hew^tt] ' LEGENDS 643 



At this the woman, the midstream singer, exclaimed : "Oh, my 

 grandmother I take me hence. I am not able to go there (where you 

 now are)." Then the grandmother (so called by the courtesy of clan 

 kinship) placed her canoe of birch bark in the stream and soon by 

 rapid paddling reached the side of the young woman who had 

 been singing in midstream. She found her granddaughter lying on 

 the back of a beaver, which mysteriously held her above the water. 

 The granddaughter was the first to speak, saying: "Oh, my grand- 

 mother! take me hence." The grandmother, replying: "Oh, my 

 grandchild I your wish shall be fulfilled," at once proceeded to place 

 her granddaughter in the canoe, after which she headed for the 

 shore of the stream, paddling to the landing place in a short time. 

 When the}' had landed, the young woman said: "Oh, grandmother! 

 now leave me here. I will remain here, and you must come after 

 me in the morning. Nothing shall happen me in the meantime." 

 The grandmother at once returned to her own lodge, where, of course, 

 she related in detail what had taken place. 



Early the next morning she returned to the landing place where 

 she had left her granddaughter (by courtesy). There she saw only 

 the growing stalk of a plant. Drawing near to this she found 

 growing on the stalk an ear of corn, and breaking it off she carried 

 it back to her lodge, where she hung it up on a roof-supporting pole 

 hard by the fireplace. 



It came to pass during the following night that the grandmother, 

 so called, had a dream or vision, in which the young woman who 

 had been singing in midstream said to her, " Oh, my grandmother, 

 you should imhang me from this place, for it is indeed too hot here. 

 You should place me in the ground — plant me — and then leave me 

 there ; for I will provide for you and your people, you human beings. 

 So kindly place me under the ground." This dream came to the 

 old woman three nights in succession. So she took down the ear 

 of corn, and after shelling it she planted the grains of corn in the 

 ground just as she had been instructed to do by the dream. 



But on the following night the grandmother again dreamed, and 

 the young woman in the dream said to her, "You and your people 

 must care for me. You must not permit weeds to kill me. You 

 shall see me sprout and grow to maturity; and it is a truth that in 

 the future all the people who shall be born will see that I will pro- 

 vide for their welfare. So you must take great care of me. You 

 will see, you and your people, a great multitude of people who are 

 about to arrive here. You will see, I say, that I will provide for all 

 during the time the earth shall be in existence. You shall now learn 

 what is a well-known truth — that is, that I am corn; I am native 

 corn; I am sweet corn. I am the first corn that came or was de- 

 livered to this earth." For three successive nights the grandmother, 



