“Can you talk English?” said Lynx. “Yes,” answered Rabbit. “Well, can’t you talk white?” “Yes,” answered Rabbit. “Well, if you don’t talk white, I’ll kill you.” So Rabbit had to talk white. “Well, what do you call ‘fire’ in English.” “Wayaʻkabi·′te” (people sitting around a fire), answered Rabbit. “How do they say ‘axe’ there?” “Me′matowes‵iŋg” (“noise of chopping”). “What do you call knife?” asked Lynx. “Taya′tacki·‵wəgis·e” (“sliced meat”), answered Rabbit. “You are a liar”, said Lynx. “Ki·niŋgwa‵zəm, you are a liar.” And he killed Rabbit.
(17) Snaring the Sun.
There was once a boy who used to set his snares for his living. One day he saw a track where the snow was melted, and after a while he decided to set his snares there and catch the animal that made the tracks. So he set his snare and went away. That track was the sun’s track, and when the sun came by next day, it got caught. The sun didn’t rise the next day and there was steady darkness. The people began to be puzzled. “Where did you set your snare?” they asked him. He told them, and they went to look. There they saw the sun caught, but no one could go near enough to loosen it A number of animals tried to do this, but they all got burned. At last the Beaver-mouse managed to cut it with his teeth and freed it. But his teeth got burned with the heat, and so they are brown to this day, but the sun is here and we have the daylight.
(18) Homo Excrementi.
There were a number of people camping, and one man was camping by himself. He was a young man and he tried to get [[70]]his neighbour’s daughter to marry him, but she wouldn’t have him, saying that he was not good enough. And so the young man went back and forth trying to get a wife.
Then the people went away to another place to camp, as it was getting spring, but the young man stayed back. He was full of mite·′win.[37] He planned to have revenge upon the girl who would not have him. He collected omne excrementum quod invenire potuit and made it into the shape of a man. He was determined to settle with the girls who had refused him, for he was full of revenge. When he had made the man alive, he sent him to where the girls were camping. The new creature was frozen nice and hard, he was nice-looking, and he could talk.
And so Homo excrementi came, early in the morning, crunching through the snow to where the girls were in camp. When they saw him coming, they cried, “Somebody’s coming. Make a fire.” And when he reached the camp every one received him in fine style, as he was such a nice fellow. “Where do you come from? Who is your father?” they asked him. “Hump-back,” said he. “Who is your mother?” “Flat-set excrementum,” answered he. But the old people did not understand him. He was unable to stay near the fire long, for fear he would melt. They wished him to stay at the camp, but he couldn’t, so he hurried away.
Then one of the girls who had refused the young man in marriage followed him and he led her a long chase. She began to feel it grow warmer (it was April) and soon she found one of his mittens and later his hat. At last it became so warm that she came to the place where he had melted altogether et ibi erat agger excrementi. When she examined the hat, internum ejus excrementi illitum invenit. So she went back home saying, “Good for him, he’s melted. I’m glad he is melted.” She couldn’t catch him anyway, so she was angry.
So young girls should not try always to get a nice-looking man, but take the man selected for them. The old people tell them this story for a lesson, lest they lose a good man, though not so handsome, to get a “stinker.” [[71]]