A Brief Guide to Native American Myths and Legends (20 page)

This they did, and sure enough one of the bear-cubs shortly passed by and seized the meat. Kutoyis, who had been lying in wait, rushed out and hit the animal as hard as he could. The cub carried his tale of woe to his father, and the big bear, growling threats of vengeance, gathered his whole family round him and rushed to the lodge of the old women, intending to kill the bold hunter.

However, Kutoyis was more than a match for all of them, and very soon the bears were slain. Still he was unsatisfied, and longed for further adventures.

‘Tell me,’ said he, ‘where shall I find another village?’

‘There is a village by the Big River,’ said the old women, ‘but you must not go there, for a wicked woman dwells in it who wrestles with and slays all who approach.’

No sooner did Kutoyis hear this than he determined to seek the village, for his mission was to destroy evil beings who were a danger to his fellow-men. So in spite of the dissuasions of the old women he departed.

As he had been warned, the woman came out of her lodge on the approach of the stranger and invited him to wrestle with her.

‘I cannot,’ said he, pretending to be frightened.

The woman mocked and jeered at him, while he made various excuses, but all the time he was observing how the land lay. When he drew nearer he saw that she had covered the ground with sharp flints, over which she had strewn grass. At last he said: ‘Very well, I will wrestle with you.’

It was no wonder that she had killed many braves, for she was very strong. But Kutoyis was still stronger. With all her skill she could not throw him, and at last she grew tired, and was herself thrown on the sharp flints, on which she bled to death. The people rejoiced greatly when they heard of her death, and Kutoyis was universally acclaimed as a hero.

Kutoyis did many other high deeds before he departed to the Shadow-land, and when he went he left sorrow in many lodges.

* * *

There is a distinction to be made between the Algonquin tribe and the Algonquian language group: historically the former were a people of the eastern woodlands based on the River Ottawa and Hudson Bay, while the language group to which they give their name was spread far and wide across North America, from the Atlantic to the Rockies, and included,
inter alia
, the Algonquin themselves, the Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Chippewa (Ojibwa), Ottawa, Fox, Kickapoo, Powhatan, Sauk, Wampanoag, and Cree. It is the language group Spence generally refers to in the phrase ‘Algonquin Indians’. The diversity in lifestyle of the Algonquian tribes was almost absolute, from the nomadic buffalo-hunting Blackfeet on the Plains
of Montana to the horticulturalist Wampanoags on the East Coast, via the rice-gathering Ottawa on the Great Lakes. Genetically, the Algonquian tribes of the East Coast were closely linked, whereas the Algonquian tribes of the central and western areas of the language groups were largely Algonquian in language only. While scholars largely agree that the Algonquian language derives from a single source spoken around 3,000 years ago (‘Proto-Algonquian’) there is substantial disagreement over the
urheimat
or homeland of the language, which is variously suggested as being near Lake Ontario or west of Lake Superior.

Given the miscellaneous nature of the Algonquian-language group, it should be no surprise that it produced trickster-culture heroes/transformers aside from Glooskap and Michabo, the Great Hare. The Cree tell of Wisgatcak, who tried to trap the Giant Beaver by breaking down his dam, only to flood the world. Swiftly making a raft, Wisgatcak collected as many of the animals swimming in the rising waters as he could. After two weeks, Wisgatcak made magic and called upon the Wolf to help. With a ball of moss in his mouth, Wolf ran round and round the rafts until the moss grew and earth formed on it. Putting the earth-ball down, Wolf sang songs and the earth grew. And grew and grew until it created the whole world.

Nanabozho is the Ojibwa’s version of the trickster-culture hero. In the Ojibwa version of the origins of man:

Long ago there lived an old man named Nana-bo-zhoo in a big wigwam with his brother, who was a great hunter, and those animals he did not shoot with his bow he ran down and killed with his club. The animals, in great fear, held a council to consider the means of preventing N.’s brother from killing them all. The white deer, who was able to outrun all the rest, was chosen to decoy him out on the ice of a lake, so that when the ‘sea-lion’ made a loud noise the ice would break and the hunter be drowned. One day N. being out for a walk saw the white deer, came back and asked his brother to get the animal for him and to be sure to run him down and club him, so as not to spoil his skin, for N. was a skilful dresser of furs and skins. So the brother set out and ran after the deer all day without reaching him. About sunset they came to a lake and the deer ran out upon
the ice. When they got near the middle of the lake the hunter seemed to be gaining upon the deer, who appeared to be somewhat tired; he was just raising his arm to strike him down, when there was a loud noise, the ice cracked and the hunter sank to the bottom, while the animal escaped.

