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These things are not necessary, I know, and by and by we may drop them. We do not take the young men from their work. We dance the dance only six times in the year. You ask me who we are. I will tell you the truth. Not many years ago, in the West, when some Indians were at war, while they were fighting, a woman fled from them to save her life. As she ran she lost her way and fell into the water of a river. But she did not die. She lay in the water asleep many days-eight days and nights. All this time she dreamed and saw wonderful sights of beauty and peace. At the end of eight days she heard a voice calling to her to rise up; then some power lifted her out of the water and made her well and strong. She knew that the Great Spirit had brought her back to the world. And this the Great Spirit told her: 'Go at once to your people and tell them to stop their war and to become friends with one another and with the white man. They will hear you and will believe you, and you and they must spread my words among all Indians. Do you see the sky, how it is round?' continued the divine voice. 'Go, then, and tell your people to make a circle on the ground just like the round sky. Call that holy ground. Go there, and with a big drum in the center, sing and dance and pray to me, and speak my words. And when you speak, say always these things: "You are all children of one Father, and are brothers. You must live in peace with one another. You must not drink intoxicating drink. You must always speak the truth. If you are struck, you must count the blow as nothing and not strike back again.” Do these things and all Indians and white men will soon be prosperous and at peace and happy. You will all have one heart.' Now, that is what our dance is for. We teach these words of the Great Spirit. You saw a sick girl carried into our holy place. She was carried there that there we might pray to the Great Spirit to make her well. We have no medicine dance. We hope with our dance to break up by and by the old medicine dance, and all such things. So we teach. You saw the flag above us. That is to show that we are friends of the Great Father. You saw some men dancing and acting as though they were firing off guns, hunting, and running hard. They show that some of us helped the Great Father in the big war, and are ready to help him again. . We lifted our hands to the sky; that was for prayer. We held out our hands, palms upward; that was to receive the answers to our prayers. We scattered from our hands to the ground; that was to show that we give what we receive. You saw us all give presents to one another; that was to show that we are brothers, and that brothers must help brothers. . . . But that ground is holy while we are there with the Great Spirit, and the dog is not clean. He may not live if he comes onto the ground. We have three watchmen to keep all away, but sometimes they will get in, and then there is no help for them. If our friend could only have understood our speeches he would know that we are trying to do well. We do not take the young men from their work. We try to help them to work better. If I had a flag of my own I should want to have painted on it a picture of a plow and over that my totem, the eagle. This flag I should like to see always waving over our dance. I want all my children to go to school to learn just what white men know. . We are doing the best we can. I am sorry that there are some here who wish to do us harm and would make trouble for us if they could."

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My general conclusion, however, is that the Dreamers, if the Menomini branch of the league may be accepted as representative, are religious enthusiasts, somewhat fanatic in their enthusiasm, devoted to a strange admixture of pagan ritual, monolatory, or degenerate Christian theology and Christian ethics.

MYTHOLOGY

FORMER CONDITION OF THE MYTHS

The following myths were obtained from Shu'nien and Nio'pet, two of the better informed men of the tribe. The subjects pertain to the exploits and adventures of Mä'näbush, but do not come within the 14 ETH-11

scope of the ritual of the Mitä'wit, although some of the older mitä'wok believe that at some time in the past they were part of the instruction given to the candidate. There appears to have been a time, according to both the Ojibwa and Menomini Indians, when Mä'näbush became degraded on account of his foolish actions. In the Ottawa dialect Mä'näbush signifies a "foolish fellow," because of the ridiculous performances of this demigod previous to his final departure from the Indian country.'

Some of these myths will be recognized as having, at some time in the past, formed part of the cosmogonic ritual of the Menomini, but when and how they became separated and so altered as to have lost their reverential character it is impossible even to surmise.

THE TRAVELS OF MÄ'NÄBUSH

When Mä'näbush had completed the erection of the mitä/wikŏ'mik, and had made the presentation to his uncles of the mysteries of the Mitä'wit, he decided to go on a journey to visit his brothers (some of the mitä'wok who had been so constituted by him), because there were many evil maʼnidos, the ânâ'maqki'ŭ, who were constantly endeavoring to destroy them.

