XXXV. LEGEND OF MACKINAW ISLAND
(Chippewa)
he spirit that rules the Woman’s Star sent her son Osseo to the earth one day.
There is a little star that shines every evening near the Woman’s Star. It is jealous of the Evening Star, and it sent poison-arrows of starlight on the head of Osseo. When the poison light-arrow struck Osseo he became like an Indian who had seen a hundred winters.
Nothing old or evil can live on the Woman’s Star. Osseo could not return to his mother. He was brave. He made no mourning. He made many friends among the Ojibways.
Oweenee was the daughter of a chief. She was like the red lily that grows on the prairies. She had nine sisters. They were like a field of lilies. Her sisters had each married a great warrior.
Oweenee loved the old and wrinkled Osseo. There was none to cook the deer meat his trembling feet [[182]]brought to his wigwam. She was very sorry for Osseo. Her sisters mocked at her pity for him. Osseo heard them one day. He took courage and asked her to help him bear his sorrows. She became his wife, for she knew his heart was as kind as it was brave.
The chief of the Ojibways made a great feast. The sacred dance was to be danced by all the young braves. Oweenee’s sisters mocked at her again. This is what they said:
“See Oweenee. She is like the young vine that clings to the pine that is black with burning. Osseo is like the pine that the lightning has torn and burned. Oweenee would make him like a young pine. She is blind.
“Osseo, go from us. Leave Oweenee. She is not for you.”
Osseo heard the sisters. His heart was very angry. His eyes looked like the eyes of the wolverine. He looked at Oweenee and then into the sky. He gave a strange war cry and shouted: “Sho-wain-ne-me-shing-nosa!”
This means, “Pity me, my father.”
“Poor old man! he is calling to his father. If he goes back, Oweenee will be the wife of a warrior,” said the sisters.
Osseo crept into a hollow log to hide himself.
As quick as a bird can fly he came out of the farther [[183]]end of the hollow log, but he was no longer an old man. He was a young brave, finer than any in the Ojibway nation.
He went to Oweenee. When he put his hand upon her she became old like the oldest squaw. Her beauty went like the lily that withers in one day. Her sisters had no words. They sat on the ground and covered their heads with their blankets. They said, “We have no Oweenee.”
Osseo called her his Nenemoshee, his sweetheart. He fed her at the feast. He danced the sacred dance. His eyes were always toward Oweenee.
The feast was held in a great lodge. Music came into the lodge while they were all eating. Osseo understood the music. It was his mother talking to him.
“Come back to me. There is a place ready for you. Your bowls of clay shall be of copper. Your kettles of stone shall be wampum. Come.”
While they were eating the lodge was lifted into the sky. All the tribe who were eating were changed into birds. Oweenee’s sisters became crows. Their husbands became blue jays. Others were changed to quails and wild geese. All but Osseo and Oweenee were birds.
Osseo looked at Oweenee as they sailed through the air in the shining wigwam. She was still an old squaw. He prayed again to his father. Oweenee became like [[184]]the lily again just as the lodge rested on the Evening Star. Here everything was peace. All things were happy, and none did harm to another.
One day the son of Osseo was learning to use his bow and arrow. He shot one of the singing birds and a drop of blood fell on the star. The bird changed into a woman. The child fell from the star, and the woman and all the birds followed it, down, down to the same island they had left. The shining lodge of Osseo and Oweenee followed them and was fastened on a high hill far out in the big lake.
The land was very small there, and as the birds became men and women again, the place was very crowded. Each one became smaller and smaller until they were the smallest people in the world. They became pukwudjinnies.
Schoolcraft. [[185]]