--- title: I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · full text with trees description: I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller, «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: (Algonquin) --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/26/) [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/) / [Wigwam stories told by North American…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/) / I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller # I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller I. Iagoo, the Great Story-teller of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd: the whole text, 145 sentences and 1645 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. (Algonquin)[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") The white man laughs much.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") The Indian is wise.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") He can see a joke, but he does not laugh as much as the white man.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") The papoose and the squaw may laugh.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") The brave must not let his face show what he feels.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") It is not wise.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") The white man has stories to tell his children, and his children laugh.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") The Indian tells the stories of Iagoo to his children.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") The teepee is shut, for it is winter, and you cannot hear the papoose laugh.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") The white man when he tells a story which is not true says, “Once on a time.”[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") The Indian says, “My grandfather told me.”[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") The papooses know when the story is true.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") An Indian teaches his children to tell the truth; his children are wise; they speak the truth to their tribe.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") Lame Buffalo could tell good stories.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") His children were happy, and they laughed often in their father’s teepee.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") There was a fire of sticks in the middle of the teepee, but the smoke was not bad; it went out of the teepee by the top of the poles.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") Lame Buffalo sat with his wife White Deer and their children around the fire in the teepee.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") The oldest boy asked for a story.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") Lame Buffalo told this story of Iagoo:[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") “In the days of my grandfather, Iagoo used to come often to the lodges of our tribe.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") “Iagoo was tall.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") He was straight as a pine that stands alone on the hilltop.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") He was always hungry.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") He would come to a lodge of our tribe, my grandfather said, and would look at the duck the squaw was roasting.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") He would tell her no squaw could make such a fire as she could.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") No one could bake in the ashes as she could.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") When the duck was done, the squaw would put it on a stone by Iagoo.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") She and her papooses had no duck.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") They were hungry, but Iagoo did not go away hungry.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") “The braves were always glad to see Iagoo, for his stories were never the same.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") He saw things no other Indian ever saw.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") He knew more than any other brave ever knew; he said so himself.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") He never went into battle, for he had much to keep him away; yet he wore eagle feathers in his scalp lock.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") He told great stories of battles, but no one ever saw him when he was fighting.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") It is not wise to look around in battle.”[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") “Iagoo told my grandfather this story of the mosquitoes that lived on the marsh.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") His tribe had their teepees by this marsh.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") “Iagoo said that he heard one day a great roaring.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") It was like ten bears, but he was the only brave who dared to go out to see what the roaring was.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") He saw mosquitoes flying in the tamarack trees in the swamp, but he could not tell the trees from the mosquitoes, they were both so big.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") “He killed three mosquitoes with his war club.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") He shot them first with his arrows.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") Iagoo tore off the left wing of one, and he made a sail for his birch-bark canoe from that wing.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") “He called to his wife.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") His wife heard, for his voice and his war club drove away the mosquitoes.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") His wife came out to see the battle, but they were gone.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") She tore off the bill of one of the slain mosquitoes and used it to dig with, and she used it twelve moons.”[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") “Ugh\![49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") It is good,” said the oldest boy.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") “Another time Iagoo was on a trail.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") The trail was a creek with no water.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") It went through the land of the river where the buffaloes feed when it is wet.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") “The trail was wide and full of sand.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") The dry grass was on the side of it.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") Iagoo saw on the sand of the trail a new animal.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") It was far from him, but it was large.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") He could see it.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") It was long as a wildcat, but it had no hair like the wildcat.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") It had two horns like the buffalo.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") It had many legs, and its eyes were like fire.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") “Iagoo took his war club with his two hands.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") He walked like a brave in battle.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") He ran on the trail to kill the strange beast.