--- title: Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 3 — Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin… · full text with trees · page 2 description: Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 3, «Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa» by Frank G. Speck: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Next morning Wemicus started out for home and left his mitten behind as --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/13/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/) / Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Oj… # Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 3 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/13/) **2** The next morning the man started on and left Wemicus there with no shoes.[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") Wemicus started to work.[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") He got a big boulder, made a fire, and placed the boulder in it until it became red hot.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") He then wrapped his feet with spruce boughs and pushed the boulder ahead of him in order to melt the snow.[114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") In this way he managed to walk on the boughs.[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he began to sing, “Spruce is warm, spruce is warm.”[116](../../116/ "tree and pragmatics") When the man reached home he told his wife what had happened.[117](../../117/ "tree and pragmatics") “I hope Wemicus will die,” she said.[118](../../118/ "tree and pragmatics") A little while after this, they heard Wemicus coming along singing, “Spruce is warm, spruce is warm.”[119](../../119/ "tree and pragmatics") He came into the wigwam and, as he was the head man, they were obliged to get his meal ready.[120](../../120/ "tree and pragmatics") The ice was getting bad by this time, so they stayed in camp a while.[121](../../121/ "tree and pragmatics") Soon Wemicus told his son-in-law, “We’d better go sliding.”[122](../../122/ "tree and pragmatics") He then went to a hill where there were some very poisonous snakes.[123](../../123/ "tree and pragmatics") The man’s wife warned her husband of these snakes and gave him a split stick holding a certain kind of magic tobacco, which she told him to hold in front of him so that the snakes would not hurt him.[124](../../124/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the two men went sliding.[125](../../125/ "tree and pragmatics") At the top of the hill Wemicus said, “Follow me,” for he intended to pass close by the snakes’ lair.[126](../../126/ "tree and pragmatics") So when they slid, Wemicus passed safely and the man held his stick with the tobacco in it in front of him, thus preventing the snakes from biting him.[127](../../127/ "tree and pragmatics") The man then told Wemicus that he enjoyed the sliding.[128](../../128/ "tree and pragmatics") The following day Wemicus said to his son-in-law, “We had better go to another place.”[129](../../129/ "tree and pragmatics") When she heard this, the wife told her husband that, as it was getting summer, Wemicus had in his head many poisonous lizards instead of lice.[130](../../130/ "tree and pragmatics") She said, “He will tell you to pick lice from his head and crack them in your teeth.[131](../../131/ "tree and pragmatics") But take low-bush cranberries and crack them instead.”[132](../../132/ "tree and pragmatics") So the man took cranberries along with him.[133](../../133/ "tree and pragmatics") Wemicus took his son-in-law to a valley with a great ravine in it.[134](../../134/ "tree and pragmatics") He said, “I wonder if anybody can jump across this?”[135](../../135/ "tree and pragmatics") “Surely,” said the young man, “I can.”[136](../../136/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the young man said, “Closer,” and the ravine narrowed and he jumped across easily.[137](../../137/ "tree and pragmatics") When Wemicus tried, the young man said “Widen,” and Wemicus fell into the ravine.[138](../../138/ "tree and pragmatics") But it did not kill him, and when he made his way to the top again, he said, “You have beaten me.”[139](../../139/ "tree and pragmatics") Then they went on.[140](../../140/ "tree and pragmatics") They came to a place of hot sand and Wemicus said, “You must look for lice in my head.”[141](../../141/ "tree and pragmatics") “All right father,” replied the son-in-law.[142](../../142/ "tree and pragmatics") So Wemicus lay down and the man started to pick the lice.[143](../../143/ "tree and pragmatics") He took the cranberries from inside his shirt and each time he pretended to catch a louse, he cracked a cranberry and threw it on the ground, and so Wemicus got fooled a second time that day.[144](../../144/ "tree and pragmatics") Then they went home and Wemicus said to his son-in-law, “There are a whole lot of eggs on that rocky island where the gulls are.