284 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP, 
The raccoon felt reproached by this act of cour- 
age and magnanimity, and refused to dishonor 
himself by exterminating the whole race. At this 
moment Manabozha, the Deity, happened to pass 
by. Seeing how things were: 
“Tyau!”’ he shouted to the raccoon. “Thou art 
a thief and an unmerciful dog. Get thee up into 
the trees, lest I change thee into one of these same 
wormfish, for thou wast thyself originally a shell, 
and bearest in thy name the influence of my trans- 
forming hand.” 
He then took up the little supplicant crayfish 
girls, and cast them into the stream. 
“There,” said he, “‘you may dwell. Hide your- 
self under the stones, and hereafter you shall be 
playthings for children.” 
Mr. Schoolcraft explains that the name of the 
raccoon, Assibun, in the Chippewa language, seems 
to be a derivation from the noun meaning she//, 
but he says that no tale of a transformation, such 
as is here alluded to, has come to his knowledge. 
The raccoon also figures in another tale, where the 
giant (red-headed) woodpecker saves Manabozha 
from starving to death, on one occasion in winter, 
by digging out of a tree with his powerful bill a 
family of torpid ’coons, and laying them at the 
sovereign’s feet. 
Dr. Godman relates that a pair of raccoons in 
his keeping were never happy except when pro- 
vided with a tub of water, in which they played 
