e a complete account of it, for I have found no one who
appeared to know the story of the beginning of all things.

Some of the Blackfeet now say that originally there was a great womb, in
which were conceived the progenitors of all animals now on earth. Among
these was Old Man. As the time for their birth drew near, the animals used
to quarrel as to which should be the first to be born, and one day, in a
fierce struggle about this, the womb burst, and Old Man jumped first to the
ground. For this reason, he named all the animals Nis-kum'-iks, Young
Brothers; and they, because he was the first-born, called him Old Man.

There are several different accounts of the creation of the people by Old
Man. One is that he married a female dog, and that their progeny were the
first people. Others, and the ones most often told, have been given in the
Old Man stories already related.

There is an account of the creation which is essentially an Algonquin myth,
and is told by most of the tribes of this stock from the Atlantic to the
Rocky Mountains, though the hero is variously named. Here is the Blackfoot
version of it:--

In the beginning, all the land was covered with water, and Old Man and all
the animals were floating around on a large raft. One day Old Man told the
beaver to dive and try to bring up a little mud. The beaver went down, and
was gone a long time, but could not reach the bottom. Then the loon tried,
and the otter, but the water was too deep for them. At last the muskrat
dived, and he was gone so long that they thought he had drowned, but he
finally came up, almost dead, and when they pulled him on to the raft, they
found, in one of his paws, a little mud. With this, Old Man formed the
world, and afterwards he made the people.

This myth, while often related by the Blackfoot tribe, is seldom heard
among the Bloods or Piegans. It is uncertain whether all three tribes used
to know it, but have forgotten it, or whether it has been learned in
comparatively modern times by the Blackfeet from the Crees, with whom they
have always had more frequent intercourse and a closer connection than the
other two tribes.

There is also another version of the origin of death. When Old Man made the
first people, he gave them very strong bodies, and for a long time no one
was sick. At last, a little child fell ill. Each day it grew weaker and
weaker, and at last it fainted. Then the mother went to Old Man, and prayed
him to do someth