disputed. Then one brother rose to the
+Sky-land. He caused the Thunders to roar over his brother's head.
+
+Now the sister of these twin brothers was the ancestor of the Ojibwas.
+
+
+
+
+CREATION OF THE MANDANS
+
+_Mandan_
+
+
+The Mandans were the People of the Pheasants. They were the first
+people in the world. At first they lived in the earth. Now, in the
+dark Earth-land, they had many vines. Then at last one vine grew up
+through a hole in the Earth-plain, far above their heads. One of their
+young men at once went up the vine until he came out on the
+Earth-plain. He came out on the prairies, on the bank of a river, just
+where the Mandan village now stands.[4]
+
+    [4] 1834.
+
+He looked all about him. The Earth-plain was very beautiful. There
+were many buffaloes there. He killed one with his bow and arrow, and
+found it was good for food.
+
+Then the young man returned to his people under the ground. He told
+them all he had seen. They held a council, and then they began to
+climb up the vine to the Earth-plain. Some of the chiefs, and the
+young warriors, and many of the women went up. Then came a very fat
+woman. The chiefs said, "Do not go up." But she did, so the vine
+broke.
+
+The Mandans were very sorry about this. Because no more could go up,
+the tribe on the Earth-plain is not very large. And no one could
+return to his village in the ground. Therefore the Mandans built their
+village on the banks of the river. But the rest of the people remained
+underground.
+
+
+
+
+THE FLOOD
+
+_Chitimacha_
+
+
+Long, long ago, a great storm came. At once the people baked a great
+earthen pot, and in this two of them saved themselves. The pot was
+held up on the surface of the water. Now two rattlesnakes were also
+saved in the earthen jar, because in the olden days rattlesnakes were
+the friends of man. In those days, when an Indian left his lodge the
+rattlesnake entered it and protected it until he returned.
+
+When all the land was flooded, the red-headed woodpecker hooked his
+claws into the sky and so hung above the waters. But the flood rose so
+high that part of his tail was wet. You can see the marks even to this
+day.
+
+When the waters sank, he was sent to find land. He could find none.
+Then a dove was sent and came back with a grain of sand. This sand was
+placed on top of the great waters and immediately it stretched out. It
+became dry land. Therefore the dove is called "Ground Watcher."
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT FLOOD
+
+(A fragment)
+
+_Mandan_
+
+
+The earth is a large tortoise. It moves very slowly and carries a
+great deal of earth on its back. Long ago there was a tribe which is
+now dead. They used to dig deep down in the earth for badgers. They
+dug with knives. One day they stuck a knife far down into the earth.
+It cut through the shell of Tortoise.
+
+Therefore Tortoise at once began to sink into the water. The water
+rose through the knife cut until it covered all the ground. All the
+people were drowned except one man.
+
+But some of the old people say it was this way. They say there were
+four Tortoises, one in the East, one in the West, one in the South,
+and another in the North. Each Tortoise made it rain for ten days.
+Therefore the water covered the earth and all the people were drowned.
+
+  [Illustration: EARLY INDIAN POTTERY.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT FLOOD
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+Manabush[5] wanted to punish the evil manidoes, the Ana maqkiu who had
+destroyed his brother Wolf. Therefore he invented the ball game.
+
+    [5] The Manabozho of the Ojibwas.
+
+The place selected by Manabush for a ball ground was near a large sand
+bar on a great lake near Mackinac. He asked the Thunderers to play
+against the Ana maqkiu. These evil manidoes came out of the ground as
+Bears. One chief was a silvery white bear, and the other a gray bear.
+They played the ball game all day. Manabush watched the game from a
+tree on a knoll.
+
+When night came, Manabush went to a spot between the places where the
+Bear chiefs had played ball. He said, "I want to be a pine tree, cut
+off halfway between the ground and the top, with two strong branches
+reaching out over the places where the Bear chiefs lie down." At once
+he became just such a tree.
+
+Now when the players came to the ball game the next morning, the Bear
+chiefs at once said, "This tree was not standing there yesterday."
+
+The Thunderers at once said, "Oh, yes. It was there." Thus they
+argued. At last one Bear chief said, "This tree is Manabush. Therefore
+we will kill him." At once they sent for Grizzly Bear. They said,
+"Climb this tree. Tear off the bark. Scratch it." Grizzly Bear did so.
+He also bit the branches.
+
+Then the Bear chiefs called to Serpent. They said, "Ho, Serpent! Come
+climb this tree. Bite it. Strangle it in your coils." Serpent at once
+did so. It was very hard for Manabush; yet he said nothing at all.
+
+Then the Bear chiefs said, "No, it is not Manabush. Therefore we will
+finish the game."
+
+Now when they were playing, someone carried the ball so far that the
+Bear chiefs were left entirely alone. At once Manabush drew an arrow
+from his quiver and shot the White Bear chief. Then he shot another
+arrow at Gray Bear chief. He wounded both of them. Then Manabush
+became a man again and ran for the sand bar. Soon the underground Ana
+maqkiu came back. They saw the two Bear chiefs were wounded. They
+immediately called for a flood from the earth to drown Manabush. It
+came very quickly and followed that one. Then Badger came. He hid
+Manabush in the earth. As he burrowed, he threw the earth behind him,
+and that held the water back. So the Ana maqkiu could not find
+Manabush. Therefore they gave up the search just as the water began to
+fill Badger's burrow. So Manabush and Badger returned above ground.
+
+Now the underground people carried their chiefs to a wigwam. They said
+to an old woman, "Take care of them." Then Manabush followed them. He
+met the old woman. He took her skin and hid himself in it. So he went
+into the wigwam. He killed both the Bear chiefs. Then he took the
+skins of the bears. When he came out of the wigwam he shook a network
+of basswood twigs, so that the Ana maqkiu might know he had been
+there.
+
+At once they pursued him. Water poured out of the earth in many
+places. A great flood came.
+
+Manabush at once ran to the top of the highest mountain. The waters
+followed him closely. He climbed a great pine tree on the mountain
+top, but the waters soon reached him. Manabush said to the pine, "Grow
+twice as high." At once it did so. Yet the waters rose higher.
+Manabush said again to the tree, "Grow twice as high."
+
+He said this four times, yet the waters kept rising until they
+reached his arm pits. Then Manabush called to Kisha Manido for help.
+The Good Mystery at once commanded the waters to stop.
+
+Manabush looked around. There were only a few animals in the water. He
+called, "Ho, Otter! Come to me and be my brother. Dive down into the
+water. Bring up some earth that I may make a new world." Otter dived
+down into the water and was gone a long time. When he appeared again
+on the surface, Manabush saw he was drowned.
+
+Then he called again, "Ho, Mink! Come to me and be my brother. Dive
+down into the water. Bring me some earth." Then Mink dived into the
+water. He was gone a long time. He also was drowned.
+
+Manabush looked about him again. He saw Muskrat. He called, "Ho,
+Muskrat! Come to me and be my brother. Dive down into the water. Bring
+me up earth from below." Muskrat immediately dived into the water. He
+was gone a very long time. Then when he came up, Manabush went to him.
+In his paw was a tiny bit of mud. Then Manabush held Muskrat up, and
+blew on him, so he became alive again.
+
+Then Manabush took the earth. He rubbed it between the palms of his
+hands and threw it out on the water. Thus a new world was made and
+trees appeared on it.
+
+Manabush told Muskrat that his tribe should always be numerous, and
+that wherever his people should live they should have enough to eat.
+
+Then Manabush found Badger. To him he gave the skin of the Gray Bear
+chief. But he kept for himself the skin of the silvery White Bear
+chief.
+
+
+
+
+ORIGIN OF FIRE
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+While Manabush was still a young man, he said to Nokomis, the Earth,
+"Grandmother, it is cold here and we have no fire. I shall go and get
+some."
+
+Nokomis said, "Oh, no! It is too dangerous."
+
+But Manabush said, "Yes, we must have fire."
+
+At once Manabush made a canoe of birch bark. Then he became a rabbit.
+So he started eastward, across the great water, to a land where lived
+an old man who had fire. He guarded the fire carefully so that people
+might not steal it.
+
+Now the old man had two daughters. One day they came out of the sacred
+wigwam where the fire was kept. Behold! There was a little rabbit, wet
+and cold and trembling. They took it up at once in their arms. They
+carried it into the wigwam. They set it down near the fire.
+
+So Manabush sat by the fire while the two girls were busy. The old man
+was asleep. Then Rabbit hopped nearer the fire. When he hopped, the
+whole earth shook. The old man roused. He said, "My daughters, what
+has happened?"
+
+The girls answered, "Nothing at all. We picked up a little wet rabbit
+and are letting him dry by the fire." Then again the old man fell
+asleep. The girls were busy.
+
+Suddenly Rabbit seized a stick of burning wood and ran out of the
+wigwam. He ran with great speed towards his canoe. The old man and the
+two girls followed him closely. But Rabbit reached his canoe and
+paddled quickly away, to the wigwam of Nokomis. He paddled so quickly
+that the fire stick burned fiercely. Sparks flew from it and burned
+Rabbit.
+
+At once Rabbit and Nokomis gave fire to the Thunderers. They have had
+the care of fire ever since.
+
+
+
+
+THE THUNDERERS AND THE ORIGIN OF FIRE
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+When the Great Mystery created the earth, he made also many manidos.
+Those of animal form were People of the Underground, and evil. But the
+bird manidos were Eagles and Hawks. They were the Thunderers. The
+golden eagle was the Thunder-which-no-one-could-see.
+
+Now when Masha Manido, the Good Mystery, saw that Bear was still an
+animal, he permitted him to change his form. Thus Bear became an
+Indian, with light skin. All this happened near Menomini River, near
+where it empties into Green Bay. At this place also Bear first came
+out of the ground.
+
+Bear found himself alone, so he called to Eagle, "Ho, Eagle! come to
+me and be my brother." So Eagle came down to earth and became an
+Indian.
+
+While the Thunderers stood there, Beaver came near. Now as Beaver was
+a woman, she became a younger brother of the Thunderers. Soon after,
+as Bear and Eagle stood on a river bank, they saw a stranger,
+Sturgeon. They called to him. Therefore Sturgeon became Bear's younger
+brother and his servant. So also Elk was adopted by the Thunderers. He
+became a younger brother and water carrier.
+
+At another time, Bear was going up Wisconsin River and sat down to
+rest. Out from beneath a waterfall came Wolf.
+
+Wolf said, "What are you doing in this place?"
+
+Bear said, "I am traveling to the source of the river. I am resting."
+
+Just then Crane came flying by. Bear called, "Ho, Crane. Carry me to
+my people at the head of the river. Then will I make you my younger
+brother."
+
+Crane stopped and took Bear on his back. As he was flying off, Wolf
+called, "Ho, Bear. Take me also as your younger brother. I am alone."
+
+Bear said, "I will take Wolf as my younger brother."
+
+This is how Wolf and Crane became younger brothers of Bear. Wolf
+afterwards let Dog and Deer join him, having seats in the council.
+
+Now Big Thunder lived at Winnebago Lake, near Fond du Lac. The
+Thunderers were all made by Masha Manido to be of benefit to the whole
+world. When they return from the Southwest in the spring, they bring
+with them the rains which make the earth green and the plants and
+trees to grow. If it were not for the Thunderers, the earth would be
+dry and all things would perish.
+
+Masha Manido gave to the Thunderers squaw corn, which grows on small
+sticks and has ears of several colors.
+
+The Thunderers were also the Makers-of-Fire. Manabush first gave it to
+them, but he had stolen it from an old man living on an island in the
+middle of a great lake.
+
+Bear and Sturgeon owned rice, which grew abundantly in the waters near
+Bear's village. One day the Thunderers visited Bear's village and
+promised to give corn and fire, if Bear would give them rice.
+
+The Thunderers are the war chiefs and have charge of the lighting of
+the fire. So Bear gave rice to them. Then he built a long tepee and a
+fire was kindled in the center by the Thunderers. From this all the
+people of the earth received fire. It was carried to them by the
+Thunderers. When the people travel, the Thunderers go ahead to the
+camping place and start the fire which is used by all.
+
+
+
+
+THE ORIGIN OF FIRE
+
+_Chitimacha_
+
+
+Fire first came from the Great Being, Kutnakin. He gave it into the
+care of an Indian so old that he was blind.
+
+Now the Indians all knew that fire was good, therefore they tried to
+steal it. The old man could not see them when they came stealthily to
+his wigwam, but he could feel the presence of anyone. Then he would
+beat about him with his stick until he drove away the seekers for
+fire.
+
+Now one day an Indian seized the fire suddenly. At once the Watcher of
+the Fire began beating about him with his stick, until the thief
+dropped the fire. But the old man did not know he had dropped it. He
+still beat about him so fiercely with his stick that he pounded some
+of the fire into a log.
+
+That is why fire is in wood.
+
+
+
+
+THE GIFTS OF THE SKY GOD
+
+_Chitimacha_
+
+
+Long, long ago, many Indians started to reach the Sky-world. They
+walked far to the north until they came to the edge of the sky, where
+it is fitted down over the Earth-plain. When they came to this place,
+they tried to slip through a crack under the edge, but the Sky-cover
+came down very tightly and quickly, and crushed all but six. These six
+had slipped through into the Sky-land.
+
+Then these men began to climb up, walking far over the sky floor. At
+last they came to the lodge of Kutnakin. They stayed with him as his
+guests. At last they wished to go back to their own lodges on the
+Earth-plain.
+
+Kutnakin said, "How will you go down to the Earth-plain?"
+
+One said, "I will go down as a squirrel." So he started to spring down
+from the Sky-land. He was dashed to pieces.
+
+Kutnakin said to the next, "How will you go down to the Earth-plain?"
+
+And this man also went as an animal. And so the next one also. They
+were dashed to pieces. Then the others saw that they were crushed by
+their fall.
+
+Therefore the fourth said, "I will go down as a spider." And he spun a
+long line down which he climbed safely to earth.
+
+The fifth said, "I will go down as an eagle," and he spread his wings
+and circled through the air until he alighted on a tree branch.
+
+The last one said, "I will go down as a pigeon," and so he came softly
+to earth.
+
+Now each one brought back a gift from Kutnakin. The one who came back
+as a spider had learned how to howl and sing and dance when people
+were sick. He was the first medicine man. But one Indian had died
+while these six men were up in the Sky-land. He died before the shaman
+came down to earth as a spider. Therefore death came among the
+Indians. Had the shaman come back to earth in time to heal this
+Indian, there would have been no death.
+
+The one who came back as an eagle taught men how to fish. And the
+pigeon taught the Indians the use of wild maize.
+
+
+
+
+MONDAMIN
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+When the springtime came, long, long ago, an Indian boy began his
+fast, according to the customs of his tribe. His father was a very
+good man but he was not a good hunter, and often there was no food in
+the wigwam.
+
+So, as the boy wandered from his small tepee in the forest, he thought
+about these things. He looked at the plants and shrubs and wondered
+about their uses, and whether they were good for food. He thought, "I
+must find out about these things in my vision."
+
+One day, as he lay stretched upon his bed of robes in the solitary
+wigwam, a handsome Indian youth came down from Sky-land. He was gaily
+dressed in robes of green and yellow, with a plume of waving feathers
+in his hands.
+
+"I am sent to you," said the stranger, "by the Great Mystery. He will
+teach you what you would know." Then he told the boy to rise and
+wrestle with him. The boy at once did so. At last the visitor said,
+"That is enough. I will come tomorrow."
+
+The next day the beautiful stranger came again from the Sky-land.
+Again the two wrestled until the stranger said, "That is enough. I
+will come tomorrow."
+
+The third day he came again. Again the fasting youth found his
+strength increase as he wrestled with the visitor. Then that one said,
+"It is enough. You have conquered." He sat himself down in the wigwam.
+"The Great Mystery has granted your wish," he said. "Tomorrow when I
+come, after we have wrestled and you have thrown me down, you must
+strip off my garments. Clear the earth of roots and weeds and bury my
+body. Then leave this place; but come often and keep the earth soft,
+and pull up the weeds. Let no grass or weeds grow on my grave." Then
+he went away, but first he said, "Touch no food until after we wrestle
+tomorrow."
+
+The next morning the father brought food to his son; it was the
+seventh day of fasting. But the boy refused until the evening should
+come.
+
+Again came the handsome youth from the Sky-land. They wrestled long,
+until he fell to the earth. Then the Indian boy took off the green and
+yellow robes, and buried his friend in soft, fresh earth. Thus the
+vision had come to him.
+
+Then the boy returned to his father's lodge, for his fasting was
+ended. Yet he remembered the commands of the Sky-land stranger. Often
+he visited the grave, keeping it soft and fresh, pulling up weeds and
+grass. And when people were saying that the Summer-maker would soon go
+away and the Winter-maker come, the boy went with his father to the
+place where his wigwam had stood in the forest while he fasted. There
+they found a tall and graceful plant, with bright silky hair, and
+green and yellow robes.
+
+"It is Mondamin," said the boy. "It is Mondamin, the corn."[6]
+
+    [6] Then Nokomis, the old woman,
+        Spake, and said to Minnehaha:
+        "'Tis the Moon when leaves are falling;
+        All the wild rice has been gathered,
+        And the maize is ripe and ready;
+        Let us gather in the harvest,
+        Let us wrestle with Mondamin,
+        Strip him of his plumes and tassels,
+        Of his garments green and yellow."
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+
+
+
+MONDAMIN
+
+_Ottawa_
+
+
+When the Ottawas lived on the Manatoline Islands, in Lake Huron, they
+had a very strong medicine man. His name was Mass-wa-wei-nini, Living
+Statue. Then the Iroquois came and drove the Ottawas away. They fled
+to Lac Court Oreilles, between Lake Superior and the Mississippi
+River. But Living Statue remained in the land of his people. He
+remained to watch the Iroquois, so that his people might know of their
+plans. His two sons stayed with him.
+
+At night, the medicine man paddled softly around the island, in his
+canoe. He paddled through the water around the beautiful green island
+of his people. One morning he rose early to go hunting. His two boys
+were asleep. So Living Statue followed the game trail through the
+forest; then he came to a wide green plain. He watched keenly for the
+enemy of his people. Then he began to cross the plain.
+
+When Living Statue was in the middle of the plain, he saw a small man
+coming towards him. He wore a red plume in his hair.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked Red Plume.
+
+"I am hunting," said Living Statue.
+
+Red Plume drew out his pipe and they smoked together.
+
+"Where does your strength come from?" asked Red Plume.
+
+"I have the strength common to all men," said Living Statue.
+
+"We must wrestle," said Red Plume. "If you can make me fall, you will
+cry, 'I have thrown you, _Wa ge me na_!'"
+
+Now when they had finished smoking, they began to wrestle. They
+struggled long. Red Plume was small, but his medicine was strong.
+Living Statue grew weaker and weaker, but at last, by a sudden effort,
+he threw Red Plume. At once he cried, "I have thrown you, _Wa ge me
+na_!"
+
+Immediately Red Plume vanished. When Living Statue looked at the place
+where he had fallen, he saw only _Mondamin_, an ear of corn. It was
+crooked. There was a red tassel at the top.
+
+Someone said, "Take off my robes. Pull me in pieces. Throw me over the
+plain. Take the spine on which I grew and throw it in shady places
+near the edge of the wood. Return after one moon. Tell no one."
+
+Mass-wa-wei-nini did as the voice directed. Then he returned into the
+woods. He killed a deer. So he returned to his wigwam.
+
+Now after one moon, he returned to the plain. Behold! There were
+blades and spikes of young corn. And from the broken bits of spine,
+grew long pumpkin vines.
+
+When summer was gone, Living Statue went again to the plain with his
+sons. The corn was in full ear. Also the large pumpkins were ripe.
+
+Thus the Ottawas received the gift of corn.
+
+
+
+
+THE CORN WOMAN
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+One day a hunter could find no game. He had but a few grains of corn
+with him. He was very hungry. In the night a dream came to him and he
+heard the sound of singing.
+
+Early the next morning the hunter rose, but again he found no game.
+When he slept again the dream came to him, and again came the sound of
+singing, but this time it was nearer. Yet again he could find no game.
+
+The third night the dream came to the hunter, and when he awoke, he
+still heard the song. Then he rose quickly and followed the song. At
+last he came to a single green stalk of Selu.
