CHAP. iv. SOURCE OF INDIAN TRADITION. 61 



bring him a piece of earth, from which he intended to 

 reconstruct the land, but the crow could not find any. 

 He made an otter dive into the waters, but the otter was 

 as unsuccessful as the crow. At last he sent the musk- 

 rat, who brought him a little bit, from which Messou 

 reconstructed the earth as it now is. He presented an 

 Indian with the gift of immortality, enclosed in a little 

 box, subject to the condition that he should not open it. 

 As long as he kept the box closed, he was to be im- 

 mortal ; but his curious and incredulous wife was anxious 

 to see what the box contained ; she opened it, and ever 

 since the Indians have been subject to^death.* 



It is curious that the legend described by the Jesuit 

 missionaries as prevailing among the Montagnais in 1634, 

 should be repeated in a slightly different but wholly inde- 

 pendent form, by Assikiuack,*j* a warrior of the Odahwahs, 

 in 1857. 



Assikinack could not, it is reasonable to suppose, have 

 seen any documents written by the Jesuits ; for, although 

 the one from which the foregoing legend was taken was 

 published in Paris by Sebastian Cramoisy in 1635, it was 



* Relation de la Nouvelle France, en I'anue'e 1634. 



f Legends and Traditions of the Odakwah Indians, by F. Assikiuack, a 

 warrior of the Odahwahs. Read before the Canadian Institute, December 

 1857. ' Francis Assikiuack, the author of this paper, is a full-blooded Indian, 

 and a son of one of the chiefs of the Odahwahs, or Ottawas, as they are more 

 generally designated, now settled on the Manitoulin Island, in Lake Huron. 

 In 1840 he was sent, at the age of sixteen, to Upper Canada College, Toronto, 

 by the late Daniel P. Jarvis, then Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs. 

 At that time he was totally ignorant of the English language ; and, after 

 being about three months at the above institution, he got one of the boys, 

 (now the Rev. G. A. Anderson, of Tayenduiaga,) to interpret for him, and 

 solicit permission to return home, as he thought he could never learn the 

 English language. Fortunately his desire was not complied with, and he 

 remained long enough at Upper Canada College, not only to acquire such a 



