Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa

by Frank G. Speck

Then Aniwɔ·ye followed on the trail of the people. When he had tracked them to Big Fisher lake, he could see right across the lake, because there was no island in the way, and there, on the other side, he saw where Big Fisher lived. The people had arrived here after a hard trip and begged Big Fisher for [[57]]protection from Aniwɔ·ye. So fast had they travelled that some of the old people, unable to keep up with the younger ones, had died of their efforts to hurry. Those who had reached Big Fisher’s camp kept watching for Aniwɔ·ye to appear across the lake on their tracks. At last they saw him emerge on the lake and come towards them. All the way along this pursuit, when he had found the people who had died on the march, he pulled at them to see if they were dead. Now, when Aniwɔ·ye appeared Big Fisher said to the people, “We will go to meet him. You men go ahead and I will hide behind you. So we will approach him until we get almost within his range. Do not let him see me, sed cum anum suum nobis verteret, spread apart and let me pass you to the front. While his back is turned to us, we will fix him.” They did as they were told, and the band started forward to meet Aniwɔ·ye, who also approached them slowly.

When they were near enough ut odore ejus attingerentur, Aniwɔ·ye turned slowly. When his back was toward them, et cum pediturus esset, they opened ranks and Big Fisher ran forth et prius anum Aniwɔ·yei cepit quam hie pedere posset. He pinched anum ejus dure. “Ayu!” exclaimed Aniwɔ·ye. “Ayu, ayu! Let go of me! Non iterum pedam!” But Big Fisher held on and would not let go. They struggled for some time, but Big Fisher held fast, and at last Aniwɔ·ye died because he could not discharge. He died and they were all exceedingly glad, rejoicing that he was done for. So they cut him up into small bits and scattered the bits all about. Immediately these turned into little skunks which ran off into the bush. That was the end of Aniwɔ·ye, the Monster Skunk, but there are plenty of small skunks now.

(9) The Man Who Transformed a Doll into a Woman and Followed Her into the World Above.

There was once a man. He was hunting. He had his own wigwam, where he lived with an old man and an old woman who called him grandchild. He did not even know his father and mother. He had never seen young people, so when he became about twenty years old, he began to think that he ought to get himself a wife. So he started out and travelled all over, [[58]]but could not find one. At last, one day, he took a piece of wood and tried to carve for himself a big doll. He worked hard and after a while he made it so nearly perfect that it could speak a little. It was a female, but it did not seem to be complete quite yet.

Said the doll to him, “Put me in your wigwam, cover me up, and do not look at me for three days. Be sure not to look, because if you do, I won’t be here.”

“All right,” said he; and placed his doll in his wigwam. To remove himself from the temptation of breaking her rule he went away by himself and stayed the first night. The next afternoon he came back and began wondering to himself. “If I sleep here,” thought he, “I might, indeed, be tempted to look.” The more he pondered, the more he weakened. At last, he decided to take a little look. He peeped inside the wigwam and saw a very nice-looking young girl seated there. Then, gaining control of himself, he hurried away and camped again that night alone. The third day he came back again to look at his wife. When he came near the camp, he went to the water-hole.[28] There he saw a woman’s track going away from the water-hole. Thought he to himself, “Alas! my wife has gone.” He walked up to the wigwam, looked in, and found that the woman had actually gone.[29]

He now decided to follow her. He went to the woods, cut a piece of cedar, and made himself a bow and a lot of arrows. The next day he started—this was two days after the woman had left. Then he walked very fast, starting early in the morning. Soon he came to a small lake lying still and frozen. When he reached the edge of the ice, he shot an arrow across, then he sped so fast that he reached the other side of the lake before the arrow got there. Before noon-time he came to where a camp was located, and going up to it, beheld an old woman cooking there. “Oh, my grandchild,” said she, “don’t stand there looking in the door. Come in and eat.” So he went in. Then he asked her whether she had seen a woman pass there. She answered, “Yesterday, about noon.” And the old woman gave him a mess of corn and said, “My dear grandchild, it is very hard [[59]]where you are going. Many people have tried to go where your road leads; but they have never gotten there, for many creatures are seeking their lives. But I will help you.” Then she gave him a leg-bone of a lynx. “When you are in trouble, you may need this,” she told him. Then he started on, following the tracks of his woman. Every time he came to a lake, he shot an arrow across and sped before it as he had done at first. He was fast indeed.

Soon he came to another wigwam and peeped into this as he had done into the first. An old woman who was cooking inside spoke to him, as had the first, and invited him to come in and eat. Then he asked her when she had seen the woman pass by. “A little after noon time,” she replied. Now, by this, he knew that he had not gained very much. As before, he ate a little snack of corn and the old woman said to him, “Where you are going will be a very hard trip for you. Many people try it, but never succeed. They die.” And she, too, gave him a lynx bone and told him, as the other had done, that it would help him in time of need on his journey; and he started on again, doing the same at every lake, until it began to grow late in the day. He had been going so fast that he felt very tired.

By and by he came to another camp and peeped in, as before, asked the same question, and was received in the same way. After he had eaten here, the old woman gave him a squirrel’s tail to help him overcome the dangers which she warned him against. Said she, “From now on you won’t see any more camps. Walk very fast now. Soon you will see a big tree with a square trunk, which will reach very far up into the sky. Now you won’t see any trail, but look carefully around. That is where your wife climbed up. There are, indeed, steps cut into the trunk, but you will not be able to see them. To you it will look smooth.”

So he proceeded on his way and soon came to the place she had spoken about. There was the big tree, but no tracks were in sight. Around the base he saw lots of bones, bones of people who had tried to climb but had fallen down and died. He was bewildered. Then suddenly he recollected the bones the old women had given him. Taking one in each hand, like a pick, he began climbing up the great tree. At last he ascended so [[60]]high that the bones began to wear away. When they were so short that he could hardly use them, he looked down. He had gone so high that he could neither see the world beneath nor the end of the tree in the sky above. Now his bones were too short to help him, but he had his bow on his back. He could hardly hold on any longer, so he cried and yelled for help, but nobody could hear him. Soon he heard a spirit nearby which murmured to him, “Close your eyes and look through the tree. You will see steps to climb on.” Then he did as the voice said and perceived steps. He placed his feet in them and started running up. But now he made another mistake, he did not keep his eyes closed. When he looked, lo! he found himself back to where he had begun to climb the steps, holding on with his worn-out bones. Then he bethought himself of the squirrel’s tail, and at the same moment found himself transformed into a squirrel. He found that he could run up the great tree by tapping his tail on the trunk at each step. At last he came to a hole in the sky, in the middle of which the great tree protruded. A wide space, however, surrounded the tree, separating it from the edge of the sky. It would be necessary for him to jump across from the trunk to this edge. He made a great effort and sprang for the edge, but he just managed to catch on at the line of his waist; his upper parts, which reached above the edge, at once became human; his lower parts, extending below the edge, remained in the form of the squirrel.