"Grandson," the old man said in a happy voice. "You have found your way home. I am glad to see you."
"Grandfather," Little Weasel said, "I am glad to see you, too."
Just then Older Sister, the Keewahkwee, ran into the meadow.
"Now I have caught you," she snarled. "I will eat you and the old man, too."
The old man with white hair smiled. "First," he said, 'you must meet my dog." He turned to the tiny dog. "Little Dog," he said, "go and meet this one who wants to eat us."
Little Dog shook himself four times. Each time he shook himself he grew larger and larger, until he was four times as big as the biggest bear. He jumped on the Keewahkwee and chewed her up into bits and ate her. This time she did not come back to life again.
And Little Weasel lived happily with his grandfather and their dog from that day on. When last we saw them, they were living there still.
KEEWAHKWEE (PENOBSCOT)
The story of the cannibal ogre who hides its face from the child it had stolen to fatten up can be found throughout Algonquin traditions. Unlike the giants, who are visibly not human beings, these creatures can pass for people as long as their hideous faces are not seen. The rabbit or some other game animal whose life is spared and who then helps a child is a common theme in such stories. By behaving politely to his elders (animal or human), while the cannibal ogre is always rude, the little boy or girl is able to escape his pursuer and find the way back to his or her real family.
Sources:
"Penobscot Tales and Religious Beliefs," by Frank G. Speck, Journal of American Folklore (1935).
The Algonquin Legends of New England, by Charles G. Leland (Boston: Houghton and Mifflin, 1884).
YAKWAWIAK
Of all the creatures that walked the earth on four legs, the Yakwawiak* were the largest. The earth shook under their feet, and the other animals ran from them, for these monsters were bad-tempered and unfriendly. The human beings had been given permission by Kitselemukong, the Great Mystery, to hunt the animals for food. But they too were afraid of the Yakwawiak.
The skin and the hair of the Yakwawiak were so thick that no arrow could pierce them. The two great tusks of these monsters were as sharp as spears, and their long noses were like great snakes. The Yakwawiak hurled down the trees and muddied the springs. They trampled everything underfoot as they went about the land. They crushed the humans and the animals under their feet, and the people had to hide in caves to escape them. Those great monsters did not remember the words of Kitselemukong, who said that all beings on earth should live together. The Yakwawiak had no respect for any other living thing.
At last, one man could take it no longer. This man, whose name was Two Hawks Flying, left the caves where all the people were hiding from the great monsters. He climbed to the top of the highest mountain. He made a fire and prayed to the Creator. He placed tobacco on the glowing coals. As the smoke rose up into the sky, he spoke his words to Kitselemukong.
"Great Mystery," Two Hawks Flying said, "you are the one who made all things. You are the one who said that we should all live together and respect each other. But the Yak wawiak have forgotten your words. They wish to kill all of the other beings in the world. Help us, Creator, or we will all be destroyed."
Kitselemukong saw that this could not continue and decided to take pity on the people.
A great light appeared in front of Two Hawks Flying.
"Hear me," said a voice from within that light, which was Kitselemukong. "I will help you. Call all of the people and the animals together. Have them gather here at dawn."
"I will do as you say," said Two Hawks Flying.
Then he went to speak to the people and all of the other animals.
"Kitselemukong has told me that all of us must come together in council," Two Hawks Flying said. Everyone who heard him, both the humans and the animals, knew that his words were true, and they began to gather.
The wolf and the bear, the moose and the mountain lion, the lynx and the wolverine, the elk and deer and all of the other animals, in eluding many whose names are now forgotten, came together. The human beings came from their hiding places in the caves and joined them. They all gathered on the mountain top where Two Hawks Flying had prayed.
"You must drive the Yakwawiak from the land," the voice of Kitselemukong said from within that great glowing light. "They have forgotten to respect other beings. Now you must all join together and make war on them."
So the people and all of the animals began to make war on the Yakwawiak. Side by side, they marched together toward the Yakwawiak, but the Yakwawiak were waiting. The earth shook under their feet as they charged, and the fight began.
