36 
them recover the girl, while the remainder of the Indians collected presents to offer to 
the Great Spirit. The people assembled in the deepest silence, foregoing all dances, 
war-whoops, and beating of drums lest the great serpent should take alarm. The 
medicine-men chose Biangukkwam, the second great thunder who operates from a 
cloudless sky, to be their champion and lead the other thunders in battle. Then 
they awaited the favourable day. 
The third morning dawned without a cloudi in the sky, and the mother of the 
missing girl hid where her daughter would be landed by the invisible powers above. 
Biangukkwam, the cloudless thunder, led the attack at sunrise when the girl rose at 
the rocks to observe the sky. Round her waist glistened a band and chain such as 
no one had seen before ; some say it was of iron, others of gold. The foaming current 
around her seemed to have no influence on her. Then a tremendous figure, which 
seemed 1 to be chained to her, appeared at her side; Nzagima, the great serpent. It 
looked up at the sky also, warned the girl to watch carefully for any clouds and 
went to sleep. Suddenly the chain that bound the two together snapped asunder. 
At the same moment the serpent received a shock and awoke. 1 What was that? ’ 
it said to the girl. 1 Did I not tell you to watch the sky? ’ She knew what had 
happened, for in that brief second the invisible thunder had appeared to her as a 
man and given her instructions. But she answered ‘There are.no clouds as far as I 
can see around the horizon.’ Now the serpent, viciously spitting flames of fire, was 
thrown high above the top of the great falls. Before it fell again a noiseless force 
struck it on the head and tail, splitting it open all along its length. It fell into the 
river with a crash, reddening the water with its blood, which formed a cloud above 
the torrent. Sheets of rain darkened the scene as the other thunders attacked the 
monster with deafening noise and streaks of fire. Through the din the Indians 
could hear the voice of one of them warning his brothers not to harm their sister. 
Up came the tail of the serpent as if it had just awakened; every time it was split 
open it healed again instantly. A terrific tornado ragedi over the place, and a vast 
body of water poured into the hole of the serpent, which sank so far into the earth 
below the bed of the falls that the Indians could barely hear the jar of the thunder 
and the sounds of the huge rocks that rolled into the abyss. From time to time 
they heard a voice giving orders as if a terrible battle was being waged far beneath. 
Presently the serpent, like a huge waterspout, shot shrieking high up into the air, 
and fell with a crash far out of sight below the falls. A voice called for Andjibnes, 
the thunder that renews power. Again the serpent appeared, but now it was crawl- 
ing up the side of the falls. Then a thunder smote it so hard that it could move no 
more. It was lifted high up into the sky, and dropped back dead at the base of the 
cliff. There it lay for a moment, until Beskinekkwam, the thunder that causes fire, 
received orders to end the battle and with a sharp crack set the monster aflame. At 
this moment the medicine-men took the girl away from the scene of battle and 
restored her to her mother, with instructions to keep her away from the sight of 
men for a certain period and never allow her to marry. After the serpent had 
burned to ashes they ordered the girl to take some of the ashes and use them for 
medicine. ‘ This will be your medicine,’ they said. * Even though a man be at 
death’s door these ashes will restore him.’ The girl became a great medicine-woman 
and lived to a very old age. Often she restored the dying to life, and was summoned 
from great distances to heal the sick 1 ” (Mary Sugedub). 
Certain myths supply names for other thunders. There is Bemikkuang , 
the thunder that passes by without raising a storm. Bemikkuang and 
Nigankwam, the leading thunder, or the first thunder to come in the 
spring, created the stars and man. 
“ Nigankwam picked up some gravel and gave it to Bemikkuang, saying, ‘You 
shall name this gravel. The one in the east shall be the morning star; the others 
shall disperse to make the remainder of the stars.’ Starvation then overtook the 
two thunders. One day, at noon, grandfather sun said to them ‘ You shall go 
down to the beach at the great water.’ They found no tracks on the beach, but 
many small stones. Nigankwam picked up a blue stone, Bemikkuang, a red one. 
They ‘broke them against a rock, when sparks of fire flew from them such as they 
had never seen. They found some rotten wood and said to one another, ‘Let us 
