384 USES OF PLANTS BY THE CHIPPEWA INDIANS [ern. ann. 44 
that they were tiring him out. He began to fear that he would be 
killed after all. The thunderbirds came so close that they almost 
grasped him with their claws. He was getting bewildered. They 
were almost upon him when he saw an old, fallen birch tree that 
was hollow. He crept into the hollow just in time to save his life. 
As he got in the thunderbirds almost had their claws on him. 
The thunderbirds said, “ Winabojo, you have chosen the right 
protection. You have fled to a king-child.” There they stopped. 
They could not touch him for the birch tree was their own child 
and he had fled to it for protection. There he lay while the thunder 
rolled away and the fiashes of the thunderbirds’ eyes grew less bright. 
He was safe. 
When the thunderbirds had gone away Winabojo came out of the 
hollow birch tree and said, “As long as the world stands this tree 
will be a protection and benefit to the human race. If they want to 
preserve anything they must wrap it in birch bark and it will not 
decay. The bark of this tree will be useful in many ways, and when 
people want to take the bark from the tree they must offer tobacco 
to express their gratitude.” So Winabojo blessed the birch tree to 
the good of the human race. Then he went home, fixed his arrows 
with the feathers of the little thunderbirds and killed the great fish. 
Because of all this a birch tree is never struck by lightning and 
people can safely stand under its branches during a storm. The bark 
is the last part of the tree to decay, keeping its form after the wood 
has disintegrated, as it did in the tree that sheltered Winabojo. 
The little short marks on birch bark were made by Winabojo 
but the “ pictures” on the bark are pictures of little thunderbirds. 
(Pl. 52, 6.) It was said that the bark in some localities contains 
more distinct pictures of the little thunderbirds than in others.’* 
LEGEND OF WINABOJO AND THE CEDAR TREE 
Many generations ago after Winabojo disappeared from the earth 
he lived on an island toward the sunrise. The direction of the 
sunset indicates death, but Winabojo was still alive and he lived in 
the east toward the sunrise. He could not be destroyed because he 
was manido, neither could he be permitted to roam at will as he had 
done, so he was placed on this island to stay there as long as the 
earth endures. 
At that time there was a man who had only one daughter and she 
died. He felt that he could not live without her and kept telling his 
friends that he wanted to go to the spirit land and get his daughter. 
18 A collection of stories regarding this hero may be found in Jones's Ojibwa Texts, ed. 
Truman Michelson, vol. vu, Publications of the American Ethnological Society.. The 
works of Schooleraft, Radin, De Jong, Skinner, and George E, Laidlaw should be men- 
tioned in this connection, 
