Part 3

A good many years ago two families lived on an Island. One family had one son, and the other one daughter. The two young people got married and lived for a little while when the young wife took sick and died. The old people buried her on the Island, but the young husband went out after the burying, and the old people saw him lie down near the grave. Just as soon as he closed his eyes he saw his wife going away. He followed her for a long time but could not get near enough to catch her, so he went on till night came. She said to him (her husband), “We will camp here,” and she made her camp a little way ahead. He made his camp behind hers. The next morning came and they started again. On their way he saw a big house by the roadside, but before they reached the house he heard somebody talk to him and who told him that “this was the place where all the dogs live that you ever owned. The ones that you have used badly, and they will pay you for what you have done to them while living.” The man that spoke said to him, “I will help you. You take these bags of shoes and when the dogs attack you throw the shoes at them.” When the young husband got to the house the dogs attacked him. He dropped the bags of shoes and the dogs attacked the shoes and the young man passed out and saw his wife ahead of him the same as usual. The night came again and they camped out once more. The next day came and about noon they saw another house on the road ahead. When they came to this house they saw some people who invited them to eat, but they did not eat. This was the last house to be seen before they got to the place where they were going. They went on till they saw a great big house. The wife went in ahead and the man came in behind. When he got in he saw nothing but a big room full of little beds, but nobody was in the house. He went all over the house but could not find his wife so he went out and looked around. He saw another house nearby and went over to it. He rapped at the door and someone said, “Come in.” He went in and saw an old man sitting down who said to him, “You have come a long way to try and get your wife back. Once they get in that big house you can’t see them any more, but, if you want help I can help you a lot.” “I will be very much obliged if you will,” said the young man. “Well,” the old man said, “There will be a big dance in the big house to-night. They do that every time a new man or a new woman gets here. I will hide you in my pocket and at the dance I will catch her.” The night came. As soon as the sun went down people could be heard running around all over (spirits or ghosts).

This old man was the man who sang at the dance so he started the dance a little after dark. He who was sitting in the pocket was watching his wife. He saw her coming and dancing too. When she got near the old man caught her and got a very small box and put her in and went out. This broke up the dance. The old man took the box to his house. There were two little boxes, one for the wife, and another in which was an oil of some kind. The old man said to the young husband, “It took you four years to get here and you will get back in two days. Beware (listen) and do what I say. When you get home, get two small stones and make them hot, open the box of oil and let it melt on the stones. Cover yourself and the boxes with blankets. You listen till you hear her speak and then open the box. You will see her alive again.” The young husband did all this when he got back home and his wife came to life again. They came to where they started at first on the Island. There was nobody living there this time so they sat down and after a little while he said, “Do you see that point up there? Watch a little while and you will see two canoes coming this way. There will be our parents in them.” The canoes came out in the lake straight for the island and when they came near they stopped. The old people said, “Someone’s at the grave.” The two young people spoke, “Come on, we got back here again alive.” The old people almost jumped out in the water when they saw their children and heard them talking.

In olden times people used to believe in feeding the dead by burning some bread and meat (food) over the grave, and this was what brought the parents back to the island at this particular time.

Note.—(The old man in this story is Nanabush, who was also the man that spoke about the dogs.)

This story is from John York, who claims it is a true story and happened in the days gone by.

NO. 19.

THE LITTLE DOG STORY.

Told by Peter York.

In the old days people used to have faith in their dogs. One time a man had a very small, little dog. When he went out hunting he put the little dog inside of his coat. Every time the little dog tried to bark the man knew that there was some game near.

One night while the man was asleep the little dog licked him on the face till he woke up, which went to show that there was trouble at hand. The little dog tried to take his master outside the camp. They both went out and the little dog began to roll in the snow. Every time he rolled he grew bigger. He rolled till he got to be as big as a good-sized calf, then he stopped and watched the lake. They saw a great, big dog coming across the ice to kill the man. The man’s dog went out to meet this one and conquered it. This big dog was a grey-looking one with no hair.

NO. 20.

KILLING THE OLD PEOPLE.

Told by John York.

In the days gone by when an old man or woman got helpless they used to be killed outright.

One time while two families, one of which had an old woman, were out camping, they decided to kill the old woman. They told her that they were going to move to some other place. They took her by the hand and led her to the bush some distance away where they stopped in a lonely place and told her to sit there till they got ready to build a camp. Instead of making a camp they went back home and left her to die. The old woman was left on a river bank, and it happened that one of the boys was out hunting that way and when he was coming back home he saw his grandmother sitting by the river side. He wondered how she got there, but told her to get in the canoe and took her back to camp. He left her near the camp telling her to come in after dark. The hunter then went into the camp and after a while the old woman came in. Everybody sat still, they did not know what to say, as they had thought that she would have died that night out on the river bank. She never told how she came back, neither did her grandson, so it was never known to the rest. The people quit killing the old people from that time. They never did it again. The Indians used to do this; when people got too old they were killed to be got out of the way.