Kitselemukong watched from the top of the highest mountain as they fought. It was a hard battle, for the Yakwawiak were strong. The Yakwawiak tried to crush the animals and people beneath their huge feet. They stabbed them with their sharp tusks and threw them up into the air with their trunks. The piercing sound of their screams as they fought was terrible to hear. Even when they were wounded and bleeding, the huge monsters continued to fight.
All through that long day, the fight went back and forth. It went from the edge of the great salt water to the wide river that flows through the heart of the land. Many of the bravest animals, those who were almost as large and powerful as the Yakwawiak, were killed. The giant bear and the great wolf fell, and the huge beaver fell in battle. Only their bones buried in the earth show that they ever lived. Many of the people and the other animals were also killed in the fight, but they still fought bravely. One of the bravest was Two Hawks Flying.
The air was filled with the terrible screams of the Yakwawiak as they fought. Mountains were pushed over and valleys gouged out by the monsters as they fought. The earth sank down and became marshy as it was trampled under the feet of the huge creatures. Blood soaked into the ground.
But Two Hawks Flying saw that the Yak wawiak were too powerful. The human beings and the animals could not defeat them alone.
"Great One," he shouted, "you must help us now."
So Kitselemukong began to hurl down lightning from the top of the highest mountain. Each time a bolt of lightning struck, one of the Yakwawiak was killed. Finally, only the largest of the terrible monsters remained. He was so large that the other monsters seemed small in comparison. It seemed that nothing could defeat him. Each time a lightning bolt was hurled at him, he knocked it away with his tusks. But this one Yakwawi had been wounded many times, and he was growing weaker. At last he turned and began to run. He ran toward the cold north land, where no trees grow and there is always ice and snow. Some tried to follow him, but Two Hawks Flying called them back.
"No," he said. "That one is the last of his kind. He will no longer bother us."
Some say that Yakwawi is still hiding there to this day. You may hear his awful cry in the howl of the north wind. Sometimes, it is said, a lone hunter may chance upon the Yakwawi in that far northern land. If that hunter has not been a good man, if he has killed animals needlessly and not shared with others, such a hunter never returns to his people.
When we dig into the earth in the places where that battle raged long ago, we find the bones and the giant tusks of the Yakwawiak. Nothing else remains of them in the lands of the Lenape, the human beings.
But Kitselemukong left one other sign on the earth of that great battle. In the marshlands created by that long-ago fight, there where the blood soaked into the earth, Kitselemukong made a new berry grow. Its skin is as red as the blood that was shed. It is the cranberry. When the people see it, they remember the fate of the Yakwawiak, those great creatures who had no respect for the rest of the creation.
YAKWAWIAK (LENAPE)
The mastodon, although it has supposedly been extinct for ten thousand years, is still found in a surprisingly large number of the traditions of the Native Americans of the Northeast — from the Abenaki to the Iroquois to the Len-ape. Either the oral traditions have a very long memory, or these elephant-
like creatures survived much longer than paleontologists believe. Called the "stiff-legged bear" or the 'walking hill" in some Native languages, the mastodon or mammoth was apparently a very fearsome being to the Lenape and other Native people who saw it walk the earth that shook beneath its feet.
Sources:
The Algonquin Legends of New England, by Charles G. Leland (Boston: Houghton and Mifflin, 1884).
Folk Medicine of the Delaware, by Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Anthropological Series (1972).
The White Deer and Other Storied Told by the Lenape, by John Bierhorst (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1995).
The Grandfathers Speak: Native American Folk Taled of the Lenape People, by Hitakonanulaxk (Interlink Books, 1994).
*In Algonquin languages, plural forms are made with a "k," not an "s." Yakwawiak is plural, Yakwawi is singular.
MAN
BEAR
Swift Runner raised his hands over his head and looked back. The other young men had not yet completed half of the race, but he had already circled the village and reached the great standing stone that stood in the center of the village and was the symbol of his people.
