Timiskaming Folk-Lore.
(1)
Wi′ndigo: a man-eating creature who roams through woods devouring luckless victims. He is believed to have commenced as a hunter who became lost in the bush, and lost all his provisions and clothing. Then he preyed upon anything he could find, like an animal.
(2)
Pa·′gukʻ: a creature of bones, a skeleton, that clatters through the forest, making a great rattling and squeaking noise. When this is heard, it is understood as an omen that some friend will be lost. Pa·′gukʻ is accounted for by the story of a hunter who got starved out in the bush. Before he died he wished that his life and the strength of his flesh might be transferred to his bones. He got his wish, and his strength went into his bones when his flesh fell away. Whenever he wished, he could fly through the air as though on wings.
(3)
The constellation Ursa Major (Great Bear or Dipper) is called wədji·′g “fisher” or “black cat” (Mustela pennanti). The four main stars of the group form the body of the animal; the stars trailing behind (the handle of the dipper) represent the fisher’s [[23]]tail, the bend showing the bent tail of the animal. The story accounts for the presence of the fisher in the sky, relating how the various animals tried to reach the north star, but eventually froze to death. The fisher is still trying to reach it and he is the nearest, but he only keeps going round and round it (representing the revolution of the constellation about the North Star) without being able to get there.
(4)
The Northern Lights are called wa′t·e “illumination” (reduplicated wawa′t·e is “lightning” from thunder). They are caused by the waves splashing against the rocky shores of the northern seas (James bay), which produce a sort of reflected glow. The seething noise which is sometimes heard when the aurora is visible is attributed to the grinding of the rocks and gravel along the shore of the sea driven by the action of water and wind in the north.
The Indians here think that within two days after the aurora is seen they will get a heavy wind storm. They also state that wild geese require a day and a night to reach Lake Timiskaming from James bay when they migrate, thus showing the speed of the wind by comparison.
(5)
The Rainbow is called wədα′dgwanəbi·sanʻ “forms from the water,” since the phenomenon is believed to be caused by the mist from breakers on some great body of water, just as a rainbow will appear above the spray along the seashore or hanging in the mist above some waterfalls.
(6)
The Milky Way is bine′s·imi·k·αnʻ “bird’s path,” because it is by the Milky Way that the fowl and birds follow their northward or southward course in their migrations. It guides them southward in the autumn and back again in the spring. Less frequently the Milky Way is called dji·ba′imi·k·αnʻ “spirit path” over which the spirits of the dead are thought to journey. [[24]]
(7)
To see a white animal is a sign of bad luck to a hunter. “Once a man went hunting. After he had been travelling all day and taken a few animals, he saw a bear that was half black and half white. Then he said to himself, ‘I must not hunt any more this trip. If I do, some harm will come to my family.’ So he went home.”—“If a hunter sees an albino animal he must stop hunting or evil will befall him or some member of his family.”
(8)
To find a dwarfed animal is an omen of misfortune. “Once two men were out on a long hunting trip. Soon after they had begun trapping, they found a dwarfed beaver in one of the traps. It was not small because it was young, but they could see it was an old one, but much undersized. When the older of the two men saw this, he said, ‘We must go home at once and give up hunting because something is wrong at home.’ Although they had been gone only a short time, they turned back, and when they got home, they found that one of his sons was dead and that the family was waiting to bury him.”
(9)
To foretell what kind of animals will be killed the next day by men just before going hunting, a partridge breast bone is burnt or scorched before the fire. The shape of the scorched portion suggests, by a vague resemblance, the form of some animal.
(10)
The tips of the wings of birds that are killed for food are preserved about the camp for good luck, or, as they say, “to ask for more luck.” Some hunters also preserve the skulls of all the game they kill. “If they throw these parts of the animals away, they won’t be able to find what creatures they may look for afterward.” [[25]]
(11)
If blue bottle flies are killed it will bring rain.
(12)
If, in winter, rabbit’s hair is thrown into the smoke of a fire, as it rises in the heat toward the sky, it will cause snow the next day. Children are scolded when they do these things at the wrong time.
(13)
In the body of a fish are various bones which the Indians liken to different utensils and tools in the hunter’s outfit. There is a gun, spear, bow and arrow, knife, paddle, sled, snowshoe, awl, etc. This is merely a saying.
(14)
Another idea is that a “left-handed person is clever, because he fools people by the way he does things.”
(15) Bear Feast.
The following description of the ceremony attending the eating of a bear is based on the accounts of three participants.
