. Kitchi-Gami : wanderings round Lake Superior. hiding-place for several hours, duringwhich I did not hear a sound from him. I do not know how many chapters of Morgans ex-cellent work on the Iroquois I had read through, whenmy little scrittore crawled in^again, and told me hehad drawn me some anecdotes of Menaboju, the greatdemi-god of the Ojibbeways. He then showed mea birch bark, on which the figures opposite weredrawn. As the product of two hours labour, they did notappear to me very important; but Ojibiwas said itwas very hot, and the work had caused him no slighttrouble. Then began a long
. Kitchi-Gami : wanderings round Lake Superior. hiding-place for several hours, duringwhich I did not hear a sound from him. I do not know how many chapters of Morgans ex-cellent work on the Iroquois I had read through, whenmy little scrittore crawled in^again, and told me hehad drawn me some anecdotes of Menaboju, the greatdemi-god of the Ojibbeways. He then showed mea birch bark, on which the figures opposite weredrawn. As the product of two hours labour, they did notappear to me very important; but Ojibiwas said itwas very hot, and the work had caused him no slighttrouble. Then began a long lesson, and detailed interpreta-tion of the figures, which cost teacher and scholara considerable amount of perspiration ere they arrivedat a mutual clear understanding. It was, I soon saw, very nearly the story of Mena-bojus deluge. I had heard it several times before,but now there were some variations. My painter hadalso episodically introduced other anecdotes aboutMenaboju. It will be seen that he arranged his pic- ANOTHER BIRCH BARK. 387. iorial stories much like Topfer has done his aboutMonsieur Jaunisse, M. Sabot, & have numbered the separate pictures, and will2 c 2 388 THE EXPLANATION. now give my Indian Topfers explanations as accu-rately as possible. No. 1, he said, was the earth, called Aki bythe Ojibbeways. It was painted there in order tohave a proper foundation for our entire story, for itwas the scene of all the events. The perpendicularundulating line over it is a great river. It is reallynot necessary there, my artist remarked, for it is notalluded to in my story till later. But I have drawnit on the Aki figure, because the rivers flow on theearth. When we come to the point in the storywhere the river is needed, thou wilt be good enoughto remember this stroke. No. 2 is Menaboju, in all his military was a great brave and chief. Hence he has theflag-staff at his side, the feathers on his head, hissword, and the pipe of peace. (I suspect that Ojibi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade186, booksubjectindiansofnorthamerica
