164 THE MENOMINI INDIANS (eth.ann.H 



niy feast ? Did I not tell you to watch while I slept .' Some one lias rob- 

 bed me of my birds and 1 am now unable to appease my hunger,'' Then, 

 to punish his buttocks for their carelessness, he sat down against the 

 fire to scorch them; but finding that the heat reached his legs and 

 back, he went away from the fire, though not before burning himself so 

 severely that he had to travel by means of two sticks. He limped along 

 as well as he could from the place where he had slept, and after awhile 

 saw a Mink crossing the path which he was following. The Mink 

 had a long tail, to which were attached many small bells of shell which 

 jingled at every step. Ma'nabiish said to the Mink, " My brother, you 

 have a long tail with many ornaments on it; would you object to tell- 

 ing me where you got those beautiful shells, and if I might get some 

 likewise!" " No, Ma'nabiish," said the Mink, " I do not object to tell- 

 ing you where I got my bells, and I will show you how you may obtain 

 some. 1 cut these from my body, from the back of my buttocks." 



Ma'nabiish then asked the Mink to take a knife and cut some from 

 his body that he also might ornament a tail and hang it to his back. 

 The Mink, in compliance with the request of Ma'nabiish, cut away a 

 number of slices of flesh from his buttocks and, handing the pieces to 

 Mii'nabush, the latter tied them to a tail of buckskin and fastened them 

 to his back; but every time Ma'nabiish attempted to walk it hurt him, 

 because the exertion caused the cut flesh to move. Ma'nabiish went 

 along slowly for a short distance, when, happening to look back at his 

 trailing tail, he saw that the Mink had cut away so much flesh that 

 his entrails were dragging along the ground. Gathering his entrails 

 together, he threw them up into the air so that they fell upon a tree; 

 then he said, "Now, you remain there and become food for the people." 

 The vines are still found clinging to the trees, and people even now cut 

 them in pieces and boil them to eat, for they are very good. 



The rough skin which had been caused by the scorching of Miin'a- 

 biish's buttocks gave him much inconvenience. He went forward uutil 

 he leached a rocky hilltop, where he crawled and slid around among 

 the rocks in order to slip the roughened cuticle from his body, just as a 

 snake casts its skin. Then he said to the old skin. "There, you remain 

 here and become food for the people." Pieces of the skin of Ma'na- 

 biish are found hanging to the rocks even to this day. 



Ma'nabiish, resuming his journey, came to a river, down the bank of 

 which he went to get a drink. While stooping over he saw fruit in the 

 water, and being very fond of it, for it was wild cherries, he dived into 

 the water, but it being shallow he struck the bottom, hurting himself 

 very much. Disappointed and bruised, he went to the top of the bank, 

 where he laid down upon his back. While in this position he looked 

 toward the sky and saw among the branches of the trees the wild cher- 

 ries which he had before thought were down in the water. So soon as 

 he had rested from his journey and his body became less painful, he 

 crawled up into the tree and ate all the cherries he desired. 



