“Very well,” said Manabozho; “I give you till morning to live.”
Paup-puk-keewiss trembled, for he thought his last hour had come.
When the night came on the clouds were thick and black, and as they were torn open by the lightning, such discharges of thunder were never heard as bellowed forth. The clouds advanced slowly and wrapped the earth about with their vast shadows as in a huge cloak. All night long the clouds gathered, and the lightning flashed, and the thunder roared, and above all could be heard Manabozho muttering vengeance upon poor Paup-puk-keewiss.
“You have led a very foolish kind of life, Paup-puk-keewiss,” said his friend the Manito.
“I know it—I know it!” Paup-puk-keewiss answered.
“You had great gifts of strength awarded to you,” said the Manito.
“I am aware of it,” replied Paup-puk-keewiss.
“Instead of employing it for useful purposes, and for the good of your fellow-creatures, you have done nothing since you became a man but raise whirlwinds on the highways, leap over trees, break whatever you met in pieces, and perform a thousand idle pranks.”
Paup-puk-keewiss, with great penitence, confessed that his friend the Manito spoke but too truly. Then Manabozho as Animiki, the Spirit of Lightning, in a cloud of heavy blackness, floated over the bluff of rocks that protected Paup-puk-keewiss. The threatening roar of his voice was heard rending the air, and Paup-puk-keewiss, with his companion, the Manito of the Rocks, trembled with fear. Mighty arrows of fire darted through the air from Manabozho’s bow; the mountains themselves gave way; the solid rocks were broken, and, tottering apart, fell, crushing Paup-puk-keewiss and the Manito into fragments. For the first time Paup-puk-keewiss experienced death, for he was incapable of entering by his own will a new form, as he was in the human form when crushed between the rocks of the mountain.
The Norse god of the sky,[7] Odin, was depicted in a most picturesque fashion. He is said to look like an old, tall, one-eyed man, with a long beard, a broad-brimmed hat, a striped cloak of many colors, and a spear in his hand. On his arm he wears the gold ring Draupner and carries a spear called Gungner; two ravens sit on his shoulders, two wolves lie at his feet, and a huge chariot rolls over his head. He sits upon a high throne and looks out upon the world, or he rides on the winds upon his horse Sleipner. There is a deep speculative expression upon his countenance. Odin’s hat symbolizes the arched vault of heaven, and his blue or variegated cloak is the blue sky or atmosphere. His horse with eight legs, as we learned before, symbolizes the eight winds of heaven, and his ring the fruitfulness of nature. His spear produces violent trembling or shaking. He is regarded as the all-pervading spirit of the world, and produces life and spirit, though he did not create the world. In whatever creative work he does he is helped by others. All knowledge comes from him—the arts of war and the arts of peace; even poetry was invented by him. He is the ruler over all things, and, although other deities may have power, they all serve and obey him as children do their father.