384 USES OP PLANTS BY THE CHIPPEWA INDIANS [eth. ANN. 44 



that they were tiring him out. He began to fear that he would be 

 killed after all. The thunderbirds came so close that they almost 

 grasped him with their claws. He was getting bewildered. They 

 were almost upon him when he saw an old, fallen birch tree that 

 was hollow. He crept into the hollow just in time to save his life. 

 As he got in the thunderbirds almost had their claws on him. 



The thunderbirds said, " Winabojo, you have chosen the right 

 protection. You have fled to a king-child." There they stopped. 

 They could not touch him for the birch tree was their own child 

 and he had fled to it for protection. There he lay while the thunder 

 rolled away and the flashes of the thunderbirds' eyes grew less bright. 

 He was safe. 



When the thunderbirds had gone away Winabojo came out of the 

 hollow birch tree and said, "As long as the world stands this tree 

 will be a protection and benefit to the human race. If they want to 

 preserve anything they must wrap it in birch bark and it will not 

 decay. The bark of this tree will be useful in many ways, and when 

 people want to take the bark from the tree they must offer tobacco 

 to express their gratitude." So Winabojo blessed the birch tree to 

 the good of the human race. Then he went home, fixed his arrows 

 with the feathers of the little thunderbirds and killed the great fish. 



Because of all this a birch tree is never struck by lightning and 

 people can safely stand under its branches during a storm. The bark 

 is the last part of the tree to decay, keeping its form after the wood 

 has disintegrated, as it did in the tree that sheltered Winabojo. 



The little short marks on birch bark were made by Winabojo 

 but the " pictures " on the bark are pictures of little thunderbirds. 

 (PI. 52, h.) It was said that the bark in some localities contains 

 more distinct pictures of the little thunderbirds than in others. 13 



LEGEND OE WINABOJO AND THE CEDAR TREE 



Many generations ago after Winabojo disappeared from the earth 

 he lived on an island toward the sunrise. The direction of the 

 sunset indicates death, but Winabojo was still alive and he lived in 

 the east toward the sunrise. He could not be destroyed because he 

 was mamdo, neither could he be permitted to roam at will as he had 

 done, so he was placed on this island to stay there as long as the 

 earth endures. 



At that time there was a man who had only one daughter and she 

 died. He felt that he could not live without her and kept telling his 

 friends that he wanted to go to the spirit land and get his daughter. 



13 A collection of stories regarding this hero may be found in Jones's Ojibna Texts, ed. 

 Truman Michelson, vol. vn, Publications of the American Ethnological Society. The 

 works of Schoolcraft, Radin, De Jong, Skinner, and George E. Laidlaw should be men- 

 tioned in this connection. 