The following is a translation of the myth given by Shu'nien: One time after a long journey Mä'näbush thought he heard some singing, and thinking there were some people having a dance, he went forward and soon beheld a multitude of dancers, greatly interested in their ceremony. He saw the headfeathers moving about in every direction, but as it was late in the evening he could not distinguish those about him. Receiving no friendly greeting from anyone, he said, "My brothers, I have come to join you in the dance," but he had scarcely uttered these words when he heard some one derisively laughing at him. The same voice then spoke, "We have fooled Mä'näbush," whereupon he knew that some of the ânâ'maqki'ŭ were the authors of the deception and that he had mistaken the tall reeds with feathery plumes for well-clad warriors with eagle-feather headdresses.

When Mä'näbush looked about and saw how he had been deceived, he was very angry; so he said to the ânâ'maqki'ŭ, "That is all well for you, but I shall remember this occurrence." He left the place and continued to walk for a long time, when he again heard the sounds. of music and dancing. Approaching near enough to see that he was not deceived a second time, he observed a large number of birds, of many kinds, dancing round in a circle. Mä'näbush said to them, "My brothers, I have brought some songs with me, and will sing for you while you dance, but you must all keep your eyes closed as you dance, for otherwise it will not be so enjoyable." The birds began to dance, and as one would come within easy reach of Mä'näbush he would

'According to verbal information received from Mr A. J. Blackbird, an educated Ottawa chief and interpreter of Michigan.

grasp it by the neck, so as to prevent its crying out, and twist off its head. In this way he secured four birds; but one, not hearing the voices of his friends, opened his eyes, notwithstanding the advice of Mä'näbush, and beheld the bodies of four of the dancers lying on the ground at the feet of Mä'näbush. When the bird saw this, he flew up and cried out, "My brothers, Mä'näbush is killing our friends; fly, or we shall all be destroyed!" This bird was a Duck, and his wings made a great noise as he rose into the air, which instantly startled the rest, so that they escaped. Mä'näbush called to the Duck, and said, "For your disobedience you shall always have red eyes." And to this day the rings around the eyes of this bird are red.

After the long journey which Mä'näbush had made, and the exertion. which he had undergone while singing for the dancers, he had become very hungry; so he immediately gathered together enough wood to make a large fire to cook his birds. He buried the bodies in a sandy spot on the bank of the stream near by, leaving the legs exposed so that he could find the birds when baked. Over these he built the fire, and to rest himself he laid down near the fire, placing his buttocks toward it. He said to his own buttocks, "You must not go to sleep while I do so, but must watch that no one comes to rob me of my feast." Then Mä'näbush fell asleep, confident that, when he had rested, he would awaken to find the birds ready to eat.

Now, it chanced that two Winnebago, who had been out hunting, came by the place where Mä'näbush was sleeping, and, seeing smoke, approached, under cover of the bushes, to see what caused the fire. They soon beheld some one asleep near by, and, going still closer, saw that it was Mä'näbush preparing a feast. Then one of the Winnebago said to the other, "It is Mä'näbush, and he has prepared a feast; let us go and eat it while he is asleep." The other agreed, so, going to the fire and beholding the feet of the birds protruding from the sand, they pulled them out. The birds were eaten, and when the Winnebago were ready to leave, they placed the legs back into the ground, in order to make it appear that they had not been disturbed.

After a long sleep Mä'näbush awoke, and thinking the birds had by this time become cooked, he pulled up the first pair of legs, but found nothing attached to them. Not knowing what to make of this, unless the bird had become overcooked, he dug into the sand, but the body had gone. Then he pulled out the second pair of legs, but, finding that the body to which they belonged had also disappeared, he became very much alarmed. He pulled out the third pair of legs with the same result as before, so he hurried to the fourth pair, only to discover that all his birds had been devoured by some one. Then Mä'näbush threw up his hands in distress and cried, "Ah! I have been robbed of my feast; who could have done this?" Looking about in every direction he failed to learn anything of the thieves who had plundered him during his sleep. Then Mä'näbush slapped his buttocks and asked, "Who robbed me of

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my feast? Did I not tell you to watch while I slept? Some one has robbed me of my birds and I am now unable to appease my hunger." Then, to punish his buttocks for their carelessness, he sat down against the fire to scorch them; but finding that the heat reached his legs and back, he went away from the fire, though not before burning himself so severely that he had to travel by means of two sticks. He limped along as well as he could from the place where he had slept, and after awhile saw a Mink crossing the path which he was following. The Mink had a long tail, to which were attached many small bells of shell which jingled at every step. Mä'näbush said to the Mink, "My brother, you have a long tail with many ornaments on it; would you object to telling me where you got those beautiful shells, and if I might get some likewise?" "No, Mä'näbush," said the Mink, "I do not object to telling you where I got my bells, and I will show you how you may obtain some. I cut these from my body, from the back of my buttocks."