NO. 21.

OJIBWA AND MOHAWK. (NO. 5.)

Told by Peter York.

The Mohawks were so bad that they used to kill for nothing. One time there were three Ojibwa brothers, and one day the Mohawks met one of the brothers and killed him. They hid him in the bush and took his scalp home. When the other two came to know that their brother had been killed they got mad (angry) and both got ready with war clubs and lots of shot and powder. When they got to the Mohawk village their enemies were waiting for them to come. These brothers did all they could; they killed about three to five hundred of the Mohawks. While the fight was going on, one of the two Ojibwas got shot in the leg, and the leg was broken below the knee, but he fought on till he got tired and sick. “Well,” he said to his brother, “we are going to get beaten. I will die in their hands, you run away and tell our people what has happened.” The other brother started back home and left his brother to be killed, who was killed some time later. The one that got home told all the people what had happened. Everybody got ready to go down and kill all the Mohawks. When they got to the place where the fight was they saw the dead man sitting up dressed in some very nice things, such as buckskin clothing, but his scalp was taken.

When the Ojibwas got to the Mohawk village their captain gave a big yell to show the Mohawks that there was going to be a fight, and started to kill everyone who was in the village. When they got through they searched the place for the scalp that was taken from the brother and when they found it they burnt the village and started back home. When they got there they had a big time over the recovered scalp.

NO. 22.

NANABUSH. (NO. 6.)

Told by John York.

It was never known how Nanabush was born, only that he was working for God for many years (York says 2,000 years, which is evidently his expression to denote a very long time) looking after the world, such as to regulate the weather, rain, snow, and other things.

Nanabush did have a wife once, but only one child which was a girl. While living together he made up his mind to send his wife away to look after the dead, those that died long years ago, where she is now.

The old man is here somewhere in the north. She looks after the dead and he looks after the living. He will not die, nor will be sick, and is the only man that will live as long as the world lasts. He never works and always has plenty to eat, and lots of tobacco which he keeps in a skunk-skin bag. (In those days skunks were as big as a big Porcupine.) Nanabush is getting very grey sitting all the time smoking his pipe.

If you look sometimes in the north sky you will see the sky white at night. This is the time that Nanabush is poking his fire or making his fire.

Note.—Nanabush is often referred to as “The Old Man.”

NO. 23.

NANABUSH AND HIS WIFE’S CHAIR. (NO. 7.)

Told by John York.

Nanabush went to hunt beaver one time. He placed his wife to watch for the beaver and she sat on a rock watching for the beaver to come out. She heard her man calling for her, he had killed the beaver. She went over and fixed the meat and dried it. This beaver was a great big one (a giant). His tail was very wide (about 5 feet). The rock on which she sat is just like a big chair and is on the Rama Reserve. Lots of people go to see it.

NO. 24.

THE TAILLESS STURGEON.

Told by John York.

One time there was a family camping at Sturgeon Lake (Victoria County). One day the old man went out to fish through the ice, and while fishing he saw a queer-looking fish. He speared it and killed it, then took it home and cooked it; all the family ate of it, and in a very short time they all took sick and died. These sturgeon from Sturgeon Lake are descended from a serpent which was cut in two a long time ago, but lived and bred young ones with no tails.

Note.—John York said he used to camp at Sturgeon Lake years ago. Had heard these sturgeon jumping at night, but had never caught any.

Sturgeon Lake has no sturgeon. The name may be given to it from its shape. There are no sturgeon in this chain of lakes, now known as the Kawartha Lakes.

NO. 25.

NANABUSH AND THE DUCKS. (NO. 8.)

Told by John York.

One time Nanabush was walking, very tired and hungry. He came to a lake and looking around he saw a very nice sandy beach. Well, he thought, this is a nice shore to kill some ducks. There were lots of ducks on the lake. He called one of the ducks which came to him. He asked the duck, “Is your Chief Duck here at any place?” “Yes. He is here at the present time. He is chief of all kinds of ducks,” the duck replied. Nanabush then said, “I would like to see him and have a talk.” The duck said, “If you would like to see him I will go and get him.” Nanabush said, “Yes, go and bring him here.” The Chief Duck came. “Well,” Nanabush said, “do you know what is going to take place here very soon?” “No,” said the Chief Duck. “Well,” said Nanabush, “there is going to be a big dance.” “Who is going to furnish the music?” said the Chief Duck. “I am going to furnish the music,” said Nanabush and he reached out his hand and got his drum and began to sing, which made the Chief Duck dance right there. “Well,” said the Chief Duck, “when is this big dance coming off?” Nanabush said, “If you like to have it to-night, we can have it to-night.” “Well, it just suits me, and I will tell all the kinds of ducks to come,” said the Chief Duck. This pleased Nanabush very much, and the Chief Duck went away.

