Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-08-20
THE ORIGIN OF MAN.
Story of the Creation, ms Told and he
Iieved by the Indians.

(From the Forest and Stream.)
The Indians say that the Great Spirit
made Mount Tahoma the first of all
Boring a hole in the sky, using a large
stone an auger, he pushed down snow
and ice until they reached the desired
height, then stepped from cloud to cloud
down TO the great Icy pile. and from it
to the earth. where he planted the first
trees by merely putting his finger into
the soil here and there. The sun began
10 melt the snow, the snow produced
water. the water ran down the side of
the mountain, refreshed the trees and
made rivers. The Great Spirit gathered
the leaves that fell from the trees blew
upon them. and they became birds. He
took stick and broke 1t into pieces.
OF the small end he made fishes and OF
the middle Of the stick he made animals
the grizzly bear expected, which he
formed from the big end Of the stick APP
pointing him to be master over all the
others.
Indeed. this animal grew so large,
strong and cunning that the Creator
some what feared him, and so hollo owed
out Mount Tahoma as a wigwam for
himself where he might reside while on
earth in the most perfect security and
comfort. SO the smoke was soon to be
seen curling up from the mountain
where the Great Spirit and his family
lived and still live, though their hearth
fire is alight no longer. now that the
white man is in the land. This was
thousands Of SHOWS ago.
After this came a late and severe
IT.. = l..
storm blew up from the sea- shaking
the huge lodge to its base. The Great
Spirit commanded his daughter, then
little more than an infant, to go up and
bid the wind to be still. cautoninS her
at the same time not to put her head
out into the blast but only to thrust
out her little arm and make sign be-
fore she delivered her message.
The eager child FASTENED up to the
hole in the roof, did she was told.
and then turned to descend: but her
curiosity impelled her to look at the
forbidden world outside and the rivers
and trees; at the far ocean and the
great waves that the storm had made as
hoary as the forest when the snow is on
the frs. So she stopped and put out her
head to look. Instantly the storm took
her by the long hair and blew her down
to the earth. down the mountain side,
over the smooth ice and soft snow, down
to the land OF the grizzly bears.
Now. the grizzly bears were then some
what different from what they are at
present. In appearance, 1t Is true. they
were much the same, but they walked
then on their hind legs like men, and
talked and carried clubs, using the fore
limbs as men use their arms. At the foot
of the mountain, at the place where the
child was blown to lived a family OF
grizzlies. The father grizzly was return
ing from the hunt with his club on his
shoulder and a young elk in his hand
when lie saw the shivering little waif ly-
ing on the snow with her hair all tangled
about her.
The old grizzly. plying and wondering
at the strange, forlorn creature, lifted It
up and carried 1t TO his wife to see what
should be done She too, was pifful and
fed it from her own breast, bringing it
up as one OF their family So the daugh-
ter of the Great Spirit grew up, and the
eldest son OF the old grizzly married her
and their offspring was neither grizzly
nor Great Spirit. but man.