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Beliefs such as these frequently excite the derision of unsympathetic 
Europeans, and the Parry Island Ojibwa are too proud to expose them- 
selves unnecessarily to ridicule. So they tell the inquisitive stranger that 
thunder comes from a big wagon full of stones that passes along the sky, 
and that lightning is due to the clashing of the stones. They know that 
this is a mere fairy tale (perhaps even of European origin), but it provides 
them with a convenient answer to undesired inquiries. 
Nanibush 
Nanibush, the culture hero of the Parry Islanders, occupies a unique 
place in their mythology. He is the manido who gave the earth its 
present form, who lived on familiar terms with all the animals and 
birds, who experienced many strange and often ridiculous adventures, and 
who finally went away to some distant place and practically ceased to 
exist. Some Indians say that he now rules in the land of the dead; 
others that his brother rules there, and Nanibush, from whose head grows 
a huge cedar, remains with him. His body was transformed to an 
enormous rock, Manatuwaba said, on the shores of lake Superior, where 
you can still trace its outline. Whatever his fate, all the Indians agree 
that he wanders no more on this earth, and never think of propitiating 
him or asking his aid, although they revel in tales of his adventures. Of 
these tales one of the best known locally is his creation of the Thirty 
Thousand islands in Georgian bay: 
“ Nanibush was hunting the giant beaver, wabnik. He drove it from lake 
Superior to Georgian bay, where the beaver, thoroughly exhausted, crawled half- 
way out of the water and turned to stone. Nanibush , seeking its hiding-place, 
smote the land, with his club, and shattered it into the maze of islands that exist 
today. You can still see the beaver 3 miles north of Parry sound, its body on 
shore, its tail drooping down under the water” (Jonas King). 
To the two surviving members of the Midewiwin , however, Jonas 
and Tom King, Nanibush plays a very different role. They believe that 
he founded their society, and that he still presides over its activities. In 
this connexion they call him not Nanibmh, but mede-manido , i.e., the 
spirit invoked by mede medicine-men to help them in their arts. A later 
chapter will describe the mede medicine lodge, and the significance there 
attached to Nanibush. 
The Earth-Manido 
Like her “ grandson ” Nanibush, the earth-manido has not the same 
significance for most of the Parry Islanders as it has for the members 
of the Midewiwin. The ordinary Indian will usually agree that such a 
manido exists, but he gives it no name and devotes no further thought 
to it. To members of the Midewiwin, however, Nokomis, “ grandmother 
earth,” is the source of all the power that exists in trees and shrubs and 
stones, and must be propitiated with an offering of tobacco every time 
a medicine-man digs up a root from the ground or strips a few leaves 
from a tree. No further rite is necessary, but if a medicine-man should 
fail to offer tobacco in payment for his plants Nokomis would be offended 
and his remedies would lose their potency. 