N., finding that his brother did not return, was somewhat anxious when nightfall came on, but supposed his brother had wandered a long way and would be back next day. Three days passed and the hunter did not return. Then N. took his brother’s bow and arrows and followed his tracks to the lake, but when he got there a snow-storm covered them up.

In the spring the ice melted and N. could not find the tracks. One day, however, he saw the kingfisher seated on a tree looking into the water. By telling the bird that he would paint its feathers and give it pretty colours, N. induced it to say that it was watching the ‘sea-lions’ playing with N.’s brother. N. again bribed the bird, by promising to give it a tuft of feathers on its head, to tell him how to get his brother away from the ‘sea-lions’.

So N. walked along the lake shore until he came to a nice sandy beach. The day was calm and as he looked at the water he saw it begin to boil. N. changed himself into an old tree-stump and waited to see how things would turn out. Very soon the ‘sea-lions’ came out and began to sport about on the beach. By and by one of them noticed the stump and said it must be N., for it had not been there before. The ‘sea-lions’ discussed the matter for some time; at last the one who had first seen the stump suggested that they should try to pull it up, which they could not do if it were a real stump. So they tugged away, and N. had to exert all his power and magic to prevent his being pulled up. The ‘sea-lions’ then gave up the attempt, and, lying down in the sun, were soon fast asleep. N. then changed himself into a man and shot the biggest ‘white sea-lion’, who made a great noise, whereupon they disappeared beneath the waters of the lake.

N. then walked along the lake shore and soon met a big toad with a club in his hand and a bag thrown over his shoulder. The toad was singing, and, when N. spoke to him, said that he was going to cure the white ‘sea-lion’ that had been wounded by N. Then N. killed the toad, took up the club and bag, and changing himself into a toad, went along singing. Going into the lake he dived down and walked along the bottom until he came to a door through which he saw the
‘sea-lions’ sporting about. He went in singing, and when asked what he wanted, said that he had come to cure their chief who had been wounded by N.

As the door opened he saw his brother hanging across the door-way. When all the ‘sea-lions’ came into the room, N. told them that he could do nothing unless he were left alone. When they had gone he killed the ‘sea-lion’ and, taking down his brother, made for the shore with him. The ‘sea-lions’ chased him, and when they got to the edge of the lake they made the waters rise and follow N. and his brother, who kept running farther inland, pursued by the ‘sea-lions’ and the waters, and accompanied by all the birds and beasts.

At length they reached the summit of the highest mountain, closely followed by the waters. N. then built a raft and got on it with his brother and all the animals, and when the waters covered the mountain the raft floated away. After some time N. called to him the best divers to see which of them could find the bottom. After the beaver, the otter, and the loon had gone down, and after a long time risen up to the surface dead, Nanabozhoo breathed life into them again. The muskrat tried, and after a very long time came up dead. But N., upon examining him, found that his fore-paws were clasped together, and in them he discovered a little bit of mud. Then N. made him alive again, petted and praised him, but would not let him go down again as he desired to do. Taking the little bit of mud, N. rolled it between his hands until it was very fine and then threw it in the air, when it spread out over the water and covered it. Then with his fingers he drew upon it the lakes, rivers, islands, mountains, hills, etc., and the world was made.

(A. F. Chamberlain, ‘Nanibozhu amongst the Otchipwe, Mississagas and Other Algonkian Tribes’
The Journal of American Folk-Lore
, Vol. IV, July–September 1891)

‘The Song of Hiawatha’, the epic 1855 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is based on the Nanabozho stories. He bears a strong resemblance to Na’pi, ‘the Old Man’ in Blackfeet mythology. The creation myth of the Blackfeet is significant in the importance assigned to the buffalo, the tribe’s principal source of food. After Na’pi made the earth, he made woman, then man, then the buffalo:

They were quite tame. He gave bows and arrows to the Indian and told them to shoot the buffalo. They did so and as the buffalo were tame, they killed a large number.

