The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1906-02-08
AN INDIAN LEGEND.
Fhe Way NRq-ab-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
pew earth after the big water came
and covered 1t.
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 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 q little
island, very, very small. Then he found
he had no sand He made very big
line, longer than hundreds of deer
skins cut up into ribbons and tied to-
gether, and he took a muskrat of the
raft and tied the line to 1t 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 1t came
the poor muskrat, stone dead, drowned.
But Nan-ab-beju saw that the little
black paws of the animal were clench-
ed as II 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. One
grain would have been enough for the
great Nan-ab-beju.
"Nan-ab-beju blew his breath on the
muskrat, and its life came back to 1t.
Then he mixed the sand in the little
island that he had made and blew ON
that also. AS he blew and blew it
swelled and swelled until 1t was so big
that Nan-ab-beju 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 1t as big as 1t had
been-so big, in fact, that no man or
creature could find the end of 1t. He
had plenty of animals that could travel
over the earth and find out how big it
was, so 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 buffaloes ran of
with all speed, and Nan-ab-beju sat
down and waited. In few days the
buffaloes 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 1t swelled so fast
that you could see 1t broadening. When
he had blown until he was tired he
took crow off the raft and sent it to
see IL 1t 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
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 a great
deal bigger. Then he united and un-
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 1t. so that 1t 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 go ashore and make the new earth
their hunting ground And Nan-ab-
beju's task was done."-St. Nicholas.