BULL. 30] 



NANABOZHO 



21 



Naiial>ozho their pindikosan, or magically 

 potent iu(.'(licint'-ba(!:s, which, after cere- 

 nioiiially blowing their orenda or magic 

 power into him, they cast on the ground. 

 At every fall of the medicine-bags Nana- 

 bozho became aware that the melancholy, 

 sadness, hatred, and anger that oppressed 

 him gradually left, and that beneficent 

 affection and feelings of joy arose in his 

 heart. On the completion of his initia- 

 tion he joined in the dances and in the 

 chanting; then they all ate and smoked 

 together, and Nanahozho exjiressed 

 thanks to his hosts for initiating him into 

 the mysteries of the grand medicine. 



To further show tlieir good will, the 

 manitos, by the exercise of their magic 

 powers, brought back the missing Chipia- 

 poos, but, owing to his mefcimorphosis, 

 he was forbidden to enter the lodge. 

 Having received a lighted torch througli 

 a i-liink in the walls of the lodge, he was 

 required to go to rule the country of 

 the manes, where, with the lighted torch 

 he carried, he should kindle a tire that 

 should never be extinguished, for the 

 pleasure of his uncles and aunts — nameh', 

 all men and women — who would repair 

 thither. Sulisequently, Nanabozho again 

 descended upon the earth, and at once ini- 

 tiated all his family in the mysteries of 

 the grand medicine. He provided each 

 of them with a medicine-bag, well sup- 

 plied with potent medicines, charms, and 

 fetishes. He also strictly enjoined upon 

 them the need of perpetuating the accom- 

 panying ceremoiiies among their de- 

 scendants, explaining to them that these 

 practices faithfully observed would cure 

 their diseases, obtain for them abundance 

 in fishing and hunting, and gain for them 

 complete victory over their enemies. 



Some hold to the doctrine that Nana- 

 bozho created the animals for the food 

 and raiment of man ; that he caused those 

 plants and roots to grow whose virtues 

 cure disease and enable the hunter to kill 

 wild animals in order to drive away fam- 

 ine. These i^lants he confided to the 

 watchful care of his grandmother, the 

 great-grandmother of the human race, 

 Mesakkummikokwi, and lest man should 

 invoke her in vain she was strictly for- 

 bidden ever to leave her lodge. So, when 

 collecting plants, roots, and herbs for 

 their natural and magic virtues, an Al- 

 gonquian Indian faithfully leaves on the 

 ground hard by the place whence he has 

 taken the root or ])lantasmall offering to 

 Mesakkunnnikokwi. 



It is said that Nanabozho in his many 

 journeys over the earth destroyed many 

 ferocious monsters of land and water whose 

 continued existence would have placed 

 in jeopardy the fate of mankind. It is 

 believed by the faithful that Nanabozho, 

 resting from his toils, dwells on a great 



island of ice floating on a large sea in the 

 northland, where tlie seraphim of auroral 

 light keep nightly vigil. It is also be- 

 lieved that should he set foot on the land 

 the world would at once take tire and 

 every living being would share with it a 

 common destruction. As a perversion of 

 an earlier tradition, it is said that Nanal)0- 

 zho has placed four beneficent humanized 

 l)eings, one at each of the four cardi- 

 nal points or world-quarters, to aid in 

 promoting the welfare of the human 

 race — the one at the e. supplies light 

 and starts the sun on his daily journey 

 over the sky; the one at the s. supplies 

 Avarmth, heat, and the refreshing dews 

 that cause the growth of the soothing 

 tobacco plant, and of corn, beans, 

 S(]uashes, and all the herbs and shrubs 

 that bear fruit; the one at the w. supplies 

 cooling and life-giving showers; lastly, 

 the one at the n. supplies snow and ice, 

 enabling the tracking and successful pur- 

 suit of wild animals, and who causes them 

 to hibernate, to seek pla^-es of conceal- 

 ment from the cold of winter. Under 

 the care of the man-being of the s. 

 Nanabozho placed le.sser humanized be- 

 ings, dominantly bird-like in form, whose 

 voices are the thunder and the flashing 

 of whose eyes is the lightning, and to 

 whom offerings of tobacco are made when 

 their voices are loud and menacing. 



Like the Iroquois and Huron sages, the 

 Algonquian philosophers taught that the 

 disembodied souls of the dead, on their 

 journey to the great meadow in which is 

 situated the village of their deceased an- 

 cestors, must cross a swift stream precari- 

 ously bridged by a tree trunk, which was 

 in continual motion. Over this the manes 

 of the justified pass in safety, while the 

 shades of the vicious, oven-ome by the 

 magic power of adverse fate, fail at this 

 ordeal, and, falling into the abyss below, 

 are lost. 



Another and equally credited tradition 

 is to the effect that a manito or primal 

 man-being formed a world which he peo- 

 pled with man-beings having the form 

 but not the benevok'nt attril)utes of man, 

 and that these primal man-beings, doing 

 nothing but evil, finally i-aused the de- 

 struction of the world and themselves by 

 a flood; that having thussatisfled his dis- 

 pleasure the primal man being brought 

 the world again out of the waters and 

 formed anew a fine looking young man, 

 but, being alone, the latter seemed dis- 

 consolate and weary of life. Then, pity- 

 ing him, the primal man-being brought 

 him as he slept a sister for a companion. 

 Awaking, the young maii was rejoiced to 

 see his sister, and the two dwelt together 

 for many years in mutual amusement and 

 agreeable discourse. Finally the young 

 nmn dreamed for the first time, and he 



