Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1905-12-07
] AN INDIAN LEGEND.
The Way Nan-ab-beju Made the New
Earth After the Flood.


, II will tell you the story of Nan-ab-
beju. He is the man who made the
new earth after the big water came
and covered it ~
big waters came, and there was
nothing anywhere except water and
the sky and the sun and the stars,
said the old Chippewa. ''Nan-ab-beju
made great raft and put on it some
relic of everything that had been on
the eartii-specimeiis of each kind of
animals, of all the trees, shrubs, plants,
flowers, BIRDS rocks, and Que man and
one woman In short, he did not leave
anything except sand. He forgot TO
save some sand, and vet he could not
do anything without ii. He sailed out
far iato the flood and made little
island. very, very small Then he found
he had no sand. He made a very big
line. longer than hundreds of deer
skins cut UP into ribbons and tied to-
gether. and he took a nuslSrat off the
raft and tied the line to it and threw
1t into the water. The frightened rat
dove down and down. and when there
was no longer any pulling at the line
Nan-ab-beju knew the rat was at the
bottom of the sea. Then he began to
pull the line up. At the end Of it came
the poor musllrat, stone dead. drowned
But Nan-ab-beiu saw that the little
black paws of the animal We're clench-
ed 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 in them were
found half dozen grains of sand Ore
grain would haze been enough for the
great Nan-ab-beju.
"Nan-ab beju blew his breath on the
muskrat, and its life came back to It,
Then he mixed the sand in the little
island that he had made and blew en-
that also AS he blew and blew it
sweiled and swelled until it was so big
that Nan-ab-beiu could not see the
sides or end of 1t In any direction
Nan-ab-beju was not quite certain
whether he had made 1t as big as the
old earth before the big water came
He had to make it as big as it had
been-so big, In fact, that no man or
creature could find the end of it, lie
had plenty of animals that could travel
was, 80 he decided to take two huge
buffaloes off the raft and send them to
see whether there was any end to what
he had made. The bufraloes ran off
with all speed, and Nanab-beju sat
down and waited. In a few days the
bnffaloes came back and said they had
found the end of the earth. So Nan-ab-
beju blew and blew and blew on the
ground again, and it swelled so fast
that you could see it broadening. When
he had blown until he was tired he
took a crow off the raft and sent 1t to
see II it could find the end of the
earth. The crow was gone very long
time, but at last 1T came sailing back
on the wind and said it had flown till 1t
any end to the earth
"Nan-ab-beju, to make sure blew
again and swelled the earth great
deal bigger. Then he united and I'M
Gagged and untrapped all the 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 so ashore and make the new earth
| their hunting ground. And Nan-ab-
| bel was done fSicnoias