Omishus

He took a little blood. Then he started to cook the man’s blood mixed with deer’s blood.

After a time, his wife came home with the carcass of the deer he had killed. He gave her some of the man’s blood and vension to eat. After she had finished her meal, he inquired. “How did that blood taste?” She replied, “This is deer’s blood.” “No, that is your paramour’s blood you have been eating,” replied the husband! Then he killed her too.

He cut off her head, and went away, deserting his children. The younger child began to cry and continued to weep. Then he went to his mother’s body trying to get nourishment from her dead breasts. While he was doing this, the woman’s head began to move and her eyes opened. This frightened the children terribly and they ran away. As they ran, they heard something following. It was their mother’s head rolling after them. The head nearly caught up to them. Then the oldest boy threw a needle on the trail behind them. The head came to this and stopped for a while, so the children got a long start. At last, the head, all smeared with blood, caught up to them again. Then the oldest lad threw away his comb behind them.

“Let this be a high mountain,” cried the child. Sure enough, a great mountain sprang up and crossed the trail. At last, the children came to a river, where they saw swans swimming. They wished to get across and begged the swans to save them as there was a Windigo (Cannibal) chasing them. A swan came over and took the boys across. He told them not to sit near his neck as they rode across for he had a scab there. After he had ferried the children over the swan continued to swim about the river.

At length, the head came to the river, and began to roll backward and forward along the shore seeking to get over. The head saw the swan and called out, “Take me across the river.” The swan said, “No.” Then the head said, “Those are my children that went across the river.” Then the swan said, “No, the children said that a Windigo was following them.” So the head repeated, “Those are my children, take me across, and when you have done so, licet mecum coire.” The swan replied, “Quo modo tecum coeam, cum corpus tibi absit?” Caput dixit, “Per foramen magnum.” [“How can I have intercourse with you, when you have no body?” The head said, “Through the large hole.”]

The swan agreed and started to take the head across. He told the head not to touch his neck on account of the scab, and started to ferry it across. The head started to rub the swan’s neck and this hurt him, he spread his wings and shook them until the head fell into the river and was drowned.

Although the river was very broad, the two children threw stones across from the other side. The little chap began to cry again, so the eldest brother found a nice round stone and gave it to him. They threw their stones at it. One of them hit it and it sank out of sight. While they were playing they saw a sturgeon leap out of the water. It seems the head had been turned into a sturgeon. That is why the sturgeon has fleshy cheeks unlike other fish.

While they were playing at the edge of the water, they saw someone approaching in a canoe. He came ashore and stood in the canoe looking at the boys for a little while. Then the man wished one of the stones would fall in his canoe. The next stone did fall in his canoe. It was the nice round stone which the oldest boy had given to the little one when he cried. The oldest one cried out to the man, “Bring us that stone, so that my little brother may have it to keep him from crying.” The man told the oldest brother to come over and get the stone himself. The boy came to get the stone, and the man tripped him with his paddle so that he fell in his canoe. Then, the old man whose name was Omishus, pounded on the bottom of his canoe with his paddle, and off it went without paddling.

The youngest boy began to cry because he had been left behind, but Omishus left him to his fate. Then Omishus came to his tent. He pulled his canoe ashore and turned it over. Then he went into his lodge. He had two daughters who were waiting for him. He said to the oldest one, “I have brought a man with me, you had better go and see him.” So the girl went out to see the young man. She looked under the canoe, but as soon as she saw him, she decided that he was too homely, and she wouldn’t marry him. When she returned to the wigwam, Omishus asked her, “What do you think of my guest?” “He is too ugly,” replied the girl. Then Omishus told his youngest daughter that she had better go and see his captive. “He was good looking when I took him in the canoe,” said he, “he has been crying a great deal, that is what makes him ugly.” The youngest daughter went down and washed away the tear marks from the young man’s face, dressed him up, and married him.

The young man stayed with Omishus for a long time and his wife became the mother of two children. One day, the young man said to his father-in-law, “I wonder where we could get some gulls’ eggs?” The old man replied that he would show him a fine place. They took their bows and arrows and off they started in the canoe. At last, they came to the place where the gulls were on an island. “There are the gulls,” cried the young man. “Well,” said Omishus, “go over across where the big ones are.” The young man at once took his bow and arrows and started over to get some eggs.

As soon as the young man was well ashore, the old man pounded on the canoe bottom with his paddle and off it went. “Here you are, gulls,” he cried, “I give you my son-in-law to eat.” The deserted son-in-law saw a very large gull flying towards him. It approached the young man meaning to kill him, but he cried out, “I’m not the right kind of food for gulls, fly over the old man’s canoe.”

The old man was lying back in his magic canoe looking at the sky, pounding on the canoe bottom all the time. “When you are directly over the old man, void your excrement full in his face,” cried the young chap. The old man jumped and cried, “Phew! that’s the kind of smell the excrement of the gulls has after they have eaten my son-in-law.”