+
+The stalk spoke to him. It said, "Take off my roots, and take them
+with you to your wigwam. Tomorrow morning you must chew them before
+anyone awakes. Then go again into the woods. So will you always be
+successful in hunting."
+
+The green stalk gave him many directions for hunting the elk and the
+deer. So it talked until the sun rose to the very top of the sky
+trail. Immediately the green stalk became a woman. She rose gracefully
+into the air and vanished.
+
+Then all the people knew that the hunter had seen Selu, the Corn, wife
+of Kanati. Therefore the hunter was always successful.
+
+
+
+
+DISCOVERY OF THE WILD RICE
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Long ago, Wenibojó[7] made his home with his grandmother, Nokomis. One
+day Nokomis said to her grandson, "Prove yourself a man. Take a long
+journey. Go through the great forests. Fast you. Prepare for the
+hardships of life."
+
+    [7] Another form of the Ojibwa Manabozho, or the Menomini
+    Manabush.
+
+So Wenibojó took his bow and arrow from his wigwam. He wandered
+out into the forest. Many days he wandered. Then at last he
+reached a broad lake, covered thick with heavy-headed stalks. But
+Wenibojó knew not that the grain was food.
+
+So Wenibojó went back to his grandmother, Nokomis. He told her of the
+broad, quiet lake, with the heavy-headed stalks. So Nokomis came, and
+in their canoe they gathered the wild rice and sowed it in another
+lake.
+
+  [Illustration: WILD RICE TIED IN BUNCHES OR SHEAVES.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+  [Illustration: WILD RICE KERNELS AFTER THRESHING AND WINNOWING.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+Again Wenibojó left Nokomis. With his bow and arrow he wandered far
+into the forest. Then some little bushes spoke as he walked.
+"Sometimes they eat us," they said. Wenibojó made no answer. Again
+the bushes spoke, "Sometimes they eat us."
+
+"Who are you talking to?" he asked.
+
+"To Wenibojó," they said. So he bent down and dug up the bushes by the
+roots. The roots were long, like an arrow. They were good to eat, but
+Wenibojó had fasted too long.
+
+After a while, Wenibojó wandered on. He was very hungry. Many bushes
+spoke to him. Many said, "Sometimes they eat us," but he made no
+answer.
+
+One day he followed the river trail, when the sun was high. Many
+little bunches of straw were growing out of the water. They spoke to
+him. They said, "Wenibojó, sometimes they eat us."
+
+So Wenibojó picked some of the grains from the heavy-headed stalks and
+ate.
+
+"You are good to eat," he said. "What do they call you?"
+
+"They call us _manomin_," answered the wild rice.
+
+Then Wenibojó waded far out into the water. He beat out grains and ate
+many. They were good for food.
+
+Then Wenibojó remembered the grain which Nokomis had sown, and he
+returned to his grandmother and the _manomin_ lake.
+
+
+
+
+ORIGIN OF WILD RICE
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Now one evening Wenibojó returned to his wigwam from hunting. He had
+found no game. As he came towards his fire, he saw a duck sitting on
+the edge of a kettle of boiling water. Immediately the duck flew away.
+
+Wenibojó looked in the kettle. Behold! Grains were floating upon the
+water. Then he ate the broth made with the grains. It was good.
+
+So Wenibojó followed the trail of the duck. He came to a lake of
+_manomin_. All the birds and the ducks and geese were eating the
+grain. Therefore Wenibojó learned to know _manomin_, the wild rice.
+
+
+
+
+ORIGIN OF WINNEBAGO
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+One day Manabush walked along the lake shore. He was tired and hungry.
+Then he saw, around a sand spit jutting far out into the water, many
+waterfowl.
+
+Now Manabush had with him only a medicine bag. He hung that on a
+manabush tree in the brush. He put a roll of bark on his back, and
+returned to the lake shore. He passed slowly by so as not to frighten
+the birds. Duck and Swan suddenly recognized him, and swam quickly
+away from the shore.
+
+One of the Swans called out, "Ho! Manabush, where are you going?"
+
+"I am going to have a dance," said Manabush. "As you may see, I have
+all my songs with me."
+
+Then he called out to all the birds, "Come to me, brothers! Let us
+sing and dance."
+
+At once the birds returned to the shore and walked back upon an open
+space in the grass. Manabush took the bundle of bark from his back. He
+placed it on the ground, got out his singing sticks, and then he said
+to the birds,
+
+"Now, all of you dance around me as I drum. Sing as loudly as you can
+and keep your eyes closed. The first to look will always have red
+eyes."
+
+So Manabush began to beat time upon his bundle of bark. The birds with
+eyes closed danced around him. Then Manabush began to keep time with
+one hand, as the birds sang loudly. With the other he seized a Swan by
+the neck. Swan gave a loud squawk.
+
+"That's right, brothers! Sing as loudly as you can," shouted Manabush.
+
+Soon he seized another Swan by the neck. Then he seized a Goose. At
+last there were not so many birds singing. Then a tiny duck opened his
+eyes to see why. At once he shrieked, "Manabush is killing us!
+Manabush is killing us!" And he started for the water, followed by the
+rest of the birds.
+
+Now this little duck was a poor runner. Manabush quickly caught him
+and said, "I won't kill you; but you shall always have red eyes. And
+you shall be the laughing stock of all the birds."
+
+And with that Manabush pushed him so hard, yet holding on to his tail,
+that the duck went far out into the middle of the lake and his tail
+came off. Because of that he has red eyes and no tail, even to this
+day.
+
+Then Manabush gathered up the birds he had killed and took them out
+on the sand spit. He buried them in the sand and built a fire over
+them to cook them, but he left sticking out the heads of some and the
+legs of others so he would know where they were.
+
+But Manabush was tired. He slapped his thigh and said, "You watch the
+birds and awaken me if anyone comes near them." He stretched out on
+the sand with his back to the fire and went to sleep.
+
+After awhile, Indians came along in their canoes. They saw the fire
+and the roasting birds. They went ashore on the sand pit. They pulled
+out the birds and ate them. But they put back into the sand the heads
+and feet, just as they had found them. So they departed.
+
+Afterwards, Manabush awoke, very hungry. He pulled at the head of a
+swan. Behold! The head came out, but there was no bird. He pulled at
+the feet of a goose. No bird was there. So he tried every head and
+foot; but the birds were gone.
+
+He slapped his thigh again and asked, "Who has been here? Someone has
+robbed me of my feast. I told you to watch."
+
+His thigh answered, "I fell asleep also. I was very tired. See! There
+are people moving away in their canoes! They are dirty and poorly
+dressed."
+
+Then Manabush ran to the point of the sand spit. He could see the
+people who were just disappearing around a point. He shouted,
+"Winnebago! Winnebago!" Therefore the Menomini have always called
+their thievish neighbors Winnebago.
+
+
+
+
+THE ORIGIN OF TOBACCO
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+One day when Manabush was passing by a high mountain, a fragrant odor
+came to him from a crevice in the cliffs. He went closer. Then he knew
+that in the mountain was a giant who was the Keeper of the Tobacco. He
+entered the mouth of a cave, going through a long tunnel to the center
+of the mountain.
+
+There in a great wigwam was the giant. The giant said sternly, "What
+do you want?"
+
+Manabush said, "I want some tobacco."
+
+"Come back again in one year," said the giant. "The manidoes have just
+been here for their smoke. They come but once a year."
+
+Manabush looked around. He saw a great number of bags filled with
+tobacco. He seized one and ran out into the open air, and close after
+him came the giant.
+
+Up to the mountain tops fled Manabush leaping from peak to peak. The
+giant came close behind him, springing with great bounds. When
+Manabush reached a very high peak, he suddenly lay flat on the
+ground; but the giant, leaping, went over him and fell into the chasm
+beyond.
+
+The giant picked himself up, and began to climb up the face of the
+cliff. He almost reached the top, hanging to it by his hands. Manabush
+seized him, and drew him upwards, and dropped him down on the ground.
+
+He said, "For your meanness, you shall become Kakuene, the jumper. You
+shall become the pest of those who raise tobacco." Thus the giant
+became a grasshopper.
+
+Then Manabush took the tobacco, and divided it amongst his brothers,
+giving to each some of the seed. Therefore the Indians are never
+without tobacco.
+
+
+
+
+ORIGIN OF MAPLE SUGAR
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+One day Manabush returned from the hunt without any food. He could
+find no game at all. So Nokomis gathered all their robes, and the
+beaded belts, and their belongings together. They built a new wigwam
+among the sugar maple trees.
+
+Nokomis said, "Grandson, go into the woods and gather for me pieces of
+birch bark. I am going to make sugar." Manabush went into the woods.
+He gathered strips of birch bark, which he took back to the wigwam.
+Nokomis had cut tiny strips of the bark to use as thread in sewing the
+bark into hollow buckets. Then Nokomis went from tree to tree cutting
+small holes through the maple bark, so that the sap might flow. She
+placed a birch-bark vessel under each hole. Manabush followed her from
+tree to tree looking for the sap to drop. None fell. When Nokomis had
+finished, Manabush found all the vessels half full.
+
+He stuck his finger into the thick syrup. It was sweet. Then he said,
+"Grandmother, this is all very good, but it will not do. If people
+make sugar so easily, they will not have to work at all. I will
+change all this. They must cut wood and keep the sap boiling several
+nights. Otherwise they will not be busy."
+
+So Manabush climbed to the very top of a tree. He showered water all
+over the maples, like rain. Therefore the sugar in the tree dissolved
+and flows from the tree as thin sap. This is why the uncles of
+Manabush and their children always have to work hard when they want to
+make sugar.
+
+  [Illustration: BIRCH-BARK YOKE, AND SAP BUCKETS, USED IN MAPLE
+  SUGAR MAKING.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+
+
+
+MANABUSH AND THE MOOSE
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+Manabush killed a moose. He was very hungry, but he was greatly
+troubled as to how he should eat it.
+
+"If I begin at the head," he said, "they will say I ate him headfirst.
+But if I begin at the side, they will say I ate him sideways. And if I
+begin at the tail, they will say I ate him tail first."
+
+He was greatly troubled. And while he thus spoke, the wind blew two
+tree branches together. It made a harsh, creaking sound.
+
+"I cannot eat in this noise," said Manabush, and he climbed the tree.
+Immediately the branches caught him by the arm and held him. Then a
+pack of wolves came and ate up the moose.
+
+
+
+
+ORIGIN OF DAY AND NIGHT
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+One day as Wabus, the Rabbit, traveled through a forest, he came to a
+clearing on the bank of the river. There sat Totoba, the Saw-whet Owl.
+The light was dim and Rabbit could not see well. He said to Saw-whet,
+
+"Why do you want it so dark? I do not like it. I will cause it to be
+light."
+
+Saw-whet said, "Do so, if you are strong enough. Let us try our
+powers."
+
+So Rabbit and the Owl called a great council of the birds. Some of the
+birds and animals wanted Rabbit to succeed so that it would be light.
+Others wanted it to remain dark.
+
+Rabbit and Owl began to try their powers. Rabbit began to repeat
+rapidly, "_Wabon. Wabon. Wabon_" (Light. Light. Light), while Owl kept
+saying as rapidly as he could, "_Uni tipa qkot. Uni tipa qkot. Uni
+tipa qkot_" (Night. Night. Night).
+
+If one of them should speak the word of the other, he would lose. So
+Rabbit kept repeating rapidly, "_Wabon. Wabon. Wabon_," while Owl
+said as rapidly as he could, "_Uni tipa qkot. Uni tipa qkot. Uni tipa
+qkot._" At last Owl said Rabbit's word, "_Wabon_," so he lost.
+
+Therefore Rabbit decided there should be light. But because some of
+the animals and birds could hunt only in the dark, he said it should
+be night part of the time. But all the rest of the time it is day.
+
+
+
+
+ORIGIN OF THE BEAR
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Long ago, before the white man came, in the land of the Cherokees was
+a clan called the Ani Tsagulin. One of the boys of the clan used to
+wander all day long in the mountains. He never ate his food at home.
+
+"Why do you do so?" asked his father and mother. The boy did not
+answer.
+
+"Why do you do so?" they asked many days, as the boy wandered away
+into the hills. He did not answer them.
+
+Then his mother saw that long brown hair covered his body. They said
+again, "Where do you go?" They asked, "Why do you not eat at home?"
+
+At last the boy said, "There is plenty to eat there. It is better than
+the corn in the village. Soon I shall stay in the woods all the time."
+
+His father and mother said, "No."
+
+The boy kept saying, "It is better than here. I am beginning to be
+different. Soon I shall not want to live here. If you come with me you
+will not have to hunt, or to plant corn. But first you must fast
+seven days."
+
+The people began to talk about it. They said, "Often we do not have
+enough to eat here. There he says there is plenty. We will go with
+him."
+
+So they fasted seven days. Then they left their village and went to
+the mountains.
+
+Now the other tribes had heard what they had talked in their village.
+At once they sent messengers. But when the messengers met them, they
+had started towards the mountains and their hair was long and brown.
+Their nature was changing. This was because they had fasted seven
+days. But the Ani Tsagulin would not go back to their village. They
+said to the others:
+
+"We are going where there is always plenty to eat. Hereafter we shall
+be called _Yana_, bears. When you are hungry, come into the woods and
+call us, and we will give you food to eat."
+
+So they taught these messengers how to call them and to hunt them.
+Because, even though they may seem to be killed, the Ani Tsagulin live
+forever.
+
+
+
+
+ORIGIN OF THE WORD CHICAGO
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Once an Ottawa hunter and his wife lived on the shores of Lake
+Michigan. Then the hunter went south, toward the end of the lake, to
+hunt. When he reached the lake[8] where he had caught beaver the year
+before, it was still covered with ice. Then he tapped the ice to find
+the thinner places where the beaver families lived. He broke holes at
+these weaker points in the ice, and went to his wigwam to get his
+traps.
+
+    [8] Between Milwaukee and Chicago, going south to where
+    Chicago now stands.
+
+Now the hunter's wife chanced to pass one of these holes and she saw a
+beaver on the ice. She caught it by the tail and called to the hunter
+to come and kill it quickly, before it could get back into the water.
+
+"No," said the hunter, "if I kill this beaver, the others will become
+frightened. They will escape from the lake by other openings in the
+ice."
+
+Then the woman became angry, and they quarreled.
+
+When the sun was near setting, the hunter went out on the ice again,
+to set more traps. When he returned to his tepee, his wife had gone.
+He thought she had gone to make a visit. The next morning she had not
+returned, and he saw her footprints. So he followed her trail to the
+south. As he followed her trail, he saw that the footprints gradually
+changed. At last they became the trail of a skunk. The trail ended in
+a marsh, and many skunks were in that marsh.
+
+Then he returned to his people. And he called the place, "The Place of
+the Skunk."
+
+
+
+
+ORIGIN OF THE WORD CHICAGO[9]
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+    [9] Schoolcraft gives the origin of the word Chicago, as
+    follows:
+
+    Chi-cag The animal of the leek or wild onion.
+
+    Chi-cag-o-wunz The wild leek or pole-cat plant.
+
+    Chi-ca-go Place of the wild leek.
+
+    It would really seem, from the myths and the origin of the
+    word, as given above, that the name originated from the great
+    amount of skunk weed on the marshes now covered by the city.
+
+Potawatomi Indians used to live in the marshes where Chicago now
+stands. They sent out word to the other tribes that hunting was good.
+Then the Menomini Indians went to the marshes for game. In the night
+their dogs barked much. But when the Menomini Indians reached the spot
+where the dogs barked, they found only skunks.
+
+
+
+
+THE COMING OF MANABUSH
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+When the daughter of Nokomis, the Earth, died, Nokomis wrapped her new
+baby in soft dry grass. She laid him on the ground under a large
+wooden bowl. Then she mourned four days for her daughter.
+
+At the end of four days, Nokomis heard a sound in her wigwam. It came
+from the wooden bowl. Then she remembered. She took up the bowl. At
+once she saw a tiny white rabbit, with trembling pink ears. She took
+it up. She said, "Oh, my dear little Rabbit. Oh, my Manabush." She
+took care of him.
+
+One day Rabbit hopped across the wigwam. The earth shook. At once the
+evil underground spirits, the Ana maqkiu, said to one another, "What
+has happened? A great manido is born somewhere!" Immediately they
+began to plot against him.
+
+In this way Manabush came to earth. He soon grew to be a young man.
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF MANABUSH[10]
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+    [10] The Manabozho of the Ojibwa given by Longfellow as
+    Hiawatha.
+
+The daughter of Nokomis, the Earth, is the mother of Manabush, who is
+also the Fire. Flint first grew up out of Nokomis, and was alone. Then
+Flint made a bowl and filled it with earth. Wabus, the Rabbit, came
+from the earth, and became a man. Thus was Manabush created.
+
+Beneath the earth lived the Underground People, the enemies of
+Manabush. They were the Ana maqkiu who annoyed him constantly, and
+sought to destroy him.
+
+Now Manabush shaped a piece of flint to make an axe. While he was
+rubbing it on a rock, he heard the rock make sounds:
+
+    _Ke ka   ke ka   ke ka   ke ka_
+    _Goss    goss    goss    goss_
+
+He soon understood what the rock was saying: that he was alone on the
+earth. That he had neither father, mother, brother, nor sister. This
+is what Flint said while Manabush was rubbing it upon the rock.
+
+While he was thinking of this, he heard something coming. It was
+Mokquai, the Wolf. He said to Manabush, "Now you have a brother, for
+I, too, am alone. We shall live together and I will hunt for you."
+
+Manabush said, "I am glad to see you, my brother. Therefore I shall
+make you like myself." So he made him a man.
+
+Then Manabush and his brother moved away to the shore of a lake and
+there built a wigwam. Manabush told his brother of the evil spirits,
+the Underground People, who lived beneath the water. He said, "Never
+go into the water, and never cross on the ice."
+
+Now one day Wolf-brother went a-hunting. It was late when he started
+back. He found himself on the shore of the lake, just opposite the
+wigwam. He could see it clearly. He did not want to make a long
+journey around by the lake shore; therefore he began to cross on the
+ice. When he reached the middle of the lake, the ice broke. The
+Underground People pulled him under the water and he was drowned.
+
+Now Manabush knew this. He mourned four days for Wolf-brother. On the
+fifth day, while he was following the hunting trail, he saw him
+approaching.
+
+Wolf-brother said, "My fate will be the fate of all our people. They
+will all die, but after four days they will return." Then Manabush saw
+it was only the shade of his brother.
+
+Then he said, "My brother, return to the place of the setting sun. You
+are now called Naqpote. You will have charge of the dead."
+
+The Wolf-shade said, "If I go there, and others follow me, we shall
+not be able to return when we leave this place."
+
+Manabush again spoke. He said, "Go, Naqpote. Prepare a wigwam for
+others. Build a large fire that they may be guided to it. When they
+arrive there must be a wigwam for them."
+
+Thus Naqpote left the earth. He lives in the land of the shades, in
+the country of the setting sun, where the earth is cut off.
+
+
+
+
+MANABOZHO AND WEST
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Manabozho lived with his grandmother Nokomis, the Earth, on the edge
+of a wide prairie. The first sound he heard was that of an owl. He
+quickly climbed down the tree. He ran to Nokomis.
+
+"Noko," he cried, "I have heard a monido."
+
+Nokomis said, "What kind of a noise did it make?"
+
+"It said, _Ko ho, Ko ho!_" said Manabozho.
+
+"Oh, it is only a bird," said Nokomis.
+
+One day Manabozho thought, "It is very strange I know so little and
+grandmother is so wise. I wonder if I have any father or mother." He
+went back to the wigwam. He was very silent.
+
+"What is the matter?" said Nokomis.
+
+Manabozho asked, "Have I no father or mother?"
+
+Now his mother had died when he was a very little baby, but Nokomis
+did not want to tell him. At last she said, "West is your father. He
+has three brothers. They are North, East, and South. They have great
+power. They travel on mighty wings. Your mother is not alive."
+
+Manabozho said, "I will visit my father," but he meant to make war on
+him because he had learned that his father had not been kind to his
+mother and he meant to punish him.
+
+Manabozho started on his journey. He traveled very rapidly. He went
+very far at each step. So at last he met his father, West, on the top
+of a high mountain. West was glad to see his son. Manabozho pretended
+to be glad.
+
+They talked much. One day the son asked, "What are you most afraid of
+on earth?"
