The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-01-18

Earti, Alter Ihe Wood.
"f viii tell you The story VI Nan-ab-
hcju. lie is the mau who made the
new earth after the big vater came
nnd covered It,
big waters cnme, md tiere was
nothing anywhere except WAITER and
tiie sky and HE SIM aud re sisl
said the old esnippew Sansalsgelti
made 4 great r.lft aud jltt oIl oEne
reiie 81 esetytaIng that had 81
tie earth eetmetis q each kind sof
animals II M Tree shrubs plants.
flowers birds, pcs y ind on man and
sone woman ia short he didinot Leave
anything except sand He forgot TO.
save some sand. and yet be could not
do anything wittoutIts He .salled out
far into the Hood and made a little
llisiand, very, very small. Then he found
! he had no sand, he made q very big
liine. longer than HUNDREDS Of deer
skins cut up into ribbons and tied to-.
gether. and he took muskrat of the
raft and tied the line to 1t and threw
Iit into the water. The frightened rat
dove down and down, and wher there
was no longer any pulling at the line
/ Nln.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 il 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 d 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 It's 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 It was so big
that Nan.ab-beju could not see the
sides or end OF 1t in any direction.
1 Nan.ab-beju. was not quite certnin
whether he had made It as big as the
old earth before the big water came.
He had to make 1t as. big as 1t had
becn-so big, in fact, that no man or
creature could find the end Of II. He
had plenty Of animals that could travel
over the earth and find out how big 1t
was, so he decided to take two huge
buffaloes of 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.ah-beju sat
down and waited. In a few days the
bufTaloes came back and said they had
found the end Of the earth. So Nan-ab-
beju blew and blew and blew On ,tle
ground again, and It swelled 80 fast
that you could see 1t broadening. When
he had blown until he was tired lie
took a crow or the raft and sent 1t to
see II 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 1t had flown till 1t
was tired ont and there was no sign Of
any end to The earth.
.'Nan-aD-beju, to make sure, blew
again and sweIled the earth a great
deal bigger. Then he united and I'M
Gagged and untrapped all the animals
and drove Them from the raft on 10 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, 50 that 1t scattered an over.
Next he let loose all the birds and bee
ties and bugs and snakes and toads
and butterflies and finally lie invited
the man and woman, both Chippeways,
to 60 ashore and make the new earth
their hunting ground. And Nan-ab-
beju's task was done."-St. Nicholas