--- title: Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.) — Ojibwa myths and tales · full text with trees description: Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.), «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Told by Peter York. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/17/) [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/) / [Ojibwa myths and tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/) / Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.) # Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.) Nanabush and the Four Men. (no. 4.) of «Ojibwa myths and tales» by Geo. E. Laidlaw: the whole text, 32 sentences and 572 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. Told by Peter York.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") A good many years ago four Indians wanted to know something about “how to be a man that would know how to fight and never get hurt.”[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") Well, they talked about it and decided to go and see Nanabush and ask these things.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") They made the journey, which took them two long years to get to his place.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") On the way up they could hear Nanabush beating his drum and saying to them, “Come on, my children.”[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") Well, one day they heard him saying, “You will get to my place in the morning.”[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") The morning came and they saw a clean place; everything looked to be good.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") They saw a big camp here and went to the door and rapped.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") Nanabush said, “Come in, my children,” and shook hands with them.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") They talked a little while when Nanabush said something to his daughter, who was a very nice-looking girl, and she started to cook something which was bear meat, and took some blueberries and cooked them (both) in a very little pot (about the size of a cup).[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") While those men were watching the girl one of them thought, “I could eat all that in the pot with one spoonful.”[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") Nanabush knew what this fellow was thinking about and said, “You will see if you can eat that much.”[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") They all sat down and started to eat out of the little pot.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") They ate all that they wanted and the pot was still full.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") Nanabush said, “You men can’t eat it all.”[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") After the meal Nanabush said, “Now you must tell me what you want to know.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") You have walked for a long time.”[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") The first man said to Nanabush, “I would like to know if there is a battle in our country, and I would like to know that if I was shot at I would like the ball not to hit me.”[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") Nanabush said, “This will happen so, you just think about me when going to fight.”[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") The next man came before Nanabush and said, “I am a hunter and I would like to call the game to me when I want them, some wild beasts.”[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Nanabush said, “This will be so, when you go hunting you call just what you want and they will come.”[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") The third man came before Nanabush.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") “Well,” he said, “I would like to get myself a wife, nobody likes me.”[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Nanabush said, “You see my daughter, you take her and she will be your wife.”[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") The fourth man came before Nanabush and said, “I would like to live forever.”[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") Nanabush said (in reproach), “We all know that every man has got to die, and you would like to live forever.”[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") He reached out his hand and took the fourth man and placed him on his side, when the man became a granite stone, and there were only three men that came back home.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") Everything that Nanabush said was so.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") Nanabush said to the one that wanted a wife, that he must not speak to her till they got home, and they all started home happy.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") On the last day before reaching home the man who had Nanabush’s daughter wanted to talk to her, so he spoke to her, but before he had finished his words the girl was missing and could not be found, so he got home without a wife.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") This ends this story.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") NO. 18.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Little Lynx Story.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/16/) - next →: [Nanabush and the Young Man and Wife. (no. 5.)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/18/) - ↑ back to [Ojibwa myths and tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76755/)