+
+"Nothing," said West.
+
+Manabozho said, "Oh, yes, there must be something."
+
+At last West said, "There is a black stone on earth. I am afraid of
+that. If it should strike me, it would injure me." West said this was
+a great secret.
+
+One day he asked Manabozho, "What are you most afraid of?"
+
+"Nothing," was the answer.
+
+"Oh, yes, there must be something you are afraid of," said West.
+
+The son said, "_Ie-ee Ie-ee_--it is--it is--" He seemed afraid to
+mention it.
+
+West said, "Don't be afraid!" Then at last his son said, "It is the
+root of the _apukwa_, the bulrush."
+
+They quarreled because West had not been kind to the mother of
+Manabozho.
+
+Some days later they quarreled. Manabozho said, "I will get some of
+the black rock."
+
+"Oh, no! Do not do so," cried West.
+
+"Oh, yes!" said his son.
+
+West said at once, "I will get some of the _apukwa_ root."
+
+"Oh, no!" cried Manabozho, pretending to be afraid. "Do not! Do not!"
+
+"Oh, yes!" said West.
+
+Manabozho at once went out and brought to his father's wigwam a large
+piece of black rock. West pulled up and brought in some bulrush roots.
+Manabozho threw the black rock at West. It broke in pieces. Therefore
+you may see pieces lying around even to this day. West struck his son
+with the bulrush root. Thus they fought. But at last Manabozho drove
+West far over the plains to the Darkening Land. So West came to the
+edge of the world, where the earth is broken off short. Then he cried,
+"Stop, my son! I am immortal, therefore I cannot be killed. I will
+remain here on the edge of the Earth-plain. You must go about doing
+good. You must kill monsters and serpents and all evil things. All
+the kingdoms of the earth are divided, but at the last you may sit
+with my brother North."[11]
+
+    [11] Back retreated Mudjekeewis,
+         Rushing westward o'er the mountains,
+         Stumbling westward down the mountains,
+         Three whole days retreated fighting,
+         Still pursued by Hiawatha
+         To the doorways of the West-Wind,
+         To the portals of the Sunset ...
+               .  .  .  .
+         "Hold," at length cried Mudjekeewis,
+         "Hold, my son, my Hiawatha!
+         'Tis impossible to kill me,
+         For you cannot kill the immortal."
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+Thus Manabozho became the Northwest wind.
+
+
+
+
+MANABUSH AND THE GREAT FISH
+
+_Menomini_[12]
+
+
+    [12] The Ojibwas have a similar myth.
+
+After his brother Wolf had died, Manabush looked about him. He found
+he was no longer alone on earth. There were many other people, the
+children of Nokomis. They were his aunts and uncles.
+
+The evil manidoes annoyed the people very much. Therefore Manabush
+wished to destroy them. Therefore he went to the shores of the lake
+where they lived. He called to the waters to disappear. Four times he
+called out. At once the waters vanished. There lay the Ana maqkiu.
+They lay on the mud in the bottom of the lake. They looked like
+fishes. The chief lay near the shore. He was very large.
+
+Manabush said to Great Fish, "I shall destroy you because you will not
+allow my people to come near the shore." So he went towards Great
+Fish. But the smaller manidoes caused the waters to return. Thus they
+all escaped.
+
+Then Manabush went into the woods. He made a canoe of birch bark. He
+wanted to destroy Great Fish in the water. As he left the shore in his
+canoe, he began to sing, "Great Fish, come and swallow me." Only the
+young fish came near. Manabush said scornfully, "I do not wish you. I
+want your chief to come and swallow me." Great Fish was much annoyed.
+He darted forward and swallowed Manabush and his canoe.
+
+Thus Manabush found himself in the Great Fish. He looked about him.
+Many of his people were there. Bear and Deer, Porcupine and Raven,
+Buffalo, Pine-tree Squirrel, and many others.
+
+Manabush said to Buffalo, "My uncle, how did you get here? I never saw
+you near the water, but always on the prairie."
+
+Buffalo said, "I came near the lake to get some fresh green grass.
+Great Fish caught me." And thus said all the animals. They said, "We
+came near the lake and Great Fish swallowed us."
+
+Then Manabush said, "We will now have to go to the shore of Nokomis,
+my grandmother. You will all have to help me." At once they all began
+to dance around inside of Great Fish. Therefore he began to swim
+quickly towards shore. Manabush began to cut a hole over his head, so
+they could get out when Great Fish reached the shore of Nokomis, the
+Earth. They sang a magic song. They sang, "I see the sky. I see the
+sky." Pine Squirrel had a curious voice. He hopped around singing,
+"_Sek-sek-sek-sek!_" This was very amusing to the other people.
+
+Great Fish thought, "I ought not to have swallowed that man. I must
+swim to the shore where Nokomis lives." So he swam quickly until he
+reached the beach. Then Manabush cut a larger hole. Thus they all
+climbed out of Great Fish. The birds helped Manabush. They stood on
+the sides of Great Fish and picked the flesh from his bones.[13]
+
+    [13] And again the sturgeon, Nahma,
+         Heard the shout of Hiawatha,
+         Heard his challenge of defiance,
+         The unnecessary tumult,
+         Ringing far across the water.
+               .  .  .  .
+         In his wrath he darted upward,
+         Flashing leaped into the sunshine,
+         Opened his great jaws and swallowed
+         Both canoe and Hiawatha.
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+
+
+
+THE DEPARTURE OF MANABUSH
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+Now Manabush was going away. He went to Mackinac. When he reached
+there, he made a high, narrow rock, and this he leaned against the
+cliff. This rock is as high as an arrow can be shot from a bow. At
+this place he was seen by his people for the last time. Before he
+went, he talked with them.
+
+Manabush said, "I am going away now. I have been badly treated by
+other people who live in the land about you. I shall go across a great
+water towards the rising sun, where there is a land of rocks. There I
+shall set up my wigwam. When you hold a _mita-wiko-nik_ and are all
+together, you shall think of me. When you speak my name, I shall hear
+you. Whatever you ask, that I will do."
+
+Then Manabush spoke no more to his people. He entered the canoe. Then
+he went slowly over the great water, to the land of rocks. He
+vanished from his people as he went towards the rising sun.[14]
+
+    [14] The Ojibwas say he went toward the setting sun.
+
+         Thus departed Hiawatha,
+         Hiawatha the Beloved,
+         In the glory of the sunset,
+         In the purple mists of evening,
+         To the regions of the home-wind,
+         Of the Northwest wind, Keewaydin ...
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+
+
+
+THE RETURN OF MANABUSH
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+The uncles of Manabush, the people, used to visit a rock near Mackinac
+where the old men said Manabush was living. They built a long lodge
+there. They sang in their _mita-wiko-nik_ there. Manabush heard them.
+Sometimes he came to them. He appeared as a little white rabbit,
+trembling, with pink ears, just as he had first appeared to Nokomis,
+his grandmother.
+
+
+
+
+THE REQUEST FOR IMMORTALITY
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+One day long after Manabush had gone away from his people, an Indian
+dreamed that he spoke to him. At daylight, he sought seven friends,
+chief men of the Mita-wit. They held a council together, and then rose
+and went in search of Manabush.
+
+The Dreamer blackened his face.
+
+On the shore of the Great Waters, they entered canoes, and paddled
+toward a rocky place in the Land of the Rising Sun. Very long they
+paddled over the water, until they reached the land where dwelt
+Manabush.
+
+Soon they reached his wigwam. Manabush bade them enter. The door of
+the wigwam lifted and fell again as each one entered. When all were
+seated, Manabush said:
+
+"My friends, why is it you have come so long a journey to see me? What
+is it you wish?"
+
+All but one answered, at once: "Manabush, we wish some hunting
+medicine; thus we may supply our people with much food."
+
+"You shall have it," said Manabush. Then he turned to the silent one.
+He asked, "What do you wish?"
+
+The Indian replied, "I wish no hunting medicine. I wish to live
+forever."
+
+Manabush rose and went towards the Indian. He took him by the
+shoulders and carried him to his sleeping place. He set him down, and
+said:
+
+"You shall be a stone. Thus you shall be everlasting."
+
+Immediately the other Indians arose and went down to the shore. In
+their canoes they returned to their own land. It is from these seven
+who returned that we know of the abode of Manabush.
+
+
+
+
+PEBOAN AND SEEGWAN
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Long ago an old man sat alone in his lodge beside a frozen stream. The
+fire was dying out, and it was near the end of winter. Outside the
+lodge, the cold wind swept before it the drifting snow. So the old man
+sat alone, day after day, until at last a young warrior entered his
+lodge. He was fresh and joyous and youthful.
+
+The old man welcomed him. He drew out his long pipe and filled it with
+tobacco. He lighted it from the dying embers of the fire. Then they
+smoked together.
+
+The old man said, "I blow my breath and the streams stand still. The
+water becomes stiff and hard like the stones."
+
+"I breathe," said the warrior, "and flowers spring up over the plain."
+
+"I shake my locks," said the old man, "and snow covers the land.
+Leaves fall from the trees. The birds fly away. The animals hide. The
+earth becomes hard."
+
+"I shake my locks," said the young man, "and the warm rain falls.
+Plants blossom; the birds return; the streams flow."
+
+Then the sun came up over the edge of the Earth-plain, and began to
+climb the trail through the Sky-land. The old man slept. Behold! The
+frozen stream near by began to flow. The fire in the lodge died out.
+Robins sat upon the lodge poles and sang.
+
+Then the warrior looked upon the sleeping old man. Behold! It was
+Peboan, the Winter-maker.[15]
+
+    [15] In his lodge beside a river,
+         Close beside a frozen river,
+         Sat an old man, sad and lonely,
+         White his hair was as a snow-drift;
+         Dull and low his fire was burning,
+         And the old man shook and trembled,
+               .  .  .  .
+         Hearing nothing but the tempest
+         As it roared along the forest,
+         Seeing nothing but the snow-storm,
+         As it whirled and hissed and drifted.
+         All the coals were white with ashes
+         And the fire was slowly dying,
+         As a young man, walking lightly,
+         At the open doorway entered.
+         Red with blood of youth his cheeks were,
+         Soft his eyes, as stars in Spring-time.
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+
+
+
+THE GRAVE FIRES
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+A small war party of Ojibwas fought, long ago, with enemies on an open
+plain. Then their chief was shot by an arrow in his breast as he rode
+after the retreating enemy. When his warriors found their chief dead,
+they placed him, sitting, with his back against a tree. They left him
+there with his bow and arrows.
+
+But the chief was not dead. He saw the warriors leave him and he ran
+after them as they rode the homeward trail. He followed closely in
+their trail. He slept in their camp, yet they did not see him.
+
+When the war party reached their own village, they sang the song of
+victory, yet they sent up the death wail for those who were killed.
+The women and children came out. The chief heard his warriors tell of
+his death. He said, "No, I am not dead," but they did not hear him.
+
+Then the chief went to his own wigwam. His wife was weeping, and
+wailing for his death. "I am here," he said, but she did not hear him.
+"I am hungry," he said. She made no answer. Only she raised again the
+death wail.
+
+Then the chief thought. Perhaps only his spirit had returned. Perhaps
+his body was yet on the field of battle. So he followed the trail back
+to the battle field. It was a four days' journey. For three days he
+saw no one as he journeyed. The fourth day, on the edge of the plain,
+he saw a fire in his trail. He walked to one side and the other; the
+fire moved also and always burned before him. Then he turned in
+another direction. The fire was again in his trail. Then he sprang
+suddenly, and jumped through the flame.
+
+At once he awoke. He was sitting on the ground, with his back against
+a tree. Over his head in the branches sat a large war eagle. Now Eagle
+was his guardian, because he had come to him in his fasting vision in
+his youth.
+
+Then the wounded chief arose. He followed the trail of the war party
+to his village. Four days he followed the homeward trail. He came to a
+stream which flowed between him and his wigwam, therefore he gave the
+whoop which means the return of an absent friend. Then the Indians
+began to think. They said, "No one is absent. Perhaps it is an enemy."
+So they sent over a canoe with armed men. Thus the chief landed among
+his own people.
+
+Then the chief gave them instructions. He said it was pleasing to a
+spirit to have a fire burning at the grave for four days after the
+body was buried. This was because it is four days' journey on the
+death trail to the Ghost-land; so the spirit needed a fire at his
+camping place every evening.
+
+Also he said the spirit needed his bow and arrow, his best robes, in
+his journey. Therefore the Ojibwas burn a fire four nights at a new
+grave, that the spirit may be happy in following the Trail of the Dead
+to the Spirit-land.[16]
+
+    [16] Thus they buried Minnehaha.
+         And at night a fire was lighted,
+         On her grave four times was kindled,
+         For her soul upon its journey
+         To the Islands of the Blessed.
+         From his doorway Hiawatha
+         Saw it burning in the forest,
+         Lighting up the gloomy hemlocks;
+         From his sleepless bed uprising,
+         From the bed of Minnehaha,
+         Stood and watched it at the doorway,
+         That it might not be extinguished,
+         Might not leave her in the darkness.
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+
+
+
+THE DEATH TRAIL
+
+_Choctaw_
+
+
+After a man dies, he must travel far on the death trail. It journeys
+to the Darkening-land, where Sun slips over the edge of the
+Earth-plain. Then the spirit comes to a deep, rapid stream. There are
+steep and rugged hills on each side, so that one may not follow a land
+trail. The Trail of the Dead leads over the stream, and the only
+bridge is a pine log. It is a very slippery log, and even the bark has
+been peeled off. Also on the other side of the bridge are six persons.
+They have rocks in their hands, and throw them at spirits when they
+are just at the middle of the log.
+
+Now when an evil spirit sees the stones coming, he tries to dodge
+them. Therefore he slips off the log. He falls far into the water
+below, where are evil things. The water carries him around and around,
+as in a whirlpool, and then brings him back again among the evil
+things. Sometimes evil spirit climbs up on the rocks and looks over
+into the country of the good spirits. But he cannot go there.
+
+Now the good spirit walks over safely. He does not mind the stones
+and does not dodge them. He crosses the stream and goes to a good
+hunting land. It is more beautiful there than on the Earth-plain.
+There are no storms. The sky is always blue, and the grass is green,
+and there are many buffaloes. Therefore there is always feasting and
+dancing.
+
+
+
+
+THE DUCK AND THE NORTH WEST WIND
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Once Shingebiss, the duck, lived all alone in his wigwam on the shore
+of a lake. It was winter and very cold. Ice had frozen over the top of
+the water. Shingebiss had but four logs of wood in his wigwam, but
+each log would burn one month and there were but four winter
+months.[17]
+
+    [17] And at night Kabibonokka
+         To the lodge came, wild and wailing,
+         Heaped the snow in drifts about it,
+         Shouted down into the smoke-flue,
+         Shook the lodge poles in his fury,
+         Flapped the curtain of the doorway,
+         Shingebis, the diver, feared not,
+         Shingebis, the diver, cared not;
+         Four great logs had he for firewood,
+         One for each moon of the winter,
+         And for food the fishes served him,
+         By his blazing fire he sat there,
+         Warm and merry, eating, laughing,
+         Singing, "O Kabibonokka,
+         You are but my fellow mortal!"
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+  [Illustration: PICTURE WRITING. AN OJIBWA MEDA SONG.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+Shingebiss had no fear of the cold. He would go out on the coldest
+day. He would seek for places where rushes and flags grew through the
+ice. He pulled them up and dived through the broken ice for fish. Thus
+he had plenty of food. Thus he went to his wigwam dragging long
+strings of fish behind him on the ice.
+
+North West noticed this. He said, "Shingebiss is a strange man. I will
+see if I cannot get the better of him."
+
+North West shook his rattle and the wind blew colder. Snow drifted
+high. But Shingebiss did not let his fire go out. In the worst storms
+he continued going out, seeking for the weak places in the ice where
+the roots grew.
+
+North West noticed this. He said, "Shingebiss is a strange man. I
+shall go and visit him."
+
+That night North West went to the door of the wigwam. Shingebiss had
+cooked his fish and eaten it. He was lying on his side before the
+fire, singing songs.
+
+He sang,
+
+    Ka neej   Ka neej
+    Be in   Be in
+    Bon in   Bon in
+    Oc ee   Oc ee
+    Ca We-ya   Ca We-ya.
+
+This meant, "Spirit of North West, you are but my fellow man."
+
+Now he sang this because he knew North West was standing at the door
+of his wigwam. He could feel his cold breath. He kept right on singing
+his songs.
+
+North West said, "Shingebiss is a strange man. I shall go inside."
+
+Therefore North West entered the wigwam and sat down on the opposite
+side of the lodge. Shingebiss lay before the fire and sang:
+
+"Spirit of North West, you are but my fellow man."
+
+Then he got up and poked the fire. The wigwam became very warm. At
+last North West said, "I cannot stand this. I must go out. Shingebiss
+is a very strange man." So he went out.
+
+Then North West shook his rattles until the great storms came. Thus
+there was much ice and snow and wind. All the flag roots were frozen
+in hard ice. Still Shingebiss went fishing. He bit off the frozen
+flags and rushes, and broke the hard ice around their roots. He dived
+for fish and went home dragging strings of fish behind him on the ice.
+
+North West noticed this. He said, "Shingebiss must have very strong
+medicine. Some manito is helping him. I cannot conquer him. Shingebiss
+is a very strange man."
+
+So he let him alone.
+
+
+
+
+HOW THE HUNTER DESTROYED SNOW
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+Once a hunter with his wife and two children lived in a tepee. Each
+day the hunter went out for game. He was a good hunter and he brought
+back much game.
+
+But one day, after autumn had gone and winter had come, the hunter met
+Kon, Snow, who froze his feet badly. Then the hunter made a large
+wooden bowl and filled it with Kon. He buried it in a deep hole where
+the midday sun could shine down upon it, and where Snow could not run
+away. Then he covered the hole with sticks and leaves so that Snow
+would be a prisoner until summer.
+
+Now when midsummer came, and everything was warm, the hunter came back
+to this hole and pulled away the sticks and leaves. He let the midday
+sun shine down upon Kon so that he melted. Thus the hunter punished
+Kon.
+
+But when autumn came again, one day the hunter heard someone say to
+him, when he was in the forest: "You punished me last summer, but
+when winter comes I will show you how strong I am."
+
+The hunter knew it was Kon's voice. He at once built another tepee,
+near the one in which he lived, and filled it full of firewood.
+
+At last winter came again. When the hunter was in the forest one day,
+he heard Kon say: "Now I am coming to visit you, as I said I should.
+In four days I shall be at your tepee."
+
+When the hunter returned home, he made ready more firewood; he built a
+fire at the two sides of the tepee. After four days, everything became
+frozen. It was very cold. The hunter kept up the fires in the tepee.
+He took out all the extra fur robes to cover his wife and children.
+The cold became more severe. It was hard not to freeze.
+
+On the fifth day, towards night, the hunter looked out from his tepee
+upon a frozen world. Then he saw a stranger coming. He looked like any
+other stranger, except that he had a very large head and an immense
+beard. When he came to the tepee, the hunter asked him in. He at once
+came in, but he would not go near either of the fires. This puzzled
+the hunter, and he began to watch the stranger.
+
+It became colder and colder after the stranger had come into the
+tepee. The hunter added more wood to each of the fires until they
+roared. The stranger seemed too warm. The hunter added more wood, and
+the stranger became warmer and warmer. Then the hunter saw that as he
+became warm, he seemed to shrink. At last his head and body were quite
+small. Then the hunter knew who the stranger guest was. It was Kon,
+the Cold. So he kept up his fires until Kon melted altogether away.
+
+
+
+
+THE PIPE OF PEACE
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+In the olden days, so they say, the Indians fought much. Always they
+followed the war trail. Then Gitche Manito, the Good Mystery, thought,
+"This is not well. My children should not always follow the war
+trail." Therefore he called a great council. He called all the tribes
+together. Now this was on the upper Mississippi.
+
+Gitche Manito stood on a great wall of red rock. On the green plain
+below him were the wigwams of his children. All the tribes were there.
+
+Gitche Manito broke off a piece of the red rock. He made a pipe out of
+it. He made a pipe by turning it in his hands. Then he smoked the
+pipe, and the smoke made a great cloud in the sky.
+
+He spoke in a loud voice. He said, "See, my people, this stone is red.
+It is red because it is the flesh of all tribes. Therefore can it be
+used only for a pipe of peace when you cease to follow the war trail.
