(g) The Giant Lynx Causes the World Flood and Gathers the Animals on a Raft; Muskrat Dives for Earth, which Nenebuc Transforms into a New World.
As soon as the queen died, a giant stream poured out of the cave and the lake began rising. “That is going to flood the world and be the end,” said Nenebuc. So he cut trees and made a kind of raft.[12] So he had his raft ready, and the end of the world came. He couldn’t see any trees, water covered everything, and he made the flood. He saw all kinds of animals swimming toward his raft and he took them on. “Come on, come on,” he cried, “and stay here.” For he wanted to save them, so that after the flood there would be all kinds of animals. The animals stayed on the raft with him for a long while. Some time after [[37]]this he made a rope of roots and tied it to the Beaver’s tail, telling him to dive and to try and reach the land underneath. He knew the water would get lower afterwards. The Beaver couldn’t reach the land and he came up to the surface of the water again.
Seven days after this he allowed the Muskrat to try and bring the land. Muskrat dove and they waited for a long time, but he didn’t come up. This Muskrat doubled up and put his nose into the hair of his breast which enabled him to breathe by the bubbles clinging there. By doing this he could rest and dive still deeper. At last he used up all the air in his breast hair and could only grab a little piece of mud. Then he started up to the surface of the water, but drowned before he reached the raft. Nenebuc pulled the Muskrat in and he still was holding the mud. Nenebuc said, “I am going to dry this. As soon as it is dry, you can all run around again and have this world.” So he dried it, but not entirely, and that is the reason why some parts of the world are swampy and wet, while others are dry like this. So the animals had the earth again and the world was made.
(h) Nenebuc Sends Crow Out, for Disobedience Changes Him Black and Gull Partly Black, then Retires to the West, until He Will Return Again.
Nenebuc knew the world was round like a ball, but he didn’t know how large it was. He was sitting down, tired. So he said to Crow, “Go fly around the world and don’t eat until you come back again. If you do, we will know it.” Crow at that time was white. Crow had to do as he was told, because Nenebuc was chief of all men and animals. So Crow started and flew and flew along the salt water beach. Soon he became very hungry and wondered how far he was away from Nenebuc. One morning he was flying along the shore and he saw an old dead fish. He was so hungry that he tasted a little bit of it, and finally made a meal of it. When he finished eating, he found he had turned black. This is the way Crow became black.
When Crow reached the place from which he started out, he found Nenebuc and all the animals waiting for him. He told Nenebuc that he had eaten, and then Nenebuc said to Gull, [[38]]“You go try. Do the same and don’t eat until you come here.” So Gull went. When he got to the same place at which Crow had felt hungry, Gull felt hungry. One morning he saw the same dead fish. He thought, “Well, I mustn’t eat it, for if I do, I’ll be as black as Crow.” He took one mouthful and started flying. When Gull returned, Nenebuc could see a little black on his wings, so he said, “Gull has had a mouthful too.”
Then he told Owl, “You go and try to go around the world this time. If you eat, you won’t change colour but remain the same colour as you are now. But if you eat, you won’t come back here.” So Owl started flying. He came to the same lake, saw the dead fish and finished it. He ate a good meal and never returned.[13] But he didn’t change colour.
Then Nenebuc let all the animals go from the raft. He started west and is there yet, lying on his back, singing and hammering at his wigwam poles, in place of drumming, all the time. He will stay there until he gets up again three years before the end of the world, when he will travel all over the world to see the animals and the Ojibwa again. He will not die until the end of the world.
(2) Nenebuc Fragment.[14]
Once the Goose met Nenebuc and gave him two wings. He told him that if he flapped them he could fly with them, but that he must not look downwards while he flew. So Nenebuc took the wings and began flying. When he got very far up, he wondered how high he was and looked down. Then he tumbled down and down until he fell into a big hollow stump where he couldn’t get out. Soon two girls came along with an axe to get some wood and began cutting at the hollow pine in which Nenebuc was. They cut a hole and Nenebuc kept quiet, for he was hoping they would free him. When they looked in the hole, they saw his belly and they pulled out a hair. They went back to camp and told their father, “Here is a porcupine quill we [[39]]found in a tree.” The old man looked at it and, laughing, said, “That’s not a porcupine quill, that’s a hair from Nenebuc’s groin!”