XXVIII. TRAPPING IN THE HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS
(Wyandot)
little papoose was found alone in the woods by a squaw. A blind bear had killed the child’s father, and a huge rabbit had carried off his mother.
The little papoose was taken to the home of his mother’s sister. She named him Tchakobeech. He never grew larger than a papoose, but he was as wise as an old chief. After many moons he made snares or traps and caught the blind bear and the big rabbit, but he never saw his mother again.
Tchakobeech said: “I will go to the Happy Hunting Grounds and find my father and my mother. I will climb to the sky and break it open.”
Tchakobeech left the wigwam one morning and climbed to the top of the tallest pine tree on the highest hill that he could find. No one saw him. Each time he was near the top of the pine he blew his breath on the tree, and it grew twice as tall as it was [[165]]at first. He did this many times, and at last he touched the blue sky. He put his head through this blue wigwam and stepped from the tree into the Happy Hunting Grounds.
Tchakobeech liked this new country very much, but he could not see any people. He was lonesome, so he went back down the tree to the ground. He had left a sister in his aunt’s wigwam. She was always ready to run races and to play with him. He told his sister of the beautiful place behind the sky, and she was ready to go back with him.
The tree did not fall, and Tchakobeech made his sister climb up first, for then he could help her if her foot slipped. He had made little wigwams on the big branches when he came down, and they slept in these when the dark came.
They had four sleeps before the sky was reached. Tchakobeech made another hole in the sky, and after his sister had gone through it he broke off the top of the tree and went through it himself. Nobody could follow them, for now the tree was too short.