--- title: Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 8 — Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin… · full text with trees description: Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 8, «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: (25) Story of a Conjurer. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/18/) [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 8 Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 8 of «Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa» by Frank G. Speck: the whole text, 90 sentences and 1752 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. (25) Story of a Conjurer.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") There was a conjurer (mi·te′w), \[49\] whose name was Gitcikwe′we (“buzzing noise”), his wife Pi·dje′ʻkwe \[50\] and their children, camping at a lake in a wigwam.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") There was a large lake to the west of where they were camping full of islands.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") It was a long portage from the wigwam to this lake.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") One evening, while Gitcikwe′we was sitting in his wigwam, he became very much frightened.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") He saw nothing in particular that frightened him, but on account of his mi·te′w feeling he became afraid and knew that something was coming.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") At dusk he gathered up his blankets and jumped into his canoe with his family, and they floated on the lake beside the camp, all night long.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") When he went back to the wigwam in the morning, he found that a Windigo \[51\] had been there and had smashed his wigwam.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the family started to take the portage which led across to the big lake containing the islands.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") When Gitcikwe′we took the portage, he sent his wife and children ahead and told them to hurry on as fast as they could, while he would follow behind with the canoe.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") He said, “When you hear ‘Meat bird’ (Wiske·djak \[52\]) flying above you, that means ‘Hurry’, for the Windigo is coming behind to catch you.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") That will be your warning.”[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") They reached the other end of the portage and got into the canoe and paddled out to one of the islands to a place where the end of the portage, from which they had just come out, was lost to view.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") They were safe there, as the Windigo, having no canoe, could not cross.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") After Gitcikwe′we put up his camp, he said to his wife, “I am not yet satisfied.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") I must beat that Windigo, because he will bother us all winter, and then we will starve, for I cannot hunt while staying at camp all the time, watching out for you and the children.”[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he made his mi·te′o wigwam with its seven poles and covered it with bark.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") \[53\] He went into it and it began to work and move, while a band of spirits could be heard singing inside.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") \[54\] Then Windigo came there and Gitcikwe′we said to his wife, “We will clinch him and take him away out west where he came from.”[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") When he clinched him, the conjuring wigwam shook and made a noise like thunder, and the children fainted from fright, for they knew their father was inside.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") When they recovered consciousness, everything was still in the wigwam, and their father had gone out west, taking his captive with him.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") A little while after this the wigwam started to move again and Gitcikwe′we was back again from his trip out west.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") He said to his family, “We will be all right now.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") I took him back west.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") He is very sick from his fright but he will stay there now.”[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") There was another mi·te′ Indian one day’s journey from where Gitcikwe′we was camping.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") This Indian was so full of mi·te′ also that, while he was asleep, he heard Windigo passing overhead with a great moaning noise as if he were in pain.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") No other people heard it except this man, because they were not mi·te′.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") Next morning Gitcikwe′we awoke and found that it was a fine day with no wind to bother, and the whole family was happy to think of passing another winter.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") Shortly after they had gotten up, they heard a great noise of shouting in the direction of the end of the portage from where they had come and which was just lost to view.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") When Gitcikwe′we heard this, he loaded his flint lock gun to shoot Windigo, for he thought he had come back and was making the noise and concluded that that was the only way to get rid of him.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") He and his wife got into the canoe for this purpose.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") When they turned the point, they saw a young man standing right in the portage.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") It was Gitcikwe′we’s wife’s nephew.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") He had left his canoe at the other end of the portage, as it was so long to carry it, and he was expecting his aunt to take him across in her canoe.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") So he got into the canoe and the three of them returned to camp.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") \[55\][37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") (26) Legend of Obabika Lake.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") Obabika lake is called Ma′nitu Pi·pa′gi·, “Spirit Echo.”[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") On the eastern shore of this lake is a great rock where a Manitu is believed to live.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") Whenever anyone makes a noise in the vicinity, the Manitu becomes angry and growls.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") His plaints, the Indians believe, can be clearly heard when he is offended.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") The Ojibwa never go near there when they can avoid it; and they seldom throw a stone in the lake, splash their paddles, or shoot their guns near its shores.