Folk-Lore and Legends: North American Indian | Page 3

what had occurred. For a moment pity took possession of the young man's heart. He regretted that she whom he so loved should thus have thrown herself away upon an image, a shadow, when she might have been the mistress of the best lodge in the camp.
"It is her own folly," he said; "she has turned a deaf ear to the counsels of prudence. She must submit to her fate."
The same morning Moowis set forth, and his wife followed him at a distance. The way was rough and intricate, and she found that she could not keep up with him, he walked so quickly. She struggled hard and obstinately to overtake him, but Moowis had been for some time out of sight when the sun rose and commenced upon his snow-formed body the work of dissolution. He began to melt away and fall to pieces. As Ma-mon-dá-go-Kwa followed in his track she found piece after piece of his clothing in the path. She first found his mittens, then his moccasins, then his leggings, then his coat, and after that other parts of his garments. As the heat unbound them the clothes also returned to their filthy condition. Over rocks, through wind-falls, across marshes, Ma-mon-dá-go-Kwa pursued him she loved. The path turned aside in all directions. Rags, bones, leather, beads, feathers, and soiled ribbons she found, but caught no sight of Moowis. She spent the day in wandering, and when evening came she was still alone. The snow having now melted, she had completely lost her husband's track, and she wandered about uncertain which way to go and in a state of perfect despair. At length with bitter cries she lamented her fate.
"Moowis, Moowis," she cried, "nin ge won e win ig, ne won e win ig!"--"Moowis, Moowis, you have led me astray, you are leading me astray!"
With this cry she wandered in the woods.
The cry of the lost Ma-mon-dá-go-Kwa is sometimes repeated by the village girls who have made of it a song--
Moowis! Moowis! Forest rover, Where art thou? Ah! my bravest, gayest lover, Guide me now.
Moowis! Moowis! Ah! believe me, List my moan: Do not, do not, brave heart, leave me All alone.
Moowis! Moowis! Footprints vanished! Whither wend I? Fated, lost, detested, banished Must I die!
Moowis! Moowis! Whither goest thou, Eye-bright lover? Ah! thou ravenous bird that knowest, I see thee hover,
Circling, circling As I wander, And at last When I fall thou then wilt come And feed upon my breast.

THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE PINE-TREE.
Upon the side of a certain mountain grew some pines, under the shade of which the Puckwudjinies, or sprites, were accustomed to sport at times. Now it happened that in the neighbourhood of these trees was a lodge in which dwelt a beautiful girl and her father and mother. One day a man came to the lodge of the father, and seeing the girl he loved her, and said--
"Give me Leelinau for my wife," and the old man consented.
Now it happened that the girl did not like her lover, so she escaped from the lodge and went and hid herself, and as the sun was setting she came to the pine-trees, and leaning against one of them she lamented her hard fate. On a sudden she heard a voice, which seemed to come from the tree, saying--
"Be my wife, maiden, beautiful Leelinau, beautiful Leelinau."
The girl was astonished, not knowing whence the voice could have come. She listened again, and the words were repeated, evidently by the tree against which she leaned. Then the maid consented to be the wife of the pine-tree.
Meanwhile her parents had missed her, and had sent out parties to see if she could be found, but she was nowhere.
Time passed on, but Leelinau never returned to her home. Hunters who have been crossing the mountain, and have come to the trees at sunset, say that they have seen a beautiful girl there in company with a handsome youth, who vanished as they approached.

A LEGEND OF MANABOZHO.
Manabozho made the land. The occasion of his doing so was this.
One day he went out hunting with two wolves. After the first day's hunt one of the wolves left him and went to the left, but the other continuing with Manabozho he adopted him for his son. The lakes were in those days peopled by spirits with whom Manabozho and his son went to war. They destroyed all the spirits in one lake, and then went on hunting. They were not, however, very successful, for every deer the wolf chased fled to another of the lakes and escaped from them. It chanced that one day Manabozho started a deer, and the wolf gave chase. The animal fled to the lake, which was covered with ice, and the wolf pursued it. At the moment when