ndless quarrels: I will send a Prophet to you, who shall guide you and
teach you and share your sufferings. Obey him, and all will be well with
you. Disobey him, and you shall be scattered like the autumn leaves.
Wash the war-paint and the bloodstains from your bodies; mould the red
stone of the quarry into peace-pipes, and smoke with me the pipe of
peace and brotherhood that shall last forever."

The tones of his deep voice died away, and the Indians broke their
weapons and bathed in the sparkling river. They took the red stone of
the quarry and made peace-pipes and gathered in a circle; and while they
smoked the Great Manito grew taller and mightier and lighter until he
drifted on the smoke high above the clouds into the heavens.

II

THE FOUR WINDS

IN the far-off kingdom of Wabasso, the country of the North-wind, where
the fierce blasts howl among the gorges and the mountains are like flint
the year round, Mishe Mokwa, the huge bear, had his cave. Years had
passed since the great Manito had spoken to the tribes of men, and his
words of warning were forgotten by the Indians; the smoke of his
peace-pipe had been blown away by the four winds, and the red men
smeared their bodies with new war-paint, as they had done in days of
old. But, brave as they were, none of them dared to hunt the monster
bear, who was the terror of the nations of the earth. He would rise from
his winter sleep and bring the fear of death into the villages, and he
would come like a great shadow in the night to kill and to destroy. Year
by year the great bear became bolder, and year by year the number of his
victims had increased until the mighty Mudjekeewis, bravest of all the
early Indians, grew into manhood.

Although Mudjekeewis was so strong that all his enemies were afraid of
him, he did not love the war-path, for he alone remembered the warning
of the great Manito; and as he wished to be a hero, and yet to do no
harm to his fellow men, he decided to hunt and kill the great bear of
the mountains, and to take the magic belt of shining shells called
wampum that the great bear wore about his neck. Mudjekeewis told this to
the Indians, and one and all they shouted: "Honor be to Mudjekeewis!"

For a weapon he took a huge war-club, made of rock and the trunk of a
tough young pine, and all alone he went into the Northland to the home
of Mishe Mokwa. Many days he hunted, for the great bear knew of his
coming, and the monster's savage hea