"Wah-hey!" he shouted. "I am Aiyannoweh, Swift Runner. I am truly the fastest runner of all. No one on two legs or four legs can defeat me!"
As the people gathered around to congratulate him, Swift Runner's father shook his head.
"I am worried," Burden Carrier said. "My son brags too much."
Swift Runner's grandmother smiled. "It is true that he speaks loudly," White Hummingbird said. "But he has a good heart. After all, the young always like to boast about the things they do. And he only speaks the truth."
Burden Carrier could not disagree. There was no one who had ever been able to run as swiftly as his younger son. He was so fast a runner that he no longer hunted with a bow. Now, whenever he hunted, he would simply chase the animal he was after until it fell from exhaustion. The deer, the elk, and the buffalo were unable to outrun him. He watched as Swift Runner waited to congratulate the other young men who finished the race after him. As each one reached the standing stone, Swift Runner clasped their hands.
"You have run well," Swift Runner said to each exhausted young man. "Do not be ashamed. No one can defeat me, for I am Swift Runner."
Burden Carrier shook his head again. "I remember what happened to his older brother, and I worry about my remaining son."
White Hummingbird placed her hand on Burden Carrier's shoulder. Swift Runner's older brother, Quick Feet, had boasted that he could outrun a whole herd of deer in a single day. Quick Feet ran all through the day without resting, racing one deer after another until they fell from exhaustion. But just as the sun was about to set, Quick Feet himself fell. His heart had burst.
"Do not worry," White Hummingbird said. "You have taught your younger son well."
"That may be so," Burden Carrier said, "but strange things are happening now. Some of the best hunters have gone out and never returned. Others have come back saying that they saw the tracks of a man that ended where the tracks of a great bear began. It may be that a Man Bear is now hunting our people. What if such a powerful being hears my son's words and challenges him?"
"Then he will do his best," White Hummingbird said.
That night, as the people gathered around the central fire inside their great longhouse, they heard a voice call from outside.
"Swift Runner," the voice growled, "I have come to speak to you."
Then a man stepped through the open door. He was taller and broader than any man the people had seen before. He wore the skin of a huge bear around his shoulders. Two long, sharp bear teeth hung from the necklace that he wore. His eyes glowed red as he stared at the people.
Swift Runner stood to face the man.
"I am Swift Runner," he said. "No one on two legs or four legs can defeat me."
"Hunh," the Man Bear growled. "None of your people have escaped me so far. I have come to challenge you to race me."
"I accept your challenge," said Swift Runner.
"We will race tomorrow," the Man Bear rumbled, his great voice shaking the walls of the longhouse. "We'll run from dawn until sunset. At sunset the one who loses will die."
Then he turned and went out the door.
Burden Carrier and White Hummingbird took Swift Runner aside as the people within the longhouse talked in hushed voices about the terrible being who had just visited them. Many feared that if Swift Runner lost, the Man Bear would destroy them all.
"My son," Burden Carrier said, "it will not be easy to defeat a Man Bear. Do not exhaust yourself chasing him. Remember that he will try to trick you."
"I will remember what you taught me, Father," Swift Runner said.
White Hummingbird reached into the pouch at her side and took out two small feathers. She held them out to her grandson.
"The hummingbird is the smallest of the birds, but the swiftest," she said. "Carry these feathers with you in the pouch around your neck, and they will make your feet even faster." Then she handed her grandson a small blowgun with a sharp wooden dart feathered with cattail down. "There is only one place where the Man Bear can be killed," she said to him. She leaned close to her grandson's ear. "I will whisper it to you."
At dawn, Swift Runner stepped outside the longhouse. Still in the shape of a human being, the Man Bear was waiting.
"Now you will run," the Man Bear growled, "and I will chase you."
Swift Runner grasped the pouch that hung around his neck. "No," he said, "you will run, and I will chase you."
Swift Runner's words surprised the Man Bear, for they were his own magic words turned back on him. The Man Bear began to run and soon was out of sight.
