densmobb] 



PLANTS USED IN ARTS 



381 



Young people, chiefly young men, carried a braid of sweet grass 

 and cut off 2 or 3 inches of it and burned it for perfume. (PL 49.) 

 Young men braided sweet grass with their hair for the perfume. 

 Young men wore two braids of sweet grass around their necks, the 

 braids being joined in the back and falling on either side of the neck 

 like braids of hair. 



The birch and the cedar were regarded as "sacred " by the Chip- 

 pewa. The two reasons for this " sacredness " are closely connected. 

 One is the great usefulness of these trees to the Chippewa and the 

 other is their connection with Winabojo, yet these two reasons are 

 really one, for everything that is a benefit to the tribe is traced to 

 Winabojo, the mythical character who, it is said, taught the Chip- 

 pewa to live in their natural environment and yet, by his apparently 

 witless actions, gave them an endless supply of humor. The amus- 

 ing stories of AVinabojo are told and retold by the old people around 

 the winter fire. A misunderstanding of these humorous stories has 

 given to some students an impression that Winabojo was a fantastic 

 deity, but the old, thoughtful Indians understood him to be the source 

 and impersonation of the lives of all sentient things, human, faunal, 

 and floral. He endowed these sentient things with life, and taught 

 to each its peculiar ruse for deceiving its enemies and prolonging its 

 life. His "tricks" were chiefly exhibitions of his ability to outwit 

 the enemies of life. He was thus regarded as the master of ruses, 

 but he also possessed great wisdom in the prolonging of life. It 

 was he who gave the Indians their best remedies for treating the 

 sick, and who taught the animals the varied forms of protective 

 disguise by which their lives can be extended. His own inherent life 

 Avas so strong that, when apparently put to death, he reappeared in 

 the same or a different form. This character, under slightly differ- 

 ent names, appears in many Algonquian tribes, among the spellings 

 of his name being Nanabush, Minabozho, and Nenabozho. 11 



The stories of Winabojo and the birch and cedar trees were told 

 by Mrs. Razer, whose ceremonial felling of a birch tree is described 

 on pages 386 and 387. 



LEGEND OF WINABOJO AND THE BIRCH TREE 



There was once an' old woman living all alone on the shore of Lake 

 Superior. She had a little girl living with her whom she called her 

 daughter, though she did not know exactly where the child came 

 from. They were very poor and the little girl went into the woods 

 and dug wild potatoes or gathered rose berries for them to eat. The 

 little girl grew up to be a woman, but she kept on doing the same 

 work, getting potatoes and berries and picking up fish that were 



11 See Handbook of American Indians, Ball. 30, Bur. Amer. Ethn., pt. 2, pp. 10-2."!. 



