🧚 Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 7

Rabbit and Marten went home and burrowed a tunnel in the snow, inside the wigwam.1 Then they both went into a hole to hide and closed the hole behind them.2 When Lynx reached home, he was unable to find his wives, but he knew they were somewhere near.3 So he began to pull up testes suos in se and then he began dancing.4 [45] He said to himself, “When they hear this funny thing, they will laugh.”5 Pretty soon Marten laughed, and Lynx, digging her out of the hole, killed and ate her.6 Soon he grew hungry and tried the same trick.7 But Rabbit was very much afraid and would not laugh.8 Lynx kept on doing this for some time and finally gave it up.9 He sat near the fire and cut his belly open, taking out some of his intestines which he roasted and ate.10 At last, when he had eaten all his intestines, he came to his heart.11 When he pulled at this, “Huk, huk”! it made a noise.12 At last he jerked and pulled at it so hard that he died.13 This is the end.14 But all the grandchildren of Lynx have testicles as they are to-day.15

(15) Story of Seal Rock in Lake Timagami.16

Once upon a time, on a small island in Lake Timagami, some people went ashore, and one of the women left her baby in a cradle-board on a rock, while she went a short distance off.17 When she came back, the baby was gone; it had been taken by a big manitu (magic) seal who lived in a rock and he had taken the child inside with him.18 The child’s father was also a manitu, so he began burrowing and digging into the rock for his baby and he dug a channel.19 This hole is there yet.20 When he reached the baby, it was dead, and the seal was gone.21 It had dived and crossed two miles under water to Seal island and gone into a big rock there.22 He dove and followed, as he was mi·te·′ and came to the big rock where the seal had gone in.23 With his chisel he split the rock, but the seal escaped.24 The rock is there yet, split down the centre.25

(16) Rabbit, Lynx, and Fisher.26

At the time of which my story speaks Lynx and Fisher had the same sharp nose and face.27 Fisher used to jump right through a big boulder as high as a man whenever he wanted to.28 One day he told Lynx to try to beat him and jump through.29 So Lynx tried to do it and smashed his face flat, as it is now.30 He went away very sore.31 Soon he met Rabbit.32 “Kwe, kwe,” Lynx asked Rabbit, “where are you going?”33 Rabbit answered, “I am going to the short flat-faced country.”34 Lynx did not understand the joke, and he let Rabbit pass.35

Lynx went on and came to a stream into whose waters he looked, and saw some flints.36 He tried to reach some to pick them up and beheld himself in the water.37 He discovered how ugly he was.38 “I’m so ugly.39 That is what Rabbit meant when he met me.40 I’ll fix him.”41 So he went back, struck Rabbit’s trail, and followed him.42 So he followed the trail until it went into a hole in the snow under a bush.43 Lynx looked in and saw Rabbit sitting there, reading.44 He asked Rabbit, “Has anybody been passing here lately Hee!”45 Rabbit made no answer.46 Lynx asked this question twice and at last Rabbit spoke, “Tsc, tsc, it’s Sunday to-day.”47 Lynx asked the same question again and received the same reply.48 Then Rabbit said, “Why don’t you go around and find his track?”.49 When Lynx went around, Rabbit ran out and off.50 When Lynx saw him run, he chased him and caught him.51

“Can you talk English?” said Lynx.52 “Yes,” answered Rabbit.53 “Well, can’t you talk white?”54 “Yes,” answered Rabbit.55 “Well, if you don’t talk white, I’ll kill you.”56 So Rabbit had to talk white.57 “Well, what do you call ‘fire’ in English.”58 “Wayaʻkabi·′te” (people sitting around a fire), answered Rabbit.59 “How do they say ‘axe’ there?”60 “Me′ma­towes‵iŋg” (“noise of chopping”).61 “What do you call knife?” asked Lynx.62 “Taya′tacki·‵wəgis·e” (“sliced meat”), answered Rabbit.63 “You are a liar”, said Lynx.64 “Ki·niŋgwa‵zəm, you are a liar.”65 And he killed Rabbit.66

(17) Snaring the Sun.67

There was once a boy who used to set his snares for his living.68 One day he saw a track where the snow was melted, and after a while he decided to set his snares there and catch the animal that made the tracks.69 So he set his snare and went away.70 That track was the sun’s track, and when the sun came by next day, it got caught.71 The sun didn’t rise the next day and there was steady darkness.72 The people began to be puzzled.73 “Where did you set your snare?” they asked him.74 He told them, and they went to look.75 There they saw the sun caught, but no one could go near enough to loosen it A number of animals tried to do this, but they all got burned.76 At last the Beaver-mouse managed to cut it with his teeth and freed it.77 But his teeth got burned with the heat, and so they are brown to this day, but the sun is here and we have the daylight.78

(18) Homo Excrementi.79

There were a number of people camping, and one man was camping by himself.80 He was a young man and he tried to get his neighbour’s daughter to marry him, but she wouldn’t have him, saying that he was not good enough.81 And so the young man went back and forth trying to get a wife.82

Then the people went away to another place to camp, as it was getting spring, but the young man stayed back.83 He was full of mite·′win.84 [46] He planned to have revenge upon the girl who would not have him.85 He collected omne excrementum quod invenire potuit and made it into the shape of a man.86 He was determined to settle with the girls who had refused him, for he was full of revenge.87 When he had made the man alive, he sent him to where the girls were camping.88 The new creature was frozen nice and hard, he was nice-looking, and he could talk.89

And so Homo excrementi came, early in the morning, crunching through the snow to where the girls were in camp.90 When they saw him coming, they cried, “Somebody’s coming.91 Make a fire.”92 And when he reached the camp every one received him in fine style, as he was such a nice fellow.93 “Where do you come from?94 Who is your father?” they asked him.95 “Hump-back,” said he.96 “Who is your mother?”97 “Flat-set excrementum,” answered he.98 But the old people did not understand him.99 He was unable to stay near the fire long, for fear he would melt.100 They wished him to stay at the camp, but he couldn’t, so he hurried away.101

Then one of the girls who had refused the young man in marriage followed him and he led her a long chase.102 She began to feel it grow warmer (it was April) and soon she found one of his mittens and later his hat.103 At last it became so warm that she came to the place where he had melted altogether et ibi erat agger excrementi.104 When she examined the hat, internum ejus excrementi illitum invenit.105 So she went back home saying, “Good for him, he’s melted.106 I’m glad he is melted.”107 She couldn’t catch him anyway, so she was angry.108