+Therefore it is the Place of Peace. To all the tribes it belongs."
+
+Then the cloud grew larger and Gitche Manito vanished in it.
+
+Now therefore, because of the command of Gitche Manito, the Indians
+smoke the pipe of peace when they cease to follow the war trail. And
+because it is the Place of Peace, the tomahawk and the scalping knife
+are never lifted there.[18]
+
+    [18] On the Mountains of the Prairie,
+         On the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,
+         Gitche Manito, the mighty,
+         He the Master of Life descending,
+         On the red crags of the quarry,
+         Stood erect and called the nations,
+         Called the tribes of men together.
+               .  .  .  .
+         "I am weary of your quarrels,
+         Weary of your wars and bloodshed,
+         Weary of your prayers for vengeance,
+         Of your wranglings and dissensions;
+               .  .  .  .
+         Break the red stone from this quarry,
+         Mould and make it into Peace-pipes,
+         Take the reeds that grow beside you,
+         Deck them with your brightest feathers,
+         Smoke the calumet together."
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+
+
+
+THE THUNDER'S NEST
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Thunder had a Nest where a very small bird sits upon her eggs during
+fair weather. When an egg hatches, the skies are rent with bolts of
+thunder.
+
+
+
+
+THE PIPESTONE
+
+_Sioux_
+
+
+Before there were any people on the earth, Gitche Manito hunted the
+buffalo. He killed them and cooked them before his camp fire on the
+Red Rocks, on the top of the Coteau des Prairies, the Mountain of the
+Prairies. So the blood of the buffaloes ran over the rocks and made
+them red.
+
+Gitche Manito was then a very large bird. We can still see his tracks
+in the red stone. Now it happened a large snake crawled out of its
+hole to eat the eggs of the Bird. Then at once the egg hatched out in
+a clap of thunder.
+
+Gitche Manito took a piece of stone to throw at the snake. He shaped
+it in his hands like to a man.
+
+Now this man's feet stood fast in the ground where he was. Thus he
+stayed for many ages; therefore he grew very old. He was older than a
+hundred men at the present time. At last another tree grew beside him.
+It grew a long while, until a snake bit off the roots. Then the two
+people left the pipestone quarry. They wandered away. They were the
+grandfathers of all the tribes.
+
+
+
+
+THE PIPESTONE
+
+_Knisteneaux_
+
+
+A great flood came. Then the tribes met on the Coteau des Prairies, on
+the Mountain of the Prairies, to get out of the way of the waters.
+Then the waters rose higher; thus the tribes were drowned. Gitche
+Manito made them into stone. Therefore the stone is red.
+
+Now when the waters were rising, a young woman caught the foot of a
+large bird flying near. It was War-eagle. He carried her to the top of
+a large mountain. Thus she was saved. Then she married War-eagle.
+
+Now all the tribes were drowned. Therefore the children of War-eagle
+and the Indian woman were the ancestors of all the Indians.
+
+
+
+
+PAU-PUK-KEE-WIS
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+A man found himself standing alone on the prairie. He was very large
+and strong. He thought to himself, "How did I come here? Am I all
+alone on the earth? I must travel until I find the abode of men."
+
+So he started out. After a long time he came to a wood. There were
+decayed stumps there, very old, as if cut in the olden times. Again he
+journeyed a long time. He came to a wood in which there were more
+stumps, newly cut. Then he came to the fresh trail of people. He saw
+wood just cut, lying in heaps. At sunset he came out of the forest. He
+saw a village of many lodges standing on rising ground.
+
+He said, "I will go there on the run." He ran. When he came to the
+first lodge, he sprang over it. Those within saw something pass over
+the smoke hole. They heard a thump on the ground.
+
+They said, "What is that?" They ran out. They invited him to enter.
+Many warriors were in the wigwam, and an old chief.
+
+The chief said, "Where are you going? What is your name?"
+
+He said, "I am in search of adventures. I am Pau-puk-kee-wis." Then
+they laughed.
+
+After a short time he went on. A young man went with him as his
+_mesh-in-au-wa_, as his pipe bearer.
+
+As they journeyed, Pau-puk-kee-wis did strange things. He leaped over
+trees. He whirled on one foot until dust clouds were flying.
+
+One day a large village of wigwams came in their trail. They went to
+it. The chief told them of evil manitoes who had killed all the people
+going to that village. War parties had been sent against them. The
+warriors were all killed.
+
+Pau-puk-kee-wis said, "I will go and visit them."
+
+The chief said, "Oh, no. They are evil. They will kill you."
+
+Pau-puk-kee-wis said, "I will go and visit them."
+
+Then the chief said, "I will send twenty warriors with you."
+
+So Pau-puk-kee-wis, with his pipe bearer and twenty warriors, started
+off at once. They came near that lodge. Pau-puk-kee-wis said, "Hide
+here. Thus you will be safe. You will see what I do." He went to that
+lodge. He entered.
+
+The manitoes were very ugly. They were evil looking. There were a
+father and four sons. They offered him food. He refused it.
+
+The old manito said, "What have you come for?"
+
+"Nothing," said Pau-puk-kee-wis.
+
+"Do you want to wrestle?" asked the manito.
+
+"Yes," said Pau-puk-kee-wis.
+
+At once the eldest brother rose and they began to wrestle. These
+manitoes were very evil. They wished to kill Pau-puk-kee-wis in order
+to eat him. But that man was very strong. He tripped the manito. Then
+he threw him down. His head struck on a stone.
+
+The next brother wrestled with Pau-puk-kee-wis. He fell. Then the
+other two wrestled. All four fell on the ground. The old manito began
+to run. Pau-puk-kee-wis pursued him. He pursued him in a very queer
+way, just for fun. Sometimes he leaped over him and ran ahead.
+Sometimes he pushed him ahead from behind.
+
+All the twenty warriors cried, "Ha! ha! ha! Ha! ha! ha!
+Pau-puk-kee-wis is driving him."
+
+At last Pau-puk-kee-wis killed him. Thus all the evil manitoes were
+dead.
+
+Then they looked on the bones of the warriors and people who had been
+killed by those evil ones. Then Pau-puk-kee-wis took three arrows. He
+performed a ceremony to Gitche Manito. He shot one arrow. He cried,
+"You who are lying down, rise up or you will be hit." At once the
+bones all moved to one place.
+
+He shot a second arrow. He cried, "You who are lying down, rise up,
+or you will be hit." The proper bones moved together, toward each
+other.
+
+He shot a third arrow. He cried, "You who are lying down, rise up, or
+you will be hit." The people became alive again. Then Pau-puk-kee-wis
+led them back to the village of the friendly chief.
+
+This one then came to him with his council. He said, "You should rule
+my people. You only are able to defend them."
+
+Pau-puk-kee-wis said, "I am going on a journey. Let my pipe bearer be
+chief." So he was.
+
+Pau-puk-kee-wis began his journey. "Ho! ho! ho!" cried all the people.
+"Come back again. Ho! ho! ho!"
+
+He journeyed on. He came to a lake made by beavers.[19] He stood on
+the beaver dam and watched. He saw the head of a beaver peering out.
+
+    [19] With a smile he spake in this wise:
+         "O, my friend, Ahmeek, the beaver,
+         Cool and pleasant is the water;
+         Let me dive into the water,
+         Let me rest there in your lodges;
+         Change me, too, into a beaver!"
+             Cautiously replied the beaver,
+         With reserve he thus made answer,
+         "Let me first consult the others,
+         Let me ask the other beavers."
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+"Make me a beaver like yourself," said Pau-puk-kee-wis. He wanted to
+see how beavers lived.
+
+"I will go and ask what the others have to say," said Beaver.
+
+Soon all the beavers looked out to see if he were armed. He had left
+his bow and arrow in a hollow tree.
+
+"Make me a beaver," said Pau-puk-kee-wis. "I wish to live among you."
+
+"Yes," said Beaver chief. "Lie down." He lay down. He found himself a
+beaver.
+
+"You must make me large," he said.
+
+"Yes," said Beaver chief. "When we get into the lodge, you shall be
+made very large."
+
+So they all dived down into the water again. They passed heaps of tree
+limbs and logs lying on the bottom of the river.
+
+"What are these for?" asked Pau-puk-kee-wis.
+
+"For our winter food," said Beaver chief.
+
+Now when they got into the lodge, they made Pau-puk-kee-wis very
+large. They made him ten times larger than themselves.
+
+Soon a beaver came running in. He cried, "The Indians are hunting us."
+At once all the beavers ran out of the lodge door on the bottom of the
+river. Pau-puk-kee-wis was too large. He could not get out. The
+Indians broke down the dam. They lowered the water. They broke in the
+lodge. They saw that one.
+
+"_Ty-au! Ty-au!_" cried the Indians. "_Me-sham-mek_, the chief of the
+beavers, is here."
+
+So they killed him. Yet Pau-puk-kee-wis kept thinking. They placed his
+great body on a pole. Seven or eight Indians carried it. They went
+back to their lodges. They sent out invitations for a great feast.
+Then the women came out to skin him on the snow. When his flesh became
+cold, the _Jee-bi_ of Pau-puk-kee-wis went away. His spirit went away.
+
+So Pau-puk-kee-wis found himself standing alone on a prairie. Soon
+there came near by a herd of elk. He thought, "They are very happy. I
+will be an elk." He went near them, and said, "Make me an elk. I wish
+to live among you."
+
+They said, "Yes. Get down on your hands and knees."
+
+Soon he found himself an elk.
+
+"I want big horns and big feet," said Pau-puk-kee-wis. "I want to be
+very large."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the elk. So they made him very large. At last they
+said, "Are you large enough?" Pau-puk-kee-wis said, "Yes."
+
+So he lived with the elks. One cold day they all went into the woods
+for shelter. Soon some of the herd came racing by like a strong wind.
+At once all began to run.
+
+"Keep out on the prairies," they said to Pau-puk-kee-wis.
+
+But he was so large he got tangled up in the thick woods. He soon
+smelt the hunters. They were all following his trail. Pau-puk-kee-wis
+jumped high. He broke down saplings. Then the hunters shot him. He
+jumped higher. He jumped over the tree tops. Then all the hunters shot
+him. So they killed him. Then they skinned him. When his flesh became
+cold, the spirit of Pau-puk-kee-wis went away.
+
+Thus Pau-puk-kee-wis had many adventures. After a long time Manabozho
+killed him. Then he was really dead because he was killed in his human
+form. Manabozho said, "You shall not be permitted to live on the earth
+again. I will make you a war eagle."
+
+Thus Pau-puk-kee-wis became a war eagle. He lives in the sky.
+
+
+
+
+IAGOO, THE BOASTER[20]
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+    [20] From his lodge went Pau-puk-keewis,
+         Came with speed into the village,
+         Found the young men all assembled
+         In the lodge of old Iagoo,
+         Listening to his monstrous stories,
+         To his wonderful adventures.
+               .  .  .  .
+         Homeward now returned Iagoo,
+         The great traveller, the great boaster,
+         Full of new and strange adventures,
+         Marvels many and many wonders.
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+Iagoo was a great boaster. Once he told the people of a water lily he
+had seen. He said the leaf was large enough to make garments for his
+wife and daughter.
+
+One evening Iagoo was sitting in his wigwam, on the bank of the river.
+He heard ducks quack on the stream. He shot at them, without aiming.
+He shot through the door of the wigwam. Behold! His arrow pierced a
+swan flying by. It killed many ducks in the stream. The arrow flew
+farther. It killed two loons, just coming up from beneath the water.
+Then it killed a very large fish.
+
+Iagoo went hunting. He followed the trail of the deer through the
+forest. He shot a deer and skinned it. He lifted the meat upon his
+shoulders. As he came from his hunting place, Iagoo saw a person on a
+prairie before him. He pursued that person. Iagoo ran half a day after
+that one. Then he remembered the meat upon his shoulders. He
+remembered he carried the body of the deer.
+
+Iagoo had many adventures. He found mosquitoes in a bog-land. They
+were very large. The wing of one he used for a sail for his canoe,
+when the breeze blew. The nose of that insect was as large as his
+wife's digging stick.
+
+One day Iagoo watched a beaver's lodge. He watched for the peering
+head of a beaver. Behold! An ant went by. She had killed a hare. She
+dragged hare's body on the ground behind her.
+
+
+
+
+OJEEG, THE SUMMER-MAKER
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Ojeeg was a great hunter. He lived on the southern shore of Lake
+Superior. Ojeeg had a wife and one son.
+
+Now the son hunted game as the father taught him. He followed the
+trails over the snow. For snow lay always on the ground. It was always
+cold. Therefore the boy returned home crying.
+
+One day as he went to his father's wigwam in the cold and snow he saw
+Red Squirrel, gnawing the end of a pine cone. Now the son of Ojeeg had
+shot nothing all day because his hands were so cold. When he saw Red
+Squirrel, he came nearer, and raised his bow.
+
+Red Squirrel said, "My grandson, put up your arrow. Listen to me."
+
+The boy put the arrow in his quiver.
+
+Red Squirrel said, "You pass my wigwam very often. You cry because you
+cannot kill birds. Your fingers are numb with cold. Obey me. Thus it
+shall always be summer. Thus you can kill many birds."
+
+  [Illustration: PERMANENT ASH-BARK WIGWAM OF THE WILD RICE
+  GATHERING OJIBWA.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+Red Squirrel said again, "Obey me. When you reach your father's
+wigwam, throw down your bow and arrows. Begin to weep. If your mother
+says, 'My son, what is the matter?' do not answer her. Continue
+weeping. If she says, 'My son, eat this,' you must refuse the food.
+Continue weeping. In the evening when your father comes in he will say
+to your mother, 'What is the matter with my son?' She will say, 'He
+came in crying. He will not tell me.' Your father will say, 'My son,
+what is the matter? I am a spirit. Nothing is too hard for me.' Then
+you must answer, 'It is always cold and dreary. Snow lies always upon
+the ground. Melt the snow, my father, so that we may have always
+summer.' Then your father will say, 'It is very difficult to do what
+you ask. I will try.' Then you must be quiet. You must eat the food
+they give you."
+
+Thus it happened.
+
+Ojeeg then said, "I must make a feast. I must invite my friends to go
+on this journey with me." At once Ojeeg killed a bear. The next day he
+had a great feast. There were Otter, Beaver, and Lynx. Also Wolverine
+and Badger were at the feast.
+
+Then they started on their journey. On the twentieth day they came to
+the foot of a high mountain. There was blood in the trail. Some person
+had killed an animal. They followed the trail of that person. They
+arrived at a wigwam.
+
+Ojeeg said, "Do not laugh. Be very quiet."
+
+A man stood in the doorway of the wigwam. He was a great manito. He
+was a head only. Thus he was very strange. Then he made a feast for
+them. He made very curious movements, so Otter laughed. At once the
+manito leaped upon him. He sprang on him, but Otter slipped out from
+under him and escaped.
+
+The manito and the animals talked all night. The manito said to Ojeeg,
+the Fisher, "You will succeed. You will be the summer-maker. But you
+will die. Yet the summer will come."
+
+Now when they followed the trail in the morning, they met Otter. He
+was very cold and hungry, therefore Fisher gave him meat.
+
+Then they journeyed on. On the twentieth day, they came to the top of
+a lofty mountain. Then they smoked their pipes.
+
+Then Ojeeg, the Fisher, and the animals prepared themselves. Ojeeg
+said to Otter, "We must first make a hole in the Sky-cover. You try
+first."
+
+Otter made a great spring. He did not even touch the Sky-cover. He
+fell back, down the hill, to the bottom of the hill. Then Otter said,
+"I will go home." So he did.
+
+Then Beaver tried. He fell. Also Lynx and Badger fell.
+
+Then Wolverine tried. He made a great leap and touched the sky. Then
+he leaped again. He pressed against the Sky-cover. He leaped a third
+time. The Sky-cover broke, and Wolverine went into the Sky-land.
+Fisher also sprang in quickly after him.
+
+Thus Wolverine and Fisher were in the Sky-plain, in the summer land.
+There were many flowers and streams of bright water. There were birds
+in the trees, and fish and water birds on the streams. Many lodges
+stood there, but they were empty. In each lodge were many _mocuks_,
+many bird cages, with birds in them.
+
+At once Ojeeg began to cut the _mocuks_. The birds flew out. They flew
+down through the hole in the Sky-cover to the Earth-plain below. They
+carried warm air down with them.
+
+Now when the people of the Sky-land saw these strangers, and their
+birds escaping, they ran to their wigwams. But they were too late.
+Spring, and summer, and autumn had slipped down the hole in the
+Sky-cover. Endless summer was just passing through, but they broke it
+in two with a blow. Therefore only a part of endless summer came down
+to the Earth-plain.
+
+Now when Wolverine heard the noise of the sky people, running to
+their lodges, he jumped down the hole and escaped. Fisher also tried
+to jump, but the people had shut the cover. Therefore Fisher ran and
+the people pursued him. He climbed a great tree in the north, and the
+people began shooting at him. Now Fisher was a spirit; he could not be
+hurt except in the tip of his tail. At last they shot him in his tail.
+
+Fisher called to the Sky People to stop shooting. But they did not
+stop until darkness came. Then they went away. Fisher climbed down. He
+went towards the north. He said, "I have kept my promise to my son.
+The seasons will now be different. There will be many moons without
+snow and cold."
+
+Thus Fisher died, with the arrow sticking in his tail. It can be seen
+there, even to this day.[21]
+
+    [21] He was telling them the story
+         Of Ojeeg the Summer-Maker,
+         How he made a hole in heaven,
+         How he climbed up into heaven,
+         And let out the summer-weather,
+         The perpetual summer-weather.
+         How the Otter first essayed it,
+         How the Beaver, Lynx, and Badger,
+         Tried in turn the great achievement,
+         From the summit of the mountain ...
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+
+
+
+RABBIT GOES DUCK HUNTING
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Rabbit was very boastful. One day he met Otter. Otter said, "Sometimes
+I eat ducks."
+
+"Well, I eat ducks, too," said Rabbit.
+
+So they went up the stream until they saw several ducks in the water.
+They followed the trail softly. Then they stood on the river bank.
+
+Rabbit said, "You go first." At once Otter dived from the bank. He
+swam under water until he reached a duck; then he pulled it under
+quickly so that the other ducks were not frightened. While he was
+under water, Rabbit peeled bark from a sapling and made a noose.
+
+"Now, watch me," he said, when Otter came back. He dived in and swam
+under water until he was nearly choked. So he came to the top to
+breathe. He did this several times. The last time he came up among the
+ducks and threw the noose over the head of one.
+
+Duck spread her wings and flew up, with Rabbit hanging to the end of
+the noose. Up and up flew the duck, but Rabbit could not hold on any
+longer. Then he let go and dropped.
+
+Rabbit fell into a hollow sycamore. It was very tall, and had no hole
+at the bottom. Rabbit stayed there until he was so hungry he ate his
+own fur, even as he does to this day.
+
+After many days, he heard children playing around the tree. He began
+to sing,
+
+    Cut a door and look at me,
+    I'm the prettiest thing you ever did see.
+
+The children at once ran home to tell their father. He came and cut a
+hole in the tree. As he chopped away, Rabbit kept singing,
+
+    Cut it larger, so you can see me. I am very pretty.
+
+So they made the hole larger. Then Rabbit told them to stand back so
+they could get a good look at him. They stood back. Then Rabbit sprang
+out and leaped away.
+
+
+
+
+RABBIT AND THE TAR BABY
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+Rabbit aided his friend the Frenchman with his work. They planted
+potatoes. Rabbit looked upon the potato vines as his share of the crop
+and ate them all.
+
+Again Rabbit aided his friend the Frenchman. This time they planted
+corn. When it was grown, Rabbit said, "This time I will eat the
+roots." So he pulled up all the corn by the roots, but he found
+nothing to satisfy his hunger.
+
+Then the Frenchman said, "Let us dig a well." Rabbit said, "No. You
+dig it alone."
+
+The Frenchman said, "Then you shall not drink water from the well."
+
+"That does not matter," said Rabbit. "I am used to licking off the dew
+from the ground."
+
+So the Frenchman dug his well. Then he made a tar baby and stuck it up
+close to the well. One day Rabbit came near the well, carrying a long
+piece of hollow cane and a tin bucket. When he reached the well he
+spoke to the tar baby; it did not answer.
