A man was one time walking along and came to a lake which he wanted to cross. But he had no canoe, and so he walked along the shore until he saw a big Snake lying in the water with his head on the shore. “Will you carry me across?” asked the hunter. “Yes,” answered the Snake. “But it looks cloudy and I am afraid of the lightning, so you must tell me if it thunders while we are crossing.” The hunter got on the Snake’s back and they started to swim across the lake. As they went along, thunder began rumbling, “kαx kαx,” and the lightning flashed. “Mah, mah, listen!” said the Snake in fear. “I hear something.” Just as they reached the shore, when the hunter could leap to safety, a stroke of lightning hit the Snake and broke him into numberless pieces, which began swimming about and finally came to land. The great Snake was not killed, but his pieces turned into small snakes which we see all about to-day.
(20) Muskrat Warns the Beaver.
The Muskrat, Beaver, Dog, and some Ojibwa were companions and hunters. They were real people who could talk to one another. They started out one day and came to a small lake and there they saw Beaver houses and families. It was early in the winter. They said, “That’s a good lake to drive the beaver, as it’s all rocky and they can’t escape. The season is right, so we will come tomorrow with dogs.” The Beavers were in their houses and they saw the Indians, but they couldn’t hear the talking. The Muskrat heard, however, and went to the Beaver and told them. “You must look out for yourselves, uncles. Those Indians say you are very easy to catch.” Now the Muskrat had stayed outside the Indians’ wigwam and listened to what they were saying, until his feet got so cold that he could stay no longer. So that this was all that he had heard to tell his uncle the Beaver.
The next morning the Indians came to the lake and broke the Beaver’s houses, and the big Beaver told the young ones, “When you see a dog passing, whistle.” So the young Beavers went to different places under the ice and when they saw a dog [[72]]passing, they whistled and all were thus caught and killed by the men. But the big Beaver didn’t whistle, and he escaped. The Indians said, “Where’s the big Beaver?” Then they went back and had a big feast on those they had caught. In those days people used to cut a flat bone from the hind foot of the beaver and throw it into the water, so that the dogs wouldn’t get it. These hunters, however, made a mistake and forgot to save that bone. They lost it.[38]
So the Indians had their feast, and when they threw the bones into the water, one of the little Beavers came back to life and went back to his parents. He said to them, “I had a fine time, father. They hung me over the fire, and I danced for them.” Shortly all the Beavers came back, but one of them said, “I’m very sick, father. They didn’t use me right.” This was the Beaver whose bone from his hind foot the hunters had lost. He was very sore and disgusted and showed his father the fresh mark of his foot where the flat bone was lost, when they asked him what was the matter. The Beavers did not like this and they became angry. So nowadays the Indians tell the young boys neither to talk about the Beavers, nor the prospects of a hunt before attacking a beaver colony, lest the Muskrat hear them and tell the Beaver. And also, when the hunting dogs suddenly go off from camp and run over the ice, the hunters say the dogs hear the beavers whistling.
(21) Story of a Hunter.
There were two men living in a camp with two women and the rest of the band. On a cold day in winter one of the men said he was going to track a moose, and left on his snowshoes. He said he would be back by night. He was gone all day and by night he had not returned, so his wife began to think that possibly he had shot a moose, but, as he had taken his axe with him, he might have cut himself in some way. They waited until morning and then, taking up his trail, they tracked him to where he had shot a moose and farther on to where he had skinned it. The meat was there, but the skin was gone. Looking [[73]]around they saw a fire not far off. When they reached the fire they discovered that the hunter had rolled himself up in the green hide to sleep, and during the night it had frozen around him and he had been unable to get out. They thawed out the skin and all went back to camp.
(22) A Timagami Story.
Once there were a man and his wife living in a bark wigwam. The wife grew very fond of another man et voluit copulare cum eo sine cognitione mariti sui. They finally hit upon a plan. She cut a small hole in the bark near her bedding ut ille cum ea nocte copulare posset. She slept near the hole et omne bene factum est, sed maritus tandem invenit quid fieret. So one night he ordered his wife to change places with him when they slept, et cum venisset amator, maritus penem ejus abscidit per orificium positum. Tunc membrum virile cepit, without telling his wife what had happened, and went off on a moose hunt. He killed a moose and took its intestine end [described like an appendix], secuit penem in fragmenta, mixed these with fat, and made a smoked sausage out of the whole.[39] Then he went home and gave it to his wife to eat. When she had eaten it, he said, “Nunc edisti penem amatoris tui.”