79. The Great White Beaver and the Lake of the Enchanted Water
Once in old times there lived a grandfather and his grandson in a lodge in a forest far from any village. All the other people of their tribe had been carried away through sorcery practiced by their enemies. The grandfather therefore carefully guarded from witches and wizards his grandson, who was the only hope and comfort of his declining years.
One day the little grandson, almost breathless, ran into the lodge exclaiming: “Oh, grandfather! I have heard something which is very wonderful, crying out, Kidjiʹde.” “Oh!” answered the grandfather, “that is the bird which is called Chickadee; it is the first kind of game that a young hunter kills.” Taking his cue from this reply, the lad, seizing his bow and arrows, went out and after many fruitless attempts killed the chickadee and brought its body into the lodge to his grandfather. Thereupon the grandfather set up in the ground in front of the fire two small forked sticks and laid across another stick in the two forks. Having dressed the chickadee, he hung it on the cross stick to broil, singing and dancing with great joy, saying, “Now my grandson will become a great hunter.”
At another time the grandson ran into the lodge, crying out: “Oh, grandfather! I have seen something with four legs, a black face, and with four stripes around its tail; it was large and fat.” “Oh!” answered the grandfather, “that is what is called Dju’äʹkăʼ;[362] it is the second kind of game that a young hunter kills. It has good meat and fine fur.” Renewing his hunting, the lad soon killed the Dju’äʹkăʼ and brought its body into the lodge. The grandfather sang and [[423]]danced again, saying, “Oh! my grandson will be a great hunter.” After dressing the body of Dju’äʹkăʼ he hung it on the cross-stick before the fire to broil. When it was cooked both ate the flesh of Dju’äʹkăʼ.
A few days later the lad ran into the lodge, exclaiming, “Oh! grandfather, I have seen a very strange thing, which was walking on two legs; it had red skin on its head, a black coat, and made a great deal of noise.” The grandfather told the lad what this new thing was, saying: “Oh! that is Ohsoon. It makes the best kind of soup, and it is the third kind of game that a young hunter kills.”
Running off into the forest, the lad soon saw a flock of the Ohsoon and ran after them until he had caught one. He thought that the soup of which his grandfather spoke must be in its legs. But after examining them thoroughly and finding no soup, he exclaimed, “My grandfather must have tried to deceive me”; with that remark he let the bird go free. Then he ran back to his grandfather, complaining that he had caught one of the Ohsoon and, after carefully examining its legs, had found no soup in them, and that therefore he had let the bird go free. His grandfather pityingly said, “Oh! you foolish boy. The soup is not in its legs but in the body. You must kill, dress, and cook Ohsoon, and then you will have very fine soup.” With this information the lad again went out into the forest, and, having caught another of the Ohsoon, brought it home. The old man was highly delighted with the success of his grandson, so he himself killed, dressed, and cooked Ohsoon. Again he sang and danced, frequently saying, “Now, my grandson will be a great hunter.” When the bird was cooked, they ate their fill and were both satisfied.
On another day the lad went out to hunt. In the forest he saw a very strange creature, with long thin legs and something on its head resembling the branches of a tree. Being very much afraid of this creature, the lad ran home to his grandfather to tell him what he had seen. His grandfather said: “That is Neogen,[363] which is the fourth and greatest kind of game that a hunter kills. When a man can kill Neogen he is a good hunter.” Taking his bow and quiver of arrows the lad went into the forest to look for Neogen. After long hunting he killed Neogen and dragged its body home to his grandfather. But on this occasion the old man did not dance, for this was an event for solemnity in conduct. With due respect to the amenities of the occasion he carefully instructed the growing lad in the art of dressing the deer and of preparing its skin for use. Then he told his grandson that he had evinced the qualities of a good hunter, and that, “Hereafter you need not run back home to tell me what you have seen. You now have the right to kill anything [[424]]that may come in your way. A man that can kill a deer is a great hunter, and he then can kill all kinds of game.”
The next time the youth went to hunt he brought back a fine bear. His grandfather was now very happy, for they had an abundance of meat. Assuring the youth that he had arrived at the age of manhood, as indicated by the change in his voice, he said to him: “My grandson, I am much pleased with you. You may go when hunting in every direction except toward the east. You must not go toward the east, for there dwell very wicked women, who have killed through sorcery all our people. So give heed to what I tell you.”
