Knowing that he had killed the Loon and that the murder would soon be discovered on the next day, he made ready to go on a hunting trip and told his old grandmother that he’d be back on the following evening. When the murdered Loon was discovered, his murderer was far away in the bush and had already caught one deer in his trap. He filled a portion of its entrails with blood and hung it around his neck, then started for home. As his canoe neared the village in the evening, all the people ran down to the water’s edge and cried, “Our chief is dead!” The “Hell-diver” pulled his knife and cut the bladder of blood which hung about his neck, upsetting the canoe at the same time. The people lamented, saying, “We shouldn’t have told the ‘Hell-diver,’ for he has killed himself from grief.”
But far out in the middle of the lake the “Hell-diver” came swimming to the surface and called aloud. “It was I who killed our king, the Loon.” Revenge took hold of all the people and they at once gave chase, but were unable to catch the murderer, and, as darkness was upon them, they said, “We will build a dam and in the morning, when the lake is dry, we will catch him.” In the morning the lake was dry and all the villagers went in pursuit. The chase was a long one and the ‘Hell-diver’ was in the last stages of fatigue when he ran to the dam and quickly kicked it down. The waters came running in and all the people were turned into water animals, but became friends with one another. [[86]]
[1] Mr. Fergusson writes: “Another Indian told me some stories that he had heard from his grandmother, who could speak the Ojibwa tongue. I will write out the one that I thought most interesting.” The story given by Mr. Fergusson is evidently a close variant of the second part of No. 5 of Dr. Speck’s Timagami series.
E. Sapir. [↑]
Phonetic Key.
a, as in father, of medium length; a·, lengthened.
e, open; ɛ·, long as in North German Bär.
e·, longer than e and close in quality.