Nanabush got everything ready. He made a big camp and made a big fire inside. Night came and all the ducks came in from all around. About dark Nanabush started to sing. He told the ducks that as soon as they came inside they would have to close their eyes. He started singing one of his songs which pleased all the ducks. He told them, “The time is now on” and all the ducks started to come in dancing with their eyes closed. He told them that they had to pass through right in front of him. Every one of them passed him and he grabbed them and twisted their necks. He got a lot of them, but one opened his eyes a little bit and saw what Nanabush was doing. This duck made a big yell and told all the (remaining) ducks what Nanabush was doing, and made for the door, but before he got out Nanabush kicked him and stepped on his feet (we now call this duck the Diver).

Nanabush picked up all the dead ones and buried them in the ashes to cook. When he got them all fixed he lay down and told his anus to watch. He went to sleep and it happened to be that there was a lion close by who ate all the ducks. When Nanabush woke up he went to work and looked for the cooked ducks, which were gone. He said to his anus, “I told you to watch, I will burn you for not doing what I told you to do.” He laid his anus towards the fire and began to shove all the hot coals in to it. He started off and went through where there were a lot of little trees, going right over them. He twisted around and looked at the little trees which were red with his blood and said, “In future people will call those trees red willows.” He went on to a rock which he slid down; on looking back he saw the blood-stains on the rock which he called “red granite” (i.e. which became the red granite of nowadays).

Note.—This lion was probably the American panther.

NO. 26.

ORIGIN OF BIRDS.

Told by John York.

One time a man shot another with his bow and arrow for stealing his wife. He watched the actions of his wife and this man and saw them sleeping together in a bush, when he shot them with his arrows and killed them both. He went to work and cut up about half the man into little bits and threw these up in the air. The pieces of meat did not fall back again, but became different birds, such as the blue jay, robins and others. He cut some more pieces a little bigger and threw these up in the air too, when they became gulls, cranes and such-like birds.

NO. 27.

THE PEOPLE WHO BECAME SERPENTS.

Told by John York.

Two families were camping out some years ago. One old man had a good boy who was hunting all the time, getting all kinds of game and always having plenty to eat. The other family had a daughter, and one time the two young people got married. The girl’s mother did not like this because the young man had good luck always. This old woman was a witch and she could do anything she liked. One time this bad old woman went out just a little way in the bush and put a bone on the road (trail), so to let this young man step on the bone and get hurt. When this young man came home in the evening he happened to step on the bone and got hurt, which laid him up nearly all winter, and they all got hard times. While this young man was in the camp before he got better, they got so poor that they had to go to some other place. The husband of the old witch went out alone to a little lake some miles away to see if there were any fish there. He cut a hole in the ice and let down his decoy. He did not take a spear with him. He saw some big fish and then went home and told his people that he saw a lot of fish. They all decided to move near the lake and that family went. Only the sick man did not like to go till he got better. He was just about getting better when the other family went away. He went out hunting and got some game for himself, wife, father and mother. They lived there till on towards spring when the ice went away. The other campers never came back to see them. One day his wife said, “I would like to go and see my mother.” “Well,” he said, “you can go and see her.” She went out and found the lake and saw the camp, but she could not see anybody, or no signs, or no smoke in the camp. She went near and spoke. After a while some one tried to speak inside the camp and said, “We have eaten a fish of some kind and I am sure it was a big snake; we have all got to be snakes.”

The young wife looked in and saw that her mother (the witch) was all snake except her head, and the rest of the family were the same way. She went home and told what she had seen but the rest did not go to see them for a long time. One day they went down to see what the others looked like. They looked in the camp but there was nobody home, then they went down to the lake and saw the others sunning themselves the same as other snakes. The two families all became big serpents.

NO. 28.

THE INDIAN BOY WHO MARRIED A KING’S DAUGHTER.

Told by John York.

(A most curious blending of the old and the new. G. E. L.)

A good many years ago there were two brothers living in a camp away back in the woods where nobody else was to be seen. Their father and mother had died when they were little boys. The elder hunted all the time and got a lot of deer and other kinds of game. The younger was busy in looking after the venison, cutting it up and drying it. When he got it all dried he pounded it up very fine, same as corn meal, and put it away in bags for to use in the winter.