+
+"Friend, what is the matter? Are you angry?" asked Rabbit.
+
+Tar baby did not answer. So Rabbit hit him with a forepaw. The forepaw
+stuck there.
+
+"Let me go," said Rabbit, "or I will hit you on the other side."
+
+Tar baby paid no attention, so Rabbit hit him with the other forepaw,
+and that stuck fast.
+
+"I will kick you," said Rabbit. But when he kicked him the hindpaw
+stuck.
+
+"Very well," he said, "I will kick you with the other foot." So he
+kicked him with the other foot and that stuck fast. By that time
+Rabbit looked like a ball, all four paws sticking to the tar baby.
+
+Just then the Frenchman came to the well. He picked Rabbit up, tied
+his paws together, laid him down and scolded him. Rabbit pretended to
+be in great fear of a brier patch.
+
+"If you are so afraid of a brier patch," said the Frenchman, "I will
+throw you into one."
+
+"Oh, no, no!" said Rabbit.
+
+"I will throw you into the brier patch," repeated the Frenchman.
+
+"I am much afraid of it," answered Rabbit.
+
+"Since you are in such dread of it, I will throw you into it," said
+the Frenchman. So he picked up Rabbit and threw him far into the
+brier patch. Rabbit fell far away from the Frenchman.
+
+Then he picked himself up and ran off, laughing at the trick he had
+played on the Frenchman.
+
+
+
+
+RABBIT AND TAR WOLF
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Once the weather was dry for so long that there was no more water in
+the springs and creeks. The animals held a council to see what to do
+about it. They decided to dig a well, and all agreed to help, except
+Rabbit who was a lazy fellow.
+
+Rabbit said, "I don't need to dig for water. The dew on the grass is
+enough for me."
+
+The others did not like this, but they all started to dig the well. It
+stayed dry for a long while and even the water in the well was low.
+Still Rabbit was lively and bright.
+
+"Rabbit steals our water at night," they said. So they made a wolf of
+pine gum and tar. They set it by the well to scare the thief.
+
+That night Rabbit came again to the well. He saw the black thing
+there.
+
+"Who's there?" he asked. But Tar Wolf did not answer. Rabbit came
+nearer. Yet Tar Wolf did not move. Rabbit grew brave and said, "Get
+out of my way."
+
+Tar Wolf did not move. So Rabbit hit him with his paw; but it stuck
+fast in the gum.
+
+Rabbit became angry and said, "Let go my paw!" Still Tar Wolf said
+nothing. So Rabbit hit him with his hind foot; that stuck in the gum.
+
+So Tar Wolf held Rabbit fast until morning. Then the other animals
+came for water. When they found Rabbit stuck fast, they made great fun
+of him for a while. At last Rabbit managed to get away.
+
+
+
+
+RABBIT AND PANTHER
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+Rabbit was a great boaster. He wanted a medicine lodge and to have
+people think he was a great medicine man.
+
+Now one day, Wabus, the Rabbit, and his wife were traveling. They came
+to a low hill covered with poplar sprouts. They were green and tender.
+Therefore Rabbit decided to make his home there.
+
+Rabbit went first to the top of a hill and built a wigwam. He made
+trails from it in all directions, so he might see anyone who
+approached.
+
+When the wigwam was finished, Rabbit told his wife he was going to
+dance; but first he ran all about the hill to see if anyone was
+watching him. He found no trail. Then he returned and began his song.
+
+Now just as Rabbit returned to his wigwam, Panther reached the base of
+the hill, and he found Rabbit's trail. He followed it until he reached
+the place where Rabbit and his wife were dancing. Here he hid to watch
+Rabbit.
+
+Now Rabbit told his wife to sit at one end of the lodge while he went
+to the other. He took his medicine bag. Then he approached her four
+times, chanting,
+
+    Ye ha-a-a-a-a   Ye ha-a-a-a-a
+    Ye ha-a-a-a-a   Ye ha-a-a-a-a
+
+Then he shot at his wife, just as a medicine man does when he shoots
+at a new member. Then Rabbit's wife arose and shot at him. Thus they
+were very happy.
+
+Then Rabbit began to sing a song which meant this: "If Panther comes
+across my trail while I am biting the bark from the poplars, he will
+not be able to catch me for I am a good runner."
+
+When he had finished his song, Rabbit told his wife he would go out
+hunting. Panther waited for his return.
+
+Now as Rabbit started home again he was very happy. But when he
+reached Panther's hiding place, his enemy sprang on his trail. Rabbit
+saw him and started back on his trail. Panther raced after him. He
+caught him and said,
+
+"You are the man who said I could not catch you. Now who is the
+fastest runner?" And before Rabbit could answer Panther ate him up.
+But Rabbit was such a boastful man.
+
+
+
+
+HOW RABBIT STOLE OTTER'S COAT
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+All the animals were of different sizes and wore different coats. Some
+wore long fur and others wore short fur. Some had rings on their
+tails; others had no tails at all. The coats of the animals were of
+many colors--brown, or black, or yellow, or gray.
+
+The animals were always quarreling about whose coat was the finest.
+Therefore they held a council to decide the matter.
+
+Now everyone had heard a great deal about Otter, but he lived far up
+the trail; he did not often visit the others. It was said he had the
+finest coat of all, but it was so long since they had seen him that no
+one remembered what it was like. They did not even know just where he
+lived, but they knew he would come when he heard of the council.
+
+Rabbit was afraid the council would say that Otter had the finest
+coat. He learned by what trail Otter would come to the council. Then
+he went a four days' march up the trail to meet him. At last he saw
+Otter coming. He knew him at once by his beautiful coat of soft brown
+fur.
+
+Otter said, "Where are you going?"
+
+"They sent me to bring you to the council," answered Rabbit. "They
+were afraid you might not know the trail."
+
+So Rabbit turned back and they traveled together. They traveled all
+day. At night Rabbit picked out a camping place. Otter was a stranger
+in that part. Rabbit cut down bushes for beds and made everything
+comfortable. Next morning they started on again.
+
+In the afternoon, Rabbit picked up pieces of bark and wood, as they
+followed the trail, and loaded them on his back.
+
+"Why are you doing that?" asked Otter.
+
+"So that we may be warm and comfortable tonight," said Rabbit. Near
+sunset they stopped and made camp. After supper Rabbit began to
+whittle a stick, shaving it down to a paddle.
+
+"Why are you doing that?" asked Otter again.
+
+"Oh," said Rabbit, "I have good dreams when I sleep with a paddle
+under my head."
+
+When the paddle was finished, Rabbit began to cut a good trail through
+the bushes to the river.
+
+"Why are you doing that?" asked Otter.
+
+"This is called 'The Place Where It Rains Fire,' and sometimes it
+does rain fire here," said Rabbit. "The sky looks a little that way
+tonight. You go to sleep and I will sit up and watch. If you hear me
+shout, you run and jump into the river. Better hang your coat on that
+limb over there, so it will not get burned."
+
+Otter did as Rabbit told him; then both curled up and Otter went to
+sleep. But Rabbit stayed awake. After a while the fire burned down to
+red coals. Rabbit called to Otter; he was fast asleep. Then he called
+again, but Otter did not awaken.
+
+Then Rabbit rose softly. He filled the paddle with hot coals, threw
+them up into the air and shouted, "It's raining fire! It's raining
+fire!"
+
+The hot coals fell on Otter and he jumped up.
+
+"To the river," shouted Rabbit and Otter fled into the water. So he
+has lived in the water ever since.
+
+Rabbit at once took Otter's coat and put it on, leaving his own
+behind. Then he followed the trail to the council.
+
+All the animals were waiting for Otter. At last they saw him coming
+down the trail. They said to each other, "Otter is coming!" They sent
+one of the small animals to show him the best seat. After he was
+seated, the animals all went up in turn to welcome him. But Otter kept
+his head down with one paw over his face.
+
+The animals were surprised. They did not know Otter was so bashful.
+At last Bear pulled the paw away. There was Rabbit! He sprang up and
+started to run. Bear struck at him and pulled the tail off his coat.
+But Rabbit was too quick and got safely away.
+
+
+
+
+RABBIT AND BEAR
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+Rabbit and Bear had been friends for some time. One day Rabbit said to
+Bear, "Come and visit me. I live in a very large brier patch." Then he
+went home.
+
+When he reached home he went out and gathered a quantity of young
+canes which he hung up.
+
+After a while Bear reached a place near his house, but was seeking the
+large brier patch. Now Rabbit really dwelt in a very small patch. When
+Rabbit found that Bear was near, he began to make a pattering sound
+with his feet.
+
+Bear was scared. He retreated to a distance and then stopped and stood
+listening. As soon as Rabbit saw this, he cried out, "Halloo! my
+friend! Was it you whom I treated in that manner? Come and take a
+seat."
+
+So Bear went back to Rabbit's house and took a seat. Rabbit gave the
+young canes to his guest, who swallowed them all. Rabbit nibbled now
+and then at one, while Bear swallowed all the others.
+
+"This is what I have always liked," said Bear when he went home.
+"Come and visit me. I dwell in a large bent tree."
+
+Not long after, Rabbit started on his journey. He spent some time
+seeking the large bent tree but he could not find it. Bear lived in a
+hollow tree, and he sat there growling. Rabbit heard the growls and
+fled for some distance before he sat down.
+
+Then Bear called, "Halloo! my friend! Was it you whom I treated in
+that manner? Come here and sit down."
+
+Rabbit did so.
+
+Bear said, "You are now my guest, but there is nothing for you to
+eat." So Bear went in search of food.
+
+Bear went to gather young canes, but as he went along, he gathered
+also the small black bugs which live in decayed logs. When he had been
+gone some time, he returned to his lodge with only a few young canes.
+He put them down before Rabbit and then walked around him in a circle.
+In a little while, he offered Rabbit the black bugs.
+
+"I have never eaten such food," said Rabbit.
+
+Bear was offended. He said, "When I was your guest, I ate all the food
+you gave me, as I liked it very well. Now when I offer you food, why
+do you treat me in this way?" Then Bear said, also, "Before the sun
+sets, I shall kill you."
+
+Rabbit's heart beat hard from terror, for Bear stood at the entrance
+of the hollow log to prevent his escape. But Rabbit was very nimble.
+He dodged first this way and then that, and with a long leap he got
+out of the hollow tree. He went at once to his brier patch and sat
+down.
+
+Rabbit was very angry with Bear. He shouted to him, "When people are
+hunting you, I will go toward your hiding place, and show them where
+you are."
+
+That is why, when dogs hunt a rabbit, they always shoot a bear. That
+is all.
+
+
+
+
+WHY DEER NEVER EAT MEN
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+After Rabbit had decided about light and darkness, he saw Owasse, the
+Bear, coming.
+
+Rabbit said, "Bear, what do you want for food?" Bear said, "Acorns and
+fruit."
+
+Then Rabbit asked Fish Hawk. He said, "Fish Hawk, what will you select
+for your food?"
+
+Fish Hawk said, "I will take that fellow, Sucker, lying in the water
+there."
+
+Sucker said at once, "You may eat me if you can, but that has still to
+be decided."
+
+Sucker at once swam out into the deepest part of the river, where Fish
+Hawk could not reach him. Then Fish Hawk rose into the air to a point
+where his shadow fell exactly on the spot where Sucker lay. Now as
+Sucker lay there, he saw the shadow of a large bird on the bed of the
+stream. He became frightened. He thought, "It must be a manido," so he
+swam slowly to the surface. At once Fish Hawk darted down on him and
+carried him into the air. Then he ate him.
+
+Rabbit looked about him again. He saw Moqwaio, the Wolf. He cried,
+"Ho, Wolf! What do you wish for food?"
+
+Wolf said, "I will eat Deer." Deer said, "You cannot eat me, because I
+can run too swiftly." Wolf said, "We will see about that." So they had
+a race. Deer started ahead and ran very swiftly. Wolf ran swiftly,
+too, but his fur robe was too heavy. At last he thought, "This robe is
+too heavy. I will slip it off." So he threw it off. Then he bounded
+ahead and caught Deer and ate him.
+
+Then Rabbit asked another Deer, of the same totem, "Deer, what will
+you select as food?"
+
+Deer said, "I will eat people. There are many Indians in the country.
+I will eat them."
+
+At once all the animals began to talk. They said to Deer, "The Indian
+is too powerful. You can never eat him."
+
+Deer said, "Well, I will plan to eat Indians, anyway." Then he walked
+off.
+
+Now one day an Indian was out hunting. He saw deer tracks to the right
+and so followed them. They went in a large circle until they brought
+him back where he had started. Then he saw deer tracks to the left. So
+he followed those, until they also brought him back, in a large
+circle, to the point where he started. Then the Indian saw that Deer
+was following him.
+
+Deer was determined to eat the Indians, because there were many of
+them. It would not be difficult to hunt for food. But first he wanted
+to frighten the hunter. So he pulled two ribs from his sides, and
+stuck them into his lower jaw. They looked like tusks. Deer looked
+very fierce. Then Deer came walking along, looking for an Indian. But
+the hunter raised his bow and shot Deer. He carried the deer meat back
+to his wigwam.
+
+The shade of Deer at once went to the council of birds and animals. He
+told Rabbit all about it.
+
+Rabbit said, "I told you that you could not eat people. You see how it
+is? Now you will have to live on grass and twigs."
+
+And so they do, even to this day.
+
+
+
+
+HOW RABBIT SNARED THE SUN
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+Rabbit and his grandmother lived in a wigwam. Rabbit used to go
+hunting every day, very early in the morning. But no matter how early
+he went, a person leaving long footprints had passed along ahead of
+him. Each morning Rabbit thought, "I will reach there before him." Yet
+each morning the person leaving long footprints passed before him.
+
+One morning Rabbit said to his grandmother, "Oh, Grandmother, although
+I have long wished to be the first to get there, again has he got
+there ahead of me. Oh, Grandmother, I will make a noose, and I will
+place it in the trail of that one, and thus I will catch him."
+
+"Why should you do that?" asked grandmother.
+
+"I hate that person," said Rabbit. He departed. When he reached there,
+he found that the person had already departed. So he lay down near by
+and waited for night. Then he went to the trail where the person with
+long feet had been passing, and set a snare.
+
+  [Illustration: SHELL GORGET SHOWING EAGLE CARVING.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+  [Illustration: INDIAN JAR FROM THE MOUNDS OF ARKANSAS.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+Very early the next morning he went to look at his trap. Behold! Sun
+had been caught. Rabbit ran home very quickly.
+
+"Oh, Grandmother, I have caught something but it scares me. I wished
+to take the noose, but it scared me every time I went to get it."
+
+Then Rabbit took a knife and again went there. The person said, "You
+have done very wrong. Come and release me."
+
+Rabbit did not go directly toward him. He went to one side. He bent
+his head low and cut the cord. At once Sun went above on his trail.
+But Rabbit had been so near him that Sun burned his fur on the back of
+his neck.
+
+Rabbit ran home. He cried, "Oh, Grandmother, I have been severely
+burned."
+
+"Alas! My grandson has been severely burned," said grandmother.
+
+
+
+
+WHEN THE ORPHAN TRAPPED THE SUN
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Animals and men lived on the earth in the beginning. The animals
+killed all the people except a girl and her tiny brother, who hid from
+them. The brother did not grow at all. Therefore when the sister
+collected firewood, she took him with her. She made him a bow and
+arrow.
+
+One day she said, "Now I must leave you for a while. Soon the
+snowbirds will come and pick worms out of the wood I have cut. Shoot
+one of them and bring it to me."
+
+The boy waited. The birds came and he shot at them with his arrows. He
+could not kill one. The next day he shot at them again. Then he killed
+one. He came back to the wigwam with a bird.
+
+He said, "My sister, skin it. I will wear the skins of the snowbirds."
+
+"What shall we do with the body?" she asked.
+
+"Cut it in two. We will put it in our broth." Now at that time, the
+animals were very large. People did not eat them.
+
+The boy killed ten snowbirds. Then his sister made a coat for him. One
+day he said, "Are we alone on the Earth-plain?"
+
+She said, "The animals who live in such a place have killed all our
+relatives. You must never go there." Therefore he went in that
+direction.
+
+Now he walked a long while and met no one. Then he lay down on a knoll
+where the sun had melted the snow. He fell asleep. Then Sun looked
+down at him and burned his bird-skin coat. He tightened it so that the
+boy was bound into it. When he awoke, the boy said to Sun, "You are
+not too high. I will pay you back."
+
+He went home. He said to his sister, "Sun has spoiled my coat." He
+would not eat. He lay down on the ground. He lay ten days on one side.
+Then he turned over and lay ten days on the other side.
+
+At last he rose. He said to his sister, "Make me a snare. I shall
+catch Sun."
+
+She said, "I have no string." The boy said, "Make a string." Then she
+remembered a bit of dried sinew which her father had had. So she made
+a snare for him.
+
+The boy said, "That will not do. Make a better snare." She said, "I
+have no string." At last she remembered. She cut off some of her hair.
+She made a string from that.
+
+The boy said, "That will not do. Make me a noose." She thought again.
+Then she remembered. She went out of the wigwam. She took something.
+She made a braid out of that thing.
+
+The boy said, "This will do." He was much pleased. When he took it, it
+became a long red cord. There was much of it. He wound it around his
+body.
+
+The boy left the wigwam while Sun was at home. He did this so that he
+might catch him as he came over the edge of the earth. He put the
+noose at the spot just where Sun came over the edge. When Sun came
+along, the noose caught his head. He was held tight, so that he could
+not follow his trail in the Sky-land.
+
+Now the animals who ruled the earth were frightened because Sun did
+not follow the trail. They said, "What shall we do?" So they called a
+great council. They said, "We must send someone to cut the noose."
+Thus they spoke in the council.
+
+Now all the animals were afraid to cut the cord. Sun was so hot he
+would burn them. At last Dormouse said, "I will go." He stood up in
+the council. He was as high as a mountain. He was the largest of all
+the animals.
+
+When Dormouse reached the place where Sun was snared, his fur began
+to singe and his back to burn. It was very hot. Dormouse cut the cord
+with his teeth. But so much of him was burned up, he became very
+small. Therefore Dormouse is the smallest of animals. That is why he
+is called Kug-e-been-gwa-kwa.
+
+
+
+
+THE HARE AND THE LYNX
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Once there was a little white hare, living in a wigwam with her
+grandmother. Now Grandmother sent Hare back to her native land. When
+Hare had gone a short way, Lynx came down the trail. Lynx sang:
+
+    Where, pretty white one,
+    Where, pretty white one,
+        Where do you go?
+
+"_Tshwee! Tshwee! Tshwee! Tshwee!_" cried Hare, and ran back to
+Grandmother.
+
+"See, Grandmother," she said, "Lynx came down the trail and sang,
+
+    Where, pretty white one,
+    Where, pretty white one,
+        Where do you go?"
+
+"Ho!" said Grandmother. "Have courage! Tell Lynx you are going to your
+native land."
+
+Hare went back up the trail. Lynx stood there, so Hare sang,
+
+    To the point of land I go,
+    There is the home of the little white one,
+        There I go.
+
+Lynx looked at the trembling little hare, and began to sing again,
+
+    Little white one, tell me,
+    Little white one, tell me,
+    Why are your ears so thin and dry?
+
+"_Tshwee! Tshwee! Tshwee! Tshwee!_" cried little Hare, and ran back to
+Grandmother.
+
+"See, Grandmother," said Hare, "Lynx came down the trail and sang,
+
+    Little white one, tell me,
+    Little white one, tell me,
+    Why are your ears so thin and dry?"
+
+"Ho!" said Grandmother, "Go and tell him your uncles made them so when
+they came from the South."
+
+So Hare ran up the trail and sang,
+
+    My uncles came from the south;
+    They made my ears as they are.
+    They made them thin and dry.
+
+And then Hare laid her little pink ears back upon her shoulders, and
+started to go to the point of land. But Lynx sang again,
+
+    Why do you go away, little white one?
+    Why do you go away, little white one?
+    Why are your feet so dry and swift?
+
+"_Tshwee! Tshwee! Tshwee! Tshwee!_" cried Hare and again she ran back
+to Grandmother.
+
+"Ho! do not mind him," said Grandmother. "Do not listen to him. Do not
+answer him. Just run straight on."