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") He raised his war club to strike it, but it was nothing but a big ant dragging a rabbit to its hole in the trail.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") Iagoo sat down in the sand and laughed, while the ant pulled the rabbit into the ant-hole.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") The rabbit was killed by the ant.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") Iagoo said so, and he knew it.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") The ant killed the rabbit with its horns.”[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") “Ugh! ugh! ugh!” said the boys around the fire.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") White Deer laughed, and her daughters laughed.[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") “Tell another,” said the boys.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") “My grandfather said that Iagoo told of the willow trees.[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") Iagoo went to the willow trees to take some of the little creeping-cats from them.[74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") They are the flowers that come when the snow has melted.[75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") “The willow trees looked small to Iagoo.[76](76/ "tree and pragmatics") He broke off a branch and went to get one on the other side of the tree.[77](77/ "tree and pragmatics") He made a heavy trail around the tree to mark the bush.[78](78/ "tree and pragmatics") The sun was over his head when he began to make the trail.[79](79/ "tree and pragmatics") He walked around that one willow bush, and the sun was going down in the lake when he was done.[80](80/ "tree and pragmatics") It was a long trail.[81](81/ "tree and pragmatics") No one but Iagoo ever saw such a willow bush.”[82](82/ "tree and pragmatics") White Deer laughed.[83](83/ "tree and pragmatics") She had gathered many willows for weaving.[84](84/ "tree and pragmatics") The oldest boy looked at his brothers.[85](85/ "tree and pragmatics") They were laughing too.[86](86/ "tree and pragmatics") He did not laugh, but said “Ugh!” like a great chief.[87](87/ "tree and pragmatics") Lame Buffalo looked at the fire.[88](88/ "tree and pragmatics") White Deer put on more sticks and blew the fire with her breath; when it began to blaze Lame Buffalo went on with more stories of Iagoo.[89](89/ "tree and pragmatics") “My grandfather said that Iagoo went in the cold moon of winter to the south.[90](90/ "tree and pragmatics") He went alone in his canoe.[91](91/ "tree and pragmatics") His tribe was in the far north, in the fur country.[92](92/ "tree and pragmatics") Iagoo liked to fish.[93](93/ "tree and pragmatics") His wife could hunt for the fur skins, for it is cold in the far north.[94](94/ "tree and pragmatics") “Iagoo let his canoe drift like a leaf as he fished.[95](95/ "tree and pragmatics") It drifted near the shore of the river, then Iagoo stepped out on the shore.[96](96/ "tree and pragmatics") It sank under his feet.[97](97/ "tree and pragmatics") As the water came over where he stepped, he saw that he had not stepped on land.[98](98/ "tree and pragmatics") He had stepped on a thick lily leaf.[99](99/ "tree and pragmatics") “Iagoo jumped back into his canoe.[100](100/ "tree and pragmatics") He broke the stem of the lily leaf with his fishing spear and put the great leaf in his canoe.[101](101/ "tree and pragmatics") It covered him and the canoe.[102](102/ "tree and pragmatics") He dried the leaf and rolled it in a pack.[103](103/ "tree and pragmatics") He went back to the far north when he had fished all he wanted to, and he gave the leaf to his squaw.[104](104/ "tree and pragmatics") She was glad.[105](105/ "tree and pragmatics") It was like a wide buffalo skin; she made dresses for herself and her daughters out of it.[106](106/ "tree and pragmatics") No other squaws had such fine dresses.”[107](107/ "tree and pragmatics") White Deer smiled, and the little girls laughed.[108](108/ "tree and pragmatics") They knew the pond-lily leaves were small in the lakes; they could not be so wide in a river.[109](109/ "tree and pragmatics") “It is a story for squaws,” said the oldest boy.[110](110/ "tree and pragmatics") “We will go to sleep,” said Lame Buffalo, his father.[111](111/ "tree and pragmatics") The next night Lame Buffalo told this story of Iagoo for the boys:[112](112/ "tree and pragmatics") “A white man gave Iagoo a gun, so my grandfather said.[113](113/ "tree and pragmatics") He could shoot better than any white man.[114](114/ "tree and pragmatics") “Iagoo went hunting.[115](115/ "tree and pragmatics") It was the time for ducks.[116](116/ "tree and pragmatics") He went in his canoe, and he hid in the rice by the ducks.[117](117/ "tree and pragmatics") The ducks flew up and made the sun dark.[118](118/ "tree and pragmatics") He lay on his back and shot straight into the flock of ducks.[119](119/ "tree and pragmatics") A swan fell dead into his canoe.[120](120/ "tree and pragmatics") Its head was shot off; the ducks fell around his canoe like hail in a hailstorm; the water was black with the ducks he shot.[121](121/ "tree and pragmatics") He piled them up like a great teepee on the shore.[122](122/ "tree and pragmatics") He shot them all with one gunshot.[123](123/ "tree and pragmatics") “The shot from his gun fell back into the lake; it struck two loons and killed them.[124](124/ "tree and pragmatics") The shot fell through the loons and killed a muskalonge; this is the great fish that lives in the lakes.[125](125/ "tree and pragmatics") No one else ever fired such a shot as did Iagoo.[126](126/ "tree and pragmatics") He told this to my grandfather.”[127](127/ "tree and pragmatics") “It is good,” said the boys.[128](128/ "tree and pragmatics") “Tell another,” said White Deer.[129](129/ "tree and pragmatics") “Iagoo went hunting in the Hunting Moon.[130](130/ "tree and pragmatics") He killed a great deer and threw it on his back.[131](131/ "tree and pragmatics") It was heavy, but he must have food in his teepee.[132](132/ "tree and pragmatics") “He sat down on a stump to rest.[133](133/ "tree and pragmatics") He was very still, and he saw the great elks go by him on their trail to the far north.[134](134/ "tree and pragmatics") It was like a great tribe going north.[135](135/ "tree and pragmatics") The trail they made was deep, and they did not see nor smell Iagoo.[136](136/ "tree and pragmatics") “The first elk had horns like a great tree.[137](137/ "tree and pragmatics") He was very big; Iagoo wanted him; Iagoo ran swifter than all the elks; he came to the leader; he shot the leader of the elks; he fell like a tree in the forest; Iagoo lifted the elk to throw him over his shoulder; the elk horns struck the deer horns.[138](138/ "tree and pragmatics") Iagoo knew then that he had carried a big deer all day.[139](139/ "tree and pragmatics") Iagoo was not tired.[140](140/ "tree and pragmatics") He hung the deer in a tree and carried the elk home.[141](141/ "tree and pragmatics") No other brave in his tribe had ever brought home an elk with such horns.[142](142/ "tree and pragmatics") Iagoo said so to my grandfather.”[143](143/ "tree and pragmatics") Lame Buffalo stopped.[144](144/ "tree and pragmatics") There are more stories of Iagoo, the great story-teller, but Lame Buffalo did not tell any more.[145](145/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Introductory—indian Stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/25/) - next →: [II. How Clay Dishes Were First Made](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/27/) - ↑ back to [Wigwam stories told by North American Indians](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/)