Stirring scenes in savage lands : $b An account of the manners, customs, habits and recreations, peaceful and warlike, of the uncivilised worldGreenwood, James
History
Stirring scenes in savage lands : $b An account of the manners, customs, habits and recreations, peaceful and warlike, of the uncivilised world
Greenwood, James
Anthropology
“This Nanahbozhoo now sits at the North Pole, overlooking all the
transactions and affairs of the people he has placed on the earth. The
Northern tribes say that Nanahbozhoo always sleeps during the winter;
but, previous to his falling asleep, fills his great pipe, and smokes
for several days, and that it is the smoke arising from the mouth and
pipe of Nanahbozhoo which produces what is called ‘Indian summer.’”
They have, however, legends that relate to times anterior to the flood,
even to the beginning of Time itself and the days of Adam and Eve. Mr.
Kohl, of “Lake Superior” celebrity, contributes the following:
“On Torch Lake it is said, that Kitchi-Manitou (the Good Spirit) first
made the coast of our lake. He strewed the sand and formed a fine flat
dry beach or road round the lake. He found that it was splendid walking
upon it, and often wandered along the beach. One day he saw something
lying on the white sand. He picked it up. It was a very little root.
He wondered whether it would grow if planted in the ground, and made
the trial. He planted it close to the edge of the water in the sand,
and when he came again, the next day, a thick and large reed-bed had
grown out of it through which the wind rustled. This pleased him, and
he sought for and collected more little roots and other seeds from the
sand and spread them around so that they soon covered the rocks and
land with grass and fine forests, in which the birds and other animals
came to live. Every day he added something new to the creation, and did
not forget to place fish and other creatures in the water.
“One day when Kitchi-Manitou was again walking along the sand, he saw
something moving in the reeds, and noticed a being coming out of the
water entirely covered with silver-glistening scales like a fish, but
otherwise formed like a man. Kitchi-Manitou was curious to see on
what the being lived and whether it ate herbs, especially as he saw
it constantly stooping and plucking herbs which it swallowed. The man
could not speak, but at times when he stooped he sighed and groaned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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