The Lambertville record., 1905-09-06
WHOLE NO. 1714
AN INDIAN LEGEND.
Fhe Way Nnn-nb-beJu Made the New
Earth After the Flood.

Earth AFTER the Flood.
Il 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 a great raft and put on it some
relic of everything that had been on
the earth specimens of each kind OF
animals, of all the trees, shrubs, plants
flowers. birds, rocks, and one man and
one woman. In short he did not leave
anything except sand He forgot to
save some sand, and yet he could not
do anything without it. He sailed out
far into the flood and made Il little
island. very, very small. Then he found
he had no sand. He made n very big
line, longer than hundreds of deer
skins cut up into ribbons and tied to-
gcthcr, and he took muskrat off the
raft and tied the line to 1t and threw
It into the water The frightened rat
dove down and down, and when there
was no longer any pulling Mt the line
Nan-ab- -bcju knew the rat was at the
bottom of the sen. Then he began to
pull the line up. At the end of it came
the poor muskrat, stone dead, drowned.
But Nnn-ab-be saw that the little
black paws of the animal were eleneh-
ell as II there was something In their
palms and that the rat held tight hold
~ ,Ft
were forced open. and In them were
found half II dozen grains of sand. One
grain would have been enough for the
great Nan-ab-b beju
"Nnn alb 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 on
that also As he blew and blew 1t
swelled and swelled until 1t was so big
that Nan-ab beju could not sec the
sides or end of 1t In any direction
Nnn-nb-beju was not quite certain
whether he had made II as big as the
old earth before the big water came.
Ue had TO make It as big as 1t had
been 50 big, in fact, that no man or
creature could find the end Of it. lie
had plenty of animals that could travel
over the earth and find out how big 1t
was, so he decided to take two huge
bufraloes off the rift and send them to
see whether there was any end to what
he had made. The buffaloes ran off
with all speed, and Nan-ab-beju sat
down and waited. In few days the
buffnloes cume 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 1t swelled so fast
that you could see 1t broadening When
he hnd blown until he was tired he
took II crow off the raft and sent 1t to
see II II could find the end of the
earth. The crow was gone II very long
time, but Mt last 1t came sailing back
on the wind and said 1t had flown till 1t
was tired out and there was no sign OF
any end TO the earth
| Nan alb beju, to make sure, blew
again and swelled the earth II 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 IL. 30 TINT 1t scattered all over.
Next he let loose nll the birds and bee
ties and bugs and snakes and toads
and butterflies. and finally he invited
the man and woman, both Chippeways.
to go ashore and make the new earth
their hunting ground. And Nan-ab-
beju's task was done. st. Nicholas.