[145](../../145/ "tree and pragmatics") We will go get the eggs, come back, and have an egg supper.”[146](../../146/ "tree and pragmatics") As Wemicus was the head man, his son-in-law had to obey him.[147](../../147/ "tree and pragmatics") So they started out in their canoe and soon came to the rocky island.[148](../../148/ "tree and pragmatics") Wemicus stayed in the canoe and told the man to go ashore and to bring the eggs back with him and fill the canoe.[149](../../149/ "tree and pragmatics") When the man reached the shore, Wemicus told him to go farther back on the island, saying, “That’s where the former husbands got their eggs, there are their bones.”[150](../../150/ "tree and pragmatics") He then started the canoe off in the water by singing, without using his paddle.[151](../../151/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Wemicus told the gulls to eat the man, saying to them, “I give you him to eat.”[152](../../152/ "tree and pragmatics") The gulls started to fly about the man, but the man had his paddle with him and he killed one of the gulls with it.[153](../../153/ "tree and pragmatics") He then took the gulls’ wings and fastened them on himself, filled his shirt with eggs, and started flying over the lake by the aid of the wings.[154](../../154/ "tree and pragmatics") When he reached the middle of the lake, he saw Wemicus going along and singing to himself.[155](../../155/ "tree and pragmatics") Wemicus, looking up, saw his son-in-law but mistook him for a gull.[156](../../156/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the man flew over him and defecated in his face, and Wemicus said, “Gull’s excrement always smells like that when they have eaten a man.”[157](../../157/ "tree and pragmatics") The man flew back to camp and told his wife to cook the eggs, and he told his children to play with the wings.[158](../../158/ "tree and pragmatics") When Wemicus reached the camp, he saw the children playing with the wings and said, “Where did you get those wings?”[159](../../159/ "tree and pragmatics") “From father,” was the reply.[160](../../160/ "tree and pragmatics") “Your father?[161](../../161/ "tree and pragmatics") Why, the gulls ate him!”[162](../../162/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he went to the wigwam and there he saw the man smoking.[163](../../163/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Wemicus thought it very strange how the man could have gotten home, but no one told him how it had been done.[164](../../164/ "tree and pragmatics") Thought he, “I must try another scheme to do away with him.”[165](../../165/ "tree and pragmatics") One day Wemicus said to his son-in-law, “We’d better make two canoes of birch-bark, one for you and one for me.[166](../../166/ "tree and pragmatics") We’d better get bark.”[167](../../167/ "tree and pragmatics") So they started off for birch-bark.[168](../../168/ "tree and pragmatics") They cut a tree almost through and Wemicus said to his son-in-law, “You sit on that side and I’ll sit on this.”[169](../../169/ "tree and pragmatics") He wanted the tree to fall on him and kill him.[170](../../170/ "tree and pragmatics") Wemicus said, “You say, ‘Fall on my father-in-law,’ and I’ll say, ‘Fall on my son-in-law’, and whoever says it too slowly or makes a mistake will be the one on whom it will fall.”[171](../../171/ "tree and pragmatics") But Wemicus made the first mistake, and the tree fell on him and crushed him.[172](../../172/ "tree and pragmatics") However, Wemicus was a manitu \[32\] and was not hurt.[173](../../173/ "tree and pragmatics") They went home with the bark and made the two canoes.[174](../../174/ "tree and pragmatics") After they were made, Wemicus said to his son-in-law, “Well, we’ll have a race in our two canoes, a sailing race.”[175](../../175/ "tree and pragmatics") Wemicus made a big bark sail, but the man did not make any, as he was afraid of upsetting.[176](../../176/ "tree and pragmatics") They started the race.[177](../../177/ "tree and pragmatics") Wemicus went very fast and the man called after him, “Oh, you are beating me.”[178](../../178/ "tree and pragmatics") He kept on fooling and encouraging Wemicus, until the wind upset Wemicus’ canoe and that was the end of Wemicus.[179](../../179/ "tree and pragmatics") When the man sailed over the spot where Wemicus had upset, he saw a big pike (ki·nų′je) there, into which Wemicus had been transformed when the canoe upset.[180](../../180/ "tree and pragmatics") This is the origin of the pike.[181](../../181/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/13/) **2** - ← previous: [page 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/13/) - next →: [Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/14/) - ↑ back to [Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/)