Ojibwa
Nanebojo lived with his grandmother. His parents had been killed by a war party. Now Nanebojo resolved to leave that place with his grandmother. He told the Indians that a stranger was coming who would harm all of them.
Then Nanebojo climbed to the top of a maple tree. He poured water into it; therefore the sap in the maple is now watery and thin. It has to be boiled before it becomes sugar. Nanebojo also went through the cornfields and pulled off all the ears of corn except one or two. Therefore now cornstalks have but one or two ears. They used to have ten or twelve.
Then Nanebojo went away.
Nanebojo and his grandmother traveled until they reached Lake Erie. Then they journeyed to Lake St. Clair. Grandmother went on ahead.
Nanebojo saw ducks in Lake St. Clair, but he could not think how to capture them. At last he remembered. He went to his grandmother and told her to make him a sack.
“What for?” asked grandmother.
“Never mind what for,” answered her grandson. So Grandmother made the sack.
Nanebojo took the sack and went along the lake shore to where there was a hill, with a short stretch of flat land between the hill and the water. He climbed to the top of the hill, got into the sack, closed the neck, and rolled down the hill. Then he got out and walked up again, laughing heartily all the time. Again he rolled down the hill, shouting loudly.
Now the ducks heard him. They came out of the water and waddled around him. They came closer and closer. After a while, one duck grew bold. He said, “Let us roll downhill just once.”