🧚 Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 2 · page 2

Then he told Owl, “You go and try to go around the world this time.100 If you eat, you won’t change colour but remain the same colour as you are now.101 But if you eat, you won’t come back here.”102 So Owl started flying.103 He came to the same lake, saw the dead fish and finished it.104 He ate a good meal and never returned.105 [22] But he didn’t change colour.106

Then Nenebuc let all the animals go from the raft.107 He started west and is there yet, lying on his back, singing and hammering at his wigwam poles, in place of drumming, all the time.108 He will stay there until he gets up again three years before the end of the world, when he will travel all over the world to see the animals and the Ojibwa again.109 He will not die until the end of the world.110

(2) Nenebuc Fragment.111 [23]112

Once the Goose met Nenebuc and gave him two wings.113 He told him that if he flapped them he could fly with them, but that he must not look downwards while he flew.114 So Nenebuc took the wings and began flying.115 When he got very far up, he wondered how high he was and looked down.116 Then he tumbled down and down until he fell into a big hollow stump where he couldn’t get out.117 Soon two girls came along with an axe to get some wood and began cutting at the hollow pine in which Nenebuc was.118 They cut a hole and Nenebuc kept quiet, for he was hoping they would free him.119 When they looked in the hole, they saw his belly and they pulled out a hair.120 They went back to camp and told their father, “Here is a porcupine quill we found in a tree.”121 The old man looked at it and, laughing, said, “That’s not a porcupine quill, that’s a hair from Nenebuc’s groin!”122

(3) Nenebuc Transforms the Bear.123 [24]124

Nenebuc in his tracks encountered the great Bear that killed and ate the Indians—so many of them that they feared they would all be killed.125 So Nenebuc went to the Bear and said, “You are eating so many of the Indians that they will all be gone soon.126 Now I am going to make you small and harmless.”127 Then he made him into the Squirrel and turned the Squirrel into the Bear, and the Bear, now in Squirrel’s shape, felt so badly that he cried until his eyebrows turned grey.128 That is the reason why to this day squirrels have grey eyelids.129

“Now,” said Nenebuc, “what will you eat?”130 The Bear, now a Squirrel, said he would continue to eat people, but he was so small that he could not do anything.131 “That is good,” said Nenebuc.132 “Now you can’t do any harm to the Indians.133 But you had better change your food.134 Just run up that black-spruce tree and taste the acorn seeds and then see whether you want to eat people any more.135 You are too small to eat people as you used to do.”136 So the Squirrel ran up the black-spruce tree and tasted the sweet seed of the cone.137 He liked it so well, it tasted so sweet, that he chose this for his food and said that he would not want anything better any more.138 That is his food to-day.139

(4) Wemicus.140

Wemicus had a very large family.141 Many of his children had married the different animals who lived in various parts of the surrounding country.142 By and by he had nearly all kinds of animals for his sons-in-law, and there were still a great many children left in his family.143 When winter came, Wemicus was unable to support his family, as there were too many of them.144 They were all living in one wigwam.145

One day Wemicus said to his wife, “We are all very hungry.146 I might go and see one of our sons-in-law; he might have some food.”147 Next morning he started out.148 Wemicus always tried to imitate the actions of everybody he saw.149 When he reached the home of his son-in-law Ninicip (Black Duck) he saw that he also had a large family.150 Ninicip was inside of his wigwam, and when he saw Wemicus coming, he told his wife, “You had better begin to get ready for company and boil water in the stone pail.”151 Then he jumped up upon the cross poles in his wigwam [25] and in vas lapidum sub se [26] defaecavit, telling his wife to stir up the contents of the pot.152 Wemicus apparently saw nothing of this.153 Then one of the children of Ninicip took spoons and, dipping them in the pot, said, “Soup, soup, soup, rice soup.”154 Wemicus tasted the soup, thought it tasted good, and decided that after this he would make soup in the same manner.155

The next morning, when Wemicus started for home, he was given some rice soup to take home to his children.156 Before leaving the wigwam of Ninicip, however, Wemicus had purposely left behind one of his mittens.157 One of the children saw the mitten and Ninicip’s wife sent the child to return it, bidding him not to go too close to Wemicus but to throw him the mitten.158 The child did the bidding of his mother and, when the mitten was thrown to Wemicus, he said, “Ask your father to come and see me,” and he named a certain day.159 On the way back home Wemicus thought, “I wonder what this soup tastes like when it is cold.160 I must try it.161 My children don’t need any of it, so I might as well eat it all.”162 So he ate all of the soup.163 When he reached his wigwam he said, “Ninicip and his family are starving also.164 To-morrow he will come to see us and perhaps he will bring us something.165 We had better fix up our wigwam.”166 Then they fixed up the wigwam in the same manner as that of Ninicip.167 The next day Ninicip came and they gave him the best place.168 Wemicus said to his wife, “We’ll get ready to eat now.169 Put some water in the stone pail.”170 “There is no use putting any water in the pail,” answered his wife, “we have nothing to cook.”171 “Well, bring the pail, anyway, and get some spoons,” said Wemicus.172 When the water began boiling, Wemicus jumped up on the cross-poles, in vas defaecavit, all over his children and the inside of the wigwam.173 Then Ninicip went out.174 His wife scolded Wemicus, saying, “You always do something like that.175 You must have seen someone do that.”176 Then Wemicus kept quiet and everything had to be cleaned up.177 The wife then invited Ninicip to come in again and he told her that he would fix up the meal.178 Igituo interum in vas defaecavit and they had good rice soup, and everyone, even Wemicus, had a good meal.179 The following morning Ninicip made soup for the family again and then went home.180 Soon Wemicus and his family were starving again and Wemicus said, “I must go and see my son-in-law, Muskrat.181 He lives not far away.”182 “All right,” said his wife and Wemicus set out.183 When he had almost reached Muskrat’s home, the little Muskrat children called out, “Our grandfather is coming.”184 Wemicus told Muskrat that he was starving and Muskrat said to his wife, “You had better make a fire in the hot sand.”185 So the fire was made, and Muskrat went out with a big sack made out of hide and returned with the sack full of ice, which he dumped into the hot ashes.186 Wemicus expected that it would explode but it only cooked nicely.187 Wemicus wondered what it was.188 Soon Muskrat said, “We are ready now,” and they took off the sand and there were a lot of nicely baked potatoes.189 Wemicus thought that was an easy way in which to live—just to get ice for potatoes.190