OLD-man gave
the Muskrat his breath, and told him that he must go once more, and
bring dirt. He said there was not quite enough in the first lot, so
after resting a while the Muskrat tried a third time and a third time
he died, but brought up a little more dirt.
"Everybody on the raft was anxious now, and they were all crowding
about OLD-man; but he told them to stand back, and they did. Then he
blew his breath in Muskrat's mouth a third time, and a third time he
lived and joined his wife.
"OLD-man then dried the dirt in his hands, rubbing it slowly and
singing a queer song. Finally it was dry; then he settled the hand
that held the dirt in the water slowly, until the water touched the
dirt. The dry dirt began to whirl about and then OLD-man blew upon it.
Hard he blew and waved his hands, and the dirt began to grow in size
right before their eyes. OLD-man kept blowing and waving his hands
until the dirt became real land, and the trees began to grow. So large
it grew that none could see across it. Then he stopped his blowing and
sang some more. Everybody wanted to get off the raft, but OLD-man said
'no.'
"'Come here, Wolf,' he said, and the Wolf came to him.
"'You are swift of foot and brave. Run around this land I have made,
that I may know how large it is.'
"The Wolf started, and it took him half a year to get back to the raft.
He was very poor from much running, too, but OLD-man said the world
wasn't big enough yet so he blew some more, and again sent the Wolf out
to run around the land. He never came back--no, the OLD-man had made
it so big that the Wolf died of old age before he got back to the raft.
Then all the people went out upon the land to make their living, and
they were happy, there, too.
"After they had been on the land for a long time OLD-man said: 'Now I
shall make a man and a woman, for I am lonesome living with you people.
He took two or three handfuls of mud from the world he had made, and
moulded both a man and a woman. Then he set them side by side and
breathed upon them. They lived!--and he made them very strong and
healthy--very beautiful to look upon. Chippewas, he called these
people, and they lived happily on that world until a white man saw an
Eagle sailing over the land and came to look about. He stole the
woman--that white man did; and that is where all the tribes came from
that we know to-day. None are pure of blood but the two humans he made
of clay, and their o
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