sometimes he appears in human shape, majestic in stature and wondrous in
endowment, a mighty magician, a destroyer of serpents and evil manitous;
sometimes he is a vain and treacherous imp, full of childish whims and
petty trickery, the butt and victim of men, beasts, and spirits. His
powers of transformation are without limit; his curiosity and malice are
insatiable; and of the numberless legends of which he is the hero,
the greater part are as trivial as they are incoherent. [ 1 ] It does
not appear that Manabozho was ever an object of worship; yet, despite his
absurdity, tradition declares him to be chief among the manitous, in
short, the "Great Spirit." [ "Presque toutes les Nations Algonquines ont
donne le nom de Grand Lievre au Premier Esprit, quelques-uns l'appellent
Michabou (Manabozho)."--Charlevoix, Journal Historique, 344. ] It was he
who restored the world, submerged by a deluge. He was hunting in company
with a certain wolf, who was his brother, or, by other accounts, his
grandson, when his quadruped relative fell through the ice of a frozen
lake, and was at once devoured by certain serpents lurking in the depths
of the waters. Manabozho, intent on revenge, transformed himself into
the stump of a tree, and by this artifice surprised and slew the king of
the serpents, as he basked with his followers in the noontide sun.
The serpents, who were all manitous, caused, in their rage, the waters of
the lake to deluge the earth. Manabozho climbed a tree, which, in answer
to his entreaties, grew as the flood rose around it, and thus saved him
from the vengeance of the evil spirits. Submerged to the neck, he looked
abroad on the waste of waters, and at length descried the bird known as
the loon, to whom he appealed for aid in the task of restoring the world.
The loon dived in search of a little mud, as material for reconstruction,
but could not reach the bottom. A musk-rat made the same attempt,
but soon reappeared floating on his back, and apparently dead. Manabozho,
however, on searching his paws, discovered in one of them a particle of
the desired mud, and of this, together with the body of the loon, created