The next time that the young man started off to hunt he directed his course southward. But as he traveled on he kept thinking of those wicked women in the east, who had destroyed all his kindred. Finally, he decided to change his course from the southward to eastward, and he kept on for some time in the latter direction. At last he came to a tree which was covered all over with what appeared to be the scratches and nail marks of raccoons, whereupon he said to himself, “There must be a large number of raccoons in this tree.” So he removed his outer garments and laid aside his bow and arrows; then taking a stout club, he climbed the tree until he came to a hole very near the top. Peering into this opening, he saw many raccoons down in the hollow trunk. By thrusting his club down among them, he killed a number. Drawing them up, he threw them on the ground at the foot of the tree. Finally he chanced to look down—there at the very foot of the tree he saw a beautiful young woman sitting on a log. As soon as she caught his eye she exclaimed, “Come down here. I wish to talk with you, so do not delay.” The young man paid no attention to her at first, but kept on killing the raccoons and casting them down to the ground. She hailed him again, urging him to come down to talk with her. To avoid her, he crept around the tree, and there he changed himself into a red-headed woodpecker. Next he climbed up higher into the tree, pecking at the bark as he went for a short time. Then he shot his arrow off toward home; it whizzed through the air making a sound like a woodpecker. The young woman, who thought that he was the arrow, flew after him with all her might. But the young man, assuming again his own form, slipped down the tree, and after putting on his garments and gathering up the raccoons and his bow and arrows, he started for home.
His grandfather was greatly delighted to see so great a number of raccoons, but when he learned where the young man had got them he became very angry and chided him severely, saying, “You must not go there again, for if you do great harm and evil will befall us.”
The next day the young man started off from home, going directly southward. But when he was out of sight of the lodge he suddenly [[425]]turned, going directly eastward. On the course he passed the tree where he had killed so many raccoons, and finally came to a second tree, which was also full of raccoons. Stopping there, he killed a large number, and while throwing them to the ground from the tree, he again saw the woman who had accosted him at the other tree. She urged him to come down, and did not fail to use very enticing terms. As he recalled his grandfather’s words, the young man well knew that he should not go down to her, but a feeling came into his heart which urgently prompted him to comply with her request. So reluctantly descending halfway, there he stopped. But the woman kept urging him to come down. Finally, having reached the ground, he sat on the end of the log, near the middle of which the woman was sitting. She asked him, “Why do you sit so far away? Young people customarily sit near each other when they talk together.” At this the young man drew a little nearer to her. But she still urged him to come close to her, so finally he took his seat right at her side. Now she began to tell him stories of wonders and magic power, talking to him until at last, becoming wearied, the young man fell asleep. Then the young woman, placing him in a bag which she threw over her shoulder, hurried away through the air. At the end of a long journey she alighted on the ground, and taking the young man from the bag, she aroused him and asked, “Do you know this place?” Looking around, he replied, “Yes; my grandfather and I have fished here.” The young woman replied, “I do not believe what you say. Point out something you remember.” The young man (willing that she should see these things) said, “Oh! there are the poles we set up, and there is an old kettle in which we cooked.” He had bewitched her eyes, so after seeing these objects she believed what he had said.
Again the woman told him stories until she had put him to sleep; then putting him into her bag she carried him far away, finally alighting on the ground. Taking him out of the bag and causing him to open his eyes, she set him on a narrow cliff under a mountain, where he had room only sufficient for him to lie down—a place not wider than a small deerskin.
Looking upward, he saw the mountain extending far above him, and looking downward, he saw that the earth was many hundreds of feet below. Nearer to him were other mountain peaks, narrow and pointed, on which were lying the bodies of men—some alive, some half dead, others half eaten, and still others reduced to mere skeletons. The sight of these things caused the young man many bitter reflections. He repeatedly said: “Oh! now I see that my grandfather was entirely right in the advice he gave me. There are indeed very wicked women who dwell in the east.” His feelings of chagrin were only heightened by what he learned from what one of the living [[426]]men told. Calling to the man lying on the nearest cliff, he asked him how he happened to be there. The man in broken accents replied: “A woman deceived me and brought me here. Other women brought those other men to the spots where you see them lying. Their flesh is being eaten from their bones, yet they do not die. You and I shall be eaten when they get ready to come to us.” He ceased speaking, and the young man then thought long on some means of escape from such a lingering, horrid death at the hands of such wicked women and their agents. At last he remembered that in years past he had had a dream in which he had seen a Great Spider, which approached him, saying: “My friend, I will keep and protect you when you shall be in trouble. So call on me when you shall be in fear of death.” He therefore cried to this Great Spider for aid, saying: “Oh, Great Spider! help me now. I am in great trouble.” Hardly had his words died away before an enormous spider, which was as large as a man, came to him and at once began weaving webs and to form a rope. When it had finished the rope the Great Spider suspended it from the mountain above the man. The rope was quite strong enough to support the man, and thereby he climbed up to the top of the mountain above him. There he saw a large level country. Then by the aid of the Great Spider, lowering the rope to the men below on the cliffs who were still alive, he drew them up one after another. Having thanked the Great Spider for its aid, he dismissed it. The men thus rescued went to their homes.
