FABLE AND FOLKLORE 235 



of the wood-dove, which the Twans called "hum-o." A 

 man was pounding against a cedar-tree. Dokibat came 

 along and asked him what he was doing. "Trying to 

 break or split this tree," was the answer. Dokibat said: 

 "You may stop and go away, and I will help you." As 

 the woodman went wings came to him, also a long bill and 

 a strong head, and he became a woodpecker. 



How the woodpecker got the red mark on the back of 

 its head, which is a characteristic of most species, is ex- 

 plained by the Algonkins thus, according to School- 

 craft: 102 Manabozho, the renowned culture-hero of the 

 Ojibways and their relatives, made a campaign against 

 the Shining Manito, and at last, finding him in his lair, a 

 mortal combat began. At length Manabozho had left 

 only three arrows, and the fight was going against him. 

 Ma-ma, the woodpecker, cried out: "Shoot him at the 

 base of the scalp-lock; it is his only vulnerable spot!" 

 (The Indians have many stories turning on this point, 

 and reminding us of that of Achilles.) Then with the 

 third and last arrow Manabozho hit the fatal spot, and 

 taking the scalp of the Shining Manito as a trophy he 

 rubbed blood from it on the woodpecker's head, which 

 remains red in his descendants. That the redheaded 

 species (Melanerpes torquatus), abundant in summer in 

 the O jib way country, is meant here is evident from the 

 further statement that its red feathers were thereafter 

 regarded as symbols of valor, and were chosen to orna- 

 ment the warriors' pipes, for no other woodpecker of the 

 region could furnish enough such feathers to answer the 

 purpose. 



The Menominees, of southern Wisconsin, had a dif- 

 ferent story relating to the scarlet crest of another kind 

 of woodpecker. They say that Ball-carrier, who was a 