"Run as fast as you can," Swift Runner shouted, "but you cannot escape me."
Then Swift Runner began to follow the tracks of the Man Bear. Soon the human tracks turned into those of a giant bear. The trail was easy to follow, for the Man Bear knocked over trees as he ran, and his feet tore great gouges in the earth.
Swift Runner reached the top of a hill and looked down through the valley below. He could see the Man Bear running on four legs ahead of him.
"I can catch him now," Swift Runner said to himself, "but I must remember what my father told me. He will try to trick me by hiding at the end of that valley where he can jump out and attack me. So I will not go that way."
Then Swift Runner made a great circle to go around the valley. He climbed a hill and looked down. Sure enough, the Man Bear was crouched behind a tall pine at the end of the valley, waiting to leap out.
"Ah-hoo!" Swift Runner called down to the Man Bear.
The Man Bear looked up at him in surprise.
"Are you tired?" Swift Runner shouted. "Start running now, or I will catch you!"
With an angry roar, the Man Bear began to run even faster than before. But Swift Runner did not follow right away.
"I must remember what my father told me," Swift Runner said. "I must not exhaust myself." Then he sat down and took some food from the pouch at his side. He drank water from a nearby stream and ate. When he was rested, he began to follow the trail of the Man Bear again. The sun was in the middle of the sky, and the Man Bear had gotten far ahead, but Swift Runner's long strides carried him quickly along the trail. Finally he could see the Man Bear running ahead of him.
"You cannot escape me," Swift Runner shouted. "I am close behind you."
Hearing those magic words, the Man Bear ran even faster until, once again, it went out of sight.
"I could catch him now" Swift Runner said, "but I must remember my father's words. I will rest again."
Once more, Swift Runner rested as his father had told him to do. He drank water and ate a little food and felt refreshed. Then, just as before, he ran and caught up with the Man Bear.
By now, the sun was getting low in the sky. Swift Runner stayed close behind the monster bear, not getting close enough so that it could s
trike at him. The Man Bear was growing tired. Its sides puffed in and out as it ran, and it groaned now with each stride.
"Run faster," Swift Runner shouted, "I am after you."
But the Man Bear could run no faster. It could run no farther. Just as the sun began to set, it fell to the ground with exhaustion, and Swift Runner ran past it.
"I have defeated you," Swift Runner said. "Now you must die."
The monster bear lay panting on its side, but it looked at him with crafty eyes.
"Come close and try to kill me," it growled. "If you fail to kill me with your first blow, then I will destroy you."
But Swift Runner kept his distance. He unslung the blowgun from around his neck and lifted it to his mouth. "I know the one place where you are weak," Swift Runner said. Then he shot the sharp dart straight into the Man Bear's foot, where its heart was hidden, and the monster died.
Swift Runner pulled out the two great teeth of the Man Bear and hung them around his own neck. He took the trail that led back to the village. Although it had taken him a single day to run this far, it took him four days to get back home.
All the people praised him for saving them from the Man Bear.
"I am proud of you," said Burden Carrier as he embraced his son. "Now you may brag all that you wish. Truly no one on two legs or four legs can defeat you."
But Swift Runner shook his head. "I have no need to brag any further," he said.
And from that day on, even though everyone else remembered his great deed and spoke of it, Swift Runner was the most modest of all men.
MAN BEAR (ONEIDA)
Tales of shape-shifting monsters remain common to this day among the Oneida and the other Iroquois people. We have heard not only tales of were-bears, but also, these days, of people who turn into cats, dogs, and even pigs to do evil deeds. The Man Bear, which is able to change back into a man and hunts human beings, is one of the most fearsome of the monsters of the deep woods. Some say that the Man Bear is based on the grizzly bear, a fearlessly dangerous animal that may have now and then found its way onto Iroquois lands. A grizzly bear is very hard to kill with arrows or spears. Many Native American monsters, like the Man Bear, hide their hearts in some unexpected place so that no one can kill them unless they know the secret.
When the Chenoo Howls Page 4