Then the young man set out for the home of the woman who had so cleverly deceived him. After a long journey he found her living with her mother in an old lodge standing quite alone. Addressing the young woman, the daughter of the old sorceress, the young man declared his purpose in coming by saying: “I have come here to marry you. When I first saw you I was greatly pleased with you; and I now love you. Will you be my wife?” Replying, the young woman said, “Oh! I hardly know what to tell you, for I have a very disagreeable mother, and I am much afraid you will not be able to live in the same lodge with her. It was in obedience to her command that I carried you to the narrow cliff on the mountain peak. I am willing to make the trial if you wish it.” The young man accepted her even under these adverse circumstances, and so they became husband and wife.
One night some time after this the old woman, the mother-in-law of the young man, who slept at the back end of the lodge, pretending to be in an agony of pain, rolled around on the ground. Her daughter, knowing what the trouble was, said to her husband, “Strike my mother on the head with the pestle for pounding corn.” In doing this he said to her, “Oh! mother-in-law, what is the matter?” Seeming to have been awakened by the blow of the pestle the old woman [[427]]said: “I have dreamed, and my Dream Being declared that it is necessary in order to avoid some unknown calamity that my son-in-law kill the Great White Beaver that lives in the Lake of the Enchanted Waters, and that with its flesh he must prepare a feast for the Dagwanoenyent.” The son-in-law replied: “It is all right, Oh! mother-in-law. I will attend to this to-morrow morning. So go to bed, and let it not worry you.”
The next morning the young husband set out for the Lake of the Enchanted Waters. Having arrived there he soon found the Great White Beaver. With but a single arrow he shot and killed it. But as soon as he lifted its body out of the lake the enchanted waters pursued him with great fury. These waters were reputed to be so full of evil enchantment that the flesh of any living thing coming in contact with them immediately fell from the bones. Knowing this, the young husband ran for his life, bearing the body of the Great White Beaver. At last, reaching the lodge in safety he triumphantly threw the carcass of the Great White Beaver down on the ground, and at that instant the waters of the lake quickly receded. The old woman was now in a great rage at the turn of affairs. At times she cried out, “Oh! he is a terrible man. I thought that surely his bones would now be in that lake. Oh, my poor son! Oh, my poor son!” It seems that the Great White Beaver was no other than her son, who was a great sorcerer, and who assumed this formidable shape to deceive other shamans and sorcerers and to lure them to certain destruction. But evidently his orenda had been overcome by that of the young brother-in-law, his sister’s husband.
Having dressed the dead Beaver in accordance with established custom on like occasions and having had its flesh cooked, the young man invited the Dagwanoenyent and the Gaasyendietʻha to come to the feast given in their honor. Coming, one and all, they filled the lodge to overflowing, the Dagwanoenyent being little else than great, horrid, round heads with long hair and with great flaming eyes. Their host commanded them to eat everything—flesh and bones—and to drink the broth, for it was an “eat-all” feast. When the feast had been devoured to the last morsel, the ugly old heads began to smack their lips, and they praised ironically the feast, saying: “What a splendid feast, a fine dinner, the old woman has given us. Oh! how sweet and toothsome was her son’s flesh.” Then the Great Heads[364] grinned at one another derisively. Now, beside herself with rage, the old woman, seizing a club, drove all her unwelcome guests out of the lodge.
The next night the old woman again rolled and tossed on her bed, finally falling into the fire, crying out, Agi! Agi! The wife of the young man had told him that this time her mother would dream that he and his mother-in-law must go into the sweat-lodge—the man [[428]]first, and the old woman after him. So when the old woman rolled into the fire, the young wife said, “Now, strike her with the pestle for pounding corn.” At this he struck her a blow with the pestle while she was rolling about among the ashes and fire, and groaning as if in great agony. The old woman, pretending to awake, said, “Oh! I have dreamed that my son-in-law entered the sweat-lodge—he first, and then I.” Making light of her dream, the young man said, “Oh! go to bed, mother-in-law. I will attend to this matter in the morning.” Early the following morning the sweat-lodge was heated hotter than it had ever been before. When the son-in-law entered, the old woman sang and danced around it, saying, “Let there be heat enough in there to smother him.” In a couple of hours she cautiously pushed aside the door flap of the sweat-lodge, remarking, “He must be dead by this time.” But she was deeply chagrined to find that he sat inside very comfortably, and that he had not even perspired. It was now the old woman’s turn to enter the sweat-lodge. As she did so, the son-in-law began to sing and to dance around it. He sang, “Let this lodge become flint; let it be red hot at first; and then let it be at white heat.” As it grew hotter and hotter the old woman begged for mercy, but none was shown her, and thus she was burned to death.
Now the young husband, addressing his wife, said, “As you brought me the most of the way hither on your back, and as you know the way, take me home.” So she bore him on her back over the fields, over the forests, past the fishing-grounds where he said he and his grandfather had fished, past the raccoon trees, and at last brought him to the lodge of his grandfather. The aged grandfather welcomed his grandson and his wife, being very glad that his grandson had lived through all the difficulties which he knew he had met while he had been absent. There they lived in peace and contentment.
This is the story of the Great White Beaver and the Lake of the Enchanted Waters.