The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1905-11-24
AN INDIAN LEGEND.
The Way Nnn-Rb-beju Made the New
Earth After the Flood.

Earth After the Flood.
Il will tell you the story of Nun-ab-
bcju. He is the man who made the
new earth after the big water came
and covered ii.
Big waters came, and there was
nothing anywhere except water and
the sky and the sun an(. the stars"
said the old Chippewa "Nan-ab-b beju
made great raft and put on it some
relic of everything that had been on
the earth-specimcns Of each kind of
animals, Of all the trees, shrubs, plants,
flowers, birds. rocks, and one man and
ono woman. In short. he did not leave
anything except sand He forgot to
save some sand. and yet he could not
do anything without>, He sailed out
f'r into the fool AMI made Il little
island. very, very small Then he found
Ii" had no sand. He made Il very big
line, longer than hundreds of deer
skins cut up into ribbons and tied to-
grthCr. ard he took n muskra rat OF the
raft and tied the line to it and threw
il into the water. The frightened rat
dove down and down. and when there
WAS no longer any pulling ut the line
bottom OF the sea. Then he began to
pail the line up. At the end of 1t came
the poor muSkrat, stone dead. drowned.
But Nan-ab-beiu saw that the little
black paws of the animal were clcnc,-
Ell as if there was something in their
palms and that the rat held tight hold
Of even after death. The little paws
were forced open, and i'm them were
found half Il dozen grains Of sand. One
grain would have been enough for the
great Nan-ab-bcju.
"Nannb-beju blow his breath Oh the
mu$hrat, and its life came back to it.
Then he mixed the sand i'm the little
island that he had made and blew on
that also. As he blew and blew it
Swclled and Swelled until it was so biz:
that Nan-ah-hcju could not see the
sides or end of it In any direction
Nan-ab-heiu wus not quite certain
whether lie had made it as big as the
old earth before the big water came
He had 10 make it as big as il had
hccn~-.Su big, in fact. that no main or
creature could find the end of II. He
had plenty of animals that could travel
over the earth and find out how big il
was, SO he decided to take two huge
buiralocS Off the raft and send them to
soc whether there was any end to what
he had made. The buffalocS ran Off
with all speed, and Nan-ab-bciu sat
down and waited. In a few days the
huitalocs came back and said they had
found the end of the earth. SO Nan-ab,
bcju blew and blew and blew on the
ground again, and it svcl!cl so fast
that YOU could see it broadening When
he had blown until he was tired he
took Il crow off the raft and sent 1t to
see if il could find the end of the
earth. The crow was gone very long
time, but at last it came sailing back
on the wind and said 1t had flown till it
was tired out and there was no sign of
any end to the earth
"Nan-ab-beju, to make sure, blew
again and swelled the earth great
deal bigger. Then he united and un-
Gagged and untrappcd all tho animals
and drove them from the raft on to the
land and left them free to roam where
they might. He took all the trees.
plants, bushes and shrubs and planted
them around, and he blew the grass
out OF his hands as hard as he could
blow it, so that it scattered all over.
Next he let loose all the birds and bee
ties and bugs and snakes and toads
and butterflies, and finally he invited
the man and woman, both ChippewayS.
to 30 ashore and make the new earth
their hunting ground And Nan-ab-
bcju'S task was donc."-St. Nicholas.