I. IAGOO, THE GREAT STORY-TELLER
(Algonquin)
he white man laughs much. The Indian is wise. He can see a joke, but he does not laugh as much as the white man. The papoose and the squaw may laugh. The brave must not let his face show what he feels. It is not wise.
The white man has stories to tell his children, and his children laugh. The Indian tells the stories of Iagoo to his children. The teepee is shut, for it is winter, and you cannot hear the papoose laugh.
The white man when he tells a story which is not true says, “Once on a time.” The Indian says, “My grandfather told me.” The papooses know when the story is true. An Indian teaches his children to tell the truth; his children are wise; they speak the truth to their tribe.
Lame Buffalo could tell good stories. His children were happy, and they laughed often in their father’s teepee. There was a fire of sticks in the middle of [[82]]the teepee, but the smoke was not bad; it went out of the teepee by the top of the poles.
Lame Buffalo sat with his wife White Deer and their children around the fire in the teepee. The oldest boy asked for a story.
Lame Buffalo told this story of Iagoo:
“In the days of my grandfather, Iagoo used to come often to the lodges of our tribe.
“Iagoo was tall. He was straight as a pine that stands alone on the hilltop. He was always hungry. He would come to a lodge of our tribe, my grandfather said, and would look at the duck the squaw was roasting. He would tell her no squaw could make such a fire as she could. No one could bake in the ashes as she could. When the duck was done, the squaw would put it on a stone by Iagoo. She and her papooses had no duck. They were hungry, but Iagoo did not go away hungry.
“The braves were always glad to see Iagoo, for his stories were never the same. He saw things no other Indian ever saw. He knew more than any other brave ever knew; he said so himself. He never went into battle, for he had much to keep him away; yet he wore eagle feathers in his scalp lock. He told great stories of battles, but no one ever saw him when he was fighting. It is not wise to look around in battle.” [[83]]
“Iagoo told my grandfather this story of the mosquitoes that lived on the marsh. His tribe had their teepees by this marsh.
“Iagoo said that he heard one day a great roaring. It was like ten bears, but he was the only brave who dared to go out to see what the roaring was. He saw mosquitoes flying in the tamarack trees in the swamp, but he could not tell the trees from the mosquitoes, they were both so big.
“He killed three mosquitoes with his war club. He shot them first with his arrows. Iagoo tore off the left wing of one, and he made a sail for his birch-bark canoe from that wing.
“He called to his wife. His wife heard, for his voice and his war club drove away the mosquitoes. His wife came out to see the battle, but they were gone. She tore off the bill of one of the slain mosquitoes and used it to dig with, and she used it twelve moons.”
“Ugh! It is good,” said the oldest boy.
“Another time Iagoo was on a trail. The trail was a creek with no water. It went through the land of the river where the buffaloes feed when it is wet.
“The trail was wide and full of sand. The dry grass was on the side of it. Iagoo saw on the sand of the trail a new animal. It was far from him, but it was large. He could see it. It was long as a wildcat, but it [[84]]had no hair like the wildcat. It had two horns like the buffalo. It had many legs, and its eyes were like fire.
“Iagoo took his war club with his two hands. He walked like a brave in battle. He ran on the trail to kill the strange beast. He raised his war club to strike it, but it was nothing but a big ant dragging a rabbit to its hole in the trail. Iagoo sat down in the sand and laughed, while the ant pulled the rabbit into the ant-hole. The rabbit was killed by the ant. Iagoo said so, and he knew it. The ant killed the rabbit with its horns.”
“Ugh! ugh! ugh!” said the boys around the fire.
White Deer laughed, and her daughters laughed.
“Tell another,” said the boys.
“My grandfather said that Iagoo told of the willow trees. Iagoo went to the willow trees to take some of the little creeping-cats from them. They are the flowers that come when the snow has melted.
“The willow trees looked small to Iagoo. He broke off a branch and went to get one on the other side of the tree. He made a heavy trail around the tree to mark the bush. The sun was over his head when he began to make the trail. He walked around that one willow bush, and the sun was going down in the lake when he was done. It was a long trail. No one but Iagoo ever saw such a willow bush.” [[85]]
White Deer laughed. She had gathered many willows for weaving.
The oldest boy looked at his brothers. They were laughing too. He did not laugh, but said “Ugh!” like a great chief.
Lame Buffalo looked at the fire. White Deer put on more sticks and blew the fire with her breath; when it began to blaze Lame Buffalo went on with more stories of Iagoo.
“My grandfather said that Iagoo went in the cold moon of winter to the south. He went alone in his canoe. His tribe was in the far north, in the fur country. Iagoo liked to fish. His wife could hunt for the fur skins, for it is cold in the far north.
“Iagoo let his canoe drift like a leaf as he fished. It drifted near the shore of the river, then Iagoo stepped out on the shore. It sank under his feet. As the water came over where he stepped, he saw that he had not stepped on land. He had stepped on a thick lily leaf.
“Iagoo jumped back into his canoe. He broke the stem of the lily leaf with his fishing spear and put the great leaf in his canoe. It covered him and the canoe. He dried the leaf and rolled it in a pack. He went back to the far north when he had fished all he wanted to, and he gave the leaf to his squaw. She was glad. It [[86]]was like a wide buffalo skin; she made dresses for herself and her daughters out of it. No other squaws had such fine dresses.”
White Deer smiled, and the little girls laughed. They knew the pond-lily leaves were small in the lakes; they could not be so wide in a river.
“It is a story for squaws,” said the oldest boy.
“We will go to sleep,” said Lame Buffalo, his father.
The next night Lame Buffalo told this story of Iagoo for the boys:
“A white man gave Iagoo a gun, so my grandfather said. He could shoot better than any white man.
“Iagoo went hunting. It was the time for ducks. He went in his canoe, and he hid in the rice by the ducks. The ducks flew up and made the sun dark. He lay on his back and shot straight into the flock of ducks. A swan fell dead into his canoe. Its head was shot off; the ducks fell around his canoe like hail in a hailstorm; the water was black with the ducks he shot. He piled them up like a great teepee on the shore. He shot them all with one gunshot.
“The shot from his gun fell back into the lake; it struck two loons and killed them. The shot fell through the loons and killed a muskalonge; this is the great fish that lives in the lakes. No one else ever fired such a shot as did Iagoo. He told this to my grandfather.” [[87]]
“It is good,” said the boys.
“Tell another,” said White Deer.
“Iagoo went hunting in the Hunting Moon. He killed a great deer and threw it on his back. It was heavy, but he must have food in his teepee.
“He sat down on a stump to rest. He was very still, and he saw the great elks go by him on their trail to the far north. It was like a great tribe going north. The trail they made was deep, and they did not see nor smell Iagoo.
“The first elk had horns like a great tree. He was very big; Iagoo wanted him; Iagoo ran swifter than all the elks; he came to the leader; he shot the leader of the elks; he fell like a tree in the forest; Iagoo lifted the elk to throw him over his shoulder; the elk horns struck the deer horns. Iagoo knew then that he had carried a big deer all day. Iagoo was not tired. He hung the deer in a tree and carried the elk home. No other brave in his tribe had ever brought home an elk with such horns. Iagoo said so to my grandfather.”
Lame Buffalo stopped.
There are more stories of Iagoo, the great story-teller, but Lame Buffalo did not tell any more. [[88]]