Mä'näbush then asked the Mink to take a knife and cut some from his body that he also might ornament a tail and hang it to his back. The Mink, in compliance with the request of Mä'näbŭsh, cut away a number of slices of flesh from his buttocks and, handing the pieces to Mä'näbush, the latter tied them to a tail of buckskin and fastened them to his back; but every time Mä'näbush attempted to walk it hurt him, because the exertion caused the cut flesh to move. Mä'näbush went along slowly for a short distance, when, happening to look back at his trailing tail, he saw that the Mink had cut away so much flesh that his entrails were dragging along the ground. Gathering his entrails together, he threw them up into the air so that they fell upon a tree; then he said, "Now, you remain there and become food for the people." The vines are still found clinging to the trees, and people even now cut them in pieces and boil them to eat, for they are very good.

The rough skin which had been caused by the scorching of Män'äbush's buttocks gave him much inconvenience. He went forward until he reached a rocky hilltop, where he crawled and slid around among the rocks in order to slip the roughened cuticle from his body, just as a snake casts its skin. Then he said to the old skin, "There, you remain here and become food for the people." Pieces of the skin of Mä'näbush are found hanging to the rocks even to this day.

Mä'näbush, resuming his journey, came to a river, down the bank of which he went to get a drink. While stooping over he saw fruit in the water, and being very fond of it, for it was wild cherries, he dived into the water, but it being shallow he struck the bottom, hurting himself very much. Disappointed and bruised, he went to the top of the bank, where he laid down upon his back. While in this position he looked toward the sky and saw among the branches of the trees the wild cherries which he had before thought were down in the water. So soon as he had rested from his journey and his body became less painful, he crawled up into the tree and ate all the cherries he desired.

Mä'näbush continued his journey. Looking about him he perceived Pä'skose-the Buzzard-flying high in the air. Then said Mä'näbush to himself, "If I could only fly like Pä'skosē, how I should enjoy looking down to behold the earth." While thus meditating he moved his arms as if flying, and Pä'skosē, seeing him, soared down. Mä'näbush then said to Pa'skosē, "I should like to be able to fly as you do; to soar away through the sky and look down upon the earth to see what everybody is doing there."

Pä'skose laughed and replied, "You can not fly, Mä'näbush, even by moving your arms like that. What would you do if you could fly?" Mä'näbush responded, saying, "I would then transport myself much quicker than I do in the way I am obliged to travel. Take me up, my brother, and let me see how the earth appears from up in the sky."

Pä'skose then told Mä'näbush to get upon his back, which he did, and, securely holding on to Pä'skose, the latter flew far into the air. He flew to the top of a very high mountain peak with precipitous sides, where Mä'näbush alighted to look about. Then Pä'skose flew away, leaving Mä'näbush in a very dangerous place. Mä'näbŭsh looked for some way to descend from the peak, but, finding none, he decided to leap down; so, taking a jump forward to clear the rock, he descended toward the earth like an arrow.

It happened that Mä'näbush reached the earth near a camp of his people, but fell into a hollow tree, from which he was unable to extricate himself. Here he was held a prisoner for four days, when some women, coming from the camp in search of wood, found the large dead tree in which Mä'näbush happened to be a prisoner. One of the women, on seeing the tree, said, "Here is some dry timber; let us cut it down." Then Mä'näbush, hearing that help was at hand, and desiring to avoid alarming the women by speaking to them, imitated a porcupine by crying, yä he', yä he', yä he', yä he! The women, thinking they had discovered a porcupine, immediately set to work to fell the tree; but as Mä'näbush, after the tree had fallen, was afraid they might cut into it again and wound him, he said to the one with the ax, "Cut a small opening into the trunk, and let me show you how many beautiful colored quills I shall give you." The woman did so, being careful not to cut too large an opening; then Mä'näbush again spoke to the woman and told her to take off her skirt and cover the opening in the tree until he could put out the quills where she could get them. She took off her skirt and placed it over the opening, when Mä'näbush hastily crawled out and ran away laughing.

Mä'näbush was glad to escape from these women, so he hurried away toward the north where eight other women lived. The first was called Mä'tshiwiqkwa'wis ("she who governs"); the second Ki'skapanuqʻkiu ("early dawn"); the third Pa'shapanoq'kiu ("the yellow streak of cloudy vapor of the dawn"); the fourth Kashki'qkapan ("the dark haze at the horizon"); and the eighth was called Osa'wapanoʻqkiu

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