(John Macclean, ‘Blackfoot Mythology’,
The Journal of American Folk-Lore
, Vol. VI, July–September 1895)

¹
This ‘goodness’ and ‘badness’, however, is purely relative and of modern origin, such deities, as already explained, being figures in a light-and-darkness myth.

²
The first portion of this legend has its exact counterpart in Egyptian story. See Wiedemann,
Popular Literature of Ancient Egypt
, p. 45.

³
The reader cannot fail to discern the striking resemblance between this episode and that of Una and the lion in Spenser’s
Faerie Queene
.

The myths of the Iroquois are of exceptional interest because of the portraits they present of several semi-historical heroes. The earliest substratum of the myths of this people deals with the adventures of their principal deity, Hi’nun, the Thunder-god, who, with his brother, the West Wind, finally overcame and exterminated the powerful race of Stone Giants. Coming to a later period, we find that a number of legends cluster round the names of the chiefs Atotarho and Hiawatha, who in all probability at one time really existed. These present a good instance of the rapidity with which myth gathers round a famous name. Atotarho, the mighty warrior, is now regarded as the wizard
par excellence
of the Iroquois, but probably this does not result from the fact that he was cunning and cruel, as some writers on the tribe appear to think, but from the circumstance that as a great warrior he was clothed in a garment of serpents, and these reptiles, besides being looked upon as powerful war-physic, also possessed a deep magical
significance. The original Hiawatha (He who seeks the Wampum-belt) is pictured as the father of a long line of persons of the same name, who appear to have been important functionaries in the tribal government. To him was ascribed the honour of having established the great confederacy of the Iroquois, which so long rendered them formidable opponents to the tribes which surrounded them. Like many other heroes in myth – the Celtic Manahan, for example – Hiawatha possessed a magic canoe which would obey his slightest behest, and in which he finally quitted the terrestrial sphere for that shadowy region to which all heroes finally take their departure.

Many interesting myths are related of the manner in which Hi’nun destroyed the monsters and giants which infested the early world. A hunter, caught in a heavy thunder-shower, took refuge in the woods. Crouching under the shelter of a great tree, he became aware of a mysterious voice which urged him to follow it. He was conscious of a sensation of slowly rising from the earth, and he soon found himself gazing downward from a point near the clouds, the height of many trees from the ground. He was surrounded by beings who had all the appearance of men, with one among them who seemed to be their chief. They asked him to cast his eyes toward the earth and tell them whether he could see a huge water-serpent. Unable to descry such a monster, the chief anointed his eyes with a sacred ointment, which gave him supernatural sight and permitted him to behold a dragon-like shape in the watery depths far below him. The chief commanded one of his warriors to dispatch the monster, but arrow after arrow failed to transfix it, whereupon the hunter was requested to display his skill as an archer. Drawing his bow, he took careful aim. The arrow whizzed down the depths and was speedily lost to sight, but a terrible commotion arose in the lake below, the body of the great serpent leaping from the blood-stained
water with dreadful writhings and contortions. So appalling was the din that rose up to them that even the heavenly beings by whom the hunter was surrounded fell into a great trembling; but gradually the tempest of sound subsided, and the huge bulk of the mortally wounded serpent sank back into the lake, the surface of which became gradually more still, until finally all was peace once more. The chief thanked the hunter for the service he had rendered, and he was conducted back to earth. Thus was man first brought into contact with the beneficent Hi’nun, and thus did he learn the existence of a power which would protect him from forces unfriendly to humanity.

Once in early Iroquois days three braves set out upon an expedition. After they had journeyed for some time a misfortune occurred, one of their number breaking his leg. The others fashioned a litter with the object of carrying him back to his home, as Indian custom exacted. Retracing their steps, they came to a range of high mountains, the steep slopes of which taxed their strength to the utmost. To rest themselves they placed the disabled man on the ground and withdrew to a little distance.