+
+So the little white hare ran up the trail as fast as she could. When
+she came to the place where Lynx had stood, he was gone. So Hare ran
+on and had almost reached her native land, on the point of land, when
+Lynx sprang out of the thicket and ate her up.
+
+
+
+
+WELCOME TO A BABY
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Little wren is the messenger of the Birds. She pries into everything.
+She gets up early in the morning and goes around to every wigwam to
+get news for the Bird council. When a new baby comes into a wigwam,
+she finds out whether it is a boy or a girl.
+
+If it is a boy, the Bird council sings mournfully, "Alas! The whistle
+of the arrow! My shins will burn!" Because the Birds all know that
+when the boy grows older he will hunt them with his bows and arrows,
+and will roast them on a stick.
+
+But if the baby is a girl, they are glad. They sing, "Thanks! The
+sound of the pestle! In her wigwam I shall surely be able to scratch
+where she sweeps." Because they know that when she grows older and
+beats the corn into meal, they will be able to pick up stray grains.
+
+Cricket also is glad when the baby is a girl. He sings, "Thanks! I
+shall sing in the wigwam where she lives." But if it is a boy, Cricket
+laments, "_Gwo-he!_ He will shoot me! He will shoot me! He will shoot
+me!" Because boys make little bows to shoot crickets and grasshoppers.
+
+When the Cherokee Indians hear of a new baby, they ask, "Is it a bow,
+or a meal sifter?" Or else they ask, "Is it ball-sticks or bread?"
+
+
+
+
+BABY SONG
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+    Ha wi ye   hy u we,
+    Ha wi ye   hy u we.
+    Yu we   yu we he,
+    Ha wi ye   hy u we.
+
+    The Bear is very bad, so they say,
+    Long time ago he was very bad, so they say.
+    The Bear did so and so, they say.
+
+
+
+
+SONG TO THE FIREFLY
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+In the hot summer evenings, when the grassy patches around the lakes
+and rivers sparkle with fireflies, the Indians sing a song to them.
+
+    Flitting white-fire-bug,
+    Flitting white-fire-bug,
+    Give me your light before I go to sleep.
+    Give me your light before I go to sleep.
+    Come, little waving fire-bug.
+    Come, little waving fire-bug.
+    Light me with your bright torch.
+    Light me with your bright torch.[22]
+
+    [22] Saw the fire-fly, Wah-wah-taysee,
+         Flitting through the dusk of evening,
+         With the twinkle of its candle,
+         Lighting up the brakes and bushes;
+         And he sang the song of children,
+         Sang the song Nokomis taught him;
+         "Wah-wah-taysee, little fire-fly,
+         Little, flitting, white-fire insect ..."
+                              --_Hiawatha_
+
+
+
+
+SONG OF THE MOTHER BEARS
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+One day a hunter in the woods heard singing in a cave. He came near
+and peeped in. It was a mother bear singing to her cubs and telling
+them what to do when the hunters came after them.
+
+Mother Bear said,
+
+    When you hear the hunter coming down the creek, then
+    Tsagi,   tsagi,   hwilahi,
+    Tsagi,   tsagi,   hwilahi,
+    Upstream, upstream, you must go.
+    Upstream, upstream, you must go.
+
+    But if you hear them coming down stream,
+    Ge-i,   ge-i,   hwilahi,
+    Ge-i,   ge-i,   hwilahi,
+    Downstream, downstream, you must go.
+    Downstream, downstream, you must go.
+
+Another hunter out in the woods one day thought he heard a woman
+singing to a baby. He followed the sound up a creek until he came to a
+cave under the bushes. Inside there was a mother bear rocking her cub
+in her paws and singing to it,
+
+    Let me carry you on my back,
+    Let me carry you on my back,
+    Let me carry you on my back,
+    Let me carry you on my back,
+    On the sunny side go to sleep.
+    On the sunny side go to sleep.
+
+This was after some of the people had become bears. The hunter knew
+they were of the Ani Tsagulin tribe.[23]
+
+    [23] See "Origin of the Bear."
+
+
+
+
+THE MAN IN THE STUMP
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+An Indian had a field of corn ripening in the sun. One day when he
+wanted to look at it, he climbed a stump. Now the stump was hollow and
+in it was a nest of bear cubs. The man slipped and fell down upon the
+cubs.
+
+At once the cubs began calling for their mother, and Mother Bear came
+running. She began to climb down into the stump backwards. Then the
+Indian caught hold of her leg; thus she became frightened. She began
+to climb out and dragged the Indian also to the top of the stump. Thus
+he got out of the stump.
+
+
+
+
+THE ANTS AND THE KATYDIDS
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+The Ancient of Ants was building a house. She worked hard to finish
+her house before the cold weather came.
+
+Now when it was very cold, the Katydid and the Locust reached her
+house, asking for shelter. They said they had no houses.
+
+The Ancient of Ants scolded them. She said, "After you are grown up,
+in the warm weather, you sing all the time, instead of building a
+house." She would not let them come into her house.
+
+Then the Katydid and the Locust were ashamed, and as the weather was
+very cold, they died. That is why katydids and locusts die every
+winter, while the ants live in their warm houses. But the katydids and
+locusts never do anything in warm weather but sing.
+
+
+
+
+WHEN THE OWL MARRIED
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Once there was a widow with only one daughter. She said often, "You
+should marry and then there will be a man to go hunting."
+
+Then one day a man came courting the daughter. He said, "Will you
+marry me?"
+
+The girl said, "I can only marry a good worker. We need a man who is a
+good hunter and who will work in the cornfield."
+
+"I am exactly that sort of a man," he said. So the mother said they
+might marry.
+
+Then the next morning the mother gave the man a hoe. She said, "Go,
+hoe the corn. When breakfast is ready I will call you." Then she went
+to call him. She followed a sound as of someone hoeing on stony soil.
+When she reached the place, there was only a small circle of hoed
+ground. Over in the thicket someone said, "Hoo-hoo!"
+
+When the man came back in the evening, the mother said, "Where have
+you been all day?"
+
+He said, "Hard at work."
+
+The mother said, "I couldn't find you."
+
+"I was over in the thicket cutting sticks to mark off the field," he
+said.
+
+"But you did not come to the lodge to eat at all," she answered.
+
+"I was too busy," he said.
+
+Early the next morning he started off with his hoe over his shoulder.
+
+Then the mother went again to call him, when the meal was ready. The
+hoe was lying there, but there was no sign of work done. And away over
+in the thicket, she heard a hu-hu calling, _Sau-h! sau-h! sau-h!
+hoo-hoo! hoo-hoo! hoo-hoo! chi! chi! chi! whew!_
+
+Now when the man came home that night, the mother asked,
+
+"What have you been doing all day?"
+
+"Working hard," he said.
+
+"But you were not there when I came after you."
+
+"Oh, I went over in the thicket awhile," said the man, "to see some of
+my relatives."
+
+Then the mother said, "I have lived here a long while, and no one
+lives in that swamp but lazy hu-hus. My daughter wants a husband that
+can work and not a hu-hu!" And she drove him from the house.
+
+
+
+
+THE KITE AND THE EAGLE
+
+
+Kite was very boastful. One day he spoke scornfully of Eagle, who
+heard his words. Kite began to sing in a loud voice,
+
+    I alone,
+    I alone,
+    Can go up,
+    So as to seem as if hanging from the blue sky.
+
+Eagle answered scornfully. He sang,
+
+    Who is this,
+    Who is this,
+    Who boasts of flying so high?
+
+Kite was ashamed. He answered in a small voice, "Oh, I was only
+singing of the great Khakate. It is he who is said to fly so high."
+
+Eagle answered, "Oh, you crooked tongue! You are below my notice."
+
+Then Eagle soared high into the sky. But just as soon as he was out of
+hearing, Kite began to sing again in a very loud voice,
+
+    I alone,
+    I alone,
+    Can go up,
+    So as to seem as if hanging from the blue sky.
+
+
+
+
+THE LINNET AND THE EAGLE
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+All the Birds met in council, each claiming to fly the highest. Each
+one claimed to be the chief. Therefore the council decided that each
+bird should fly toward the Sky-land.
+
+Some of the birds flew very swiftly; but they tired and flew back to
+earth. Now Eagle went far above all. When Eagle could fly no farther,
+Linnet, who had perched upon Eagle's back, flew up. Far above Eagle
+flew the tiny gray bird.
+
+Now when the Birds held a council again, Eagle was made chief. Eagle
+had flown higher than all the rest, and had carried Linnet on his
+back.
+
+
+
+
+HOW PARTRIDGE GOT HIS WHISTLE
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+In the old days, Terrapin had a fine whistle and Partridge had none.
+Terrapin whistled constantly. He was always boasting of his fine
+whistle.
+
+One day Partridge said, "Let me try your whistle."
+
+Terrapin said, "No." He was afraid Partridge would try some trick.
+
+Partridge said, "Oh, if you are afraid, stay right here while I use
+it."
+
+So Terrapin gave it to him. Partridge strutted around, whistling
+constantly.
+
+He said, "How does it sound with me?"
+
+"You do it very well," said Terrapin, walking by his side.
+
+"Now how do you like it?" asked Partridge, running ahead.
+
+"It's fine," said Terrapin, trying to keep up with him. "But don't run
+so fast!"
+
+"How do you like it now?" asked Partridge, spreading his wings and
+flying to a tree top. Terrapin could only look up at him.
+
+Partridge never gave the whistle back. He has it even to this day. And
+Terrapin was so ashamed because Partridge stole his whistle, and
+Turkey had stolen his scalp, that he shuts himself up in his box
+whenever anyone comes near him.
+
+
+
+
+HOW KINGFISHER GOT HIS BILL
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Some of the old men say that Kingfisher was meant in the beginning to
+be a water bird, but because he had no web on his feet and not a good
+bill, he could not get enough to eat. The animals knew of this, so
+they held a council. Afterwards they made him a bill like a long,
+sharp awl. This fish gig he was to use spearing fish. When they
+fastened it on to his mouth, he flew first to the top of a tree. Then
+he darted down into the water and came up with a fish on his bill. And
+ever since, Kingfisher has been the best fisherman.
+
+But some of the old people say it was this way.
+
+Blacksnake found Yellowhammer's nest in the hollow tree and killed all
+the young birds. Yellowhammer at once went to the Little People for
+help. They sent her to Kingfisher. So she went on to him.
+
+Kingfisher came at once, and after flying back and forth past the hole
+in the hollow tree, he made a quick dart at the snake and pulled him
+out, dead. When they looked, they saw he had pierced Blacksnake with
+a slender fish he carried in his bill. Therefore the Little People
+said he would make good use of a spear, so they gave him his long
+bill.
+
+
+
+
+WHY THE BLACKBIRD HAS RED WINGS
+
+_Chitimacha_
+
+
+One day an Indian became so angry with everyone that he set the sea
+marshes on fire because he wanted to burn up the world.
+
+A little blackbird saw it. He flew up into a tree and shouted, "_Ku
+nam wi cu! Ku nam wi cu!_ The world and all is going to burn."
+
+The man said, "If you do not go away, I will kill you." But the bird
+only kept shouting, "_Ku nam wi cu!_ The world and all is going to
+burn."
+
+Then the Indian threw a shell and hit the little bird on the wings,
+making them bleed. That is how the red-winged blackbird came by its
+red wings.
+
+Now when people saw the marshes burning, they quickly ran down and
+killed game which had been driven from it by the fire. Then they said
+to the angry man,
+
+"Because you put fire in those tall weeds, the deer and bear and other
+animals have been driven out and we have killed them. You have aided
+us by burning them."
+
+Nowadays when the red-winged blackbird comes around the house, he
+still shouts, _Ku nam wi cu_, so they say.
+
+
+
+
+BALL GAME OF THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Once the Animals challenged the Birds to a great ball play, and the
+Birds accepted. The Animals met near the river, in a smooth grassy
+field. The Birds met in the tree top over by the ridge.
+
+Now the leader of the Animals was Bear. He was very strong and heavy.
+All the way to the river he tossed up big logs to show his strength
+and boasted of how he would win against the Birds. Terrapin was with
+the Animals. He was not the little terrapin we have now, but the first
+Terrapin. His shell was so hard the heaviest blows could not hurt him,
+and he was very large. On the way to the river he rose on his hind
+feet and dropped heavily again. He did this many times, bragging that
+thus he would crush any bird that tried to take the ball from him.
+Then there was Deer, who could outrun all the others. And there were
+many other animals.
+
+Now the leader of the Birds was Eagle; and also Hawk, and the great
+Tlanuwa. They were all swift and strong of flight.
+
+Now first they had a ball dance. Then after the dance, as the birds
+sat in the trees, two tiny little animals no larger than field mice
+climbed up the tree where Eagle sat. They crept out to the branch tips
+to Eagle.
+
+They said, "We wish to play ball."
+
+Eagle looked at them. They were four-footed. He said, "Why don't you
+join the Animals? You belong there."
+
+"The Animals make fun of us," they said. "They drive us away because
+we are small."
+
+Eagle pitied them. He said, "But you have no wings."
+
+Then at once Eagle and Hawk and all the Birds held a council in the
+trees. At last they said to the little fellows, "We will make wings
+for you."
+
+But they could not think just how to do it. Then a Bird said, "The
+head of our drum is made of groundhog skin. Let us make wings from
+that." So they took two pieces of leather from the drum and shaped
+them for wings. They stretched them with cane splints and fastened
+them on the forelegs of one of the little animals. So they made
+Tlameha, the Bat. They began to teach him.
+
+First they threw the ball to him. Bat dropped and circled about in the
+air on his new wings. He did not let the ball drop. The Birds saw at
+once he would be one of their best men.
+
+Now they wished to give wings also to the second little animal, but
+there was no more leather. And there was no more time. Then somebody
+said they might make wings for the other man by stretching his skin.
+Therefore two large birds took hold from opposite sides with their
+strong bills. Thus they stretched his skin. Thus they made Tewa, the
+Flying Squirrel.
+
+Then Eagle threw to him the ball. At once Flying Squirrel sprang after
+it, caught it in his teeth, and carried it through the air to another
+tree nearby.
+
+Then the game began. Almost at the first toss, Flying Squirrel caught
+the ball and carried it up a tree. Then he threw it to the Birds, who
+kept it in the air for some time. When it dropped to the earth, Bear
+rushed to get it, but Martin darted after it and threw it to Bat, who
+was flying near the ground. Bat doubled and dodged with the ball, and
+kept it out of the way of Deer. At last Bat threw it between the
+posts. So the Birds won the game.
+
+Bear and Terrapin, who had boasted of what they would do, never had a
+chance to touch the ball.
+
+Because Martin saved the ball when it dropped to the ground, the Birds
+afterwards gave him a gourd in which to build his nest. He still has
+it.
+
+
+
+
+WHY THE BIRDS HAVE SHARP TAILS
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+Once upon a time, they say, the world turned over. Then the waters
+rose very high and many people died. A woman took two children and
+lodged in a tree. She sat there waiting for the waters to sink, for
+she had no way of reaching the ground.
+
+When the woman saw the Ancient of Red-headed Buzzards, she called to
+him, "Help me to get down and I will give you one of the children." He
+assisted her, but she did not give him the child.
+
+The waters were so deep that the birds were clinging by their claws to
+the clouds, but their tails were under water. That is why their tails
+are always sharp. One of these birds was the Ancient of Yellowhammers.
+Therefore its tailfeathers are sharp at the ends. The large Red-headed
+Woodpecker was there, too, and the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and that
+is why their tails have their present shape.
+
+  [Illustration: SPIDER GORGETS.
+    1. From a Mound, Missouri.
+    2. From a Stone Grave, Illinois.
+    3. From a Mound, Illinois.
+    4. From a Mound, Tennessee.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+
+
+
+THE WILDCAT AND THE TURKEYS
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+The Ancient of Wildcats had been creeping up on the Wild Turkeys
+trying to catch some. He tried in vain. Then he got a bag, crawled
+inside, and rolled himself along. He rolled himself to the Ancient of
+Turkey Gobblers.
+
+Wildcat said, "Get into my bag and see what fun it is to roll."
+
+The Ancient of Turkey Gobblers crawled into the bag. Wildcat tied up
+the end and rolled it along for some time. After he had rolled it
+quite a distance, he stopped and untied the bag.
+
+"It is very good," said the First of All the Turkey Gobblers. Then he
+said to the other Wild Turkeys, "Get in the bag and see how pleasant
+it is."
+
+But the young Turkeys were afraid. Gobbler urged them to try the new
+game. At last one young Turkey stepped into the bag. Wildcat tied the
+end and pretended that he was going to roll it. It would not go.
+
+"It will not go because it is too light. There is only one in it,"
+said Wildcat. "Let another young Turkey step in."
+
+At last another young Turkey stepped in. Wildcat tied the bag, threw
+it over his shoulder and ran home. When he reached home he laid the
+bag down.
+
+Then Wildcat said to his mother, "I have brought home something on my
+back, and placed it outside. Beware lest you untie the bag."
+
+His mother said to herself, "I wonder what it can be." So she untied
+the bag. One of the turkeys flew out. She managed to catch the other
+one. She caught both feet with one hand, and both wings with the
+other. She cried out, "Help! Help! I have caught four!"
+
+The Ancient of Wildcats scolded his mother. Then he killed the turkey
+and cooked it. His mother went into another room.
+
+Then Wildcat spread his feast. As he was eating the Turkey he made a
+constant noise. He walked back and forth. He talked continually and
+kept up a steady rattling. When he stopped the noise a little he said,
+"I am going home," as if a guest were speaking. He said this again and
+again. He made a noise with his feet as if people were walking about.
+He ate all the turkey except the hip bone.
+
+
+
+
+THE BRANT AND THE OTTER
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+Once upon a time the Ancient of Brants and the Ancient of Otters were
+living as friends. One day the Ancient of Otters said to the Ancient
+of Brants, "Come to see me tomorrow," and departed.
+
+Brant went to make the call. When he arrived, the Ancient of Otters
+said, "Halloo! I have nothing at all for you to eat! Sit down!" Then
+he went fishing. He used a "leather vine" which he jerked now and then
+to straighten it. He caught many fish. When he reached home he cooked
+them.
+
+When the fish were cooked, ready for the feast, the Ancient of Otters
+put some into a very flat dish. But the Ancient of Brants could not
+eat from a flat dish. All he could do was to hit his bill against the
+dish, and raise his head as if swallowing something. But Otter ate
+rapidly.
+
+Otter said to his guest, "Have you eaten enough?"
+
+"Yes, I am satisfied," said Brant.
+
+"No, you are not satisfied," said Otter. He took more fish and placed
+them in the flat dish, eating rapidly as before. Brant could only hit
+his bill against the side of the dish.
+
+When the Ancient of Brants was departing, he said to Otter, "Come to
+see me tomorrow."
+
+When Otter reached the house of the Ancient of Brants the next day,
+Brant cried, "Halloo! I have nothing at all to give you to eat! Sit
+down!"
+
+Then the Ancient of Brants went fishing, using a "leather vine" which
+he jerked now and then to straighten it. He caught many fish and took
+them home to cook them. When the fish were cooked, they began to
+feast. But the Ancient of Brants had put some into a small round dish.
+Ancient of Otters could not get his mouth into the dish. But Brant ate
+rapidly.
+
+"Have you eaten enough?" Brant asked, after a while.
+
+Otter replied, "Yes, I am satisfied."
+
+"Nonsense!" said the Ancient of Brants. "How could you possibly be
+satisfied! I have served you as you served me."
+
+But this ended their friendship.
+
+
+
+
+THE TINY FROG AND THE PANTHER
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+The Ancient of Tiny Frogs[24] was shut up by his grandmother, so that
+he might learn magic. Then she took him on a journey.
+
+    [24] The tiny frog, called péska, is a black one, not more
+    than an inch long, living in muddy streams in Louisiana. It
+    differs from the bullfrog, common frog, and tree frog.
+
+First they met the Ancient of Panthers. The grandmother said to him,
+"This is your sister's son. Look at him and wrestle with him." The
+Ancient of Panthers was very brave. To show his strength, he climbed
+very high up a tree which he tore to pieces, falling to the ground
+with it.
+
+Then he seized the Ancient of Tiny Frogs. But the frog caught him by
+the hind legs and whipped him against a tree. He beat him so severely
+that Panther's jaw was broken in many places. That is why all panthers
+have a short jaw.
+
+The Ancient of Tiny Frogs and his grandmother continued their journey.
