Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-20
QUEER INDIAN LEGENDS.
Myths Of the Menominis Described to
the Anthropological Society.

Myths Oh the MenOInlnIS DcScrlDeQ 10
the Anthropoiogical Society.
At the meeting of the anthropological So
ciety Tuesday evening, as stated in The STAR
last night, DIR. W. J. Hoffman read a paper on
the mythology of the Menomini Indians, telling
many interesting folklore tales of that tribe
The first story or legend was q narrative Of how
the wolf became a younger brother of the bear,
associated in this usually unknown relationship
with the crane and the dog. The myths then
ran upon the birth and wonderful exploits Of
one Minibush or Minibosha, who apparently
was possessed of necromantic powers and skilled
in tricks of sleight of hand such as would make
even the deft Hermann envious. He first ap-
peared on earth in the form of an or linary in
FAINT but through some mishap he died and was
transformed for a time into a little pink cared
rabbit, being afterward changed, through some
process not set down in the text, back to his
original human form, endowed with supernat-
ural powers and unusual intelligence for
North American Indian. He soon developed
musical talents, asking. when quite a child. for
his singing sticks, which consisted Of two
short sticks. with which he beat his time for
the song. He had peculiar habit of singing
on all sorts of occasions, and his songs usually
consisted IN the repetition of a single word or
two indicative of his feelings at the time When
he sighed the earth trembled and caused the
bills and mountains to form on the surface.
According to this be must have been a very
melancholy sort of an individual. for he dwelt
III region that afterward became one of the
hardest regions to travel through that a bicy-
cler ever struck.
SWALLOWED BY A WATER MONSTER.
There was once upon time horrible water
monster that dwelt in the river near Minibo sha's
lodge and which had the very unneghborly
habit Of swallowing up all the peaceful and
law-abiding folks that he could reach. He had,
by means of the qualification of this wonderful
appetite, neary depopulated the country, when
Mlnlbush concluded to call his hand, and he
accordingly took his singing sticks and went
out on the river on a raft. calling upon Mesh
unomek, which the name Of the water
monster, to swallow him. The latter sent some
of his apprentices in the swallowing business
to do the job, but this would not SUIT the
would-be Curtlus, who insisted SO strongly
upon being swallowed by none but the leading
artist that Meshunomek swan out and did the
act of making him part of his anatomy. When
he had got down into the internal arrange
nents of the monster he found there several of
his old friends. some of whom had stood the
trials and were alive. After good deal of
singing and waltZing around in Meshunomek's
stomach the rescuer put his knife into the
heart OF his foe. which was conveniently near
at hand. and wheE the sickness caused by
the tumblings of the animal had worn off he
and his companions emerged from the dark
ness, singing a Song of Joy, much after the
fashion OF Baron Munchausen.
OTHER EXPLOITS OF MINIBUsH.
The game of base ball undoubtedly owes its
origin to this same Alinbush who is said to
have devised game of ball on the shores of
Lake Michigan. i'll the vicinity of Mackinaw,
between the Bears and the Thunderers for the
purpose OF getting opportunity to kill
couple of Bear chiefs. The game lasted all day
and ended with tie when the umpire called
darkness and fled for his life. The next day it
was resumed and brought to an abrupt conclu-
sion by the murder of the chiefs by Minibush,
who stood near them disguised as a pine tree
For this discovery he Is almost worthy of hay
ing his name given to the new base ball park in
this city. He did not confne his blessings to
the race to the line OF sport, but after des-
per2te effort managed to wTest from II great
giant sample OF tobacco. which the giant
keeping secret. The giant chased
him over several mountains and finally
tumbled in his haste headlong over
cliff and was badly bruised. He picked
himself up, however, and was crawling back up
TO where Mlllbush stood laughing at him, when
his ringer nails wore out and he could climb no
further. Then Minibush picked him up and
threw him down the elf again with "a tremen-
dOus force, telling him as he fell that there
after he should be known as the grasshopper
and recognized by his tobacco stained mouth
as the enemy Of the farmer. Then Mnibush
when he was chased to the top of tree stand
ing on a mountain by the waters sent out by
some OF his enemies, he made the tree grow to
twice its height and repeated the operation
four times. Then, last resort. he called Oh
the Great Spirit for aid and the waters stopped
coming. This left a rather large lake but very
little earth, so Mlnibush sent down to the bot
tom for a bit of earth. After killing mink an
otter and d beaver in this attempt he finally
found muskrat with breath enough to go down
and bring up some soil, with which he made
new earth.
THE SLAUGHTER OF THE BIRDS.
At another time he was hungry. and calling
the birds to him made them dance around him
with their eyes shut, singing hard as they
could to the time of his sticks. When favor
able moment came he reached out and broke
the neck OF the crane. The unlucky bird gave
a scream but before the others had time to
open their eyes Minibush had sung OUT That's
right. my brothers, sing out as loud as you cani'
and they kept on dancing around him. Soon
lie had nearly all the birds caught. the others
going around in the fear that If they opened
their eyes the latter should become red and
sore forever. Finally the hell-diver thought
that the singing was getting very weak, and he
took peep to see what was the matter. When
he saw the pile of dead bodies around Mini
bush he cried out: Fly, brothers, fly, he is
killing u.s. whereat there was stampede
MlnIbush ran after them but could catch
only the hell-diver, which he let go after
telling it that it should always have a
stumpy tail and be the laughing stock of
all the birds. He dressed the bodies
OF the birds he had killed and placed them in
the sand to cook with their feet sticking up in
sight Then he lay down to take a nap. and
while he slept party of thieving Indians came
along and ate the birds, taking off the feet and
heads, which they replaced in the sand in the
same position as they were before, SO that
when Minibush awoke he thought at first that
his meal was all right. But when he came to
get the birds out of the sand and he discovered
the fraud that had been perpctrated upon him
he lost his temper and shaking his fist at the
fleeing forms of the robbers called them ter
rlble name oil scoTn and reprOach-'Winne-
bagon which is the word still used by the Me-
nomini tribe to denominate their thieving
neishbors
Locomotive Acts as a Tug.
The remarkable sight of a railroad locomo-
tive trying to tow a large three-masted
schooner was Witnessed in MillyilIa n