The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-10-11
AN INDIAN LEGEND.

The Way Nan-ab- beju Made the New
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 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 ii. He sailed out
far into the flood and made 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-
gether. and he took Il muskrat of the
raft and tied the line to it and threw
it 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 ii 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 a 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 it.
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 it in any direction.
Nan-abbeju was not quite certain
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
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 q 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 it swelled 30 fast
that you could see it broadening When
he had blown until he was tired he
took a crow OF the raft and sent 1t to
see IL it could find the end Of the
earth. The crow was gone a 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 IN
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 be blew the grass
out of his hands SIS 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 90 ashore and make the new earth
their hunting ground. And Nan-ab-
beju's task was dooe."-St Nicholas.