When a bear has been killed, the families in the neighbourhood assemble at a camp conveniently near. The hunter who has killed the bear becomes the host of the occasion, which is called mα′gwαce·‵ “feast.” Slabs of birch bark are spread upon a clear space of ground to serve as a sort of table. The carcass is then butchered, the head being cut off, including the first vertebra, the long piece of breast fat is also cut off with the head, so that the two remain together. The head with this mass of breast fat is then put into a separate cooking vessel. Then the birch bark slabs, often 12 feet long, forming the cover of some wigwam, are covered with the cut up portions of the meat. Birch bark dishes are placed for each participant on the bark, with extra dishes for the gravy. The grease from the cooking vessels is [[26]]then collected and put into a separate vessel to cool, so that it will be thick enough to drink. When the meat has been boiled properly, all the guests are seated at their places around the bark spread. Often they have a dance around it at this time. Before they begin to eat, the chief goes around to each guest and with a big wooden spoon, holding about a cupful and a half, gives each a spoonful of grease. Then they begin to eat.
When the feast is about half through, the chief gets up and decorates the bear’s head with bright coloured ribbons about six inches long attached to little cedar sticks about four inches long, with their ends split to hold the ribbons. These ribbon streamers are stuck into the fat and about the head. Then the head itself is impaled on a stick and, carrying this in his hand, the chief dances twice around the company, singing a tune to a burden of syllables. After this performance the chief plants the stick with the head upon it in the middle of the spread before all the guests, where it is left. Then they finish eating.
After the feast the oldest and most venerable man in the camp is presented with the head and the attached breast fat, which he may either take home or distribute over again to the company. After the feast is over the chief must go around and consume what grease is left. This is to demonstrate his capacity as a man and hearty eater. After all is over, the lower jaw bone is tied to the skull in its proper position and black stripes are painted on the skull. This is then put on the stub end of a branch of a tree facing from some prominent point toward the river or lake, near the water’s edge. Here it can be seen by passers by as a reminder of the place and occasion of the bear feast.
The Indians themselves can give little comment on the meaning or reason of this ceremony, except that it is done from respect to the bear and satisfaction in securing a bountiful supply of meat. It belongs to the variously expressed series of bear rites widespread among the northern tribes.
(16) Legend of Iroquois Falls.
Once long ago a war party of Iroquois came north into this country to fight the Indians at Abitibi. On the way they captured an old woman and took her with them to guide them. [[27]]When they were on Abitibi river they drew near the big falls there without knowing it. The old woman was made to stay in the first canoe. When she knew they were nearing the falls she slowed up so that the flotilla of canoes became bunched. The approach to the falls is very much concealed. All of a sudden they found themselves upon the brink of the falls, and before they could help themselves they all went over. The old woman was lost with the rest in saving her people from being massacred by the Iroquois.[9] [[28]]
[1] This band is known locally as Ki·we·′gomani‵cəna‵bi “Turn back lake Indians.” Their rendezvous was at Fort William. Their range extended around Lake Dumoine and down Dumoine river to the Ottawa river. [↑]
[2] Cf. A. B. Skinner, Notes on the Eastern Cree and Northern Saulteaux, Anth. Papers of Amer. Mus. of Nat. Hist., N.Y., vol. IX, pt. i, 1911. [↑]
[3] Ciŋgəbis is the grebe, a well known character in Ojibwa mythology, sharing the trickster exploits of Wiske·djak. He appears again as the quasi-hero of a subsequent story in this cycle. [↑]
[4] Formal way of ending a narration; the narrator is assumed to have been a spectator. The informant temporarily discontinued his story here. [↑]
[7] The Indians often use the red willow bark to mix with tobacco. It is called məskwa′bi·‵mij “red willow tree.” The yellow spots seen on the red of the bark are where Wiske·djak, in walking over them, got them between his legs and left yellow matter in the blood from the scabs. The “rock weed,” wa′kwund (rock tripe) is often eaten in the bush when other foods fail. It is scraped off the rocks with a flat stick into a blanket, then washed and boiled and eaten. The water becomes a little slimy, but it makes a nourishing soup. [↑]
[8] Pαgwa′k·wut pugəma′gan “arrow-head hammer,” an old style of war club with a stone set in a big wooden head attached to a handle and swung by a thong from the warrior’s elbow to leave his hand free. [↑]
[9] It is a most remarkable thing that practically the same legend is found among all the northern and eastern Algonkians: Cree, Montagnais, Abenaki, Penobscot, Malecite. [↑]