138 ON A GLASS ROOF 



me. I asked him if his people had any legend 

 connected with it, and he answered, with a quiet 

 laugh, "I've heard some stories 'bout it, but I 

 guess they wa'n't very true." 



After some coaxing, he told me this: "You know 

 that big rock in the lake off north Rock Dunder, 

 you call it? Wai, our people use to call that Woja- 

 hose that means 'the forbidder' 'cause every 

 time our people pass by it in their canoes, if they 

 did n't throw some tobacco or corn or something 

 to it, the big devil that live in it would n't let 'em 

 go far without a big storm come, and maybe 

 drowned 'em. He forbid 'em. Wai, bimeby they 

 got sick of it s'pose maybe they did n't always 

 have much corn an' tobacco to throw 'way so 

 and the priests all pray their god to make Woja- 

 hose keep still an' not trouble 'em. After they 

 prayed a long time, he promised 'em he'd keep 

 Wojahose from hurtin' on 'em for a spell every 

 year. So he froze the lake all over tight every 

 winter for two or three months, and then our 

 people could go off huntin' and fightin' all over the 

 lake without payin* Wojahose. That made him 

 mad, an' every little while he 'd go roarin' round 

 under the ice, tryin' to git out. But he could n't 

 do much hurt, only once in a while git a man 

 through a hole in the ice. That's the way I've 

 heard some of our old men tell it; but I guess it 's a 

 story." 



