THE STORY OF THE INDIAN CORN
Some years ago the Ottawa Indians
inhabited the Manatoline Islands. Their enemies
were the Iroquois Indians, who lived on the lake shore
near the islands. One night they came and attacked
the Ottawas. The two tribes fought for a long
time, but at last the Iroquois won, and the Ottawas
were driven away from their islands. They wandered
off towards the Mississippi River, where they settled
near a small lake, many miles away from their home.
The Manatoline Islands were now uninhabited,
except by an Indian magician, whose name was Masswaweinini.
He remained behind to act as sentry for his tribe.
He guarded the beautiful islands and kept a close
watch on their enemy, the Iroquois. Two young
boys stayed with him to paddle his canoe. In
the daytime they used to paddle close to the shore,
so that the Iroquois could not see them, and at night
they slept in the deep woods.
One morning Masswaweinini rose early
and left the two boys asleep. He walked a long
distance through the woods, hunting for game.
At last he found himself on the edge of a wide prairie.
He began to walk across it, when a man suddenly appeared
in front of him. He was very tiny and had some
red feathers in his hair. “Good-morning,
Masswaweinini,” he said. “You are
a very strong man, are you not?”
“Yes,” replied the magician.
“I am as strong as any man, but no stronger.”
The tiny man then pulled out his tobacco-pouch and
pipe.
“Come and smoke with me,”
he said, “and then we must have a wrestling
match. If you can throw me, you must say, ‘I
have thrown Wagemena.’”
So they smoked together, but when
the little man was ready to wrestle, the magician
did not like to do it, for he was afraid he might hurt
the tiny fellow. But the other insisted, and
so they began to wrestle. The magician soon found
that the little man was very strong and quick, and
he felt himself growing weaker every moment.
But at last he succeeded in tripping the man with
the red feathers, and he fell. Then the magician
said, “I have thrown you, Wagemena.”
At once the little man vanished, and in his place
lay an ear of corn, with a red tassel where the feathers
had been. As he stood staring at it, the corn
spoke. “Pick me up,” it said, “and
pull off my outer covering. Then take off my
kernels and scatter them over the ground. Break
my cob into three parts and throw them near the trees.
Depart, but come back after one moon, and see what
has happened.”
The magician did exactly as the corn
had told him, and went away. At the end of the
time he came back. To his surprise, he found
green blades of corn coming through the ground where
the kernels had been scattered. And near the
trees pumpkin-vines were growing where the cobs of
the corn had been thrown.
He had not told the young boys of
his adventure with the tiny man, so he did not tell
them anything of the growing corn. All the rest
of that summer he busied himself in closely watching
the Iroquois, who were still prowling near the islands.
Very often he killed a deer, and the boys would cook
the meat over their camp-fire. One day, when
the summer was nearly over, he paddled his canoe around
the island till he came near the wrestling ground.
He stepped ashore, and left the two boys to watch
the canoe, while he walked to the field. To his
great astonishment, he found the corn in full ear,
and the pumpkins of an immense size. He pulled
some ripened ears of corn and gathered some pumpkins.
Then a voice spoke to him from the corn. “You
have conquered me, Masswaweinini,” it said.
“If you had not done so, you would have been
killed yourself. But your strength made you win
the victory, and now you shall always have my body
for food. It will be nourishment for you and
your tribe.”
Thus the Ottawa Indians were given
the gift of the maize; and to this day their descendants
are noted for the care that they take of their immense
fields of corn.