WISKE-DJAK AND GREAT BEAVER
Algonquin
Wiske-djak was traveling about, looking for adventures. He never succeeded in anything he tried to do, and he was always hungry. In his travels he came to Turn-back Lake. White men call it Dumoine Lake. He had no canoe, but he was a good swimmer, yet when he came to Turn-back Lake, he found it too broad to swim. Therefore he started to walk around it.
Wiske-djak wanted to hunt beaver. On one side of the lake he came to a high mountain, very round, which looked just like a beaver lodge. And a little way offshore, in the lake, was a small island, with many grasses. “Hm-m-m!” said Wiske-djak, “This must be the home of Big Beaver.” And so it looked, with the great, round lodge and the island of grasses.
Wiske-djak tried to think how to catch Big Beaver. At last he went to the lower end of the lake and broke down the dam, so the water would run off. He lingered there while the lake drained. He even took a nap. When it was low enough for him to get at Big Beaver, he found that Beaver was gone. But as he looked about, he saw Big Beaver just going over the dam. So he began to chase him.
Wiske-djak followed Big Beaver past Coulonge River and the Pembroke Lakes. But when Big Beaver reached the Calumet Chutes, he was afraid to go through and took to the portage. When Wiske-djak got to the lower end of the portage, however, he had lost sight of Big Beaver and started back up the Ottawa River. When he got to the upper end, he saw fresh tracks.
“Somebody has been here,” he said very quickly. “I wonder if I might be able to trail him? I might get something to eat.”
Wiske-djak followed the tracks to the lower end of the portage, and found they turned toward the upper end, so he raced back there. He did not see any beaver, however, so he turned back again to follow other fresh tracks to the lower end of the portage. Then he saw he had been following his own trail.
Even today one can see Wiske-djak’s footprints in the stone on the Calumet portage.
NENEBUC[8]
Ojibwa
Once a girl told her father to put his wooden dish before the fire upside down and look under it every morning for five mornings. Then she went to live in the sun.
The father did as he was told. On the first morning he looked under the upturned dish, and there sat Nenebuc. The next morning he looked under again, and there sat Nenebuc’s brother with him. So he did for the five days. Nenebuc and his four brothers had all come to earth to live. Then the old man picked up the dish and put it away.
Now one brother had horns on his head. Grandfather said to him, “You can’t stay here; you go west!” and he sent him out to the edge of the Darkening Land. Then he sent another brother to the east and one to the north and one to the south. Nenebuc stayed with his grandfather.
Now one summer Nenebuc could not fish during the whole summer because of the high winds. The people almost starved and Nenebuc became very angry. His anger was against West Wind for blowing so much. West Wind blew all the time—blew hard.
Nenebuc said to his grandfather, “I am going west. I’ll make West Wind cease blowing in this way.”
Grandfather said, “But don’t kill him. Tell him to let the wind blow awhile, and then stop. Then everything will be all right.”
“I’ll be back soon,” said Nenebuc. “And I’ll end this constant wind.”
So Nenebuc went away. He went toward the Darkening Land, and there he found his brother. Now this was the brother with the two horns, and he was not friendly toward Nenebuc. He refused to stop the blowing of West Wind, and at last they fought about it. Nenebuc hammered his brother hard with a club and at last broke one of his horns. Then he said, “Don’t blow so hard any more. Grandfather and all the people will starve if the wind always blows so hard.” Then he went home.
So things went much better. Nenebuc went fishing and found it was very calm, with only a little puff of wind now and then. All the winds stopped blowing, because West Wind had warned the other brothers that Nenebuc would come and fight with them if they did not.
After a while things went badly again. There was no wind at all and the water became ill-smelling, and bad-tasting. People could not drink it. Fish could not live in it. Grandfather said, “We must have some wind or the people will die. Did you kill West Wind?”
“Oh, no,” said Nenebuc. “But I’ll have to go and see him again.” So he went again toward that Darkening Land where West Wind dwelt.
“I came to tell you,” he said to his brother, “that we must have some wind once in a while. It must not be a dead calm like this, but we don’t want too much wind. It spoils the fishing.”
So now the winds blow as they should, because West Wind told the other three brothers. Sometimes it is calm, and people go fishing; and sometimes it is windy.