Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Skinner. Menomini: Deluge

BookSkinner, A. Folklore of the Menomini Indians. (1915) 

StoryDeluge. Skinner also provides cross-references.

Characters: Manabus, Beaver (Noma), Muskrat (Osus), Pine Tree (Nase)

Plot (this is the abstract provided by Skinner): (a) [lacrosse game between beings above and beings below] Manabus turns himself into a tree to deceive the gods who slew his brother. (b) He watches them play lacrosse until an opportunity offers, when he shoots two of them. (c) They flee, wounded, and cause a deluge. (d) Manabus takes refuge in a tree, which grows higher until it reaches four times its original height. (e) Surrounded by water [Manabus defecates and his own excrement floats around him], Manabus gets Beaver and Muskrat to join him. He persuades them to dive for earth, [Beaver dies in the attempt, but Muskrat also dies but brings back some earth] which Manabus takes and makes into an island. [He brought Beaver and Muskrat back to life.]

[When Manabus scraped the dirt from Muskrat's paws, it left white marks; now Osus is called Wapinikat, White Palm. Skinner notes that this has to do with a clan family name, and now pine trees that grow in the shape of branches like the nest that sheltered Manabush are called Manabus Trees.]

The idea is that this is reparation for the trouble he caused:
"Well," said Mä'näbus, "now I've finished, so I guess I'll go back to my home, and you my little brothers, will have to take care of yourselves, since I have made reparation for all the trouble I caused."

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