The morning hour with Machecawa proved of such interest that it was not an uncommon thing to see the White Chief and all the children listening intently to Chrissy and the Indian as they compared their respective creeds.
One morning, after she had been giving an account of the creation and the deluge, she said, "Now, tell me what you think of these things. Do the Indians ever think of how the world was made? Did they ever hear of a flood?"
Machecawa replied in broken English, the interpretation of which is as follows:
The Indian believes that the great Manabozo is king of all other animal kings. The West Wind is his father, and his mother is grand-daughter of the Moon. Sometimes he is a wolf; sometimes a hare; sometimes he is a wicked spirit. Manabozo was hunting with his brother, a wolf, who fell through the ice in a lake and was eaten by snakes. Manabozo was very cross and changed himself into the stump of a tree and surprised the king of the serpents and killed him. The snakes were all Manitous, and they made the water flood the world. Manabozo climbed a tree which grew and grew as the flood came up and was saved from the wicked spirits.
Manabozo looked over the waters and he saw a loon, and he cried to the loon for help to save the world. The loon went under the water to look for mud to build the world again, but he could not find the bottom. Then a muskrat tried, but he came up on his back nearly dead. Manabozo looked in his paws and found a little mud, and he took the mud and the dead body of the loon and with it created the world anew again.
"And do you believe that?" said the White Chief.
"Our tribe she believe like that," replied the Indian.
"What is that thing tied round your neck, Machecawa?" said Bearie, the second son, a short, well knit, sturdy-looking youth of eighteen, whose every expression reflected a bright, happy, generous disposition.
"She am my Manitou," replied the Indian.
"What is a Manitou? Every Indian you meet with seems to differ on the subject."