Chapter XXV: Introduction (15)

So they brought the girl and placed her at the edge of the hole that they had dug around the tree. They went on digging with great might. As soon as a party of the diggers became tired, another stepped into the hole and carried on the work. When they had placed the girl at the edge of the hole, a party of the diggers had stepped out; and before another could replace it the people were startled by a terrific roar that seemed to come nearer and nearer. They were all looking and wondering whence it had come. They soon discovered that all the ground around the tree was dropping downwards. Then they saw the tree falling down through the hole; the sick girl being pulled down with it, entangled in its branches. The world underneath, into which the tree fell, was a broad sheet of water about which no land was to be seen. On the water were swimming around a pair of great white birds with long crooked necks: I suppose they were swans. They heard a peal of thunder as the tree was falling down; this was the first peal of thunder ever heard on those waters. Both of them glanced upwards and saw the woman falling down. One of them said to the other:—“What a strange creature it is that is falling down from above. I know that she can not be borne up by the water; we must swim close together and hold her upon our backs.” So they did, and the woman fell gently upon their backs and rested there. Then, as they swam along, they turned their long necks around and looked at the woman; they said to each other:—“What a beautiful creature it is; but what shall we do; we can not always swim this way and hold her up. What shall we do?” The other replied:—“I think we must go and see the Big Turtle. He will call a council of all the animals to decide upon what is to be done with the creature.” So they swam away, found the Big Turtle, and showed him the woman that was resting upon their backs. Then the turtle had to decide as to what was to be done. A “moccasin” (ra´‘cu’, i.e., a messenger) was sent around to call the animals to a big council. They came at once, and were all in a great wonder. For a long time they looked with awe at the wonderful creature. Finally the Turtle told them that they must come to a decision as to what should be done regarding this creature; that they could not let her die as—“she must have been sent to them for some good; that since she had thus come to them, it was evident that their duty was to find some place for her to live.” The swans came forward and spoke of the tree that they had seen falling first. Then some one else got up and said that if the place could be known where this tree had fallen into the water, some of the divers might go down and get just a little bit of the earth that must be clinging to its roots. The Big Turtle found the idea a good one and advised that if the swans could show the very place where the tree had fallen, some one else should go down and get a little of the dirt clinging to its roots; that an island could be made with it for the woman to rest upon, even if he himself (the Turtle) had to hold the island upon his back. The swans told the animals that they could find that very place; they turned around, and swam with the woman upon their backs. The other animals followed until they came to the place where they had seen the tree and the woman falling. There they stopped. The Turtle called upon the otter, the best diver, for him to go down into the water and bring back some of the dirt clinging to the roots of the tree. The otter at once dived down. As he had been for some time out of sight the other animals began to speculate as to whether he was going to come back. By and by, they saw him coming back through the water. Upon reaching the surface he was so completely exhausted that he opened his mouth to gasp a breath and went down again,—dead. Then the muskrat was appointed to dive down. He remained still longer under the water. The same fate as the otter’s befell him. Then the beaver and a number of other animals tried and failed in the same day until so many had been lost that way that the Turtle said he would not call upon any other to dive down. He suggested, however, that somebody should volunteer to do so. They remained in expectation for a little while. Finally, away out to one side, a little old ugly toad (tĕno´‘skwaoyȩ) spoke up and said that he would try. The other animals looked at each other, laughing and jeering at the presumption of this little toad. The Big Turtle, however, acceded to her suggestion, acknowledging that she might perhaps accomplish what the others had failed to do. So she took a long breath and down she went. The others all gathered around and watched her as she went away down out of sight into the clear waters. For a long time they looked downwards with the expectation of seeing her coming back. But she remained so long in the water that the others began to whisper to each other that she would not come back. For a long time they remained in expectation. At the end they saw a bubble of water coming up towards the surface of the water. They could not see the toad as yet. The Turtle said:—“She must be coming. I will swim right over the spot where the bubble came up; and if the toad comes back we shall hold her up.” So it was done. A little while later the toad appeared away down in the water. Some of the animals said:—“She must have some earth as she has been gone so much longer than the others.” Then the toad emerged from the surface of the water, just by the Big Turtle. Just as she reached the surface she opened her mouth and spat out a few grains of earth that fell upon the edge of the shell of the Big Turtle. Then she gave one gasp and fell back dead. As soon as those grains of earth had fallen upon the edge of the Big Turtle’s shell, the Little Turtle came forward and began spreading it and rubbing it around the edge of the Big Turtle’s shell. While she was so doing an island began to grow around the shell of the Big Turtle. The animals were looking at it while it was growing. After it had grown into a place large enough for the woman to rest upon, the two white swans swam to its edge and the woman stepped off on to it.

NOTE.—Recited by B. N. O. Walker, Chief Clerk at the Quapaw U. S.
Agency, Wyandotte, Oklahoma. Mr. Walker, now about 40 years of age,
is a descendant of Wyandot ancestors, on one side, and of European
ancestors on the other. His first European ancestor was made
prisoner by the Wyandots in Virginia, when a child. Mr. Walker is a
thoroughly reliable informant who has oftentimes heard this myth, as
well as others, repeated by his Aunt Kitty Greyeyes, a thoroughbred
Wyandot, who was living with his family. Kitty Greyeyes was
possessed of a good knowledge of both English and Wyandot, and she
had learned this myth in Wyandot. Kitty Greyeyes died at B. N. O.
Walker’s father’s home, when he, himself, (B. N. O. W.), was about
22 years of age. Mr. B. N. O. Walker has heard this myth many times
when between the age of 11 and 19. He states that his Aunt Kitty,
who, by the way, was a Canadian Wyandot from Anderdon, Ontario, had
learnt those stories from her Aunt Hunt, who spoke Wyandot almost
exclusively. “Aunt Hunt seems to have been the story teller of the
family.” (Barbeau, “Huron and Wyandot Mythology,” XXXIX, 6–17.)