Spread-Wings

At last, Spread-wings actually got ahead and threw sticks across the next narrows, barring his companion’s path. He himself hid in the bushes. When his partner came and found the path barred, he tried to turn back, but a strong current prevented him. Then Spread-wings jumped into the water and pulled him ashore.

Spread-wings caught a large jackfish, which they cooked and ate. Then they started off again and traveled along a great lake until they got back to their own people. Spread-wings told them how timid his partner had been and said henceforth he would travel alone.

The next day he started off by himself. He stopped at a little lake. There he heard a noise behind him. A great frog, as big as a moose, was going to attack him. In fear for his life he tried to work his medicine, and, seizing some rotten pine branches along the shore, he threw them at the frog, hitting it between its eyes and killed it.

He continued traveling with his blankets. When tired he stopped, made a lodge of spruce wood, and lay down to sleep. When rested, he went out without making a fire or arranging his bed. He traveled about all day, killed some deer and cached them. When he returned to his lodge he found a fire burning in it and his bed was arranged. This happened several days in succession. One day he thought he would find out who was doing this. He came home earlier than usual and saw smoke rising from the lodge. Gently lifting the door flap, he saw a woman sitting there. Two beds were prepared, one for him and one for herself, not side by side, but with only the pillows together. She told him she was sent from heaven, because God pitied him on account of his loneliness. She was, however, not a real person, but a moose. Spread-wings did not know this, but rather suspected it. They lived together until the fall. Then the woman said, “My relations bade me meet them at a certain mountain.” They got to the mountain, at the foot of which there was a coulee with willows and birch. Spread-wings knew this was a moose country. Not long after they got there a noise of moose was heard, and the woman said, “My son is coming,” and, a little later, “My son-in-law is coming,” and, finally, “My husband is coming.” She ran off to her husband, turning into a moose before she got to the brush. Before going she told Spread-wings not to return home, but to wait for her there for two nights. She stayed in the brush for two nights, then she turned into a woman again and re-joined Spread-wings.

After a while she again told Spread-wings that her relatives wanted to meet her in another place. They started out. Near that place she bade Spread-wings wait. She heard a moose calling, but several times she did not recognize the voice and did not go. The fourth time she recognized her moose husband’s voice. Again she bade Spread-wings wait for her for four days. Spread-wings heard the moose call, and thought to himself, “I am sure my wife is going to turn into a moose now.” He traveled after her, but after a while turned back, leaving his blankets hanging. He went to hunt chickens and partridges. Finally, he turned back. He found that the woman had already erected a brush lodge, from which smoke was rising. This time she had arranged the beds next to each other. “Why did you make the beds this way now and not before?” She said that before she had not received her friends’ and husband’s permission, but now it had been granted. “You can do with me as you choose.” The man said that was what he had always wished, but did not care to ask for.

They lived together. About spring the woman fell sick. Her husband did not go hunting. She gave birth to two young moose. On the next day she gave birth to two young boys. She told her husband she should not stay with him any longer, but should return to her own people.

She had been sent for one year to bear him sons, who were to help him. As she was nursing the boys, she had been obliged to neglect the little moose. She made for the brush and called like a moose, then the young ones followed. The man also followed her, but only found her discarded clothes and came home crying. Before going she bade him stay in that place for a month until his boys were big enough to help him.

After a month Spread-wings began traveling with his boys. They came to a pine bluff. The younger one said, “There’s a very strong smell here, it smells of people.” “Perhaps it is nothing.” “Yes, there are people here.” They found the tracks of a band of Cree. The younger brother did not want to follow on account of the strong smell, and kept behind his father and brother. After some time they got to the Cree.

The younger brother was in the habit of not obeying his father, but only his elder brother. The elder brother wished to get married, and with his father’s consent he married a Cree woman in the fall.

Once the two brothers started on a moose hunt. They came to a little lake. Being thirsty, they wanted to drink. The younger brother said, “Let me drink first.” The elder brother consented. The younger drank, then, while the elder was drinking, he ran into a bush and turned into a moose. The elder brother followed him for a distance, then started in another direction, found moose-tracks, shot a moose, cut it up, cached it, and went home. He tried to track his brother, whom he found sleeping with little horns on his head. The horns fell off. The elder brother took his horns, waked the younger one, and took him homeward. The younger brother was very thin when he got there. He found the smell of the Cree too strong for him.

The younger brother did not want to get married. He stayed there all winter, but in the spring he felt like traveling. The smell of people was too strong for him. He traveled away as a moose and lived as one. The elder brother started on a moose hunt, and began tracking until he got a moose. He was going to shoot it, but thought it might be his brother, so he called out, “Brother!” Then the moose really turned into a person again. He took him home, but fell on the way, and then the younger ran away again as a moose. The elder brother ran after him and caught him, and then he turned into a human being again. But when near the camp, he again changed into a moose and escaped. The elder brother cried, “After this, don’t let me catch you, or I’ll shoot you.” But he never could catch him.

* * *

One winter no deer were to be found and all the wolves were starving. The wolves started toward the big sea. They saw some large object lying on the shore. It turned out to be a walrus (?). All piled on top of it, and though many were killed they finally succeeded in killing the monster. The wolves had a good feed on the walrus. Two deer were allowed to pass. [I do not understand this sentence.] A herd of deer were coming.

In the Barren Grounds the wolves nearly died of thirst. When they got to the top of a mountain, all began to scratch there, trying to get water from a hole by magic, but they did not succeed. At last they asked Spread-wings, who was a wolf at the time. “If you fail, we shall die.” Spread-wings always kept an arrow with which he had once been shot. Beginning to sing, he pointed the arrow towards the sky. Clouds came, rain began to fall, and the hole was filled with water. All the wolves drank of the water. Spread-wings held the arrow upward until all had drunk their fill, then he reversed it, and the water disappeared from the hole.

Running and expanding this site requires resources: from maintaining our digital platform to sourcing and curating new content. With your help, we can grow our collection, improve accessibility, and bring these incredible narratives to an even wider audience. Your sponsorship enables us to keep the world’s stories alive and thriving. ♦ Visit our Support page