Once a hunter was so quick of foot that when he shot his arrow at a beaver plunging into the lake from the shore, he would run down, catch the beaver by the tail before the arrow got to it, and hold it until the arrow struck. He was a fast runner, indeed.
(24) The Hunter and the Seven Deer.
There once was a hunter who lived in a camp. The summer had been very dry and the whole country was on fire. He stayed in his camp, however, although the smoke was so thick that no one could see any distance. One day he saw seven deer walking along, each holding the other’s tail in its mouth. The [[74]]leader alone could see, and he was guiding the others. So he killed the leader and then took hold of the second deer’s nose, and so lead them all to his camp alive, where he butchered them.
(25) Story of a Conjurer.
There was a conjurer (mi·te′w),[40] whose name was Gitcikwe′we (“buzzing noise”), his wife Pi·dje′ʻkwe[41] and their children, camping at a lake in a wigwam. There was a large lake to the west of where they were camping full of islands. It was a long portage from the wigwam to this lake.
One evening, while Gitcikwe′we was sitting in his wigwam, he became very much frightened. He saw nothing in particular that frightened him, but on account of his mi·te′w feeling he became afraid and knew that something was coming. At dusk he gathered up his blankets and jumped into his canoe with his family, and they floated on the lake beside the camp, all night long. When he went back to the wigwam in the morning, he found that a Windigo[42] had been there and had smashed his wigwam.
Then the family started to take the portage which led across to the big lake containing the islands. When Gitcikwe′we took the portage, he sent his wife and children ahead and told them to hurry on as fast as they could, while he would follow behind with the canoe. He said, “When you hear ‘Meat bird’ (Wiske·djak[43]) flying above you, that means ‘Hurry’, for the Windigo is coming behind to catch you. That will be your warning.” They reached the other end of the portage and got into the canoe and paddled out to one of the islands to a place where the end of the portage, from which they had just come out, was lost to view. They were safe there, as the Windigo, having no canoe, could not cross. After Gitcikwe′we put up his camp, he said to his wife, “I am not yet satisfied. I must beat that Windigo, because he will bother us all winter, and then we will starve, for I cannot hunt while staying at camp all the time, watching out for you and the children.” [[75]]
Then he made his mi·te′o wigwam with its seven poles and covered it with bark.[44] He went into it and it began to work and move, while a band of spirits could be heard singing inside.[45] Then Windigo came there and Gitcikwe′we said to his wife, “We will clinch him and take him away out west where he came from.” When he clinched him, the conjuring wigwam shook and made a noise like thunder, and the children fainted from fright, for they knew their father was inside. When they recovered consciousness, everything was still in the wigwam, and their father had gone out west, taking his captive with him. A little while after this the wigwam started to move again and Gitcikwe′we was back again from his trip out west. He said to his family, “We will be all right now. I took him back west. He is very sick from his fright but he will stay there now.”
There was another mi·te′ Indian one day’s journey from where Gitcikwe′we was camping. This Indian was so full of mi·te′ also that, while he was asleep, he heard Windigo passing overhead with a great moaning noise as if he were in pain. No other people heard it except this man, because they were not mi·te′.
Next morning Gitcikwe′we awoke and found that it was a fine day with no wind to bother, and the whole family was happy to think of passing another winter. Shortly after they had gotten up, they heard a great noise of shouting in the direction of the end of the portage from where they had come and which was just lost to view. When Gitcikwe′we heard this, he loaded his flint lock gun to shoot Windigo, for he thought he had come back and was making the noise and concluded that that was the only way to get rid of him. He and his wife got into the canoe for this purpose. When they turned the point, they saw a young man standing right in the portage. It was Gitcikwe′we’s wife’s nephew. He had left his canoe at the other end of the portage, as it was so long to carry it, and he was expecting his aunt to take him across in her canoe. So he got into the canoe and the three of them returned to camp.[46] [[76]]