Then the young man killed the great gull and cut off its head. He took it home with some gulls’ eggs. He gave each of his children an egg and he told them, “When your grandfather arrives, go down to meet him and eat your eggs at the same time.” At length, the old man came. The two children went down to meet him, eating their eggs, as they were told. When the old man saw them eating the eggs, he asked, “Where did you get those eggs?” “Our father brought them to us,” said they. “Poor children,” said the old man, “the gulls have long ago eaten up your father.”

When the old man had landed he went straight to his camp and there sat his son-in-law inside the wigwam with the head of the big gull beside him. The wicked old man was surprised, for the gull was the embodiment of one of his dreams. The oldest girl was now frightened and wished she had married her brother-in-law and cast many looks at him. The old man observed this, and said to her, “Why are you looking at your brother-in-law so hard? Go and sit by his side.” Now, the young man had two wives.

The young man said, one day, “I wonder where I could get a sturgeon to make glue?” “I’ll show you,” said the old man, so off they went together. “There is a sturgeon,” cried the young man. The old man said, “No, that is not a good one. He has not got good isinglass. We will go farther on.” At last, they came to a place where there were plenty of sturgeon. The old man said to his son-in-law, “You stand on the gunwales of the canoe with your bow and arrow to look for sturgeon.” At length, they came to very deep water, and the old man pounded hard on his canoe. The canoe jumped ahead so quickly that the young man was thrown into the water. Then the old man cried out to the great snakes that live in the water, “I feed you my little son.” The young man sank to the bottom and there he saw a great snake coming after him. “I am not the right food for snakes,” said he. “Take me ashore.” The snake had horns. The young man took hold of them and the snake ferried him ashore. “If you hear the thunder,” said the snake, “tell me.” The snake soon heard the thunder and he asked the young man about it, but the young man replied, “I see no clouds.” At length, it thundered very close to them, and the snake heard it certainly and saw the lightning as well. This made the snake drop his burden and turn back. He splashed the water away up as he fled. The young man struggled ashore and reached home. He first killed some sturgeon. When he got home he told his wives to cook some of the meat.

Then he told his children to go down to the water’s edge and meet their grandfather. “Eat some of the sturgeon meat before him,” he said. After a while, their grandfather came back. The two children went down to meet him, eating some of the sturgeon meat as they were told. When the old man saw them eating the sturgeon he asked, “Where did you get that sturgeon meat?” “Our father brought it to us,” said they. “Poor children, the great horned water snakes have long ago eaten up your father.” When the old man had landed he went straight to his camp, and there sat the young man inside the wigwam. The wicked old man was surprised for the horned water snake had been the embodiment of one of his dreams.

One day, the young man asked his father-in-law where they could get an eagle. They went off together. “There is an eagle,” cried the young man. “No, come farther on,” said the old man, “I know where there is a big nest.” At last the old man pointed out a nest, and left the young man there while he went over to it. The young man climbed the tree. When he was there the old man called out to the eaglets, “I feed you my son-in-law,” and went away. The young man asked the two eaglets that were in the nest what their names were. He asked the female first, “Owatci,” said she. The male bird said, “I am a tree as straight as you are when you stretch yourself.” So he killed them both, and took them home. Then the last of the old man’s dreams had failed. The young man had the eaglets cooked and gave one of each to his children. He told his children to go down to the water’s edge and meet their grandfather. “Eat the eaglets before him,” he said.

After a while their grandfather came back. The two children went down to meet him, eating the eaglets, as they were told. When the old man saw them eating the eaglets he asked, “Where did you get those eaglets?” “Our father brought them to us,” said they. “Poor children, the eagles have long ago eaten your father.” When the old man had landed he went straight to his camp and there sat the young man inside the wigwam. The wicked old man was surprised for the eaglets had been the embodiment of one of his dreams. “I wonder,” said the young man one day in the winter, “where we can kill a caribou?” “I know,” said the old man, “we will go tomorrow, I’ll go with you.” So off they went. They had to camp over night in a swamp. The old man told his son-in-law that the name of the swamp was (scorched-up-swamp, Jiteomuskeg). The young man, when he heard this thought, “Surely you want to burn my moccasins?”

Then they went to bed. The fire nearly went out, but the old man got up and took his son-in-law’s moccasins and leggings and burned them. Then the old man went back to bed and cried out, “Phoo! Your moccasins are burning.” Then the young man laughed, “Those were your own moccasins you burnt. I changed mine for yours when you slept, and I saw you when you put them in the fire.”

In the morning, the young man dressed himself and left Omishus and went home. He took his father-in-law’s canoe because one of his wives could make it go as well as her father. After they crossed the sea, they left the canoe tied to a tree near the shore. The old man started to heat a stone in the fire. When it was hot he tried to roll it through the snow to melt a path for his bare legs. It did not succeed. Then he rubbed charcoal on his legs. “I dreamt about caribou long ago, and I ought to be able to walk as they do on the snow without any trouble,” said he. At last he reached the sea. Then he was very angry because his canoe was gone. He started to shout, “My canoe, my canoe, my canoe!” His canoe heard and began to pull and move back and forth to get away. Then his son-in-law said to his wife, “You had better let the canoe go.” She did and it went off to the old man and they never saw him again.

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