With this view, he issued an edict that henceforward the bears should eat at the first table, and that the Indians were to wait upon them; that in all public processions of an honorable character the bears should go first; and that when any fighting was to be done, the Indians should have the privilege reserved of receiving the first shots. A special exemption was made in behalf of Paup-puk-keewiss’s favorite and confidential adviser, Pipe-bearer (who had been very busy in private recommending the new order of things), who was to be allowed to sit at the head of the feast, and to stay at home with the old women in the event of battle.
Having seen his orders strictly enforced, and the rights of the bears over the Indians fairly established, Paup-puk-keewiss fixed his mind upon further adventures. He determined to go abroad for a time, and having an old score to settle with Manabozho, he set out with a hope of soon falling in with that famous giant. Paup-puk-keewiss was a blood relation of Dais Imid, or He of the Little Shell, and had heard of what had passed between that giant and his kinsman.
After wandering a long time he came to the lodge of Manabozho, who was absent. He thought he must play him a trick, and so he turned everything in the lodge upside down and killed his birds, of which there was an extraordinary attendance, for Manabozho is master of the fowls of the air, and this was the appointed morning for them to call and pay their court to him. Among the number was a raven, accounted the meanest of birds, which Paup-puk-keewiss killed and hung up by the neck, to insult him.
He then went on till he came to a very high point of rocks running out into the lake, from the top of which he could see the country back as far as the eye could reach. While sitting there, Manabozho’s mountain chickens flew round and past him in great numbers. Out of mere spite to their master, Paup-puk-keewiss shot them by the score, for his arrows were very sure and the birds very plenty, and he amused himself by throwing the birds down the rocks. At length a wary bird cried out:
“Paup-puk-keewiss is killing us; go and tell our father.”
Away sped a delegation of the birds which were the quickest of wing, and Manabozho soon made his appearance on the plain below. Paup-puk-keewiss, who when he is in the wrong is no match for Manabozho, made his escape on the other side. Manabozho, who had in two or three strides reached the top of the mountain, cried out:
“You are a rogue. The earth is not so large but I can get up to you.”
Off ran Paup-puk-keewiss, and Manabozho after him. The race was sharp, and such leaps and strides as they made! Over hills and prairies, with all his speed, went Paup-puk-keewiss, and Manabozho hard upon him. Paup-puk-keewiss had some mischievous notions still left in his head which he thought might befriend him. He knew that Manabozho was under a spell to restore whatever he, Paup-puk-keewiss, destroyed. Forthwith he stopped and climbed a large pine-tree, stripped off its beautiful green foliage, threw it to the winds, and then went on.