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") (27) Iroquois Pictographs.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") “The Iroquois used to come here to fight the Ojibwa because the Americans had driven them from their homes in the States and the Iroquois had to seek new countries beyond the settlements in the North.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") In their excursions, when they got far from home, they cut and painted pictures in the rocks on river or lake shores, so that their friends, if they ever penetrated so far, would know that their own people had been there before them.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") The characters of these pictures would tell what had happened, so that if the advance party never returned to their people, some record would at least be left behind of their journey.”[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") \[56\][48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") The Ojibwa attributed nearly all pictographs to the Iroquois.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") On Lady Evelyn lake are a number of such figures, showing animals and men in canoes.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") (28) An Iroquois Legend.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") At that time there were people living, four in number: a woman, a young baby who could hardly walk, and two sons who were grown-up men.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") Their father had died and the family lived together in a wigwam.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") It was winter and the sons had two rabbit snares’ trails, one to the east and the other to the north, and they went to different lines on different days.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") The mother would attend to the snares and leave the baby, wrapped in a rabbit skin blanket, alone in the camp, while the two sons would hunt and look around for game, having only bows and arrows.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") When they came home in the evening, they would sometimes bring with them spruce partridge and other kinds of partridge.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") Their mother used to bring home partridges also, but she had no bow or arrows, and the men wondered how she did it, because she often brought home as many as ten birds.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") They could not understand how she was able to do better than they, so they asked her, “What did you do it with?”[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") They never went with their mother to where she had her snares, but they were continually asking her how she caught the partridges.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") She answered, “I cut a pole, put a string there on the end, and catch them by the neck, since I have no bow.”[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") But they didn’t believe her, as they often saw arrow wounds in the partridges’ breasts.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") They looked at these wounds and said, “Somebody must have shot them for you.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") Was it not the Iroquois?”[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") “No,” answered the mother, “I caught them with a pole snare and poked them with a stick in order to bloat them with blood, so they will make more bouillon.”[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") But still they didn’t believe her and they said to each other, “Mother doesn’t like to tell us.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") Some Iroquois, I guess, are going to kill us.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") We’ll fool our mother and these Iroquois.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") When we go to bed, we’ll sleep with our baby.”[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") So that night they said to their mother, “We want to sleep with our brother the baby, on his side of the wigwam.”[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") They dried their moccasins, put them on, and also put on rabbit skin blankets, for they were preparing to run out during the night.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") They had discovered a place the day before where trees had fallen down and snow had covered them, thus making a tunnel.[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") So that night they rolled their little brother up in a blanket and left early in the night, unknown to their mother.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") When they left, the Iroquois were getting closer.[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") The mother awoke and cried out, “Madja′wαk they are going!”[74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") She did this to help the Iroquois find them.[75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") The Iroquois followed them on snowshoes, but the sons made a great number of branch trails in order to deceive them.[76](76/ "tree and pragmatics") The three finally reached their windfall tunnel and there they stayed and waited for the Iroquois.[77](77/ "tree and pragmatics") At daylight the Iroquois took up the trail and followed until they finally reached them.[78](78/ "tree and pragmatics") The three in the cave could hear the Iroquois talking above them.[79](79/ "tree and pragmatics") One of the Iroquois dug a hole in the snow above the tunnel and peeped down to see if the three were there.[80](80/ "tree and pragmatics") As one by one the Iroquois looked through the hole, the sons shot them, the arrow falling back through the hole so that they could use it again.[81](81/ "tree and pragmatics") They killed nearly all of them, and at last no more Iroquois faces appeared above the hole, but the sons could hear crying.[82](82/ "tree and pragmatics") Finally they decided to come out, and one of the sons went out first to look around, but he could see no one.[83](83/ "tree and pragmatics") They then started back to the wigwam, following the Iroquois tracks, but they only saw two trails.[84](84/ "tree and pragmatics") One of the sons went a little ahead and the other followed behind with the baby.[85](85/ "tree and pragmatics") When they reached their wigwam, they found it smashed to pieces and the poles flattened out.[86](86/ "tree and pragmatics") Their mother was killed and the Iroquois had cut off her breasts and made babiche strings \[57\] of it.[87](87/ "tree and pragmatics") These two Iroquois who were left had made a tripod of sticks and had wound the skin all the way around it.[88](88/ "tree and pragmatics") Then they had gone and were never seen again.[89](89/ "tree and pragmatics") The mother had agreed with the Iroquois that they were not to kill her if she didn’t tell her sons of their whereabouts.[90](90/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/17/) - next →: [Timagami Folk-lore.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/19/) - ↑ back to [Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66509/)