Legends of the Northwest Part 21

Great Spirit, behold me!

Look, Father; have pity upon me!

Woe-is-me! Woe-is-me!]

[Footnote 1014: Snow-storms from the North-west.]

[Footnote 1015: The Ojibways, like the Dakotas, call the _Via Lactea_ (Milky Way) the Pathway of the Spirits.]

[Footnote 1016: s.h.i.+ngebis, the diver, is the only water-fowl that remains about Lake Superior all winter. See Schoolcraft's Hiawatha Legends, p. 113.]

[Footnote 1017: Waub-ese--the white swan.]

[Footnote 1018: Pe-boan, Winter, is represented as an old man with long white hair and beard.]

[Footnote 1019: Se-gun is Spring or Summer. This beautiful allegory has been "done into verse" by Longfellow in _Hiawatha_. I took my version from the lips of an old Chippewa Chief. I have compared it with Schoolcraft's version, from which Mr. Longfellow evidently took his.]

[Footnote 1020: Nah--look, see. Nashke--behold.]

[Footnote 1021: Kee-zis--the sun,--the father of life. Waubunong--or Waub-o-nong--is the White Land or Land of Light,--the Sun-rise, the East.]

[Footnote 1022: The Bridge of Stars spans the vast sea of the skies, and the sun and moon walk over on it.]

[Footnote 1023: The Miscodeed is a small white flower with a pink border. It is the earliestblooming wild-flower on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Superior, and belongs to the crocus family.]

[Footnote 1024: The Ne-be-naw-baigs, are Water-spirits; they dwell in caverns in the depths of the lake, and in some respects resemble the Unktehees of the Dakotas.]

[Footnote 1025: Ogema, Chief,--Ogema-kwa--female Chief. Among the Algonkin tribes women are sometimes made chiefs. Net-no-kwa, who adopted Tanner as her son, was Oge-ma-kwa of a band of Ottawas. See John Tanner's Narrative, p. 36.]

[Footnote 1026: The "Bridge of Souls" leads from the earth over dark and stormy waters to the Spirit-land. The "Dark River" seems to have been a part of the superst.i.tion of all nations.]

[Footnote 1027: The Jossakeeds of the Ojibways are sooth-sayers who are able, by the aid of spirits, to read the past as well as the future.]