BEAVER AND CANADIAN HISTORY 179 
men’s faces. Some of the Indians themselves claim 
descent from beaver, and there are many stories of 
intermarriage between beavers and Indian women, 
and of the women bearing beaver children. One of 
the most famous of the Indian ritualistic medicine 
bundles was known as the “beaver-bundle.” The 
owners of these curious assortments of objects were 
considered to have special powers, and were the 
weather men and almanac keepers. The origin of 
the bundles varies greatly according to the different 
tribes. One version only will be sufficient to give 
an idea of the legend, and is taken from Wissler 
and Duvall’s Blackfoot Mythology.* 
Bioop VERSION. 
“You say you have heard the story of Scabby- 
Round-Robe; but he did not first start the beaver- 
medicine, because it is said in the story that there 
was such a medicine before his time. The story 
I now tell you is about the origin of beaver- 
medicine. 
“Once there was a man and his wife camping 
alone on the shore of a small lake. This man was 
a great hunter, and had in his lodge skins of almost 
every kind of bird and animal. Among them was 
the skin of a white buffalo. As he was always 
hunting, his wife was often left alone. One day a 
beaver came out of the water and made love to her. 
* Published by the American Museum of Natural History in 
the series of Anthropological Papers. 1908. 
N2 