+Next they met Bear. The grandmother said to him, "Look at your
+sister's son. Go and wrestle with him." Bear began to pull the limbs
+off a tree to show his strength. Soon he rushed upon the Ancient of
+Tiny Frogs. But that one caught Bear by the hind legs and beat him
+against a tree until he broke off short his tail. That is why bears
+have such very short tails.
+
+Again the old grandmother, singing as she walked, went along the trail
+with her grandson. They met Buffalo. She said, "Look at your sister's
+son. Go and wrestle with him." Now Buffalo was very strong. With his
+horns he uprooted a tree, and then spent some moments in breaking it
+to pieces. Then he rushed at the Ancient of Tiny Frogs. But that one
+caught Buffalo by the hind legs and beat him against a tree. He beat
+him until the back of his neck was broken and he had a great hump on
+his shoulders. So Buffalo went away, but that is why buffaloes have
+such very heavy, humpbacked shoulders.
+
+Again they walked along the trail, singing. It was not long before
+they met with Deer. To him the grandmother said, "Look at your
+sister's son. Go and wrestle with him." Deer leaped up to show his
+agility. Then he sprang at the Ancient of Tiny Frogs. But that one
+seized him by the legs and beat him against a tree, breaking his nose,
+and leaving him with a very small nose, even as deer today have small
+noses.
+
+Then the Ancient of Tiny Frogs said to Deer: "I shall remain here
+under the leaves. When hunters are after you and have almost reached
+you, I will urge you to escape by saying, '_Pés! Pés!_' When I say
+that, do your best to get away."
+
+Hardly had he finished speaking, when he cried out, "_Pés! Pés!_ It is
+so! Go quickly! Do your best!" Then Deer leaped away. For just then
+the hunters had come, sure enough.
+
+Therefore, when a tiny frog cries out now, people say that some one is
+on the point of running after a deer.
+
+
+
+
+THE FRIGHTENER OF HUNTERS
+
+_Choctaw_ (_Bayou Lacomb_)
+
+
+Kashehotapalo is the frightener of hunters. His head is small and
+dried up, like an old man's. His legs and feet are like those of a
+deer. He lives in low, swampy places, far away from men.
+
+If the hunters come near him, when they are chasing a deer, he slips
+up behind them and calls loudly. Thus he frightens them away. His
+voice is like that of a woman. His name means "the woman call."
+
+
+
+
+THE HUNTER AND THE ALLIGATOR
+
+_Choctaw_ (_Bayou Lacomb_)
+
+
+All the hunters in a village killed many deer one winter, except one
+man. This one saw many deer. Sometimes he drew his bow and shot at
+them; yet they escaped.
+
+Now this hunter had been away from his village three days. He had seen
+many deer; not one had he killed. On the third day, when the sun was
+hot over his head, he saw an alligator.
+
+Alligator was in a dry, sandy spot. He had had no water for many days.
+He was dry and shriveled.
+
+Alligator said to the hunter, "Where can water be found?" The hunter
+said, "In that forest, not far away, is cold water."
+
+"I cannot go there alone," said Alligator. "Come nearer. Do not fear."
+The hunter went nearer, but he was afraid.
+
+"You are a hunter," said Alligator, "but all the deer escape you.
+Carry me into the water, and I will make you a great hunter. You shall
+kill many deer."
+
+The hunter was still afraid. Then he said, "I will carry you, but
+first I must bind you so that you cannot scratch me; and your mouth,
+so that you cannot bite me."
+
+So Alligator rolled over on his back and let the hunter bind him. He
+fastened his legs and mouth firmly. Then he carried Alligator on his
+shoulders to the water in the forest. He unfastened the cords and
+threw him in.
+
+Alligator came to the surface three times. He said, "Take your bow and
+arrow and go into the woods. You will find a small doe. Do not kill
+it. Then you will find a large doe. Do not kill it. You will meet a
+small buck. Do not kill that. Then you will meet a large, old buck.
+Kill that."
+
+The hunter took his bow and arrow. Everything happened just as
+Alligator had foretold. Then he killed the large, old buck. So he
+became a very great hunter. There was always venison in his wigwam.
+
+
+
+
+THE GROUNDHOG DANCE
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Seven wolves once caught a groundhog. They said, "Now we'll kill you
+and have something to eat."
+
+Groundhog said, "When we find good food, we should rejoice over it, as
+people do in the green-corn dances. You will kill me, and I cannot
+help myself. But if you want to dance, I'll sing for you. Now this is
+a new dance. I will lean up against seven trees in turn. You will
+dance forward and then go back. At the last turn you may kill me."
+
+Now the Wolves were very hungry, but they wanted to learn the new
+dance. Groundhog leaned up against a tree and began to sing. He sang,
+
+    _Ho wi ye a hi_
+
+and all the Wolves danced forward. When he shouted "_Yu!_" they turned
+and danced back in line.
+
+"That's fine," said Groundhog, after the first dance was over. Then
+he went to the next tree and began the second song. He sang,
+
+    _Hi ya yu we_,
+
+and the Wolves danced forward. When he shouted "_Yu!_" they danced
+back in a straight line.
+
+At each song, Groundhog took another tree, getting closer and closer
+to his hole under a stump. At the seventh song, Groundhog said,
+
+"Now this is the last dance. When I shout '_Yu!_' all come after me.
+The one who gets me may have me."
+
+Then he sang a long time, until the Wolves were at quite a distance in
+a straight line. Then he shouted "_Yu!_" and darted for his hole.
+
+At once the Wolves turned and were after him. The foremost Wolf caught
+his tail and gave it such a jerk he broke it off. That is why
+Groundhog has such a short tail.
+
+
+
+
+THE RACOON
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+One day Racoon went into the woods to fast and dream. He dreamed that
+someone said to him, "When you awaken, paint your face and body with
+bands of black and white. That will be your own."
+
+When Racoon awoke, he painted himself as he had been told to do. So we
+see him, even to the present day.
+
+
+
+
+WHY THE OPOSSUM PLAYS DEAD
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+The Ancient of Opossums thought that he would reach a certain pond
+very early in the morning, so that he might catch the crawfish on the
+shore. But someone else reached there first, and when Opossum reached
+there the crawfish were all gone.
+
+This person did this every day. Opossum did not know who it was, so he
+lay in wait for him. He found it was the Ancient of Racoons.
+
+They argued about the crawfish and the pond. They agreed to see which
+could rise the earlier in the morning, go around the shore of the pond
+and catch the crawfish.
+
+Racoon said, "I rise very early. I never sleep until daylight comes."
+
+Opossum said the same thing. Then each went home.
+
+Now Opossum lay down in a hollow tree and slept there a long time. He
+arose when the sun was very high and went to the pond. But Racoon had
+been there ahead of him, and had eaten all the crawfish. Racoon sang
+the Song of the Racoon as he was going home. Opossum stood listening.
+He, too, sang. He sang the Song of the Opossum, thus:
+
+    _Hí na   kí-yu   wus-sé-di_
+
+He met the Racoon who had eaten all the crawfish.
+
+"Ha!" said Racoon. "I have been eating very long, and I was going
+home, as I was sleepy."
+
+Opossum said, "I, too, have been eating so long that I am sleepy, so I
+am going home."
+
+Opossum was always telling a lie. People say this of the Opossum
+because if one hits that animal and throws it down for dead, soon it
+gets up and walks off.
+
+
+
+
+WHY THE 'POSSUM'S TAIL IS BARE
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+'Possum used to have a long, bushy tail and he was so proud of it that
+he combed it out every morning and sang about it at the dance. Now
+Rabbit had had no tail since Bear pulled it off because he was
+jealous. Therefore he planned to play a trick on 'Possum.
+
+The animals called a great council. They planned to have a dance. It
+was Rabbit's business to send out the news. One day as he was passing
+'Possum's house, he stopped to talk.
+
+"Are you going to the council?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, if I can have a special seat," said 'Possum. "I have such a
+handsome tail I ought to sit where everyone can see me."
+
+Rabbit said, "I will see that you have a special seat. And I will send
+someone to comb your tail for the dance." 'Possum was very much
+pleased.
+
+Rabbit at once went to Cricket, who is an expert hair cutter;
+therefore the Indians call him the barber. He told Cricket to go the
+next morning and comb 'Possum's tail for the dance. He told Cricket
+just what to do.
+
+In the morning, Cricket went to 'Possum's house. 'Possum stretched
+himself out on the floor and went to sleep, while Cricket combed out
+his tail and wrapped a red string around it to keep it smooth until
+night. But all the time, as he wound the string around, he was
+snipping off the hair closely. 'Possum did not know it.
+
+When it was night, 'Possum went to the council and took his special
+seat. When it was his turn to dance, he loosened the red string from
+his tail and stepped into the middle of the lodge.
+
+The drummers began to beat the drum. 'Possum began to sing, "See my
+beautiful tail."
+
+Every man shouted and 'Possum danced around the circle again, singing,
+"See what a fine color it has." They all shouted again, and 'Possum
+went on dancing, as he sang, "See how it sweeps the ground."
+
+Then the animals all shouted so that 'Possum wondered what it meant.
+He looked around. Every man was laughing at him. Then he looked down
+at his beautiful tail. It was as bare as a lizard's tail. There was
+not a hair on it.
+
+He was so astonished and ashamed that he could not say a word. He
+rolled over on the ground and grinned, just as he does today when
+taken by surprise.
+
+
+
+
+WHY 'POSSUM HAS A LARGE MOUTH
+
+_Choctaw_ (_Bayou Lacomb_)
+
+
+Very little food there was for Deer one dry season. He became thin and
+weak. One day he met 'Possum. Deer at once exclaimed, "Why, 'Possum,
+how fat you are! How do you keep so fat when I cannot find enough to
+eat?"
+
+'Possum said, "I live on persimmons. They are very large this year, so
+I have all I want to eat."
+
+"How do you get the persimmons?" asked Deer. "They grow so high!"
+
+"That is easy," said 'Possum. "I go to the top of a high hill. Then I
+run down and strike a persimmon tree so hard with my head that all the
+ripe persimmons drop on the ground. Then I sit there and eat them."
+
+"That is easily done," said Deer. "I will try it. Now watch me."
+
+'Possum waited. Deer went to the top of a nearby hill. He ran down and
+struck the tree with his head. 'Possum watched him, laughing. He
+opened his mouth so wide while he laughed that he stretched it. That
+is why 'Possum has such a large mouth.
+
+  [Illustration: SHELL PINS MADE AND USED BY INDIANS OF THE
+  MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. FOUND IN GRAVES.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+
+
+
+THE PORCUPINE AND THE TWO SISTERS
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+Once there dwelt in a village two sisters, who were the swiftest
+runners in the Menomini tribe. Towards the setting sun was another
+village, two days' walk away.
+
+The sisters wished to visit this village. They began to run at great
+speed. At noon they came to a hollow tree lying across the trail. In
+the snow on the ground, there, behold! lay the trail of Porcupine,
+leading to the hollow tree. One of them broke off a stick and began to
+poke into the log, that Porcupine might come out. She said, "Let's
+have some fun with him."
+
+"No," said the other sister, "he is a manido. We should leave him
+alone."
+
+But the girl with a stick poked into the hollow log until Porcupine
+came out. Then she caught him and pulled out his long quills and threw
+them in the snow. The other said, "No, it is cold. Porcupine will need
+his robe."
+
+At last the sisters ran on. The village was still far away.
+
+Now when they left Porcupine, he crawled up a tall pine tree until he
+reached the very top. Then he faced the north and began to shake his
+small rattle, singing in time to its sound.
+
+Soon the sky darkened. Snow began to fall. Now the sisters could not
+run rapidly because of the deepening snow.
+
+One looked back and saw Porcupine in the tree top, shaking his rattle.
+She said, "We must go back to our own village. I am afraid some harm
+will overtake us."
+
+The other answered, "No, let us go on. We need not fear Porcupine."
+The snow became deeper, so they rolled up their blankets as they ran
+on.
+
+When the sun followed the trail over the edge of the world, the
+sisters could not even see the village. Still they ran on. Then in the
+late evening they came to a stream which they knew was near the
+village.
+
+Behold! It was dark. The snow was very deep. The sisters no longer had
+strength. They could hear voices in the village. They could not call
+loud enough to be heard. Thus they perished in the snow.
+
+One should never harm Porcupine because he is a manido.
+
+
+
+
+THE WOLF AND THE DOG
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+In the beginning, so they say, Dog was put on the mountain side and
+Wolf beside the fire. When winter came, Dog could not stand the cold,
+and drove Wolf away from the fire. Wolf ran into the mountains and he
+liked it so well that he has stayed there ever since.
+
+
+
+
+THE CATFISH AND THE MOOSE
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+Once when the Catfish were all together in one place in the water, the
+Catfish chief said, "I have often seen a moose come to the edge of the
+water to eat grass. Let us watch for him and kill him and eat him. He
+always comes when the sun is a little way up in the sky."
+
+The Catfish agreed to attack Moose. So they went to watch. They crept
+everywhere in among the grass and rushes when Moose came down to the
+water's edge, slowly picking at the grass. All the tribe watched to
+see what the Catfish chief would do. He slipped slowly through the
+marshy grass to where Moose was standing. He thrust his spear into
+Moose's leg.
+
+Moose said, "Who has thrust a spear into my leg?" He looked down and
+saw the Catfish tribe. At once he began to trample upon them with his
+hoofs. He killed many, but others escaped and swam down the river.
+
+Catfish still carry spears, but their heads are flat, because Moose
+tramped them down in the mud.
+
+
+
+
+TURTLE
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+There was a large camp in which Miqkano, the Turtle, took up his
+abode. He built a wigwam but he had no one to keep house for him. He
+thought he needed a wife.
+
+Now Turtle found a young woman whom he liked. He said, "I want you to
+be my wife."
+
+She said, "How are you going to provide for me? You cannot keep up
+with the rest of the people when they move."
+
+Turtle replied, "I can keep up with the best of your people."
+
+Then the young woman wanted to put him off. She said, "Oh, well, I
+will marry you in the spring."
+
+Turtle was vexed with this. At last he said, "I shall go to war and
+take some captives. When I return in the spring, I shall expect you to
+marry me."
+
+Then Turtle prepared to go on the war path. He called all his friends,
+the Turtles, to him. He left camp, followed by a throng of curious
+Indians. The young woman he wanted to marry laughed as the Turtles
+moved away. They were so very slow.
+
+Turtle was vexed again. He said, "In four days from now you will
+surely mourn for me because I shall be at a great distance from you."
+
+"Why," said the girl, laughing, "in four days from this time you will
+scarcely be out of sight."
+
+Turtle immediately corrected himself, and said, "I did not mean four
+days, but four years. Then I shall return."
+
+Now the Turtles started off. They traveled slowly on until one day
+they found a great tree lying across their trail.
+
+Turtle said, "This we cannot pass unless we go around it. That would
+take too long. What shall we do?"
+
+Some said, "Let us burn a hole through the trunk," but in this they
+did not succeed.
+
+Therefore they had to turn back home, but it was a long time before
+they came near the Indian village again. They wanted to appear as
+successful warriors, so as they came near, they set up the war song.
+The Indians heard them. They at once ran out to see the scalps and the
+spoils. But when they came near, the Turtles each seized an Indian by
+the arm and said,
+
+"We take you our prisoners. You are our spoils."
+
+The Indians who were captured in this way were very angry. Now the
+Turtle chief had captured the young woman he said he was going to
+marry. He said to the Indian girl, "Now that I have you I will keep
+you."
+
+Now it was necessary to organize a dance to celebrate the victory over
+the Indians. Everyone dressed in his best robe and beads. Turtle sang,
+
+"Whoever comes near me will die, will die, will die!" and the others
+danced around him in a circle. At once the Indians became alarmed.
+Each one fled to his own lodge, in the village. Turtle also went to
+the village, but he arrived much later because he could not travel so
+fast.
+
+Someone said to him, "That girl has married another man."
+
+"Is that true?" stormed Turtle. "Let me see the man."
+
+So he went to that wigwam. He called, "I am going for the woman who
+promised to be my wife."
+
+Her husband said, "Here comes Turtle. Now what is to be done?"
+
+"I shall take care of that," said his wife.
+
+Turtle came in and seized her. He said, "Come along with me. You
+belong to me."
+
+She pulled back. She said, "You broke your promise." The husband said
+also, "Yes, you promised to go to war and bring back some prisoners.
+You failed to do so."
+
+Turtle said, "I did go. I returned with many prisoners." Then he
+picked up the young woman and carried her off.
+
+Now when Turtle arrived at his own wigwam, the young woman went at
+once to a friend and borrowed a large kettle. She filled it with water
+and set it on to boil. Turtle became afraid. He said, "What are you
+doing?"
+
+She said, "I am heating some water. Do you know how to swim?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Turtle. "I can swim."
+
+The young woman said, "You jump in the water and swim. I can wash your
+shell."
+
+So Turtle tried to swim in the hot water. Then the other Turtles,
+seeing their chief swimming in the kettle, climbed over the edge and
+jumped into the water. Thus Turtle and his warriors were conquered.
+
+
+
+
+THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+Long ago, an Ojibwa Indian and his wife lived on the shores of Lake
+Huron. They had one son, who was named "O-na-wut-a-qui-o,
+He-that-catches-the-clouds."
+
+Now the boy was very handsome, and his parents thought highly of him,
+but he refused to make the fast of his tribe. His father gave him
+charcoal; yet he would not blacken his face. They refused him food;
+but he wandered along the shore, and ate the eggs of birds. One day
+his father took from him by force the eggs of the birds. He took them
+violently. Then he threw charcoal to him. Then did the boy blacken his
+face and begin his fast.
+
+Now he fell asleep. A beautiful woman came down through the air and
+stood beside him. She said, "I have come for you. Step in my trail."
+
+At once he began to rise through the air. They passed through an
+opening in the sky, and he found himself on the Sky-plain. There were
+flowers on the beautiful plain, and streams of fresh, cold water. The
+valleys were green and fair. Birds were singing. The Sky-land was very
+beautiful.
+
+There was but one lodge, and it was divided into two parts. In one end
+were bright and glowing robes, spears, and bows and arrows. At the
+other end, the garments of a woman were hung.
+
+The woman said, "My brother is coming and I must hide you." So she put
+him in a corner and spread over him a broad, shining belt. When the
+brother came in, he was very richly dressed, and glowing. He took down
+his great pipe and his tobacco.
+
+At last, he said, "Nemissa, my elder sister, when will you end these
+doings? The Greatest of Spirits has commanded that you should not take
+away the children of earth. I know of the coming of O-na-wut-a-qui-o."
+Then he called out, "Come out of your hiding. You will get hungry if
+you remain there." When the boy came out, he gave him a handsome pipe
+of red sandstone, and a bow and arrows.
+
+So the boy stayed in the Sky-land. But soon he found that every
+morning, very early, the brother left the wigwam. He returned in the
+evening, and then the sister left it and was gone all night. One day
+he said to the brother, "Let me go with you." "Yes," said the brother,
+and the next morning they started off.
+
+The two traveled a long while over a smooth plain. It was a very long
+journey. He became hungry. At last he said, "Is there no game?"
+
+"Wait until we reach the place where I always stop to eat," said the
+brother. So they journeyed on. At last they came to a place spread
+over with fine mats. It was near a hole in the Sky-plain.
+
+The Indian looked down through the hole. Below were great lakes and
+the villages of his people. He could see in one place feasting and
+dancing, and in another a war party silently stealing upon the enemy.
+In a green plain young warriors were playing ball.
+
+The brother said, "Do you see those children?" and he sent a dart down
+from the Sky-plain. At once a little boy fell to the ground. Then all
+the people gathered about the lodge of his father. The Indian, looking
+down through the hole, could hear the _she-she-gwan_ of the _meta_,
+and the loud singing. Then Sun, the brother, called down, "Send me up
+a white dog."
+
+Immediately a white dog was killed by the medicine men, and roasted,
+because the child's father ordered a feast. All the wise men and the
+medicine men were there.
+
+Sun said to the Indian, "Their ears are open and they listen to my
+voice."
+
+Now the Indians on the Earth-plain divided the dog, and placed pieces
+on the bark for those who were at that feast. Then the master of the
+feast called up, "We send this to thee, Great Manito." At once the
+roasted dog came up to Sun in the Sky-plain. Thus Sun and the Indian
+had food. Then Sun healed the boy whom he had struck down. Then he
+began again to travel along the trail in the Sky-plain, and they
+reached their wigwam by another road.
