Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a TouristLanman, Charles
History
Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a Tourist
Lanman, Charles
Fishing -- North America; United States -- Description and travel
Then it was that the idea entered his head that he would try an
experiment, by appealing to the hunger of his obstinate wife and
children. He therefore cleaned the rabbit and boiled a sweet soup which
he carried out, and with which he endeavored to allure his friends to
the earth. But this attempt was all in vain. The mother and her children
expressed no desire for the food, and still remained upon the tree,
swaying to and fro like a flock of large birds. Again in his
wretchedness was he about to destroy himself, but he took the precaution
to appropriate the soup to its legitimate purpose. Soon as this business
was accomplished, he relapsed into his former state of melancholy, from
which he was suddenly aroused by the moans of his wife, which he was
sure had an articulate tone. Again was he riveted to his standing place
under the magic tree, and from the moaning of his wife he gathered the
following intelligence. She told him that the Master of Life had fallen
in love with her and her two children, and had therefore transformed
them all into spirits, with a view of preparing them for a home in the
sky. She also told him that they would not depart for their future home
until the coming spring, but would in the meantime roam in distant
countries till the time of his own transportation should arrive. Having
finished her communication, she and her children immediately commenced a
song, which resembled the distant winds, when they all rose gracefully
from the tree, and leaning forward upon the air, darted away across the
lake toward the remote South.
A cheerless and forlorn moon did the poor Indian spend in his lonely
lodge on the margin of the Great Lake. Spring came, and just as the last
vestige of snow had melted from the woods, and at the quiet evening
hour, his spirit-wife again made her appearance, accompanied by her two
children. She told her husband that he might become a spirit by eating a
certain berry. He was delighted with the idea, and, complying with her
advice, he suddenly became transformed into a spirit, and having flown
to the side of his wife and children, the party gradually began to
ascend into the air, when the Master of Life thought proper to change
them into a family of Shooting Stars. He allotted to each a particular
division of the heavens, and commanded them to remain there forever, as
the guardians of the great nation of Lake Huron.
THE MAIDEN OF THE MOON.
The following legend was obtained from the lips of a Chippeway woman
named Penaqua, or the Female Pheasant, and I hardly know which to
admire most, the simple beauty of the plot, or the graphic and unique
manner of the narrative, of which, I regret to say, I can hardly give
a faithful translation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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