Some myths and tales of the Ojibwa of Southeastern Ontario / collected by Paul Radin.

  • Radin, Paul, 1883-1959.
Date:
1914
    (43) THE TURTLE AND THE THUNDER-BIRD.1 Told by Jim French, Muncie. Once a Turtle was living all alone in a lake.' Several times he was suddenly struck by something, but when he came out to see what it was that had struck him, he saw nothing. One day after he had been struck, he thought he would get someone to help him find the person who had been striking him. He went into the woods and called out, “Who will help me, who will help me?” A Deer ran out from a bush and said, “I will help you.” “Come on,” said the Turtle, “but first let me see how you fight.” The Deer started to fight a tree and broke its horns. Then the Turtle said, “You will not last long.” He left the Deer and again called out, “Who will help me?” A Bear came out and said, “I will help you.” He told the bear to show how well he could fight. The Bear started to fight the tree, but he was so clumsy in jumping around that the Turtle told him he would not last long when he fought the giant whom the Turtle was after. He began again to call for help, when he came to a little swamp and heard some- one say, “We will.” The Turtle called to them to come out and show how they could fight. A big crowd of little Turtles came out and started to fight him, so that they almost killed him. He told them that they were the ones he was looking for, and he marched them off to the lake where he lived and left them just outside. Suddenly a big stone fell down upon the little Turtles and killed them all. When the Turtle ran out to see what had happened, he saw a big bird flying overhead. He ran to his neighbour who had ducked into the water when the bird appeared, and said, “What bird was that?” The big Snake answered, “A Thunder-bird, and I am very much afraid of it.” Since then the Turtle will stay under the water when there is a thunder-storm. (44) THE RACCOON AND THE BLIND MAN. Told by John Henry, Kettle Point. Once a Raccoon was living near a lake all winter, and in the spring he came out to find something to eat. As he walked along, he saw a basswood-bark string. He followed this up until he came 1 Cf. Tale 30.
    to the place where it was tied, and found that it was attached to two blind men, who followed it in order to guide themselves. The Raccoon untied the string and fastened it to some other place, that the men might get lost. When the men missed the string, they began to quarrel and then to fight. The Raccoon stood there and laughed at them until he was tired, and then he put the string back into its former place. The Raccoon then went on his way, and when he had walked for half a day, he saw a woman. When the woman saw the Rac- coon she said, “I will kill him and have him for dinner.” When the Raccoon heard this, he started to run, but soon he gave up and told the woman that if she would not kill him, he would tell her what to do in order to make her daughter grow taller in a day. The woman was satisfied, so the Raccoon told her to take her daughter to the river, throw her in, and hold her there for a while by the hair. When the woman got home, she did exactly as the Raccoon had told her, whereupon the daughter got taller and the Raccoon was allowed to live. (45) THE TWO LITTLE BOYS. Told by John Henry, Kettle Point. Once there lived an old couple, and they had one son. The father hunted all the time. The woman and her son often used to walk along the shore, and one day, when they returned and told the man what they had seen, he said, “Don’t you walk there again, as there are some minetos in the river who will kill you.” The following morning, when the woman went for water, she saw someone coming behind her, and when it got quite near, it proved to be a lion. The lion killed her. The son saw the mother being killed and how her intestines were thrown on a stump. When his father came home in the evening, he told him all that had happened. One day the boy asked his father to make him a bow and arrow, for the chickadees were eating up their dried meat. While he was out, the boy thought of his mother and said, “I will not be afraid nowT of anyone who may come along,” and he hoped that he would meet the one who had killed his mother.
    A 82 Once when he shot his arrow through the open door, he lost it. He took another arrow and shot it from the same place to see where it would go. Soon he saw a boy pick up the arrow and run with it towards the stump. He said to him, “Well, are you the one who wishes to steal my arrow? Come along with me and I will give you some meat.” But the boy said, “I will not go with you, for your father will not let me return.” Then the son told the boy that his father was not at home, and together they went into the house. The strange boy ate some meat and, when he had finished, said, “Now, I will go.” In the evening, when the father came home, he noticed that a great deal of meat was gone and he asked his boy who had eaten so much meat. The boy said, “I was here alone.” The next morn- ing he told his son he was going to hunt, but instead he hid him- self in the bushes near the house to watch. Soon he saw his boy run towards the stump and then two boys come back to the house. He went into the house and told the boys to remain there very quietly. As soon as he went away, however, they ran out- side to play. The son wanted to play, “Cutting our heads off,” but the other boy did not want to have his head cut off, so the son cut his off first and then the other one followed suit, and so they played for some time. After a while the son said, “Our father told us to go to the river,” but the other boy said, “He did not.” “I heard him say so,” said the son. So they went to the river and they saw someone running along the shore on the opposite side of the river. “Did you see the one who ran along the shore?” said the son. “Yes,” said the other, “and that is the one who killed our mother.” “What shall we do to kill him?” Then the son answered, “Let us walk a little further, and soon he will come to this place, and then we will fight him.” Soon the lion arrived, and the boys fought and killed him. They skinned him, so that their father might have something to lie on. When the father came home, he found a lion’s skin on his bed and wondered where it had come from. Then the boys told him how it all happened, namely, that they had left the house when he went away and had gone down to the river. There they saw the white lion running towards them. The younger boy had run down the hill to fight the lion first, and then it was not long before they had killed him. Then they had skinned the lion and had brought home the skin for their father to lie upon, that his bed might be soft.
    When the father heard the story, he was afraid to stay in that place any longer, so the following morning he left the house, leaving the two boys behind him alone. The boys knew that their father had gone away for good, but they did not care to follow him. And there they must be living yet.
    No text description is available for this image