The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American India | Page 8

there, he thought to
himself, "It is singular that I am so simple, and my grandmother so
wise, and that I have neither father nor mother. I have never heard a
word about them. I must ask and find out." He went home and sat down
silent and dejected. At length his grandmother asked him, "Manabozho,
what is the matter with you?" He answered, "I wish you would tell me
whether I have any parents living, and who my relatives are." Knowing
that he was of a wicked and revengeful disposition, she dreaded telling
him the story of his parentage, but he insisted on her compliance.
"Yes," she said, "you have a father and three brothers living. Your
mother is dead. She was taken without the consent of her parents by
your father the West. Your brothers are the North, East, and South, and,
being older than yourself, your father has given them great power with
the winds, according to their names. You are the youngest of his
children. I have nourished you from your infancy, for your mother died
in giving you birth, owing to the ill treatment of your father. I have no
relations besides you this side of the planet in which I was born, and
from which I was precipitated by female jealousy. Your mother was my
only child, and you are my only hope."
He appeared to be rejoiced to hear that his father was living, for he had
already thought in his heart to try and kill him. He told his grandmother

he should set out in the morning to visit him. She said it was a long
distance to the place where Ningabiun[7] lived. But that had no effect
to stop him, for he had now attained manhood, possessed a giant's
height, and was endowed by nature with a giant's strength and power.
He set out and soon reached the place, for every step he took covered a
large surface of ground. The meeting took place on a high mountain in
the West. His father was very happy to see him. He also appeared
pleased. They spent some days in talking with each other. One evening
Manabozho asked his father what he was most afraid of on earth. He
replied, "Nothing." "But is there not something you dread here? tell
me." At last his father said, yielding, "Yes, there is a black stone found
in such a place. It is the only thing earthly I am afraid of; for if it should
hit me or any part of my body, it would injure me very much." He said
this as a secret, and in return asked his son the same question. Knowing
each other's power, although the son's was limited, the father feared
him on account of his great strength. Manabozho answered, "Nothing!"
intending to avoid the question, or to refer to some harmless object as
the one of which he was afraid. He was asked again and again, and
answered, "Nothing!" But the West said, "There must be something
you are afraid of." "Well! I will tell you," says Manabozho, "what it is."
But, before he would pronounce the word, he affected great dread.
"Ie-ee--Ie-ee--it is--it is," said he, "yeo! yeo![8] I cannot name it; I am
seized with a dread." The West told him to banish his fears. He
commenced again, in a strain of mock sensitiveness repeating the same
words; at last he cried out, "It is the root of the apukwa."[9] He
appeared to be exhausted by the effort of pronouncing the word, in all
this skilfully acting a studied part.
Some time after he observed, "I will get some of the black rock." The
West said, "Far be it from you; do not do so, my son." He still persisted.
"Well," said the father, "I will also get the apukwa root." Manabozho
immediately cried out, "Kago! Kago!"[10] affecting, as before, to be in
great dread of it, but really wishing, by this course, to urge on the West
to procure it, that he might draw him into combat. He went out and got
a large piece of the black rock, and brought it home. The West also
took care to bring the dreaded root.

In the course of conversation he asked his father whether he had been
the cause of his mother's death. The answer was "Yes!" He then took
up the rock and struck him. Blow led to blow, and here commenced an
obstinate and furious combat, which continued several days. Fragments
of the rock, broken off under Manabozho's blows, can be seen in
various places to this day."[11] The root did not prove as mortal a
weapon as his well-acted fears had led his father to expect, although he
suffered severely from the blows. This battle commenced on