XLII. THE INDIAN WHO MARRIED THE MOON

(Chippewa)

ne of the warriors in an Ojibway band had a boy who refused to fast as all other boys and men had done.

“I like to eat; it is hard to be faint and hungry,” said the boy when his father took him to the little wigwam in the forest.

“You shall eat after the manitou has talked to you,” said the father.

“I will not fast; let me have my bow and arrows and I will hunt for you,” said the boy.

“If you will not go into the little wigwam, you shall not come back to my fire. You may sleep where you can find a place, but never come back to me until you have talked to a manitou,” said the warrior.

The boy ran into the forest and hid himself. He picked berries all day and made a bed on the moss at night. The moon shone very bright, and he thought there was a face in it, so he asked the moon to take care of him while he slept. [[212]]

The boy awoke, but it was not day. A girl stood by him dressed in shining clothes, and her face was like the one he had seen in the moon.

“I shall have to go back to my sky teepee, but you must go with me. Stand up quickly and take hold of my hand. Come, Cloud Catcher, come, for the stars are going to hide,” and the boy felt himself rising and moving through the air like a bird.

Cloud Catcher went through the clouds into the beautiful country behind the sky, and soon they stopped in front of a great teepee which belonged to a great chief with hair like fire. The chief was the moon maiden’s brother.

“You are not wise,” said the great chief to the girl.

“I am alone; let me have him and I shall be happy,” said the moon maiden.

The chief gave the boy a pipe and a bow and some arrows. “You may stay,” said the sun chief.

Cloud Catcher and the girl played in the fields all day while the sun was off on his journeys. He shot at the stars, and sometimes hit one so hard that it let go and fell down through the sky. The moon maiden had a great bow that she hung in the sky at night and played with in the daytime. She could shoot farther than Cloud Catcher, but she never hurt anything with her arrows. [[213]]

One day the boy went to the great sun chief and said: “I used to eat much when in my father’s wigwam. I am hungry for meat; will you give me some?”

“You children of the ground are very strange in your ways,” said the sun chief. “You have all the sky to make you happy, but now you are crying for meat. It is not wise, but you shall have it, for you are one of us, and whatever you ask must be given. Come with me.”

The sun chief took Cloud Catcher the next day, and they walked to a place where the sky was open. They looked down on the ground, and the chief shot one of his arrows. It struck a little child, who fell down and was carried into her father’s wigwam.

“Send meat and the child shall be well,” said the sun chief. Meat was put on the fire and burned, and as it burned it came up to Cloud Catcher’s feet, and he ate it like a hungry man. The child walked out of the wigwam, for it was now well, and Cloud Catcher had his meat. After that feast he wanted to walk many times with the sun to the place where the sky was broken, and every time he asked for meat.

One day he said: “I will go back to my own country; there my arrows will bring my meat to me, and no one will need to be sick.”

The moon maiden said: “You are going back to sickness, to cold, and to war, but you belong to me and must never take a wife from your people. Come,” and [[214]]again they moved through the air like birds. She took him back to his bed of moss, and when he awoke this time he found his father standing by him.

“I have seen a manitou; I am to be called Cloud Catcher,” said the boy, as his father took his hand and led him into their wigwam. His mother was glad to see him and very proud of his name.

“You are tall; you are strong and brave. There is no one in the tribe like you. Where have you been?” asked the mother. The boy told only a little, for it seemed like a foolish dream, and he was afraid no one would believe him.

“I fasted many days, my father; then I ate strange food that came to me. I am a man now. My mother is wise; she will not ask any more,” and Cloud Catcher kept very quiet with his tongue.

He grew very lonely, and after a time he found a wife who cared for his wigwam and cooked his food for four days, then she was gone; no one ever saw her again. He married the second wife, but when she, too, left him he remembered the moon maiden’s words, and went out in the moonlight and lay on a bed of moss. When he awoke he was floating through the air, and the sun chief called to him to stop at his teepee. There he found the girl whose face he had watched so many nights in the moon, and he never came back to earth. [[215]]

Part III

STORIES RECENTLY TOLD OF MENABOZHO, AND OTHER HEROES

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The Indian of To-day

Original Painting by Angel de Cora (Hinook-mahiwi-kilinaka)

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[[Contents]]