CHAP. iv. FLOOD OF NANAKBOOZHO. 63 



heard a rumbling noise, and the ice began to be elevated 

 on different parts of the lake. The young hunter ran for 

 his life ; but before he reached the land death overtook 

 him amid the broken fragments of ice, and he found his 

 grave beneath the waters. 



The father, being deeply grieved for the loss of his 

 favourite son, vowed vengeance upon his destroyers. 

 When the proper time arrived, the father took his bow 

 and quiver, and repaired to the lake. Having chosen a 

 convenient spot near the sandy beach, he there took up 

 his position, and, in order to avoid detection, transformed 

 himself into an old pine tree scorched all over. About 

 noon the sea gods appeared on the surface, swam towards 

 the shore, landed, and reclined upon the sand, and soon 

 fell into a deep sleep. The father had now the power of 

 inflicting a deadly wound upon any of them, so he quietly 

 bent his bow, and let fly his flint-pointed arrow into the 

 side of one of the slumbering monsters. 



The water deities being thus startled from their repose, 

 and finding one of their companions terribly wounded, 

 were driven in their rage beyond all bounds. They 

 plunged into the deep and began to agitate the waters, 

 which soon overflowed the banks of the lake, sending 

 forth floods in all directions, sweeping everything before 

 them, until the whole earth was buried under water. In 

 the mean time Nanakboozho, perceiving his perilous situa- 

 tion, took refuge on the highest point of the earth, but the 

 flood came up to him rapidly ; he then got upon a pine 

 log that was floating by, being the only means within his 

 reach by which he could save himself from immediate de- 

 struction. Sitting upon this log, he was driven and tossed 