+
+Then O-na-wut-a-qui-o began to weary of the Sky-land. At last he said
+to Moon, "I wish to go home."
+
+Moon said, "Since you like better the care and poverty of the earth,
+you may return. I will take you back."
+
+At once the Indian youth awoke. He was in the very plain where he had
+fallen asleep after he had blackened his face and begun his fast. But
+his mother said he had been gone a year.
+
+
+
+
+TASHKA AND WALO
+
+_Choctaw_ (_Bayou Lacomb_)
+
+
+Tashka and Walo were brothers. They lived a long while ago, so they
+say. Every morning they saw Sun come up over the edge of the earth.
+Then he followed the trail through the sky.
+
+When they were four years old, they started to follow Sun's trail.
+They walked all day, but that night when Sun died, they were still in
+their own country. They knew all the hills and rivers. Then they
+slept.
+
+Next morning they began again to follow Sun, but when he died at the
+edge of the earth, they could still see their own land.
+
+Then they followed Sun many years. At last they became grown men.
+
+One day they reached a great sea-water. There was no land except the
+shore on which they stood. When Sun went down over the edge of the
+earth that day, they saw him sink into the waters. Then they crossed
+the sea-water, to the edge. So they came to Sun's home.
+
+All around there were many women. The stars are women, and Moon also.
+Moon is Sun's wife.
+
+Moon asked them how they had found their way. They were very far from
+their own land. They said, "For many years we have followed Sun's
+trail."
+
+Sun said, "Do you know your way home?" They said, "No." So Sun took
+them up to the edge of the water. They could see the earth, but they
+could not see their own land.
+
+Sun asked, "Why did you follow me?" They said, "We wished to see where
+you lived."
+
+Sun said, "I will send you home. But for four days you must not speak
+a word to any person. If you do not speak, you shall live long. You
+shall have much wealth."
+
+Then Sun called to Buzzard. He put the two brothers on Buzzard's back.
+He said, "Take them back to earth." So Buzzard started for the earth.
+
+Now the clouds are halfway between heaven and earth. The wind never
+blows above the clouds, so they say.
+
+Buzzard flew from heaven to the clouds. The brothers could easily keep
+their hold. Then Buzzard flew from the clouds to the earth. But now
+Wind blew them in all directions. Then at last they came to earth.
+They saw the trees around their own village. They rested under the
+trees. An old man passing by knew them. So he went down the trail and
+told their mother. She at once hastened to see them. When she met
+them, she began to talk. She made them talk to her. They told her. So
+they spoke before the four days were ended. Therefore Sun could not
+keep his promise.
+
+
+
+
+SUN AND MOON
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+Once upon a time, Ke-so, the Sun, and his sister, Tipa-ke-so, the
+Moon, the "last-night sun," lived together in a wigwam in the East.
+One day Sun dressed himself to go hunting, took his bows and arrows,
+and left. He was gone a long time. When he did not return, his sister
+became frightened, and came out into the sky to look for her brother.
+At last he returned, bringing with him a bear which he had shot.
+
+Moon still comes up into the sky and travels for twenty days. Then she
+disappears, and for four days nothing is seen of her. At the end of
+the four days, she comes into the sky again, and travels twenty days
+more.
+
+Sun is a being like ourselves. He wears an otter skin about his head.
+
+
+
+
+THE MOON PERSON
+
+_Biloxi_
+
+
+In olden days, the Moon Person used to make visits to the Indians. One
+day a child put out a dirty little hand and made a black spot on Moon
+Person. Therefore Moon felt ashamed and when night came he
+disappeared. He went up above. He stays up above all the time now, so
+they say. Sometimes he is dressed altogether in a shining robe, and
+therefore he is bright at night. But immediately afterwards he
+disappears. You can still see the black spot, so they say.
+
+
+
+
+THE STAR CREATURES
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+One night hunters in the mountains noticed two shining lights moving
+along the top of a distant ridge. After a while the lights vanished on
+the other side. Thus they watched many nights, talking around the camp
+fire.
+
+One morning they traveled to the ridge. Then they searched long. At
+last they found two round creatures covered with soft fur or downy
+feathers. They had small heads.
+
+Then the hunters took these strange creatures to their camp. They
+watched them. In the day, they were only balls of gray fur; only when
+the breeze stirred their fur, then sparks flew out. At night they grew
+bright and shone like stars.
+
+They kept very quiet. They did not stir, so the hunters did not fasten
+them. One night they suddenly rose from the ground like balls of fire.
+They went above the tops of the trees, and then higher until they
+reached the Sky-land. So the hunters knew they were stars.
+
+
+
+
+METEORS
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+When a star falls from the sky it leaves a fiery trail. It does not
+die. Its shade goes back to its own place to shine again. The Indians
+sometimes find the small stars where they have fallen in the grass.
+
+
+
+
+THE AURORA BOREALIS
+
+_Menomini_
+
+
+In the Land of the North Wind live the _manabaiwok_, the giants of
+whom our old people tell.
+
+The _manabaiwok_ are our friends, but we do not see them any more.
+They are great hunters and fishermen. Whenever they come out with
+their torches to spear fish, we know it because the sky is bright over
+that place.
+
+
+
+
+THE WEST WIND
+
+_Chitimacha_
+
+
+A little boy named Ustapu was one day lying on the shore of a lake.
+His people had just reached the shore from the prairies, but the wind
+was too high for them to cross.
+
+As he lay there, he suddenly saw another boy fanning himself with a
+fan of turkey wings. This was the boy who made the West Wind. Ustapu
+said to his tribe, "I can break the arm of the boy who makes West
+Wind." But they laughed at him. He took a shell and threw it at the
+boy and struck his left arm.
+
+Therefore when the west wind is high, the Indians say that the boy is
+using his strong arm. When the west wind is a gentle breeze, they say
+he is using his injured arm. Before that, the west wind had always
+been so strong it was very disagreeable, because Wind-maker could use
+both arms. Now it is much gentler.
+
+The Indians think this boy also made the other winds.
+
+
+
+
+THE LONE LIGHTNING
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+At one time an orphan boy whose uncle was very unkind to him ran away.
+He ran a long way. He ran until night. Then because he was afraid of
+wild animals, he climbed into a tree in the forest. It was a high pine
+tree, and he climbed into the forked branches of it.
+
+A person came to him from the upper sky. He said, "Follow me. Step in
+my trail. I have seen how badly you are treated." Then at once as the
+boy stepped in his trail, he rose higher and higher into the upper
+sky. Then the person put twelve arrows into his hands. He said, "There
+are evil manitoes in the sky. Go to war against them. Shoot them with
+your bow and arrows."
+
+The boy went into the northern part of the upper sky. Soon he saw a
+manito and shot at him. But that one's magic was too strong. Therefore
+the shot failed. There was only a single streak of lightning in the
+northern sky, yet there was no storm, and not even a cloud.
+
+  [Illustration: OJIBWA DANCER'S BEADED MEDICINE BAG.
+    _From Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology._]
+
+Eleven times the boy thus failed to kill a manito, and thus he had
+but one arrow left. He held this in his hands a long while, looking
+around. Now these evil manitoes had very strong medicine. They could
+change their form in a moment. But they feared the boy's arrows
+because they were also strong magic. And because they had been given
+to him by a good manito, they had power to kill.
+
+At last the boy saw the chief of the evil manitoes. He drew his bow
+and shot his last arrow; but the chief saw it coming. At once he
+changed himself into a rock. And the arrow buried itself in a crack of
+the rock. The chief was very angry. He cried, "Now your arrows are all
+gone! And because you have dared to shoot at me, you shall become the
+trail of your arrow."
+
+Thus at once he changed the boy into Nazhik-a-wawa, the Lone
+Lightning.
+
+
+
+
+THE THUNDERS
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+The Great Thunder and his sons, the two Thunder boys, live far in the
+West, above the Sky-plain. The lightning and the rainbow are their
+beautiful robes. Medicine men pray to Thunder, and call him the Red
+Man because there is so much red in his dress.
+
+There are other thunders that live lower down, in the cliffs and
+mountains, and under waterfalls. They travel on bridges from one peak
+to another, but the Indian cannot see these bridges. The Great
+Thunders above the sky are kind and helpful when we make medicine to
+them, but the others are always plotting mischief. One must not point
+to the rainbow.
+
+
+
+
+MONTHS OF THE YEAR
+
+_Natchez_
+
+
+The Natchez begin the year in March, each being a lunar month.
+Therefore there are thirteen.
+
+     1 Deer month
+     2 Strawberry month
+     3 Little Corn month
+     4 Watermelon month
+     5 Peach month (July)
+     6 Mulberry month
+     7 Great Corn month (maize)
+     8 Turkey month (October)
+     9 Bison month
+    10 Bear month
+    11 Cold meal month (January)
+    12 Chestnut month
+    13 Nut month (nuts broken to make bread, at the close of
+         winter, when supplies run low)
+
+
+
+
+WHY THE OAKS AND SUMACHS REDDEN
+
+_Fox_
+
+
+Once on a time, long ago, when it was winter, so they say, it snowed
+for the first time. And while the very first snow lay on the ground,
+so they say, three men went early in the morning to hunt for game.
+
+In a thick growth of shrub on a side hill, a bear had entered in. They
+could see the trail in the snow. One went in after him, and started
+him going in flight.
+
+"Away from The-place-whence-comes-the-cold he is making fast!" he
+called to the others.
+
+But the one who had gone round by way of The-place-from-whence-comes-
+the-cold, cried, "In the direction From-whence-comes-the-source-of-midday
+is he hurrying away." Thus he said.
+
+The third, who had gone round by way of The-place-whence-comes-the-
+source-of-midday, cried out, "Towards-the-place-where-the-sun-falls-down
+is he hastening."
+
+Back and forth for a long while did they keep the bear fleeing from
+one to another. After a while, one of the hunters who was coming
+behind looked down. Behold! The earth below was green. For it is
+really true, so they say, that up into the Sky-land were they led away
+by the bear. While they were chasing him about the dense growth of
+shrubs, that was surely the time that up into the Sky-land they went.
+
+Then quickly he called, "Oh, Union-of-rivers, let us turn back. Truly
+into the Sky-land is he leading us away." So he called to
+Union-of-rivers, but no answer did he receive from that one.
+
+Now Union-of-rivers, who went running between the man ahead and the
+man behind, had a little puppy, Hold-tight.
+
+Now in the autumn, they overtook the bear. Then they slew him. After
+they had slain him, many boughs of an oak did they cut, also of
+sumach. So with the bear lying on top of the boughs, they skinned him,
+and cut up the meat. Then they began to scatter the pieces in all
+directions.
+
+Towards The-place-whence-comes-the-dawn-of-day they hurled the head.
+In winter, when dawn is nearly breaking, stars appear which are that
+head, so they say.
+
+Also to the east flung they his backbone. In winter time, certain
+stars lie close together. These are the backbone, so they say.
+
+And it has also been told of the bear and the hunters that the group
+of four stars in front are the bear and the three hunters. And between
+the front star and the star behind, a tiny little star hangs. That is
+the little dog, Hold-tight, which was the pet of Union-of-rivers.
+
+And so often as autumn comes, the oaks and sumachs redden at the leaf
+because their boughs were stained with the blood of the bear.
+
+
+
+
+THE MAN OF ICE
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Once when the people were burning the woods in the fall, a poplar tree
+began to burn. It burned until the fire went down into the roots; and
+then down into the ground. It burned and burned until there was a
+great hole in the ground, and the people began to be afraid the whole
+world would burn. They tried to put out the fire, but it was too deep
+in the ground.
+
+At last someone said, "There is a man living in a house of ice, far
+toward the Frozen Land. He can put out the fire."
+
+So messengers were sent. They traveled many sleeps until they came to
+the house of the Man of Ice. He was a little fellow with long braids
+of hair, hanging to the ground.
+
+He said at once, "Oh, yes, I can help you," and began to unbraid his
+hair. When it was all loose, he took it in one hand and struck the
+ends against the other hand. The messengers felt a wind blow against
+their cheeks.
+
+He struck the ends of his hair again across his hand. A light rain
+began to fall. A third time he struck the open hand with his hair.
+Sleet began to fall with the rain. The fourth time, and large
+hailstones fell. They fell as though they came out of the ends of his
+hair.
+
+"Now go home," said the medicine man. "I shall be there tomorrow."
+
+So the messengers returned. They found the people standing around the
+burning hole.
+
+The next day, as the people stood again at the burning hole, watching
+the fire, a light wind came from the north. They were afraid because
+they knew the medicine man had sent it. The wind made the flames sweep
+higher. Then a light rain began to fall. It but made the fire hotter.
+Then came sleet with a heavy rain, and hail. The flames died down but
+clouds of smoke and steam arose.
+
+Then the people fled to their wigwams for shelter. A great wind arose
+which blew the hail into the depths of the fire and piled up a great
+heap of hailstones. Then the fire died out and the smoke ceased.
+
+Now when the people went to look again--a lake stood where flames had
+been. Yet from below the water came the sound of embers still
+crackling.
+
+
+
+
+THE NUNNEHI
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+The Nunnehi are The People Who Live Anywhere. They were spirit people
+who lived in the highlands of the Cherokee country, and they liked the
+bald mountain peaks where no timber ever grows.
+
+No one could see the Nunnehi except when the spirit-people let
+themselves be seen, and then they looked and acted just like other
+Indians. But they like music and dancing, and hunters in the mountains
+often could hear the dance songs and the drum; yet when they went
+towards the sound, it would suddenly shift behind them or in some
+other direction. They were a friendly people, too. Some Indians have
+thought they were the same as the Little People; but those are no
+larger than little children.
+
+Once a boy was with the Nunnehi. When he was about ten or twelve years
+old, he was playing one day near the river, shooting at a mark with
+his bow and arrow. Then he started to build a fish trap in the water.
+While he was piling up the stones in two long walls, a man came and
+stood on the bank.
+
+The man said, "What are you doing?" The boy told him. The man said,
+"That's pretty hard work. You ought to rest awhile. Come and take a
+walk up the river."
+
+The boy said, "No. I am going to the lodge to get something to eat."
+
+"Come to my lodge," said the man. "I'll give you good food and bring
+you home again in the morning."
+
+So the boy went to the man's lodge with him. They went up the river.
+The man's wife and all the other people were glad to see him. They
+gave him plenty to eat. While he was eating, a man that the boy knew
+very well indeed came in and spoke to him. So he did not feel strange.
+
+Afterwards he played with the other children and slept there that
+night. In the morning, their father took him down the trail. They went
+down a trail that had a cornfield on one side and a peach orchard on
+the other, until they came to a cross trail. Then the man said,
+
+"Go along this trail across that ridge and you will come to the river
+road that will take you straight to your home."
+
+So he went back to his house. The boy went down the trail, but soon
+he turned and looked back. There was no cornfield there; there were no
+peach trees or house--nothing but trees on the mountain side. Still he
+was not frightened. He went on until he came to the river trail in
+sight of his home. He saw many people standing about talking. When
+they saw him, they ran towards him shouting, "Here he is! He is not
+drowned or killed in the mountains!"
+
+Then they said, "Where have you been? We have been looking for you
+ever since yesterday noon."
+
+"A man took me over to his house, just across the ridge," said the
+boy. "I thought Udsi-skala would tell you where I was."
+
+Udsi-skala said, "I have not seen you. I was out all day in my canoe
+looking for you. It was one of the Nunnehi who made himself look like
+me."
+
+His mother said, "You say you had plenty to eat there?"
+
+"Yes," said the boy.
+
+"There is no house there," his mother answered. "There is nothing
+there but trees and rocks, but we hear a drum sometimes in the big
+bald peak above. The people you saw were the Nunnehi."
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE PEOPLE
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+There is another race of spirits, the Little People. They live in rock
+caves and in the mountain side. They hardly reach to a man's knee, but
+they are very handsome, with long hair falling to the ground. They
+work wonders, and are fond of music. They spend half their time
+drumming and dancing. If their drum is heard in lonely places in the
+mountains, it is not safe to follow it. They do not like to be
+disturbed and they throw a spell over people who annoy them. And even
+when such a person at last gets back home, he seems dazed.
+
+Sometimes the Little People come near a house at night, but even if
+people hear them talking, they must not go out. And in the morning,
+the corn is gathered, or the field cleared, as if a great many people
+had been at work.
+
+When a hunter finds a knife in the woods, he must say, "Little People,
+I want to take this," because it may belong to them. Otherwise, they
+may throw stones at him as he goes home.
+
+There are other spirits. The Water Dwellers live in the water and
+fishermen pray to them.
+
+There are also the hunter spirits who are very handsome. Sometimes
+they help the hunters, but when someone trips and falls, we know one
+of these hunter spirits tripped him up.
+
+Then there is Det-sata. Det-sata was once a boy who ran away from his
+home. He has a great many children who are all just like him and have
+his name. When a flock of birds flies up suddenly as if frightened, it
+is because Det-sata is chasing them. He is mischievous and sometimes
+hides an arrow from the bird hunter who may have shot it off into a
+perfectly clear space, but looks and looks without finding it.
+
+Then the hunter says, "Det-sata, you have my arrow. If you do not give
+it up, I'll scratch you." When he looks again, he finds it.
+
+
+
+
+WAR SONG
+
+_Ojibwa_
+
+
+    From the place of the South
+        They come.
+    From the place of the South
+        They come.
+    The birds of war--
+    Hear the sound of their passing screams in the air.
+
+
+
+
+THE WAR MEDICINE
+
+_Cherokee_
+
+
+Some warriors had medicine to change themselves into any animal or
+bird they wished.
+
+Long ago, a warrior coming in from the hunt, found enemies attacking
+the wigwams of his people across the river. The men were away hunting.
+On the river bank, he found a mussel shell. With his medicine he
+changed the shell into a canoe. Thus he crossed the river, and went to
+his grandmother's wigwam. She sat with her head in a blanket, waiting
+to be killed. At once he changed her into a small gourd, and fastened
+her to his belt. Then he climbed a tree and became a swamp woodcock.
+Thus he flew back across the river. So the warrior and his grandmother
+escaped.
+
+
+
+
+THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN
+
+_Wyandot_
+
+
+Now in early days, the Wyandots lived about the St. Lawrence River, in
+the mountains to the eastward. They were the first tribe of old. They
+had the first chieftainship. The chief said to his nephews, the
+Lenapées,
+
+"Go down to the seacoast and look. If you see anything, come and tell
+me."
+
+Now the Lenapées had a village by the sea. They often looked out, but
+they saw nothing. One day something came. When it came near the land,
+it stopped. Then the people were afraid. They ran into the woods. The
+next day two Indians went quietly to look. It was lying there in the
+water. Then something just like it came out of it and walked on two
+legs over the water.[25] When it came to the land, two men stepped out
+of it. They were different from us. They made signs for the Lenapées
+to come out of the woods. They gave presents. Then the Lenapées gave
+them skin clothes.
+
+    [25] A row boat.
+
+The white men went away. They came back many times. They asked the
+Indians for room to put a chair on the land. So it was given. But soon
+they began to pull the lacing out of the bottom and to walk inland
+with it. They have not yet come to the end of the string.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+Variations in spelling and accent usage are preserved as printed.
+
+"The Death Trail" is accredited to the Cherokee in the Table of
+Contents, but to the Choctaw as a subtitle to the story itself. This
+is preserved as printed.
+
+"The Kite and the Eagle" has no credit to a particular nation.
+
+"The Tiny Frog and the Panther" had no credit in the Table of
+Contents, but is accredited to the Biloxi as a subtitle to the
+story. This is preserved as printed.
+
+Page 12 mentioned Kuti Mandkce. With reference to the 1912 Bureau of
+American Ethnology Bulletin 47, _A Dictionary of Biloxi and Ofo
+Languages_, this has been amended to Kuti Mankdce.
+
+Minor punctuation errors have been repaired.
+
+The following amendment has been made on the assumption that it was a
+printer error:
+
+    Page v--Gitchee amended to Gitche--... who made Gitche Gomee,
+    the Great Water.
+
+Illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not in
+the middle of a paragraph. The frontispiece illustration has been
+moved to follow the title page.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths and Legends of the Mississippi
+Valley and the Great Lakes, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44935 ***