"great island."]

As he lay, thinking of nothing but food and the means of obtaining it,
some one at his side said, with a voice soft as the bleat of a young
kid, "Wasbasha?"

Our father, who had heard birds sing and wail, and beasts cry and growl,
but never till now had heard one utter intelligible sounds, answered
"Eh!" Raising himself with difficulty, upon his side he beheld that
which spoke to him. He saw, mounted upon a noble beast, white as the
snow of winter, a being, like to nothing which is seen among the sons of
the earth. He was tall of stature, his eyes glittered like the stars of
morning, or the tears of a young maiden who weeps for joy, and his hair
shone like the blush of sunset upon the folds of a cloud. His was indeed
a glorious form; and power as well as beauty sate enthroned upon it:
while the Wasbasha gazed, he trembled like a fawn caught in the toils of
the hunter, or the wolf penned in the crevice of a rock. Again the
glorious being spoke to our terrified but admiring father.

"Why does he who is the kernel of the snail look terrified, and why is
be faint and weary?"

"That I tremble," answered our father, "is because I fear thy power, and
quail before the lightnings of thine eye--that I am faint is because I
lack food."

"As regards thy trembling, be composed; the Master of Breath punishes
not till sin is committed--thou hast not sinned, be calm. But art thou
hungry?"

"I have eaten nothing," replied our father, "since I ceased to be a
snail."

Upon hearing this the Great Spirit drew from under his robe a bow and
arrow, and bade our father observe what he would do with it. On the
topmost limb of a lofty maple, at the distance of a bowshot, sat a
beautiful bird, with its bright green neck and train of variegated
feathers, singing and fluttering among the red leaves of its
nestling-tree. Bending the bow, he placed before it an arrow, and,
letting it fly, the bird dropped dead upon the earth. A deer was seen at
a still greater distance, browzing upon the tree which supplies its
best-loved food. Again the skilful archer drew his bow, and the animal
lay food for the son of the snail.

"There are victuals for you," said the Spirit, "enough to last you till
your strength enables you to beat up the haunts of the deer and the
moose. And here is the bow and arrow--the heart of the fir supplies the
one, the other is the thigh-bone of the buck. Son of the mighty river,
you are naked and must be clo