“Good morning,” she said. “I have come to invite you to a forest revel. Why are you always so quiet? You should come with us and not mind what the sober workers tell you. We will have music and dancing and wine and song—”
But the adder had rolled over so that one ear lay close to the ground and he had stuck the end of his tail into the other ear.
“Such manners!” exclaimed the spider, and she climbed the thread back to her web.
And so it came about that the small people of the forest began to have this saying amongst them, “He’s as deaf as an adder.”
The North Star[16]
Three Ojibway hunters had been out hunting for meat many days; it was in a new place. The woods were very thick, but there were no deer in them. The hunters had nothing to eat; they had no water, for there was none; they were lost in the thick forest.
The hunters sat down and smoked the pipe of peace. They offered the smoke to the Manitous who might live in the woods. They asked the Manitous to help them. The day sun was gone and there was no night sun.
The chief covered his head with his blanket and chanted: “Our wigwams will see us no more. We will stay here forever. We can go no further.”
A little Pukwudjinnie came out of a hollow tree when the chief had chanted his story. The Little One was like a little papoose, but he was very old and knew very much.